“There is. Maybe it’s a small pool, and he’s near it.”
“How’d he get there?”
“I don’t know. Mines sometimes have more than one level, and more than one entrance. He must have come in through a different tunnel.”
They listened quietly a while longer. She heard a watery sound that could have been from someone dipping into the water. Then one or two quick words and nothing more. He was gone. After a few minutes of silence, Cal helped her to her feet. “Come on. Whoever he is, if he’s hiking on this mountain, I’d rather run into him outside than in here.”
But there was no sign of anyone as they hiked back to the commune. Maggie led Cal straight to the tiny jewelry studio so they could ask Pete about a possible second mine entrance. She forgot all about it as soon as they opened the door.
Amber was looking at herself in the small mirror Kate held up. “Try it on the other side,” Kate said, and Amber switched something to her other hand, holding it beside her lower lip as she studied her reflection. Maggie recognized one of the small silver pieces of jewelry the commune made for piercings and nearly choked.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
Kate looked up. “Oh, hi, sweetie. Amber’s considering a new piercing, so we’re trying to see how it might look.”
“What!” Cal took a step forward, and Maggie grabbed his hand, squeezing hard. He stopped, teeth grinding as he reevaluated. “Why do you want another piercing?” he asked. She thought he sounded quite reasonable.
Amber apparently didn’t. She gave him a hard stare. “Because I like them.”
Cal looked at the silver ring Amber was holding up to her mouth and folded his arms. “I don’t.”
Kate gave him a bright smile. “Then we won’t offer you one. We all get to decide what to do with our own bodies, don’t we?”
Amber smiled at Kate.
Maggie grabbed Cal and left.
Chapter
Twelve
He grumbled about the lip ring halfway back to town. “She hasn’t done anything yet,” Maggie reminded him. “Maybe she just wants to show some independence, to let you know you can’t take over her life.”
Actually, she didn’t think there was any maybe about it. She’d felt the same way when her grandmother had tried to put sensible restrictions on her behavior—restrictions she wouldn’t have had at the commune. She’d rebelled. The only difference was, she didn’t do it by getting her lip pierced. She’d had sex with boys.
“It could be a lot worse,” she told him.
He caught the significance in her look, and shut his mouth. “I guess,” he admitted. He was quiet for some time after that. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost all its anger. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Maggie. I don’t know how to be a big brother to a sixteen-year-old girl. I want to tell her all the things she’s doing wrong, even when I know she doesn’t want to hear them. I don’t know if I can do this family thing.”
“Sure you can. Everyone feels that way about teenagers.”
“Yeah, I see a lot of those teenagers as a cop. I don’t like them.”
“And most of them turn into decent people. Amber will, too.”
His mouth pulled into a tight line. “At least I only have to keep her for two weeks. Maybe she won’t have too many new holes in her by the time I send her home.”
They were just entering Barringer’s Pass when Maggie gave in to impulse. “Pull in here,” she said as they approached Del Tanner’s.
“A bar?” He turned into the parking lot. “You want a drink?”
“Not only a bar. They also make the best burgers and sandwiches you’ve ever had. My treat, to celebrate all my big orders today.”
“I am hungry,” he admitted.
“Me, too. I worked up an appetite on that hike.”
His mouth twitched with a half smile and she knew he was thinking of one specific way they’d worked up an appetite. A million butterflies battered themselves against her stomach. Between the sexy smiles and the tender hugs, he kept her more off balance than she’d ever felt with a man.
She covered it up with a grand entrance, raising her voice to yell hello to Del when she spotted him across the room.
The middle-aged man looked up and grinned. “Hey Maggie! Have a seat, I’ll be right with you.”
“No rush.” Grabbing one of the small laminated menus, she led Cal to the bar. It was early for supper and most of the stools were open. Leaning sideways to see the menu as Cal read, she began to point out her favorites.
“Did you find the burgers? The Silver Miner’s Deluxe is my fave . . . what the hell?” She stared at the menu, which no longer offered the Silver Miner’s Deluxe. It had the Rafe De Luca Special.
“Del!”
Across the room, Del lifted a hand, letting her know he’d be right there.
“I take it you weren’t always a sandwich?” Cal asked.
“Me?” She grabbed the menu and looked where he pointed. The Maggie Larkin Hot Plate. Her eyes narrowed at the line beneath it: Caution: This is one hot dish!
She barely saw Del arrive through the red haze in her eyes.
“Maggie! Long time no see!”
She spun the menu around to face him, and pointed. “What’s this?”
Del’s laugh wasn’t even a little self-conscious. “You like our new selection? Pretty clever, if I do say so myself.”
“A hot dish?” she growled.
“Sizzling!” He took a good look at Cal. “Hey, you must be the mystery man!”
“Cal Drummond.” He appeared to be fighting back amusement as he stuck out his hand.
“You oughta try the Mystery Man Burger with my special mystery sauce. A real kick-ass burger, like it says.”
“God damn it, Del.”
He gave her shoulder a friendly swipe. “Hey, it’s good business, kiddo. Just like they do in New York City. I went there once and had a sandwich named for Michael Douglas. Figured you deserve your own sandwich, too, now you’re famous.”
“But I don’t want to be famous.”
“Can’t fight public opinion, Maggie. The people say you’re famous, you’re famous.”
She looked at Cal. He leaned close. “I believe it’s meant to be a compliment,” he murmured.
“’Course it’s a compliment!” Del said. “What do you say I fix you two a couple burgers on the house? You’ve more than earned it, the way my business has picked up.”
She sighed. “Fine. Just not the Rafe burger.”
“Ten minutes,” he promised happily. “Hey, Cassie, get these two something to drink, would ya?”
He left to see about the burgers and Maggie turned a helpless look on Cal. “I’m not sure if I should be horrified or embarrassed.”
“Like you told me, things could be worse.”
“How?”
He turned the menu around. “You could be this one.”
She looked. The Bodyguard Club Sandwich. A huge pile of meat that packs a real punch!
“Now, that I like.”
He stopped at a drugstore on the way to her house. When he came back out, he opened the box as soon as he got in the truck. “I haven’t carried a condom in my wallet in years, but I’m putting one in it right now.”
“Do you have room for two?”
He gave her a heated look. “I’ll toss out the money.”
She smiled all the way home. The man was definitely getting an invitation to spend the night, and she was sure he wouldn’t refuse. Let the media hordes see his truck parked in her driveway overnight. Everyone already considered Cal her boyfriend, so it wouldn’t be a news flash.
Once they were inside, he asked for a tour of the house, starting with the bedroom. It turned out to be a short tour.
He didn’t rush. He undressed her, leisurely exploring each part of her he exposed. She never knew that a kiss on her wrist or behind her knee could feel so erotic, or that she could want a man so much that just the feel of his naked body against hers could bring her to t
he brink of orgasm. He stretched out on top of her, pinning her hands to the bed as he kissed her mouth and nibbled at her neck. Between them, his erection teased her, making her strain upward, nearly begging him to relieve the aching lust he built inside her. But he took his time, driving her to the edge of madness before he finally eased into her in one long, slow slide. She exploded before he could even move, crying out as her body convulsed around his.
When she could breathe normally again, she laughed. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait.”
“It’s okay.” He moved slowly, watching her.
“I . . . Oh. Mmm.” Her spent body was recovering rapidly, and turned out to be not so spent after all. “Cal?”
“What?”
“Don’t stop doing that.”
“Wasn’t planning to.”
Neither was she, not until his breathing became as ragged as hers had and his eyes as feverish with need. When they finally did, she took him with her into a body-clenching, soul-rocking release.
They lay entangled for some time afterward. She hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but when she opened her eyes again the bedside clock read 2:36 a.m. and her arm was numb. She rolled over. The bedroom was dark but light poured in from the hallway and the living room beyond, where they’d left the lamps on. She should probably turn them off. She could also get a snack while she was up. As she debated the idea, Cal mumbled in his sleep and looped his arm around her, spooning her against his warm body. She sighed contentedly and changed her mind about getting up.
Waking up with Cal felt normal, which was saying a lot—even when she’d had a regular sex life she’d never allowed men to sleep over. She didn’t like to encourage their territorial instincts. But rolling over to Cal’s kisses felt as natural as if she’d done it for years, although she was certain she’d never had a morning shower as invigorating as the one she took with him.
He even seemed to belong in her kitchen. Their movements felt choreographed as she selected cereal boxes, milk, and juice, turning to find he’d set out bowls, spoons, and glasses. She smiled to herself and sat down to eat.
Cal dug into his cereal as he asked, “What do you have planned for today?”
“I have to be at the store. I have brickmasons coming this morning, and the carpenter in the afternoon. How about you?”
“I thought I’d try to get some time with that police sergeant we talked to—what’s his name?”
“Sergeant Todd?”
“Right. He seemed open to considering Rafe as a suspect, and I’d like to go over Tara’s and Rachel’s case files with him, if he’ll let me. Might find something that was missed if we go at it from a new perspective.”
She nodded. “Want to meet for dinner?”
“Sounds good.”
Damn, even their conversations sounded like they’d done this forever. She couldn’t understand it—men didn’t mesh well with her life. Everything just felt so darn middle-class, middle-American normal.
He took a sip of juice. “Let’s go back to Del Tanner’s. I want to try the Maggie Larkin Hot Plate.”
She rolled her eyes. Maybe not everything.
She prepared to feel less comfortable about being with him that evening, in case her mind was floundering in a sex-induced haze. Instead, she found herself suggesting they stop by his cabin to pick up a few changes of clothes.
His lopsided smile made her heart do little flips. “I was hoping you’d say that. But you can still ask me to leave if you feel like I’m crowding you.”
She was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen.
She gritted her teeth as they approached her house, preparing for another dash past the media, except the reporters weren’t there. Maggie looked up and down her street and in her neighbors’ driveways as they turned in. No vans with satellite dishes on their roofs. No reporters.
“Where did everyone go?” she asked.
“No idea. Must be swarming after Rafe.”
“Good. He can keep them.” Part of her wondered what Rafe might be doing or saying to attract every available news team, but she wasn’t going to let it ruin her night.
An odd tingle started deep in her chest as she watched Cal carry his small duffel into her house. She decided it was a good tingle. And after making room for his things in her dresser and bathroom, and making love with him in her bed, she decided normal might be a good thing.
They made popcorn and turned on the TV. Maggie leaned against Cal’s shoulder, lazy and happy, thinking about how good the right kind of tired could feel. She barely stirred when Cal’s phone rang.
He took the call, listened, then hung up seconds later. He turned to her with a perplexed look. “Rick says something’s going down at the Alpine Sky and we’d better get up there right away. He said a couple cop cars are parked out front and they’ve been questioning employees.”
Maggie scrunched her brow in confusion, but before she could respond, her own phone rang from the coffee table. She looked at the readout then held Cal’s gaze as she picked up the call. “Hi, Zoe.”
Her sister’s voice was a harsh whisper in her ear. “Maggie, I think something terrible has happened.”
She wouldn’t have thought she had any adrenaline left, but at the panic in Zoe’s voice, a tiny jolt of fear shot through her. “What is it?”
“A girl is missing. Someone who was partying here the night before last. Maggie, Rafe was here then, too. He was with her.”
All the way there, Maggie kept thinking about how easily it could have been Amber. If they hadn’t pulled her out when they did, if they hadn’t made sure she was tucked away where Rafe couldn’t get to her, they might be experiencing a whole different level of terror right now.
She turned up the truck’s heater, though she was shivering from more than the frigid night air. “Maybe we’re jumping to conclusions,” she said, wanting to believe it. “Rafe isn’t stupid. He knows you’re looking into Tara’s and Rachel’s disappearances. He wouldn’t dare kill another girl now, would he?”
“Stupid has nothing to do with it, Maggie. If he killed another girl, it was an impulsive act, a result of losing his temper. It depends on whether someone made him angry enough to lose control.”
Her heart sank. “We did.”
It came out small and weak, but he turned sharply, and she repeated it. “We made him that angry. He saw us when we left the bar with Amber. He looked right at me, and realized Amber was with us. I think he would have killed me on the spot if he could have.”
He shook his head. “That would be premeditated. That’s not his style. I meant if the girl made him angry.” In the low light from the dashboard, she saw him clench his jaw. “Unless he’s changed his pattern.”
She shot an alarmed look at him. “Could he?”
“If he develops a taste for murder.” He squeezed her hand, kept it. “He wouldn’t be the first.”
The Alpine Sky was ablaze with lights. Not the late-night glow of discreetly placed lamps, but the harsh glare of floodlights. They’d found the missing media convoy.
Five news vans lined the curving entrance, ceding prime curb space only to the two police cruisers near the door. Two more vans with satellite dishes sprouting from their roofs sat in the parking lot, along with three SUVs covered with the call letters and slogans of their various network, cable, and radio stations.
Maggie felt a combination of relief that they’d forgotten her, and pity for whoever would be the next victim of the media spotlight. “It doesn’t take them long to move on, does it?”
Cal gave the media swarm a mistrustful glance. “Don’t be so sure they have.”
He parked several rows away, allowing them to stick to the shadows and skirt the news vehicles as they walked up to the main doors. Maggie didn’t consider asking Zoe to let them in the side door by the kitchen. The flurry of activity around the front entrance drew her, stirring a mixture of curiosity and dread.
News crews clustered on the sidewalk just beyond the front doors, ta
ping under the bright glare of spotlights. She paused just short of the entrance, captured by the excited voice of a reporter summarizing the situation for viewers. After spending the past week dodging this same media circus, she felt vaguely guilty to be on the other side of the camera, feeling the prickle of excitement it aroused. Especially when the cause of the excitement was a missing girl.
Or maybe it wasn’t. Maggie stopped abruptly as she saw the reason for all the media attention. A few steps past the reporter, Rafe De Luca stood patiently as a hair stylist fussed with his hair and someone else dabbed makeup on his forehead. They both melted away as the cameras and reporter turned toward Rafe.
Maggie and Cal watched from a safe distance as Rafe slipped into his smooth public persona, the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The reporter explained Rafe’s presence at the resort before getting to the point of the interview. “And you actually spoke to Emily shortly before she disappeared, didn’t you?” she asked, thrusting the microphone under Rafe’s nose.
Rafe nodded solemnly. “That’s right, Vicky. As you said, the young lady was at The Aerie where our cast and crew had met for drinks. She and her friend introduced themselves to me, and we talked for a few minutes. She seemed like a very nice girl. I hope this is all a false alarm and the police find her soon.”
The reporter leaned closer, oozing concern. “We all feel the same, but the police seem quite concerned. I understand you were able to give them some information about Emily?”
“I merely confirmed that Emily was there. So did a few other members of the crew. I’m afraid none of us saw her leave.”
Maggie shivered at the familiar story. Somehow Rafe was always around when the missing women had slipped out, unnoticed.
Vicky pulled her microphone back for a quick question. “Are you aware that the police are looking into the possibility that Emily’s disappearance might be connected to the disappearance of two other women from this area?”
Rafe looked stunned. “Are you kidding? This has happened before?” To Maggie it looked like overacting, but she imagined the viewers would eat up the drama.
“That’s what a source within the police department tells us,” Vicky assured him.
Silver Sparks Page 20