She closed her eyes for a moment, trying hard to temper what she was about to say. The last thing she needed was for the four cats at the next table to witness them fighting. She scraped the meat off her fork, laid the utensil down next to her plate, leaned her elbows on the table, and tented her fingers.
“What are you implying, Grayson?” She hoped she’d managed to keep her tone even and non-confrontational.
“Nothing. It just seems like an odd purchase for someone on a civil servant’s salary.” He kept his eyes lowered while he forked another piece of meat and crammed it into his mouth.
Why was he pushing the point? She’d make him pay for this. Oh, yes, she would.
He wiped his mouth with his napkin and then locked eyes with her again. “You must have the means to purchase such a large estate. Right?”
“Whether I have the means or not is none of your business.” She meant her reply to cut him with a razor-sharp edge.
He scooted his chair back. “Whoa! You’re right. That was none of my business.”
“Unless you’re investigating something illegal and questioning me in an official capacity... No, it’s none of your business.” She tried to simmer down, but she wanted to be mad.
To her relief, he must have sensed how badly he’d stepped into the crap pile and backed off, muttering what she thought might have been an apology and then eating the rest of his meal in silence while she steamed.
Grayson was the first to break the heavy quiet, whispering just loud enough to be heard. “I’m sorry. I should have never sat down with you. Those four are gonna have us married with four kids before we know it.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he cringed.
She’d heard enough of their conversation to guess he was probably right. She’d felt their eyes drill holes in her the whole time they were eating. Was he worried about the gossip on his account or on her account or for both of them?
“Well, then, we’d better get started making them because my biological clock is ticking.” She didn’t bother to lower her voice. “Tick tock.”
“What?” His nervous laugh was kind of cute.
She rose from the table, grabbed her check and her jacket, snagged her purse, and headed for the cashier. She turned and smiled at him after she had paid for her meal. He had remained at their table, staring at her with a shocked expression. Just a hint of panic flashed in his eyes.
“See you later…dear.” Then, she winked at him and pushed open the diner’s front door.
“Tori, wait.”
She paused in the open doorway and turned slowly, relishing Grayson’s moment of discomfort. It seemed the whole restaurant was waiting for her to acknowledge his request for her attention. “What is it? I don’t have time to dawdle all day. I have to get back to work. One of us has to. We have six mouths to feed, you know.”
The expression of horror on his face was priceless. “Not funny, Tori.” He glanced around the restaurant, a deep frown forming on his face.
No, it wasn’t funny. She turned and marched out of the restaurant. Whatever he had to say could wait until she was ready to face him again. When they were alone, away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.
****
As soon as Ashley Rivers emerged from the clinic where she worked as a nurse practitioner, Josh grabbed her elbow and began dragging her toward his truck. She yanked her arm out of his grasp and swirled on him, fury dancing in her hazel eyes. “Josh? You scared the crap out of me. What do you think you’re doing?”
He pressed his lips together, his anger rising to match hers. The urge to punch something surged through him, but he couldn’t hit Ashley. As sorry as his mother was, she had taught him that a real man didn’t hit girls.
Besides, it wasn’t Ashley’s fault that he was angry.
“You’ve been ignoring my phone calls.”
The sneer on her face wasn’t pretty. “Wonder why.”
The last time they’d spoken, the conversation had ended in an intense argument.
“We need to talk.”
She shook her head, her dark hair swinging back and forth around her face. Very enchanting. The woman was as hot as ever.
“I’m not going to talk to you here and especially not now. I have somewhere I have to be in a little over an hour, and I have to go home and get dressed.”
Just as the words left her mouth, the door of the clinic opened and her boss strutted onto the back parking lot. He stopped and studied Josh and Ashley a moment. “Ashley? Are you all right? Is he bothering you?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and bent her head so her face was unreadable. “I’m fine.”
The doctor cleared his throat. “Are you sure?”
Ashley lifted her head and turned to stare at the man. Her boss took a step toward them, and then backed up when Ashley shot death glares at him.
“Okay, I’ll see you later then?”
She nodded but didn’t speak.
Josh waited until the doctor was in his car and backing his Acura out of his assigned parking spot before attempting to talk to Ashley again. “Are you still sleeping with him?”
She sputtered her answer. “How is that any of your business? My love life is none of your concern. I thought I made that clear the last time you tried to interfere in my life.”
“So you are still sleeping with him?”
She hesitated. Her face flushing pink with either anger or shame. He couldn’t tell which.
“I didn’t say that.”
He rubbed the back of his neck where the tension was accumulating. “You didn’t have to. I saw it on your face. Ashley—”
“None of your business.” She hissed, almost sounding like a dying cat. “What do you want anyway? Make it quick.”
He pointed toward the empty parking spot Dr. Phelps just vacated. “Why are you doing this again? You should have more respect for yourself than that.”
Her face flamed bright red. Her mouth moved for a few moments before hot words finally erupted. “You want to know why I’m sleeping with him? Really? Because I have to find some release somewhere and he provides it. You think he’s using me? I’m using him. I can’t have the man I want, so I have to settle, Josh. Happy now? Isn’t that the confession you’ve been trying to pull out of me for months?”
No, he wasn’t happy. He wanted to be the one to give her release, to hold her and take her pain away. He knew the pain—the deep down hurt of wanting someone you couldn’t have. He’d wanted her for years, ever since they were in high school. At one point, he’d thought they’d be together forever, and then something happened that changed everything. Her affections had obviously shifted toward Gray and away from him. Gray and Ashley had a huge secret between them, and whatever it was, it not only had the power to bind them together, but also to keep them apart. A sort of limbo where no one was satisfied. Ashley was killing her soul with one meaningless relationship right after another.
He cringed from the inside out. Who was he to judge her? Bouncing from one empty relationship to another was the story of his miserable loveless life as well.
“You’re better than that, Ash.” His whispered words barely left his mouth.
“What do you want from me, Josh?” Tears welled in the corners of her eyes.
“I’m tired of your anger and your judgmental attitude.”
She shoved him hard in the chest. “Go home, Josh. You’ve obviously been drinking.”
He slapped her hand away from him. “I’m not drunk. I haven’t had anything at all today. Stop being so condescending. You have your crutch. I have mine.” He reached for her, but then dropped his arm.
She backed away from him as if he frightened her. If she thought he was dangerous, she still didn’t know him very well.
“Do you wanna know why I drink?” He stared hard at her, hoping against all hope that she’d believe the truth when she heard it.
Her eyes blazed with fresh anger. Maybe she didn’t want to hear what he had to say, but she’d
listen, or by God, he’d pick her up and carry her somewhere, tie her up, and make her listen. It was past time she quit blaming him for things he hadn’t done.
“You blame me for the bust up of Gray’s marriage, but I didn’t break them up. Whatever the secret the two of you share... It was obvious she knew she could never be as important to him as you are. That’s why she left.”
He stepped closer to Ashley, got right up in her face. This time she didn’t budge. “I swear I had nothing to do with Caroline’s disappearance. It’s like you think I did something permanent to her, but I didn’t do anything to her. I helped her. I took her to the bus station, because she asked me to. She would have found a way to leave town without my help. And that’s the God’s truth.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “If anyone busted up their marriage, it was you. And now, you don’t even have a good relationship with Gray.” He laughed derisively, because derision was the only feeling he could manage at that moment. “What are the two of you hiding that’s so huge it has destroyed your relationship with the man you love?”
“I never said I loved—”
“Isn’t that what your anger is all about, Ashley?”
Her eyes snapped with fire that seemed to go beyond anger, an emotion that looked a lot like hatred. “Yeah, Josh. That’s why I’m angry. Because I can’t share that secret with anyone but Gray. Because of our secret, I can’t let anyone else into my life. So you see... Keeping our secret has ruined my life.”
“What secret could possibly be that big?” He snorted his disbelief. “Maybe, just maybe you and Gray are making it all a bigger deal than it really is. What happened, Ash? Did the two of you have a night of wild sex? Did he have to help you take care of a problem?”
She slapped him. Hard across the mouth.
He smirked, refused to touch his face where it stung with the fierceness of her wrath. “I must be getting close to the truth.”
Her whole body shook. Her fists clenched at her sides. “You are so far away from the truth... You wouldn’t recognize it if you saw it. If it hit you in the face. You want to know the truth, Josh? Okay, I’ll tell you our big secret. I killed Jeremy Haskins.”
As soon as she shouted the horrible revelation, she slapped her hand over her mouth. Fear welled in her eyes. She jerked her head right and left. Turned to gaze behind her. Tears streamed down her face when she turned back toward him. “But I swear... It was an accident.”
Josh understood. He used to know Gray so well, knew Gray better than anyone else on the planet except for maybe Ashley. Without a doubt, Gray had covered up the accident and gotten rid of Jeremy Haskins’s body. Gray had done what Gray would do in that kind of situation. He had protected Ashley and spared her the wrath of old man Haskins.
Their secret was big, much bigger than he had ever imagined.
He backed away from her. There was no way he could fight a truth so big.
“I have to go. I need...” He needed to talk to Gray. Needed to tell him that he understood.
Chapter Six
Before she left the office for the day, Tori decided to stop by Grayson’s desk to finally give him an update on her lack of progress. He wasn’t exactly pushing her for a report, almost as if he’d given up solving the case through the evidence they’d collected. She hadn’t heard from him since their disastrous lunch encounter, and she wondered why he hadn’t come by her office to tell her about Epps’s preliminary examination of Jared Crenshaw.
Grayson was nowhere to be found. In fact, it appeared his desk had been cleared for the day. She was about to leave when Lucy Kimbrough’s voice startled her from behind. “Are you looking for Gray?”
She’d noticed how many people shortened the man’s name to Gray and she actually kind of liked the diminutive. Somehow it suited him. Not that he was dark, but that he was... She wasn’t sure how to finish the thought, so she saved the idea for further dissection later. To her dismay, she realized she’d been thinking about Grayson too much for her own good.
“I wanted to give him a report on the Crenshaw case.” She cringed when interest immediately sparked in the deputy’s eyes.
Kimbrough propped on the edge of Grayson’s desk. “Making progress?”
Suddenly uncomfortable with Kimbrough’s intense scrutiny, she backed up, hoping her body language would inform the woman that her interest was unwelcome. “Do you know where he went?”
“Left for the day...with Josh McCord.”
The way she replied, Tori got the impression Kimbrough thought she was relaying a juicy piece of information, a piece of gossip that disgusted her.
Tori tried her best to act as if she was just as much in the know as Kimbrough. “Hum. That’s a surprise.”
“Yeah, I know. Seems weird after the fight they had.”
So that’s who smacked Grayson in the eye. She shook her head as if in total agreement with the gossipy deputy.
“Did you see McCord hit him?”
“No, but I heard that Halsey stepped into the middle of it, and McCord is on leave now.”
Not good. Never a good thing to get the boss involved in interpersonal disputes. Tori had learned that the hard way.
“So they left together? I would think the two of them would be avoiding each other.”
Kimbrough smirked. “Seemed to me they were acting like best friends again.”
Again? So they had once been friends? That was interesting.
“Okay, wait. McCord was put on leave, but he and Gray left together?” That didn’t make sense. “Shouldn’t McCord have been banned from the building or something?”
She’d been placed on leave in Little Rock and refused entrance into the crime lab. The security guard stopping her at the door had been one of the most humiliating moments of her life.
Kimbrough shrugged. When she did, it made her appear even more broad-shouldered than she already was. Something about the way she lifted her shoulders high and stuck her chest out. She was oddly shaped for a woman. Broad shoulders, small boobs, smaller hips. Almost masculine.
A gleam sparkled in the deputy’s eyes. “He snuck in and didn’t stay long. I don’t think they wanted Halsey to know what they were doing.”
Tori was dying to know what McCord and Grayson were up to, but didn’t want to feed the rumor mill by asking. “Grayson didn’t say where they were going?”
Kimbrough shook her head, a pout forming on her angular face.
“Okay, then. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
Kimbrough hopped off the desk and crowded her. The deputy glanced right and left. “Are you going back to Victoria House tonight?”
She narrowed her eyes and the woman fidgeted under her direct glare.
“I heard you talking to the electric co-op. They are about as responsive as the cable company, if you know what I mean. Do you need the name of a good electrician? My cousin does that kind of work.”
Tori kept the door closed when she made personal calls. She paused just long enough the woman should have gotten the idea her eavesdropping was noted and unappreciated. “No, I’m good. I found someone already.”
Kimbrough blinked, but didn’t seem to get that she was being nosey.
If she used the deputy’s obvious desire to interfere where she wasn’t invited, then maybe Deputy Gossip would be a treasure trove of information.
“Why do they call it Victoria House?”
Kimbrough smiled and the expression creeped Tori out just a bit. Devoid of warmth. Reminded her of one of those creepy-eyed humanoid bug creatures on a sci-fi movie.
“You don’t know?” Kimbrough licked her lips. “Have you already signed the paperwork? You might want to change your mind.”
She attempted a worried look. “Why would I change my mind?”
“Because of the ghost.” Kimbrough wiggled her fingers and made one of those so-fake haunting noises.
“What ghost?” Tori asked even though she had an idea where the conversation was going.
“They
call her the Lady Of the Lake.”
“Okay.” Her tone urged Kimbrough to keep going.
“The Lady died in that house, you know. They say her ghost walks the shore of the lake every night searching for her lover. He was supposed to come for her and take her away with him, but instead he murdered her in her bed. They say the door to that room won’t open. Like it’s permanently stuck or something.”
Kimbrough appeared to relish telling the story a little too much.
Tori shuddered. “Really?”
“What? Nobody told you? That should have been disclosed, you know. That someone died in that house. Who was your real estate agent?”
She didn’t have one. How she acquired Victoria House was none of this woman’s business. The conversation had to end. Tori needed to get back to her suite at the Ozarkan. She had some Googling to do. Almost all legends such as Kimbrough described were easily researched on the internet, and she wanted to do a web search on Mitchell Grayson as well. Just because.
She glanced at her watch. “Oh, no. I’m late. I have to go. We’ll talk later.”
“Hey, maybe we can do lunch one day.” Anticipation gleamed in the deputy’s eyes.
For some reason, the thought of eating with Lucy Kimbrough made Tori’s stomach churn.
“Sure. That would be great.” She plastered on a fake smile and shifted toward the door and escape.
“Downing?” the deputy called before Tori could get away.
She sucked in a fortifying breath of oxygen. What does the woman want now? Before she turned her attention back to Kimbrough, she wiped the scowl from her face.
“Be careful out there. Strange things happen in that house.”
Tori tilted her head sideways as if she didn’t understand Kimbrough’s comment, but the truth was, she understood it all too well. There was potentially more than one kind of danger in an old, abandoned house like that. She wouldn’t be going out there at night. Not alone. Not if someone expected her, and certainly not until she had a security system installed.
****
With Josh hovering behind him, Gray pounded on Laurel Standridge’s front door. No one answered his summons, but when he peeked through window, he could see movement inside the house through the partially closed curtains. Then, the interior lights went out. He stifled a curse. He’d ordered a dump on Laurel’s house phone that afternoon, and by process of elimination had been rewarded with what he was fairly certain was Chase Peterson’s cell phone number.
Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2) Page 6