by Eve Gaddy
For once he wasn’t worried about the damn site. He was just beginning to understand how much he wanted Tessa to stay. With him. In Uncertain, the only place he’d ever felt he could really call home. But she obviously wasn’t ready to hear that. Not now, coming on top of the scene with her mother. So instead, he changed the subject.
“You know what you need?”
“Besides a mother who doesn’t come on like Catherine the Great? Or maybe I’m thinking of Bloody Mary.”
He laughed. “Can’t help you there. But I can take you to Jefferson. Get dressed and let’s have some fun.”
She put her arms around his waist and hugged him, laying her cheek against his chest. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He rubbed his hand over the soft, silky material of her robe, wishing he could make the hurt go away. Wishing he knew the right words to make her want to stay. The prospect of not seeing Tessa for two or three years wasn’t one he wanted to think about.
“For letting me talk. For being here. For not leaving. My mother can be a bit . . . overwhelming. Most men would have been out of here in seconds flat.”
Most men weren’t in love with her, Will thought, but he didn’t say it. After the first time, he hadn’t told her he loved her again, but he didn’t believe she’d forgotten. He tugged her hair so she’d look at him. When she did, he grinned. “I’m a Ranger, honey. We eat trouble for breakfast.”
Her face came alive with laughter. “And take your lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.”
Still holding her, he laughed, too. As he stared into her eyes, the laughter faded. “Your mother was wrong. I see a whole lot in you to interest me.” He lowered his head, captured her mouth slowly, his tongue tracing her lips, urging them open. Her tongue answered his, and his body tightened with desire. “Maybe Jefferson should wait a while,” he murmured.
“Good idea,” Tessa said, and they walked hand in hand to her bedroom.
THREE DAYS PASSED before Will received the report on the metallic object Tessa had found at the murder site. Definitely a silver glasses case, manufactured by a firm that had gone out of business fifteen years earlier. And not available anywhere in Uncertain nineteen or more years ago. So Will’s search to find a store that might have carried it would take him to Marshall, Longview, Shreveport, Louisiana, and possibly even Dallas. Even so, finding who sold it was a long shot. For all he knew, it could have come from anywhere in the country. Still, he had to try.
He’d be better served to discover who might have owned a case like the one in question. And where he’d seen something similar. Something nagged at him, just beyond reach. He pinched the bridge of his nose and thought about it for the fiftieth time, at least. Nothing. It just wouldn’t come clear. Knowing Fielder had been sheriff in Uncertain for nearly twenty years, he decided to go to him. Maybe he could shed some light on the object.
As for who might have owned the thing—anyone with money. There were a few wealthy families in the area. Raymond and Catherine Jennings probably had the most money of any of the permanent residents. The Osgoods, who had owned the local grocery, had been well-off, but not wealthy. The Barkers, he remembered after some thought, had been nearly as wealthy as the Jennings. The local doctor had been doing okay, as well as the attorney whose practice Riley had taken over. Will picked up the file of Frannie’s employers, noting which ones he knew had had money years before. Fielder would know about the rest.
During the summers there had been, and still was, an influx of people staying at their summer homes. Frannie had cleaned several of those vacation homes. Could she have found something damaging at one of them? Something damaging enough to prompt a murder? And how was he going to find out after so many years had passed? Especially given the fact the summer people changed every few years. The rental agencies would have records, but he doubted they would go back nineteen years. They’d probably only kept them for the required seven years.
As usual, he found Fielder in his office. Sometimes Will felt a surprising flash of sympathy for the man. The sheriff had no family and, apparently, few friends. Other than an occasional fishing trip, Will didn’t think he even took a vacation. Much as Will loved his work, he didn’t want to end up like Fielder, alone and married to his job.
“Got a minute, Sheriff?”
Fielder looked up from the paperwork spread over his desk. He was surprisingly conscientious about keeping up with it, Will thought. At least, he was now. Someone had sure screwed up in the past, though, losing some of Frannie’s case files. No telling what else was missing.
“Something new?” He took off his glasses and laid them on the desk.
“Yeah. The report came back on that object Tessa found. It’s a silver glasses case, manufactured about twenty-five years ago. No prints or anything, and no identifying mark from a particular store.”
“I don’t envy you that search,” Fielder said, shaking his head. “You sure as hell won’t find a store around here that would’ve carried it. Maybe in Marshall or Longview, but I doubt it.”
Thinking he might be there a while, Will took a seat. “No, I’ll probably have to go to Shreveport or Dallas, and that could take forever. We did have one break, though. That particular item was only manufactured for a limited time. Over a ten year period covering the date of the murder. So it’s possible to place it at the site during that time.”
Fielder merely grunted in response.
Will propped his boot on his knee and drummed his fingers on the leather. “Who would have had the kind of money to use a silver glasses case?” Or the kind of personality, he wondered. Carrying around a silver case on a daily basis sounded pretentious in Will’s book, at least in a town the size of Uncertain.
“You don’t know if it was dropped there at the time of the murder.”
“We don’t know that it wasn’t,” Will countered. “Come on, Sheriff, help me out here. It won’t hurt you to consider another option besides Jed Louis. Who had money back then?”
Fielder snorted, muttering something like “wild-goose chase,” before he huffed out a deep breath and spoke. “Ray Jennings and his wife, for one. And the Farrs,” he added after a moment, naming a longtime resident architect and his wife, even wealthier than Catherine Jennings’s family was purported to be. “Maybe the Hartfields, but that’s about it, unless we’re talking some of the summer folk.”
“Are the Hartfields still around?”
“The old lady is. Old man Hartfield passed on a few years back.”
Will handed him the police artist’s sketch of the restored glasses case. “Ever run across anything similar to that around here?”
Fielder picked up his reading glasses and slid them on. After studying the drawing for a long moment, he looked up, over the lenses. “As a matter of fact, I have. But I don’t think it’s gonna help you much.”
“Where?”
Pursing his lips, he tapped a finger on the sketch. “Seems to me Ray Jennings carries something along those lines. Not exactly, but close enough.”
Will sat up straight, both boots landing on the floor. “I knew I’d seen something like this, but I couldn’t place it. He had a case like that on his desk at the bank. If he has one now, it’s possible he had one back then.”
“Possible,” Fielder said, nodding agreement as he laid his glasses down again. “But so what?” He leaned back and eyed Will skeptically. “You still got no motive, even if you can prove it was his and that he lost it at the time of the murder. Which you aren’t likely to be able to do.”
“It’s a start, though. And Frannie worked for the Jennings. Maybe she discovered something one of them wasn’t too happy about her finding.” Considering that, he added, “Or maybe she overheard an argument or something.”
Fielder snorted. “Simplest thing would be if she found proof that ol’ Ray had an eye for the ladies.”<
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“Did he?”
Fielder shrugged. “Rumor had it he was one for tomcattin’ around.” He cracked his knuckles and added, “Still is, according to the talk. He’s just a lot more careful nowadays. Anyway, years ago his wife caught on to one of his shenanigans and laid down the law to him. Said her daddy wasn’t gonna be happy about it.”
“Meaning she threatened to cut off his funds. She’s the money in that family.”
“Yep. But before you go getting all excited about this, I gotta tell you, Jennings came down here breathing fire the first time I questioned Jed Louis. Wanted me to look into that drifter who was hanging around at the time of Frannie Granger’s death. Kept saying he likely did it and why didn’t we leave Louis be.”
“Hank Belmonte.” Will reviewed what he’d learned. “Yeah, well, his alibi is rock solid. He was in jail in Marshall during the time in question.”
“Drunk tank?”
“You got it.” And it was too damn bad.
“But if Jennings was guilty, then why would he care if I arrested Louis? Seems like he’d have been happy someone else was already suspect.”
“Anyone but Jed, possibly. He was Jed’s trustee, years ago. And I think he helped him out some, too. Maybe he felt guilty, because of Frannie, and that’s why he helped Jed out.”
Fielder shook his head. “I don’t buy it. Besides the fact I still think Louis did it, I just don’t see how knowin’ Ray Jennings fooled around on his wife does you any good.” Leaning back in his chair, his expression skeptical, he continued. “So what if he did? And so what if Frannie Granger found out? Lots of men have done the same and never murdered anyone on account of it.”
“Lots of men don’t owe all their wealth and position to their wife’s family,” Will said, standing. “Lots of men wouldn’t be totally ruined if their wife divorced them.”
Skepticism turned to pity. “You’re wasting your time, McClain. Louis is guilty as sin, and you just can’t admit it. Don’t forget the ring. And the blood.”
“We’ll see, Sheriff. Thanks for the information.”
Regardless of Fielder’s doubts, Will was more hopeful than he’d been yet. Who knew what he might turn up in another interview with the banker—and his wife?
“EARTH TO TESSA. Yoo-hoo, anyone home?”
The voice sounded distant at first, then grew closer. Tessa glanced at the open door to her office to see her friend Ellen regarding her with a quizzical eye. “Hi, Ellen.”
“Hi, Ellen, she says.” She propped her hands on her hips. “I’ve been standing here calling your name for five minutes. What’s with you?”
“Shock, I guess. Sorry.”
“Is something wrong?” Ellen walked in quickly, coming to stand by her desk.
“No, nothing.” Tessa shook her head to clear it. “It’s—just a surprise, that’s all. The chairman of the sciences department just called and offered me a fulltime professorship, with all the perks.” Not to mention a chance for advancement once she successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis.
“Hey, that’s great!” Ellen leaned a hip against the desk and peered at her more closely. “Isn’t it?”
If only it were that cut-and-dried, Tessa thought. “Yes. At least, I suppose it is, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t think I told you about the position my mother found for me.”
“Sure you did. Going to Peru.”
“No, a different one. To be part of an expedition to China. To the Lost Emperor’s tomb.”
“No, you hadn’t mentioned that one. China, huh? So, do you want to go?”
Want to? Why did everyone keep going on about whether she wanted to or not? Didn’t they understand, careers weren’t about what one wanted. Careers were about duty. Opportunity. Advancement. Not about wanting at all. “I’d be crazy not to go. It would be a huge step forward in my career.”
Ellen cocked her head, studying her. “What about Will?” she asked after a moment.
“Will has nothing to do with this.”
Ellen made a rude sound and boosted herself to sit on Tessa’s desk. “Except for the fact you’re madly in love with the man and living with him.” She glanced down at her nails. “Nah, I guess he doesn’t have a thing to do with your decision.”
“I’m not living with him. Exactly.”
Her eyebrows arched in disbelief. “I suppose you’re not in love with him, either. And he’s not in love with you.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“He—he said he loved me. Once.” Flushing, she remembered just exactly when he’d told her. After making love. When he was still inside her. “It might have been the heat of the moment.” But she didn’t really believe that. He hadn’t sounded carried away. He’d sounded very sure of himself.
“Horse feathers,” Ellen said succinctly. “He wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it. He’s not the type. Believe me, I know all about the type who tells you what they think you want to hear, whether it’s true or not.”
“Yes, so do I,” Tessa said. “And no, I don’t think Will is like that. But I’m not sure . . .” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Oh, I’m not sure of anything. This is my career we’re talking about. My entire future.”
“And what is Will? Where does he fit in?”
“I don’t know.” Tessa put her head in her hands and rubbed her temples. Glancing up at her friend, she said, “I thought it—the two of us—would be just a temporary thing. A summer fling.” She smiled ruefully. “It isn’t.”
“Tessa.” Ellen laid a hand over hers. “What do you want to do with your career?”
“My mother thinks this—”
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t tell me what your mother wants or thinks. Tell me what you want. What you think is the best thing for you to do.”
Reluctantly Tessa said, “The best thing for my career would be to go to China.” What she’d always wanted. Wasn’t it? A chance to shine. The opportunity to make her mother take notice. To make her proud.
“Well, that depends on the kind of career you want. Personally, I’d rather slit my throat than deal with the kind of pressure that comes with a high-profile career like that. Which is why I teach at a small college in East Texas. Where I’m appreciated. Where I know I’m doing some good.”
“But this is what I’ve always wanted, what I’ve always planned. I’m interested in field archaeology, not teaching.” No, teaching wasn’t for her. Not until she’d made a name for herself in the field.
“Then you shouldn’t have a problem,” Ellen said cheerfully, hopping off the desk. “It’s simple. Turn down the teaching position and kiss Will goodbye.” She grinned and added, “I’m sure there’ll be plenty of women anxious to console him after you’re gone.”
“Thanks,” Tessa said shortly. Amanda would be first in line. “I really needed to hear that.”
“Hey, face facts,” she said in the same perky tone. “And the fact is, a man like Will won’t be alone for long. If you’re willing to leave him to go halfway around the world, you have to expect the inevitable.” She glanced at her watch. “Oops, I’m going to be late for class. Let’s have lunch tomorrow, okay? Give me a call.”
Ellen left with a wave. Tessa felt a surge of irritation at her friend’s cavalier attitude. Not to mention her crude comment about Will finding solace with other women. The fact Ellen had only spoken the truth didn’t make it any more palatable. She could see Amanda licking those fire-engine-red lips at the chance for another shot at Will.
The chairman of the department had asked Tessa to give her decision within two weeks. Two weeks wasn’t much time to decide the rest of her life.
Chapter Fifteen
WILL DIDN’T MANAGE to make it to Tessa’s place until late in the evening. His day hadn’t been anywhere near as productive as he’d hoped,
either. Nothing new turned up during his interview with the Jennings, even though he did confirm that the couple’s tastes ran to a lot of gold and silver. But beyond that, the day yielded zip.
Tessa wasn’t there, but she’d left him a note saying she’d gone to the pier across the street from her house. Once upon a time, the old dock had had lights and the locals had fished there at night, but no more. Besides, after eleven, no one would be out. Uncertain still shut down early, just as it had when Will was a kid.
Will took the time to change into shorts and a short-sleeved T-shirt before searching Tessa out. Smiling, he realized most of his belongings had migrated to Tessa’s. With the animals to care for, it made more sense to stay at her place. He wasn’t sure why he kept his cottage at the Kit and Caboodle. Maybe because he and Tessa had never discussed living together, it had just happened naturally.
Sure enough, he found her on the pier, bare feet dangling off the edge. The night was clear and moonlight spilled over the dark water, painting it with pale streaks of muted color. A slight breeze swept through the trees and muffled notes from someone’s stereo carried across the lake. A frog croaked, was silent and croaked again.
Peaceful, he thought, taking in a deep breath. The night breeze was cool for a change, with the damp smell of the lake and hints of honeysuckle underlying it. A perfect summer night waiting to be shared. And there was no one he’d rather share it with than Tessa.
Not wanting to frighten her, he called her name before walking up behind her. She turned around and smiled, beckoning him to her side. Kicking off his shoes, he eased down beside her, pulling her to him for a long, steamy kiss. Though she returned it, he sensed a hesitation in her response and wondered why.
“What are you doing out here so late?” he asked, lifting his mouth from hers. His cop’s mind worried about her, even though Uncertain had a low crime rate. “Have you been here long?”