Cold as Hell (Haven’s Rock #3)

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

I don’t even make it off the town hall steps before I see Anders beelining my way. When I start continuing down the stairs, he makes shooing motions with both hands, and Nicole laughs.

“He’s telling you to go back indoors,” she says. “Before your baby freezes… inside you.”

“Right?” I roll my eyes and try to keep descending, only to get more vigorous shooing.

“I need to talk to you,” I call to Anders as Nicole takes her leave.

“You can do that from indoors,” Anders calls back. “And while sitting.”

I shake my head, but I retreat into the building and take a seat in front of the smoldering fireplace. Anders heads straight to it, adding a log before taking off his gloves.

“I heard what happened to Kendra,” he says.

I wince. “I’m sorry. We should have told you last night.”

“Uh, no, I was enjoying a very good sleep, and if you didn’t need my help, I didn’t need to know.” He shucks his parka and lowers himself into the other chair. “Eric caught up with me and filled me in. He says she wasn’t assaulted. Are we, uh, sure?”

“As much as we can be. There’s no sign of it, and Kendra wouldn’t feel any need to cover that up, especially with us. Whoever grabbed her didn’t get her far into the forest.”

“Good. I was feeling the spectral fingers of Rockton reaching out, reminding me of all the times I was pretty sure a woman had been fondled—or worse—and wasn’t comfortable telling us.” He knocks snow from his boot. “That got better after you arrived.”

“It always helps having a woman on the force.”

“Hell, it helps having an experienced cop on the force. There was plenty of sexual assault in the army when I was an MP, but I didn’t have the proper training, and the higher-ups didn’t seem particularly eager to provide any. Anyway, the point is that we’ve got a problem, and it’s not just some asshole who can’t hear the word ‘no.’” He pauses. “Which isn’t to say that wouldn’t also be a problem.”

“But I know what you mean. Dragging a woman into the woods means we’re dealing with more than a guy who’s been raised to think women just need convincing. However, we also can’t be sure sexual assault was the goal. Drugging Kendra in a bar and dragging her into the woods suggests that, but I can’t ignore the possibility it was a purely physical assault.”

“Gay-bashing?”

“Let’s hope not.”

“Well, that I did deal with in the army. But stepping back a bit, I’m guessing you wanted to do more than just tell me we have a new case. I had a drink with Kendra last night. I’m a witness.”

“You are.” I struggle to untie my boots and feel a wash of relief through my already-sore feet. “Tell me about that.”

“Not much to tell. Kendra was sitting with Gunnar and Yolanda. I came in. Obviously you aren’t hanging out at the Roc these days, which means Eric isn’t either. Isabel was behind the bar. There was no sign of Kenny or Marlon. So I joined Yolanda’s table. Nursed a beer while Kendra and Gunnar one-upped each other telling stories. Then…”

“Lynn joined, and you left. You and Gunnar.”

Anders makes a face. “That sounds bad. I just… Lynn is… Shit.”

Together with her husband, Lynn was one of our first residents. It’s been clear from the start that there’s marital strain, and that it seems to originate with her husband. That puts the sympathy ball in Lynn’s corner. Except Lynn has done a few things to deflate that ball.

She’s also tried really hard to make up for those things, but the situation with her husband has led to her… looking for love—or sex—in all the wrong places. Like with Gunnar, who’d usually be the right place, but spotting the potential for trouble, he demurred, which humiliated Lynn. She’d then set her eye on our other most eligible bachelor, and Anders backstepped so fast it’d have been funny if I didn’t also feel bad for Lynn. She’s a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage who just wants companionship—in friends or a lover—and she can’t seem to get either.

“I feel for her,” Anders says. “I really do. Grant is an ass, and she’s lonely, and she’s a nice enough woman.” He makes another face. “Which really sounds like damning with faint praise. A nice enough woman.”

“No, I get it. I’ve come to enjoy her company in a group setting, but I wouldn’t be inviting her to lunch. And if I did, it’d be a sympathy invite, which feels wrong.”

He rises to poke the fire. “Anyway, so the four of us were at a table when Lynn came in and did that thing—like I did—looking around for a group to join.”

“Only in your case, people would be waving you over, and you get to pick the best option. Lynn’s looking for any option, while ready to slip out if she doesn’t get one. I know Kendra has been making an effort to include her.”

“Kendra’s good people. Yolanda grumbled but stayed. Gunnar took off before Lynn even got to the table, and we had to pretend he had somewhere to be. I finished my beer and pulled the ‘look at the time’ crap. I may also have blamed you, saying I needed to start early these days so you can sleep in.”

“Feel free to do that whenever you need to. Even after the baby’s born, it’ll work.”

He takes his seat again. “Yeah, but I did feel bad. Lynn wasn’t ogling me or rubbing my leg under the table. She’s never even overtly hit on me. But Grant’s taken a dislike to me, and I don’t have time for jealous-husband shit.”

“Understandable. What time did you leave?”

“Eleven fifteen, which is the advantage of having done a fake watch check. I actually saw the time. It would have been just before eleven when Lynn came in and Gunnar left.”

“Did Gunnar really leave? Or just move to a new table?”

“Left, I think. One of the women tried to catch his eye, but you know Gunnar. When he’s on, he’s good to go, but when he’s off, he’s very off.”

I lean back in my chair. “His boundaries might be invisible, but they are rock solid.”

“Yep. So he left when Lynn arrived, and I stayed about another half hour, finishing my beer. Lynn offered to buy us another round, but we’re all lightweights.”

“So she just got a drink for herself?”

He thinks and then shakes his head. “She didn’t bother. She said if we changed our minds, let her know. That didn’t happen while I was there.”

“It did happen afterward. According to Kendra, Yolanda talked her into another drink, and Lynn bought the round.”

“Makes sense. Now you’re going to ask how Kendra seemed, and the answer is absolutely fine. She was Kendra. Goofing around with Gunnar. Needling Yolanda. Chatting with me. I saw zero sign she was inebriated or dosed. It must have come in that second round.”

“Or it was dropped into her drink by a passerby. Or it was injected during the closing bustle.” I sigh. “With a town of seventy people, you’d think it’d be easy to figure out who dosed a resident in our only bar.”

“It never has been. I’m guessing you’ll want a list of everyone who was there?”

“Yep. If you can do that, I can get Yolanda, Lynn, and Isabel to check it over.”

“Ask Gunnar, too. He might have taken off, but he pays attention. As for Yolanda, though…”

“Right. Her face blindness. I’ll ask, because she’ll be offended if I don’t. But I’ll be clear I know she might not have noticed who all was there.”

Anders insists on fetching Yolanda, which makes me feel a bit like a queen on her throne, but it’ll keep Dalton from fussing that I’ve been doing too much.

Yolanda built Haven’s Rock. Okay, she had help, including Kendra and Gunnar, but she was in charge. Her grandmother—émilie—is our fairy godmother. émilie had been one of Rockton’s earliest residents, and she and her husband had shown their appreciation by joining the first board. That was in the early and optimistic days when the town truly was a sanctuary run by idealists. Over the years, that changed, but émilie and her husband stayed on to keep it from becoming a pure for-profit endeavor… and no one dared kick them out because they headed one of North America’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.

So we have a billionaire backer, which would be more awkward if we didn’t value émilie’s expertise more than her money. She truly is our fairy godmother—keeping us safe, finding us new residents, even securing a top-notch obstetrician for me—and we only want to be sure we never rely too much on her, however trustworthy she’s been.

Her granddaughter Yolanda is successful in her own right as the founder of a company specializing in environmentally friendly construction, which of course made her perfect for Haven’s Rock. But if the town is done, why is Yolanda still here? Because she won’t leave and no one dares make her.

Part of that is protecting her grandmother’s interests. Yolanda no longer suspects we’re preying on an elderly billionaire; she just thinks we’re naive idealists who might make a mess of émilie’s passion project. Also, Yolanda has early Parkinson’s. She’s dealing with that… and hiding out so she doesn’t need to tell émilie, who lost her husband to the disease.

The door opens, and Yolanda walks in. She’s in her mid-forties, tall and curvy, with brown skin and dark curls.

Before Yolanda reaches me, she says, “I don’t know who did this to Kendra, but she was fine when I left.”

I inwardly sigh. “No one’s accusing you of attacking Kendra.”

“Yes, but I will be accused of not looking after her. Because Kendra is sweet and popular, and I’m a stone-cold bitch.”

I lean back in my chair. “I see your point.”

She crosses her arms. “Thank you.”

“To alleviate it, I’m going to suggest you hold a town meeting. You can run it, and it’ll give you a chance to be very clear that you did not abandon poor, innocent Kendra—”

“Fuck off. I’m not running your damn meeting.” She slumps into the seat opposite me. “I’m just being clear that Kendra was fine when I left, which was a few minutes before closing. And I didn’t abandon her. She was talking to Lynn about whether they should take advantage of the warm weather to run an impromptu hike. It was getting close to midnight, and the conversation didn’t concern me, so I took my leave.”

“When you say ‘close to midnight’ can you be more specific?”

“I was in the residence building at twelve, so I probably left at ten to.”

“And went straight to your room?”

“Am I a suspect?”

I sigh. “Yolanda…”

“Fine. I went and sat on the toilet, okay? The one damn working toilet. The real reason I left early was that I had stomach cramps. Would you like details of what I did on the toilet? Maybe a sample from the tank to test for DNA?”

Kendra said she’d gone back outside because the one working toilet in their residence was in use. Now I know why.

I go to pull my legs under me, and my stomach muscles protest, so I settle in awkwardly. “Tell me about the round of drinks Lynn bought. That’s the most likely source of the drugs.”

Her eyes narrow.

“What?” I say.

“I did not dose Kendra’s drink.”

I thump my head back. “You are a bundle of paranoia this morning, aren’t you? Why would I think you dosed a drink that Lynn bought?”

“Because I’m the one who picked them up from the bar.” She catches my expression. “You didn’t know that.”

“I did not. Walk me through it.”

“We were talking about drinking in college, and Lynn said something about black velvets, and Kendra had never had one and… Fuck.” She shakes her head. “I may have unintentionally pressured Kendra. I teased and prodded her into having it. So if I’m on edge, it’s because I feel guilty.”

“Kendra is an adult. If she said yes, she wanted to say yes.”

“I still feel like shit.” She exhales. “So Kendra agrees to try one, and Lynn says she’ll take one, too, and buy the round. I went to the bar and ordered with Isabel. Then…”

She shakes her head. “Reason two why I feel guilty. While I waited, I walked away to talk to Brian and Devon. It was probably five minutes before I came back, and the drink tray was waiting while Iz was in the back storage.” She meets my gaze. “I was careless. I gave someone the chance to dose Kendra’s drink.”

“No, someone took the opportunity. To dose a drink.”

Her brows knit at my emphasis on “a,” then her lips form a curse. “A drink. Not Kendra’s, because we all got the same thing. They had no idea which of us would drink from the dosed glass.”

“Yep, though presuming they saw who ordered it, they knew it was going to be drunk by a woman.”