Cold Feet

by Brenda Novak

  She hesitated. “I’d…rather not say.”

  He wanted to press her, but now that he knew she was safe, the desire to touch her again felt much more immediate. “Are we still pretending what happened earlier didn’t happen?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  Too bad. He figured that enjoying the rest of the night couldn’t make matters any worse. Jerking his head toward the cottage house, he said, “Do you think we could start pretending in the morning?”

  Her eyes met his. “Are you asking me to spend the night with you, Caleb?”

  He was really climbing out on a limb. He might be able to attribute what had already happened to a thoughtless mistake, but that wouldn’t explain the premeditation involved in asking her to stay with him now. “I am.”

  When she didn’t answer right away, he was tempted to move closer to her, to convince her with his mouth and his hands. After her response to him earlier, he knew he’d stand a better chance that way. But, considering the circumstances, he needed her to come to him without coaxing.

  “Just for tonight?” she asked.

  “Just for tonight,” he promised.

  Finally, she said, “Okay,” and Caleb closed his eyes in relief. He hadn’t known until that moment just how much her answer meant to him.

  MADISON BLINKED several times, trying to get her bearings. She felt satiated, content, but lonely without Caleb’s warm body curled around her. Still, it was her own fault he wasn’t there. She’d insisted on returning to her own bed at dawn. She knew better than to stay with Caleb any longer. The more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to spend with him. The more he touched her, the more she craved his touch.

  But she couldn’t help smiling as she remembered the many times he’d made love to her during the night. He’d been passionate and all-consuming one moment, gentle and loving the next. With him she’d experienced things she’d never experienced with anyone else—a mutual meeting of the mind, spirit and body. Somehow he already knew her better than Danny ever had.

  The phone rang. She rolled over so she could reach the handset, hoping to hear his voice. She’d only been away from him for four hours, but it felt like four days. “Hello?” she answered sleepily.

  “It’s nearly ten o’clock,” her mother said, sounding surprised. “What are you doing in bed? I want you to have an open house for me today, remember?”

  Madison grimaced and tried not to yawn. “I thought you were mad at me.”

  “What gave you that idea?”

  Um, the fact that you wouldn’t come to the door yesterday? “Forget it,” she said. If her mother wanted to pretend nothing had happened between them, Madison was more than game. She wasn’t even surprised. It would’ve taken Annette more effort to do without her than to get past their little disagreement. “Can’t we start next week?” she asked. She hadn’t advertised it yet—and she couldn’t show people around the property with her deadbeat brother sleeping in the garage.

  “Next week?” her mother said.

  Obviously not. “Never mind,” Madison grumbled. She could always throw up a few signs. Unless she wanted to risk upsetting her mom again, she was stuck doing the open house. Which meant she’d have to visit the garage and tell Johnny to stay away for the day. “I’m getting up right now.”

  “But your car’s here, remember? When will your friend be finished with the truck?”

  Madison had almost forgotten that Caleb was going to be using the truck. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I haven’t even given him the keys yet.”

  Almost on cue, the doorbell rang. “I bet that’s him right now,” she said. She was sleeping in Caleb’s T-shirt and a pair of his boxers. She liked the smell and feel of them because they reminded her of him. But she quickly stripped them off and put on her robe so he wouldn’t know that.

  When she reached the front door, a glance through the peek hole confirmed that it was Caleb. He was standing on the stoop, crisp and ready for the day.

  Suddenly aware that she had nothing on beneath her robe, she tightened the belt and ran a self-conscious hand through her hair, trying to get it to lie down. “I’m talking to my mother,” she explained as she let him in. “I’ll be off the phone in a second, okay?”

  “Who’s that?” her mother asked.

  “It’s Caleb.”

  “The man who’s living in the cottage?”

  “Yes.”

  “How old is he?”

  “He’s…” Madison was about to hazard a guess—she knew Caleb wasn’t far from her own twenty-eight—but he answered for her.

  “Thirty-four.”

  It was then that Madison realized he could hear her mother, so she was a little embarrassed when Annette asked, “Is he single?” Especially because Caleb seemed different today than he had last night—more aloof, reserved, preoccupied. And he kept his distance. That was good, right? Her goals for today were to pull herself together, control her rampant emotions, get on track with her life. She was a responsible single mother, not a woman who had wild affairs with her tenant.

  “He’s divorced,” she told her mother, because Annette would just ask again if she didn’t answer. “These are for the truck,” she said to Caleb, handing him the keys.

  “Thanks.” He moved to the counter. “I’ll leave you my Mustang, in case you need to go anywhere while I’m gone.”

  “How long has he been divorced?” her mother asked.

  Madison pressed the phone closer to her ear, wishing her mother would shut up. “I don’t know.”

  “Two years,” he said.

  “Is he handsome?” Annette wanted to know.

  God, was he, Madison thought. Handsome everywhere. After last night, she could definitely state that with authority. Not that she’d ever admit she possessed such intimate knowledge—not to her mother. “He’s, um, never mind,” she said. “I’ll be over in a little bit. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  “What’s that?” her mother asked.

  She’d assumed Caleb would leave, but he didn’t. He was waiting for her to get off the phone. “We’ll talk about it later.”

  “Tell me now.”

  Madison chose her words carefully. “I was wondering if…if you happened to find anything…strange under the house.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  She would if she’d found the contents of that box. “Has Toby started to help you pack?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Has he been over at all?”

  “No, why?”

  “Never mind.” It had to be Tye who’d taken that stuff, then. Madison felt her blood run cold as she remembered the scurrying under the house last night. What would Tye have done if she’d bumped into him in the dark?

  Caleb was watching her closely, but Madison couldn’t help murmuring a warning to her mother. “Mom, I think it might be time to get the locks changed on the house.”

  “Why?”

  “Just get the locks changed. Right away, okay?”

  “But—”

  “Caleb’s here,” she interrupted. “I can’t talk about this now.” She covered the phone. “How long will you need the truck?”

  “Just a couple of hours.”

  “I’ll see you about one o’clock,” she told her mother, and hung up before Annette could respond.

  “Madison, are you okay?” Caleb asked, breaking into her thoughts. “You look…worried.”

  She let her eyes settle on him and, for once, decided to trust someone. “I’m afraid Tye might have had something to do with that woman who was murdered,” she said.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CALEB GAPED IN SURPRISE at what Madison had just said. He knew he was getting close to her. In fact, after last night, they were considerably closer than his conscience could bear. He had to do something about that—apologize, move out, put some distance between them. But this took precedence. “What makes you think Tye might be involved?” he asked.


  “I found something in the crawl space of my mother’s house a couple of weeks ago.”

  Caleb’s heart began to pound. This was exactly what he’d been hoping to learn from the beginning—inside information. He pictured Susan’s pale face as he’d seen her lying in the morgue, and imagined he might be one step closer to avenging her murder. At the same time, he felt lousy about the means he was using to accomplish that goal. He seriously doubted Madison would have trusted him this much if they hadn’t just slept together. “What was it?” he asked, angry that he’d put himself in such a situation.

  “A box filled with women’s shoes and underwear.”

  “Whose?”

  “I think they belonged to those women who were murdered.”

  Caleb let his breath go in a rush. “What makes you think so?”

  “There was a locket, too.” Madison nibbled her lip and, even as he waited with baited breath to hear what she was about to say, he couldn’t help thinking about the way she’d kissed him last night, with such complete abandon. Neither could he forget her body moving beneath his, accepting him, exciting him, fulfilling him as she entwined her arms and legs with his and let him know she was enjoying their lovemaking as much as he was.

  Willing his gaze away from her mouth, he looked into her eyes. He had to forget about last night, keep his distance before he made things any worse. “You say that as though it wasn’t just any locket.”

  “It wasn’t. It had Lisa and Joe McDonna’s picture inside. Lisa was the Sandpoint Strangler’s second victim.”

  She didn’t have to tell him that. He knew exactly who Lisa McDonna was. He’d interviewed her husband and many of her friends. “Do you know where the locket and the other stuff came from? How it got under your mother’s house?”

  She suddenly looked alone and miserable, and he hated himself for betraying her. “Tye put it there the day my father…died. He said he found it in the workshop.”

  “What did you do with it?”

  “Nothing. I was going to turn it over to the police, but when I went back to get it last night, everything inside the box was gone.”

  No! Caleb felt his muscles tense with frustration. “Where did it go?”

  “Tye must’ve gotten to it before me. It had to be him. He’s the only other person who knows about it.”

  “But how’s he getting in and out of your mother’s house? Does he have a key?”

  “He could have one easily enough.”

  “Have you asked him?”

  “I called him on his cell when I was driving home, but he didn’t pick up.”

  Caleb wanted to move toward Madison, but he didn’t dare. He was afraid he’d take her in his arms, and what had occurred in the hall last night would happen all over again. “Why would you doubt his word, Maddy? Why would you think him capable of murder?”

  She frowned. “Because I know his dark side.”

  LESS THAN AN HOUR LATER, Caleb’s cell phone rang while he was driving Ellis Purcell’s truck to a bakery not far from the University of Washington, where he was to meet Detective Gibbons. He scowled as he looked down at the phone lying innocently on the seat beside him, and refused to answer. He couldn’t believe he’d made the situation with Madison exponentially worse by sleeping with her.

  Whoever was calling hung up, and silence fell. But a few minutes later, the ringing started again. Finally glancing at the LED readout, he realized it was his mother, and punched the talk button. He couldn’t avoid her forever. She’d already left him several messages he hadn’t returned because he didn’t want to hear all the reasons he shouldn’t be doing what he was doing. After last night, he was beginning to figure out a few of those reasons on his own.

  Unfortunately, his hunch about Ellis’s daughter possessing key information was also turning out to be right.

  “Caleb?”

  “Hi, Mom, what’s up?”

  “It’s about time I got through to you,” she said. “We talked more often when you were living in San Francisco.”

  “Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

  “With Ellis Purcell’s daughter?”

  He shook his head as guilt washed through him. “I’m meeting Detective Gibbons in a few minutes,” he said, purposely sidestepping an answer.

  “Holly called here last night,” she said, switching subjects.

  “She did? What for?”

  “She’d just said goodbye to her parents at the airport and was feeling a little bereft. She’s taking this all so hard.” He heard the sympathy in his mother’s voice. Caleb knew Justine was aware of Holly’s shortcomings, but the ties they’d forged when they were a family didn’t simply evaporate. “She said she dropped by your new place, but you weren’t home.”

  Probably when he’d been out to dinner with Madison. “I’ll give her a call,” he said.

  “That would be nice.”

  His call-waiting beeped. “I’d better go. Someone’s trying to get through.”

  “Wait,” she said. “I was hoping you could come to dinner this evening.”

  He thought about the contents of the box Madison had described last night. He wanted her to take him to her mother’s house and let him search for it—or at least look for indications of who might have removed it. From what he’d overheard earlier, Madison’s mother claimed she didn’t know anything about that stuff. But Caleb wasn’t completely convinced she was telling the truth. Annette was so loyal to Ellis he could easily imagine her destroying evidence that might prove her husband’s guilt. And he wanted to question Tye and, of course, Johnny because he was living so close.

  “Thanks for the invitation,” he said. “I’d really like to see you and Dad, but I have other plans.”

  “With whom?”

  “A friend.”

  “I’d like to meet Madison,” his mother said, without skipping a beat. “Why don’t you bring her over?”

  Caleb pulled the phone away from his ear so he could catch the number of the person trying to reach him. It was Madison.

  “I’m getting another call, Mom.”

  “So are you coming?”

  “I can’t bring Madison. Someone—Tamara or Dad—is bound to give me away.”

  “I’ll talk to them before you get here, make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “I’ll get back to you,” he said and took Madison’s call. “Hello?”

  “Caleb?”

  “Everything okay?”

  “I think so. I wanted to tell you that Brianna called me from her father’s house.”

  “What’d she have to say?”

  “She asked me to tell you that the magic rock really works.”

  Caleb was glad he’d thought of Brianna when he’d found that piece of pyrite on the ground. But he was a little concerned that Brianna had felt the need to use its “magic.” “What happened?”

  “I guess she spilled her milk, and Leslie got upset,” Madison said, worry creeping into her voice. “Brianna didn’t get a chance to explain more than that because Danny walked in on the middle of the conversation and made her hang up.”

  “Did Brianna seem okay when she called?”

  “For the most part.”

  “Is there any chance Danny would let us pick her up early?”

  “No. I’ve tried that before.”

  “I wanted to bring her with us tonight.”

  “Are we going somewhere?”

  Caleb knew they should avoid each other. He certainly had no business taking her to meet his family. But he couldn’t resist. “My mother invited us over for dinner. I told her I’d ask you.”

  There was a slight hesitation. “Caleb…”

  “Just as friends,” he said.

  “If Johnny’s still living in the garage and won’t leave, or my mother finds out he’s ever been there, today might not go as smoothly as I’d like,” she responded.

  “Why don’t I go there with you, make sure you don’t run into any problems?”

  “You really want to ris
k getting involved?”

  He didn’t want to risk having Johnny recognize him from that long-ago interview, but he couldn’t let Madison go over to her mother’s place alone, just in case her brother gave her trouble. On the hopeful side, Caleb had a hard time believing Johnny would be sitting inside the Purcells’ garage in the middle of the day. “I’m not worried about it.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.” He reached the Grateful Bread Company on 24th Street and could see Detective Gibbons, wearing his customary cheap suit, sitting inside with a cup of coffee. The detective got up and started toward him as soon as he spotted Caleb pulling into the small lot.

  Caleb waved him away until he could hang up with Madison. “So will you come?”

  “What time?” she asked.

  “My parents usually eat around six, but I’ll need to confirm. Do you think we can be finished at your mother’s by then?”

  “Unless we have Johnny problems.”

  “We’ll hope for the best. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” He ended the call and hopped out to find Detective Gibbons already circling the truck, checking each tire. “What do you think?” he asked. “Do they match the track you found near Susan’s body?”

  Gibbons had him get back in the truck and back up, then circled it again. Finally, he straightened and scratched his scalp. “I don’t think so.”

  Caleb was surprised by the relief that flooded through him. He wanted to find Susan’s killer, but he wanted that killer to have no connection with Madison. “You’re sure?”

  “I’m positive.”

  Crossing his arms and leaning against the truck, Caleb let some of the tension leave his body. “Then what do you make of the blue Ford that was spotted outside the pizza place?”

  Gibbons waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “The make and model of Purcell’s truck has been in all the papers. Our copycat’s playing games, that’s all.”

  “Our copycat doesn’t have to read the paper for information, remember? From the way Susan’s body was positioned, he already knows more than we ever revealed.”

  “I’m afraid our killer is close,” Gibbons said. “Close to the investigation. Close to us.”