by Dani Pettrey
Her eyes narrowed, her pulse quickening. What was he saying, exactly? That the date’s progression depended on the information Sami supplied? “You wouldn’t seriously . . .” She hushed as a group of instructors passed by with Sami bringing up the rear.
“See you at eight, Alaska.” Sami winked.
“Looking forward to it, Canada.” Landon smiled.
“Oh, please.” Piper expelled a belabored huff after they’d passed. “You can’t seriously mean to go through with this.”
“My date? Absolutely.” He stood, collected his things, and bent to place a kiss on the top of her head. “Don’t wait up.”
28
“How’d it go with Masterson?” Kayden asked from the kitchen as Darcy settled into the oversized leather armchair that was quickly becoming her favorite spot.
Every night they met in Kayden and Piper’s family room to discuss Reef’s case and the day’s progress. And every night a homey meal—usually soup or stew—greeted her arrival. Then they gathered around a crackling fire, the scent of evergreen hovering in the air, always a sharp contrast to the blustery wind and frigid temperatures outside.
Bailey always made sure there was a hot drink to conclude the meal—fresh-roasted coffee, hot chocolate, or cider—the rich scents filling the kitchen and spilling over throughout the house. Tonight it was mulled cider.
Having grown up in Southern California, Darcy wasn’t the biggest fan of winter, despite her frequent trips to Mammoth, Tahoe, and the winter events she covered, but the cozy warmth that surrounded the McKennas’ certainly made winter a little more enticing.
“Darcy?” Kayden said.
Darcy blinked. “Sorry, my mind was drifting.”
Concern flickered on Bailey’s lovely face. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine. My mind just wanders sometimes, but to answer Kayden’s question, my visit went very well.”
Cole’s brows arched. “He was actually cooperative?”
“She was extremely cooperative.”
“She?” Bailey said. “Meaning . . . ?”
Darcy smiled. “Mrs. Masterson.”
“That’s surprising,” Kayden said, taking the only seat open on the love seat next to Jake. Even then an invisible wall seemed to separate them.
Darcy seriously wondered what Jake had done to make Kayden so suspicious. Though the more time she spent around the man, the more intrigued she grew. Perhaps when this case was over, she’d do a little poking around about Jake Westin.
“Darcy.” Gage snapped a finger in front of her face.
“Sorry.” She blinked.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Bailey asked with genuine concern.
“Do you need a cup of coffee, something to jolt you awake?” Gage asked.
“No. My mind is already in overdrive. I’m thinking too many things at once.”
Gage kicked his feet on the ottoman and slumped back in his chair. “You need to learn to relax.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
“You were telling us about your conversation with Mrs. Masterson?” Jake prodded.
“Right. Mrs. Masterson. At first she was somewhat hostile, but when I explained I was looking into Karli’s past and not her husband’s, the floodgates opened. I’ve never seen so much hostility directed at one person.”
“I’m guessing she knew about her husband’s affair with Karli?” Cole said.
“Yes, and I have the feeling there isn’t much she doesn’t know about when it comes to him. Interesting thing is, she blames Karli solely for the affair, despite the fact that her husband has quite the reputation for indiscretions with the new recruits on the circuit.”
“Sounds like a real winner,” Kayden said dryly.
“Tell me about it.” Darcy loathed men like him and pitied the poor women they preyed upon, though she hardly believed Karli fell under that category.
“You think Mrs. Masterson is aware of his affairs?” Jake asked.
What he was really trying to determine was whether or not Theresa Masterson had motive to kill Karli. Darcy weighed what she’d observed of the lady. “Theresa’s definitely a shrewd woman, misplaced as some of that insight might be. I think it’s a safe bet that she knows exactly what goes on within the circuit.”
“Then why does she stay with him?” Kayden asked, not bothering to hide her disgust.
“Money, prestige . . . thinks he needs her. Very dysfunctional and very sad.”
“So she blames the women and excuses her husband?” Kayden’s irritation heightened in her voice.
“It appears that way, but she seemed to possess a particularly strong dislike for Karli.”
“Why do you think that is?” Jake asked, clearly intrigued.
“At first it just seemed to be a general dislike for a woman with no morals, but on deeper inspection . . .” She smiled at Gage.
He returned the smile. “Darcy did some digging online, and it turns out that Karli has broken all three of Theresa Masterson’s records. Of course she was Theresa Dunbar back when she set them.”
“So Karli wasn’t just having an affair with her husband; she was also breaking her records,” Bailey said.
“Right.”
“Did she seem mad enough to kill over it?”
“Possibly, and it appears it’s definitely not beneath Theresa to harm another competitor.”
Jake leaned forward. “What?”
“Back in 2001, when Theresa was at the height of her career, she had some serious competition in an up-and-coming boarder named Kendra Morris. Kendra totally stomped Theresa in qualifying, and everyone assumed she’d blow her out of the competition, but the next day Kendra’s equipment malfunctioned during her run. She lost control, flew off course, and sustained some serious injuries. She’s lucky to have survived at all.”
“And you think Theresa had a role in that?” Cole asked.
“That was the rumor.”
“Any proof?” Jake asked.
“No, but two years later a similar thing happened with another up-and-coming boarder named Jessica Clarkson. She hammered Theresa in qualifying, but the day of the competition she came down with a horrid case of food poisoning.”
“The timing is questionable, but food poisoning happens.”
“Yes, but I dug a little deeper, and Jessica ate in the lodge with her entire team, and she was the only one who got sick.”
“Was there an investigation?” Jake asked.
“In the first incident, the coaches inspected Kendra Morris’s equipment and said the malfunction could have easily occurred with wear and tear. All inquiry stopped there. For the second incident, Jessica complained, but not much happened. It’s extremely hard to prove food poisoning when you’re dealing with a cafeteria that’s serving a hundred athletes three times a day.”
“And it’s a big leap from food poisoning to murder,” Jake said. “But it would probably be prudent to dig a little deeper into Theresa Masterson’s whereabouts the night of Karli’s murder.”
“I agree,” Darcy said. “I asked Theresa where she was when she learned about Karli’s murder, trying to fish without making her suspicious.”
“Good plan,” Jake said.
“Thanks. Theresa claims she was staying at some sort of spa on Kodiak Island and didn’t learn of Karli’s death until she arrived in Yancey the following day.”
“Convenient. She say how she traveled here?”
“Took the ferry from Kodiak.”
“That’s easy enough to confirm,” Kayden said.
“And easy enough to fake,” Jake added.
Kayden turned on him, her dark brown eyes narrowing. “How could you fake arriving on a ferry?”
“Oh, I’m sure she came in on the ferry,” Jake said. “The pertinent question is whether it was her first trip in.”
“How would you come up with something like that?” Kayden shook her head. “It’s like how a criminal would think.”
“Kayden, you’ve go
t to stop,” Cole said, his tone wavering between annoyance and pleading. “This isn’t helping anyone. We need to be sticking together, not trying to tear the family further apart.”
“Jake is not family.”
Jake winced at Kayden’s painful words. “I’m not a criminal.”
“And we’re just supposed to take your word?”
“Have I ever given you reason to doubt my word?”
She swallowed, giving no response.
“We need to focus, for Reef’s sake,” Cole said, taking advantage of the momentary silence.
“I’ll see what I can dig up on Mrs. Masterson’s travel schedule,” Darcy said, trying to be helpful, trying to calm the tension growing in the room.
“We should visit that spa in Kodiak,” Gage said. “Confirm her whereabouts. Kayden, you want to fly us there?”
“You’re going to fly? With me?” Kayden’s eyes widened.
“Yes.”
She smiled. “Sweet.”
Darcy glanced to Bailey. “Is there something I should know?”
“Don’t worry. Kayden’s a great pilot.” Bailey leaned over and lowered her voice. “Gage just isn’t fond of heights.”
“Really?” She looked at Gage. He was actually afraid of something? Remarkable.
“Did you get a look at Karli’s paper work?” Cole asked.
“Oh, right.” She’d gotten sidetracked talking about Theresa. She pulled a folded slip of paper from her pocket. “I made copies at the library and made a few calls.”
“And?”
“It all lines up, but . . .”
“But?” Jake prodded.
Darcy shrugged. “It just didn’t feel right.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I can’t put a finger on it; it just felt forced. All the particulars were there—date of birth . . . social security number—but nothing else. No living family. Last known address was a P.O. box. It was all very clinical.”
“Anything on Karli’s parents?” Bailey asked.
Darcy read from the paper. “Thomas and Rebecca Davis. Both deceased.”
“Are their dates of birth and death listed?”
“No.” Which she found odd. “Just their names.”
“You talk to Landon about this yet?” Jake asked.
“Gage and I got off the phone with Piper right before we arrived here. We couldn’t speak with Landon; Piper said he was on a date.”
“A date?” Kayden said, disbelief ringing in her tone.
“Something about trying to get information. Piper didn’t sound the least bit happy about it.”
“I bet she didn’t,” Kayden said with a knowing smile.
29
Piper took another glance through the peephole. Nearly midnight and still no sign of Landon. What was taking him so long, and worse yet, what had he and Sami been doing all this time?
She walked to the bed and lay down. Why was his date with Sami bothering her so? Why his time with Becky Malone—whatever that might have been?
Her feelings for Landon were definitely changing, but she had zero clue how to proceed. She didn’t understand the depth of her feelings, let alone what she wanted to happen. She just knew that she wanted Landon back with her now.
A knock roused her, and she groggily moved to her feet.
Relief swelled at the sight of Landon through the peephole. Finally.
Unlocking the chain, she pulled open the door.
“Morning, sleepyhead.” He stepped past her into the room. “I brought donuts and coffee.”
“Morning? What time is it?” She stared at the clock—8:00.
Landon yanked open the drapes, and sunlight flooded the room.
“I must have fallen asleep.” She rubbed her eyes and then narrowed them. He looked awfully chipper.
“You didn’t answer your phone, again.” He fished a donut from the brown paper bag and bit into it.
“I didn’t hear it. When did you get back?”
“From what?”
“Your date.”
“Let’s just say it was late.” He plopped on the bed and pulled a second donut from the bag.
“What happened?” She couldn’t not ask.
Landon licked some icing from his thumb. “Now, Piper, you know a gentleman never dates and tells.”
Uncertainty rippled through her. “You didn’t . . . ?” Had something happened? Had he and Sami . . . ?
“Didn’t what?”
Man, he was grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Never mind.” She moved to the bathroom and shut the door.
“Where are you going?” His footsteps padded across the carpet. “Don’t you want to know what I learned?”
That depended. Was it about Sami or the case?
“I don’t think Sami had any role in Karli’s death.”
“Oh really?” Just how had he come to that conclusion?
“Sami was bummed she got cut from the circuit, but she seems way too laid-back to strike out in violence.”
“And that was the extent of what you learned?” He was out all night and the only thing he got was being convinced by Sami that she wasn’t angry enough to kill Karli?
“No. There’s something else. Unless Karli was a bride at sixteen, the abusive-husband theory is out.”
Piper opened the door. Maybe they were getting somewhere now. “Why sixteen?”
“Sami says Karli lied about her age so she could join the circuit at seventeen. She convinced Masterson she was eighteen, because she didn’t have parental consent.”
Piper stepped past him into the sitting area of her room. “Because?”
“Her parents were deceased.”
Just as Gage had said over the phone last night—her parents were listed as deceased on her circuit paper work.
“How did Sami know Karli lied about her age? That doesn’t sound like something Karli would share.”
“Sami said the first season Karli joined the circuit she won the title. A couple years later Sami heard Karli boasting about being the youngest to ever win it, but someone else had won the title at eighteen a few years earlier. Sami called Karli on it, and since, at that time, Karli was of age and couldn’t be kicked off the circuit, she told Sami she’d lied initially about her age and that she had only been seventeen when she won the title, thus making her the youngest to win it.”
“That’s good, but certainly not staying-out-all-night good.”
“Wow. This is really getting to you, isn’t it?”
Much deeper than she’d imagined. The thought of him and Sami—the thought of him and any woman—suddenly choked her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. You’re upset I went on a date with Sami.”
“Hardly.” She took a seat on the sofa, trying to ignore the uncertainty crushing down on her. She needed to pull it together. Needed to sort through her feelings for Landon and figure out exactly why she was feeling them. Was it because he’d been so distant lately? Was it jealousy or something infinitely more profound? Deep down she knew the answer; she just wasn’t ready to deal with the ramifications of it.
“So what is it?” he continued. “The fact that I went on a date, or the fact that it was with Sami?” He studied her. “That’s it.”
“What?”
“You don’t like that my date was with Sami.” He rubbed his chin. “Interesting.”
She needed to shift the focus off her and quick. “Interesting is the last word I’d use to describe you.”
“Now you’re getting catty.” His grin grew, irking her all the more. “You’re really fired up over this.”
She couldn’t let him see the truth. Not yet. Not until she figured it out. “I’m fired up about the fact that you were out all night pretending to investigate while I was doing the real work.” She stood and headed back for the bathroom, but he blocked her path. He had the most annoying habit of doing that.
“No,” he said.
“No?”
“No.” He waggled his finger. “That’s not why you’re upset.”
She linked her arms across her chest. “Then tell me, Sherlock, why am I upset?”
“Because my date was with someone you didn’t handpick for me.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She tried to pass, but he met her step for step, continuing to block her way.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s take a look at the facts. You’re constantly trying to set me up, complaining I have no life outside of work, but when I actually go on a date, you’re ticked.”
“I was trying to be a friend, trying to set you up with a good woman like Nancy Bowen, not some ski bunny like Sami or someone like Becky Malone.” Though even the thought of Landon with Nancy upset her now.
“So it’s fine if I date someone you approve of, someone safe. Is that it?”
“No.”
“You know, for someone who is always complaining about how I interfere in your love life, sure seems like you’re doing the exact same in mine.”
She was. But were they doing it for the same reasons? Did the thought of her and Denny being together choke the breath from his lungs? Had he spent nights awake, praying her date would end early, praying nothing would happen to pull her from his life?
She gaped at him in shock. Did she dare hope that all his brutish protests over her dates with Denny had been out of love?
30
Piper held her mug under the coffee dispenser. Unable to continue her conversation with Landon, she’d excused herself for a shower and told him she’d meet him in the lobby in an hour.
Finishing in half that time, she’d meandered to the cafeteria for breakfast.
Her head was spinning, her thoughts racing, and she needed . . . I have no idea what I need. Uncertainty rippled through her. To top it off, they hadn’t obtained anything concrete on Karli. Just suspicions and guesses. And they still hadn’t received a response from Taylor Nash. They were leaving for Glacier Peak in a half hour and they would be making a stop at Wellspring Therapy with or without an invitation. She only prayed they had the right TN.
“You’re Landon’s girlfriend. Right?”
Piper looked up to find Sami standing in line beside her. “Friend. We’re just friends.” Surely he’d made that clear during their date.