Chickasaw County Captive

by Paula Graves

  “Technically, it’s my parents’ guesthouse,” he corrected lightly, trying not to let the mild disdain in her tone annoy him. “Would you like some coffee? A glass of tea?”

  “God, not that sweet treacle you Southerners call tea.” She shed her suit jacket, baring a pair of slim, toned arms. She hadn’t been letting herself go over the past four years, he saw. She was as trim and beautiful as ever.

  He took the jacket from her and hung it on the rack by the door. He turned back to find Norah looking quizzically at Kristen.

  “Norah Cabot,” she introduced herself, crossing to where Kristen stood beside the writing desk near the window.

  Kristen shook Norah’s hand. “Detective Kristen Tandy, Gossamer Ridge Police Department.”

  Norah’s dark brows lifted. “Is this an ambush?”

  Kristen’s smile looked almost predatory, catching Sam by surprise. “Funny you’d jump to that conclusion, Ms. Cabot, instead of assuming I was here to protect your daughter.”

  Norah shot Sam a murderous look. “An hour in the car and you couldn’t see fit to warn me I was walking into a trap?”

  “Ms. Tandy is here to protect Maddy,” he answered with a shrug, enjoying his ex-wife’s discomfort a little more than he should. It was a novel experience to see Norah caught off balance. She was usually in full control of any situation, whether a heated court battle-or a marriage falling apart.

  “And to ask a few questions,” Kristen added firmly.

  Holding back a smile, Sam decided this morning might turn out to be more enjoyable than he’d expected.

  THOUGH SAM HAD SPENT MOST of the last eighteen hours fretting about how to prepare Maddy for her mother’s arrival, in the end, his worries had been for nothing. Maddy didn’t seem to find anything odd about meeting her mother for the first time at the age of four, and Norah didn’t overplay the mommy card.

  Maddy enjoyed looking at old photos Norah had brought with her, including several photos from their brief marriage. She’d even agreed with Norah that they shared the same green eyes and long fingers and toes. But she made no fuss when Norah handed her off to Sam’s brother Jake and Jake’s wife, Mariah, after a tour of the family property. While Jake and Mariah played tag with Maddy and Micah, Mariah’s two-year-old, under the ancient oak towering over the backyard, Norah crossed the lawn to the bottom step of the deck stairs where Sam sat.

  “She’s lovely,” Norah said with a smile, settling onto the step beside him. “You’re a wonderful father. But I always knew you would be.”

  Sam looked across the yard at Maddy, who was laughing with glee as Jake swung her around and around. “Why did you come here, Norah?”

  Norah’s brow furrowed. “Our daughter was almost kidnapped. Shouldn’t I be here?”

  “She was hospitalized with strep throat when she was a year old. We were in the same city then, and you didn’t even call to check on her.”

  “The police didn’t leave an urgent message on my phone that time. Pretty young Detective Tandy was so insistent.” Norah looked over at Kristen, who stood alone, watching Jake, Mariah and the children play. “She’s very new at the job, isn’t she?”

  “Don’t underestimate her,” Sam warned. “She’s tougher than she looks.” Anyone who could survive what Kristen Tandy had gone through as a young teenager was made of stern stuff.

  “Have you taken on a new project, Professor Higgins?” Norah shot him a pointed look. “Looking to turn Daisy Duke into a proper lady?”

  Sam pressed his lips together, already growing annoyed by Norah’s blithe sarcasm. He must have found her witty and entertaining once, or he’d never have fallen for her. Maybe in a different situation, when his daughter’s safety wasn’t on the line, he might have been amused by her sharp commentary.

  But Kristen Tandy didn’t deserve to be the target of Norah’s verbal barbs. Especially now, when she was facing down her own demons for no other reason than to protect Maddy.

  “No comment, Sam?” Norah slanted another look at Kristen.

  “Not everything or everyone is fair game for your tongue, Norah.” He caught Kristen’s eye and gave a quick nod of his head to invite her over.

  She crossed slowly to where they sat, her expression neutral. But he’d begun to understand that her eyes were the key to deciphering her moods. Right now, they were a murky blue-gray, cool as a winter sky.

  She didn’t like Norah. At all.

  “I suppose, Detective Tandy, you have more questions for me?” Norah spoke first, her way of taking control of the conversation.

  “Mostly, I’m curious,” Kristen answered coolly. “After so many years away from your daughter, why show up now? I told you in my message that I’d be willing to fly up to Washington to meet you if I needed to speak in person. It seems a bit…out of character for you to hop on a plane and fly right down.”

  For the first time since Norah arrived, she lost her veneer of indifference. “You don’t know me, Detective. You’re not qualified to judge what is in or out of character for me.”

  The hint of gray in Kristen’s eyes darkened. Sam could swear he saw ice crystals forming in their depths. “You abandoned your daughter to your husband’s sole custody when she was three months old. You haven’t seen her in person since then. You don’t call Maddy to talk to her, not even on her birthdays or holidays. I think I’m perfectly capable of judging your behavior to be that of a woman who has excised her daughter from her life with brutal efficiency.”

  Sam stared at Kristen. Though he’d just warned Norah not to underestimate her, even he hadn’t expected her to stand her ground with such ferocity.

  Where had this little tigress come from?

  This Kristen Tandy was exciting. Maybe even a little dangerous. He liked her like this, maybe more than he should, given the searing heat building low in his gut.

  “The decisions I made about Maddy were for her own good,” Norah said, her voice low and a little unsteady.

  Kristen’s lips curved slightly. “We agree on that point completely.”

  Norah’s face reddened, and Sam saw the warning signs of a very nasty backlash. He stepped between the two women, taking Kristen’s elbow lightly. “Detective Tandy, I had a thought about the files we were going over last night. Can we discuss them privately for a moment?”

  Kristen dragged her gaze away from Norah and looked up at him, blue fire flashing in her eyes in place of the earlier ice. She gave a brief nod and walked with him up the steps to the deck. “What is it?”

  “I enjoy a good verbal jousting match as much as the next man, but do you think you should antagonize Norah like that?”

  Her cheeks grew pink. “Are you questioning how I conduct an investigation?”

  “You’re not investigating anything here,” Sam countered. “You’re angry at Norah for being, well, Norah, and you’re letting that interfere with your work. You know damned well you don’t get answers from people by insulting them.” His voice softened with admiration. “Even if you do it magnificently.”

  Kristen’s brow furrowed, but she gave a brief nod. “You’re right. But she’s such a sarcastic, snobby b-”

  He pressed his fingers to her lips to keep her from saying the word. “It’s half her charm,” he said.

  Her eyes flickered up to meet his, and he felt her lips tremble under his fingers. He dropped his hand away, the skin of his fingertips tingling once more.

  “You like that in a woman?” she asked curiously.

  “I guess I used to,” he admitted. “Or maybe I just mistook her sharp tongue for spirit and fire.” He lowered his voice even more. “I like spirit and fire.”

  Kristen’s eyes darkened but she didn’t drop her gaze. The air around them seemed warmer than before, as if the sudden tension crackling between them had supercharged the atmosphere. They’d moved very close to each other, he realized with some surprise, so close that his breath stirred the golden tendrils of hair that had escaped Kristen’s neat ponytail.

&nbs
p; She had beautiful, flawless skin, a dewy peaches-and-cream complexion that most women would kill for. He knew, without giving in to the growing temptation to touch her, that her skin would be warm and soft beneath his fingers.

  He wondered if he’d be able to resist that temptation if this case lingered on too much longer.

  She gave a soft sigh, her breath warming his throat. Dropping her gaze, she stepped away, looking down at the wide redwood planks beneath their feet. “Be careful, Mr. Cooper,” she murmured. “Right now, Maddy doesn’t really understand who Norah is to her. But she’s the right age to start wondering why her mother’s not around like other mothers are.”

  He cleared his throat. “I know. Believe me, I’m trying to be very careful here. But if Norah really does want to have a bigger presence in Maddy’s life-”

  “Did you know her fiancé is running for the open Senate seat from Maryland?” Kristen asked quietly.

  Sam blinked. “No.”

  “Apparently he just announced his candidacy. He’s up against a big family values candidate named Halston Stevens. Makes me wonder a bit about Norah’s motive for coming here.” Kristen looked toward the yard. Sam followed her gaze and saw Norah sitting in a lawn chair, smiling at Maddy, who was showing her mother something she’d picked up in the yard.

  Son of a bitch, he thought. “How do you know this?”

  “The Internet. It’s this awesome new information tool-you should totally check it out.”

  He shot her a look. “Funny. Why didn’t you tell me this last night when you told me she was engaged?”

  She turned back to look at him. “I didn’t want to poison your mind with the thought until you’d had a chance to see her interact with Maddy.”

  He rubbed his jaw, wondering if knowing would have made any difference. He’d been watching Norah carefully since he first introduced her to her daughter, maybe hoping to see some spark between mother and daughter that they could build on for the future. But so far, Norah’s interest in Maddy had seemed little more than curiosity.

  “I needed to know as much about your ex-wife as I could before she got here,” Kristen continued quietly. “So I stayed up late and did some Web surfing. Her fiancé’s election bid is big news in Maryland. Local blogs are all over the story.”

  “You’re thorough, aren’t you?” he asked. She really was turning out to be a smarter investigator than he’d anticipated.

  The amused look in her blue eyes faded. “Someone’s stalking a kid. Your kid. Damned right I’m thorough.” Her cell phone rang, a muted burr against her side. She dug in her jacket and stepped away, answering in a soft but terse tone.

  Sam looked back across the yard at Norah and Maddy, his gut twisting in a knot. Was Norah really so cynical and self-serving as to push her way back into the life of the child she’d abandoned, just to keep scandalmongers from harming Graham Stilson’s Senate bid?

  The fact that he could seriously entertain the question made him wonder why he’d ever fallen for her in the first place.

  “Tell her no,” Kristen said sharply behind him, drawing his attention away from Norah and Maddy. He turned to find her shoving her phone in her pocket, her face pinched and pale.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked, taking a step toward her, his hand outstretched.

  She stepped back from him, grabbing the deck railing as she stumbled a little. “Everything’s fine.”

  But clearly it wasn’t. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the wood railing, and her eyes looked huge and dark in her colorless face. Ignoring the “don’t touch me” vibe radiating from her in waves, he closed the gap between them, laying his hand gently on her shoulder. “You don’t look fine.”

  She shook her head, ducking away from his touch. “I need to go into the office for a little while. I still want to talk to Ms. Cabot alone-do you think you could get her to the station in a couple of hours?”

  “I’ll get her there,” he promised, his mind racing with questions he knew she wouldn’t answer if he asked them.

  Kristen gave a brief nod and headed down the deck steps that led out to the gravel car park at the side of the house, where she’d left her Impala parked next to his Jeep. Sam squelched the urge to follow her, instinctively aware that the harder he pressed her to tell him what the call was about, the more she’d dig her heels in and push him away.

  Besides, it wasn’t his business, was it? Unless it had to do with Maddy, and she’d have told him if that was the case.

  Still, he had trouble dragging his mind away from Kristen Tandy’s pale, shocked expression as he descended the steps to the yard and scooped his daughter up in a fierce, laughing hug.

  Norah arched one perfect eyebrow at him. “Where’d Nancy Drew hurry off to?”

  Sam ignored the barb, kissing the top of Maddy’s head. “Maddycakes, I think I smelled some fresh cookies in the kitchen. Jake, Mariah, y’all mind taking the kids up to see if the cookies are finished? I need to take Norah to the inn to get settled into her room.” He shot his brother a meaningful look.

  “Ooh, cookies!” Jake coaxed Maddy from Sam’s arms and swung her onto his back, where she clung like a laughing baby monkey as he followed Mariah and Micah up the steps to the deck.

  Norah looked up expectantly at Sam. “You wanted to be alone with me at the inn, Sam? I’m flattered. But I’m engaged now.” She waggled her left hand, where an enormous diamond solitaire glittered on the third finger. “Remember?”

  “I remember,” he said with a grim smile, taking her arm in his hand and leading her toward his Jeep parked on the gravel drive. “And that’s why we need to talk.”

  Chapter Six

  Tillery Park sat on the outskirts of Gossamer Ridge, Alabama, less a conventional city park than a protected patch of wilderness on the side of the mountain that gave the town its name. A few picnic pavilions dotted the park, as well as an old schoolhouse that dated from the late 1800s.

  Beyond the schoolhouse, the land ended abruptly in a bluff overlooking Gossamer Lake and the houses that dotted its shore. A series of long stone benches stretched across the edge, only a few feet from the drop-off. At night, it was a favorite spot of the town’s teens, who considered moonlit walks spiced with the danger of walking the bluff’s edge to be the height of romance.

  It was one of Kristen Tandy’s favorite places, too, though not for its romance. Ever since she’d been a young girl, Tillery Park had been her place of escape, first from her troubled home life, then later from the stares and whispers that followed her around town after the murders. Her notoriety never seemed to follow her here to the park, where she was just one of the handful of townsfolk who came here to enjoy the area’s wild beauty. People left her alone to think in peace.

  She hadn’t expected to come to Tillery Park today, however. Neck-deep in the Maddy Cooper case, when she got out of bed that morning she’d planned to spend the day with Sam, Maddy and Maddy’s long-lost mother. She should be there now, instead of sitting on the hard stone bench, staring across the treetops below at the sparkling blue jewel of Gossamer Lake.

  But that was before Carl’s phone call.

  “The administrator at Darden left me a message,” Carl had said, referring to the state’s secure medical facility where her mother resided. “Your mother wants to see you.”

  Kristen rubbed the heels of her hands against her burning eyes. Why now? Why, after all these years of blessed silence, did her mother want to see her now?

  Her cell phone hummed. Carl again. She sent the call to voice mail and put the phone in her pocket again.

  “Do you think that’s going to shut me up?” Carl Madison’s gravelly voice behind her made her jump. Her foster father stood a couple of feet away, holding up his cell phone. He had shed his suit jacket to accommodate the mid-May heat and humidity, exposing the familiar Smith & Wesson 686 Plus revolver tucked into a shoulder holster. He’d never gone to a semiautomatic like most of the younger cops. She hoped crime in Chickasaw County nev
er forced him to choose a different weapon.

  “How did you find me?”

  He tapped the side of his nose. “Sniffed you out like a good detective. I mean, it’s not like this is your favorite place to run and hide or anything.”

  Sighing, she edged over on the stone bench to make room for him. “You always did have an annoying sort of radar.”

  He settled beside her, giving her a light nudge with his elbow. “I’m a cop, blue eyes. It’s my job to know where all the delinquents are.”

  She managed a smile, though her stomach was twisting and roiling. “I just needed a break from day care duty,” she said, although if she were honest, she’d have to admit that watching out for Maddy was turning out to have pros as well as cons.

  “Who’s minding the kid?”

  “Her father, her mother and a passel of extended family.” Kristen couldn’t hold back a soft smile. “She has them all wrapped around her finger.”

  “She’s a cutie.”

  “She’s a sweet kid. Sam’s doing a good job raising her.”

  “What did you think of the mother?”

  Grateful for the distraction from her own problems, she gave Carl’s question the thought it deserved. “I think she’s very happy with living a sophisticated, high-profile, high-power life. I don’t think she sees Maddy or Sam Cooper as part of that life long-term.”

  “What about short-term?”

  She told him what she knew about Norah Cabot’s engagement to the Senate candidate. “The timing is interesting.”

  “You think her overture to the kid is her way of neutralizing any bad press about having abandoned the girl?”

  “You know me. I’m a cynic.”

  “If you were really a cynic, you wouldn’t be so affected by the things that happen around you,” Carl said gently.

  “You always think the best of me, don’t you?” She couldn’t hide the affection in her voice. Sometimes she wondered why she even tried. Distancing herself from Carl, the closest thing to a real father she’d ever known, hadn’t worked no matter how hard she tried. He always came back for more.