Chapter Eleven
Cat had no idea what they were looking for.
But maybe Rowena hadn’t either.
The house was enormous.
She could see why Dylan hadn’t wanted to stay here—even with his wife—until they had children to fill it.
She wondered how Ginny had felt about that.
Once inside, he said, “Shall we start on the upper level and work our way down?”
He pointed to a wooden panel that magically opened as he touched it, exposing a small elevator.
“Ladies first.”
She smiled and stepped into the confined space, which normally wouldn’t have bothered her.
But when Dylan entered, it suddenly felt even smaller.
He was average height and weight, but in the elevator, he seemed a whole lot larger.
She found herself very aware of him and his enticing male scent.
Keep this professional, she thought and almost laughed.
Call me Cat.
They were way past professional.
She’d told him things she had no business telling him—but he’d done the same.
He however wasn’t the law, she was.
Yet, they wouldn’t be here in this house looking for clues if they both hadn’t shared what they knew. Didn’t that make her a good investigator?
She didn’t kid herself as the elevator door opened and she quickly escaped.
The scent of him followed her, as did the memory of his flat stomach, the muscles of his arms, the way his jeans fit in the back.
She felt herself flush.
“It was hot in there, huh?”
he said, looking a little flushed himself.
“Shall we start in the master?”
“The rooms are all furnished?”
she asked, diverting her lurid thoughts reminding her how long ago she’d had sex, let alone had a man hold her, make love to her.
Was it any wonder Dylan Walker had brought out a need in her for human warmth and support? She was having a baby by herself.
Not to mention the hormones coursing through her that made her more vulnerable to even a little attention from a man who was kind like Dylan.
“Ginny ordered it all and saw to the delivery.
She wanted it ready when we got here.”
“Even though you told her you wanted to live in the cottage for a while?”
“I’m sure she thought she could change my mind,”
he said under his breath.
It didn’t take long to search the room—and realize that Rowena had already looked here.
“If we had some idea of what she might have been looking for,”
Dylan said.
“Drugs? Money? Evidence?”
“Insurance maybe,”
Cat said, making him stop to look at her and nod.
“Insurance to keep them from ratting each other out.
Maybe you’re right.
Maybe Ginny was trying to get out.
Maybe she did go to my brother for help.
I’d like to think that rather than the alternative.”
They went from room to room, but Cat quickly realized the place was just too big and there were too many places to hide things.
“Do you happen to have the blueprints for this place?”
“Hoping for a secret room, stairway, compartment? Sorry, there isn’t one.”
“What about a safe?”
“Not that I know of.
But Ginny could have had one installed, I guess.
Even if she did, I wouldn’t know the combination.”
She heard his stomach growl as they reached the bottom floor.
“There’s also the chance that Rowena already found it—if there was anything to find.”
He shook his head.
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, I would say she was definitely looking for something.
I can see where she’s been in every room of the house.
I doubt she found it or I suspect she’d be gone by now.
I keep thinking about you seeing her arguing with one of the FBI agents.
They want something from her, apparently. Something maybe she hasn’t been able to produce.”
They went through the bottom floor and found nothing suspicious but did find a mess in the large bedroom that Rowena was obviously using.
Dylan looked at her as if to ask, “Shall we take a look through her things?”
Cat shook her head.
“It wouldn’t be in her things.
I think we should quit.
It’s getting late, and I think you need to get something to eat.”
He chuckled at that as they left the house and walked back toward the cottage.
She’d wondered originally why he seemed to avoid the big house.
Now that she knew he had planned to live there with his wife at some point and fill the place with children, it made perfect sense.
The beautiful spring evening felt as if the air was rarified.
The breeze breathed the scent of pine.
Twilight cast a silver glow over them.
It felt as if they were the last two people alive.
Was that why she wasn’t any more anxious to leave than he was for her to go as they walked toward the cottage.
“You’re a good listener.
But you know everything about me,”
he said as they neared the cottage.
“I don’t know anything about you.
Your baby…”
He glanced at her baby bump.
“If I’m intruding just—”
“I’m having a girl.”
“Congratulations.
You and your husband must be excited.”
She looked down at the gold band on the finger of her left hand and then up at him before she said, “My husband was killed in a car accident six months ago.
We were living in Libby because of his job with the forest service.
He’d been on a fishing trip on Lake Koocanusa and heading back when he was hit by a drunk driver.
He died in the Eureka hospital.
I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after he was gone.
I never got the chance to tell him.”
“I’m so sorry.
I should never have asked.”
“It’s all right.
We’re fine,”
she said smiling as she put her hand on her stomach.
“I’d just completed my law enforcement training.
I was lucky there was an opening in Fortune Creek for a pregnant newbie where there was hardly ever any crime.”
“Right.”
He laughed, surprised at how good it felt.
“Well, I couldn’t tell you were new at this, if that helps.”
“I shouldn’t have admitted it.”
“It’s our secret.
A murder though?”
She chuckled.
“The truth is I was so bored I wished for something, anything, to investigate.
As they say, be careful what you wish for.”
“I have complete confidence in you solving this case,”
he said as they reached the cottage, and he led the way into the bright kitchen.
She took a chair, realizing that she was tired.
“Stay and have dinner with me.”
Was it that late? She glanced at her phone.
“I completely lost track of time.”
Looking up at him, she smiled.
“It’s just so pleasant sitting here in your kitchen.
I’ve been on my feet all day.
But I really should go.”
“I swear this is why I bought this place, because of this cottage.
It was love at first sight.
Please stay, I really would love the company.
I have steaks for the grill, vegetables for a salad, if you’ll stay.”
She glanced toward the front of the cottage.
“What about your houseguest?”
“Seriously, you’d be doing me a huge favor.
She left earlier, and I have no idea when she’s coming back, but she’s not invited to dinner.
She was allegedly a friend of my wife’s.
Not mine.”
“Does she know anyone in the area?”
Cat asked.
“Other than Sharese and Luca, if he is in the area, I have no idea.
When she leaves the ranch, I just assume she’s sightseeing or gone to get a massage—at least that’s what she’s led me to believe.
But maybe there are even more adoptees here in Montana.”
“You don’t trust her.”
“Not any further than I can pick her up and throw her.
My stomach is growling.
I’m going to get dinner going if that’s all right with you.”
Cat told herself it was unprofessional to stay for dinner even as she said, “I’d love it, if you’re sure you don’t mind the company.”
He left the room, returning with a small upholstered stool.
“Put your feet up.
I happen to love to cook and I’m sick of cooking for myself.”
“I think I know why your houseguest doesn’t want to leave.”
“Believe me, she doesn’t get this treatment.
Anyway, her only interest seems to be my bar.
Or whatever Ginny might have hidden in the house.”
She realized she was way beyond professional ethics at this point.
She’d told this man about the investigation.
She’d also told him about Taylor’s death, practically pouring out her entire life’s history.
So why didn’t she feel even a twinge of guilt about that?
Because she trusted him.
Because the FBI trusted him.
Because she liked him, and it felt good being here with him.
Even that should have made her feel guilty, but it didn’t.
Not just that, it was nice out here, the pine-scented breeze blowing in through the open windows—so different from her efficient apartment over the sheriff’s department.
Anyway, there was little she could do back at the office.
Helen would have left her post long ago.
All afterhours calls to the sheriff’s department were routed to Eureka’s PD.
They would call if she was needed.
Cat knew she was making excuses to stay because she wanted to.
It felt so good sitting here with this man who was about to cook for her.
He’d gone through so much.
She felt a kinship with him.
She also liked watching him cook, the efficiency with the way he worked, getting the vegetables out of the refrigerator, choosing the right size bowl and spoon before washing the produce and carefully chopping it up.
As she sat watching him make dressing for the salad, she told him about her small efficiency apartment over the sheriff’s department.
“I do some cooking, mostly for the baby.
She’s not really picky.”
“When are you due, if I may ask?”
“In two months—about the time Sheriff Brandt Parker returns to take over the job again.
He keeps extending his honeymoon.
I’m beginning to wonder if he’s ever coming back.”
“How’d you meet your husband?”
he asked, slicing a cucumber with a precision that awed her.
“Boy next door, same babysitter when we were little, same teachers at school.”
She shrugged.
“We’d just always been together.
It was…comfortable.”
He stopped making the salad to look at her.
“It sounds nice.”
“It was.
I miss him.”
“I’m sure you do,”
Dylan said.
“Especially now.”
She put a hand over her baby bump and felt her daughter practicing her soccer moves.
“We’d been married since college.
We always thought we’d have kids someday.
Our lives were so busy, we weren’t worried when I didn’t get pregnant.
We thought we had time.”
He looked away as if he didn’t know what to say.
“I’m going to get the grill going.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,”
she said quickly.
“No, it’s just that I wanted what you had with your husband, and I thought that’s what I was getting with Ginny.”
He shook his head.
“After her death, I found out she’d been lying to me about probably everything.”
“I’m sorry,”
Cat said.
“That has to have left you with a lot of mixed emotions.”
He laughed.
“That’s what these feelings are? On top of that, the prosecutor is reopening the car bombing investigation.
Not that I think it was ever really closed since they never found out who did it.
Finding out that my brother had a baby boy who’s missing… It’s a lot.
I’m not sure how I feel about anything right now.
Except steaks,”
he said brightening.
“How do you like yours?”
“Rare.”
“A woman after my own heart.”
He headed out the back door.
Cat leaned back and shut her eyes.
She felt herself relax to the point that she could have fallen asleep if the front door hadn’t banged open and Rowena stormed into the kitchen.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,”
she said, frowning at Cat.
“So where is he?”
“Outside lighting the grill.”
Rowena glanced at the salad bowl and the plates Dylan had placed on the counter.
“What is this?”
she demanded.
“Dinner.”
Cat caught the smell of alcohol wafting off the woman.
“It got late.
Dylan was worried about me and the baby not getting dinner.”
Why was she explaining herself? Because it had felt a little too intimate? Because she liked Dylan and shouldn’t, since officially he could still be considered a suspect? Or because she’d let herself enjoy being around another man after Taylor had only been gone six months?
“You and the baby,”
Rowena said with what sounded like disgust.
“Dylan has always wanted one of those.
Too bad you’re married and unavailable.
I can tell he likes you.”
The back door slammed as he returned.
“What are you doing here, Rowena?”
he said, barely giving her a glance.
“I live here,”
she snapped.
“You’re a guest of mine in the other house,”
he said and gave her a get-a-clue face.
“You’re lucky the acting sheriff doesn’t arrest you for driving under the influence.
I suggest you walk to the house, so she doesn’t have to.”
Rowena stood there for a moment glaring daggers at the two of them before storming out.
“Whatever her reason for still being here, I don’t like it, but at least here, I can keep an eye on her.
There has to be a reason she’s in Montana other than what she’s told me.”
he said, taking down a platter, then pulling the steaks from the refrigerator to season them.
Cat felt the same way.
“I wish we knew what she’d been looking for over at the house, but I wouldn’t ignore her interest in you.”
He turned to look at her, then out the window.
“That’s just a front for what she’s really after.”
With that he headed out back, promising to return with a beautifully cooked steak for her.
Cat considered that.
She thought it was jealousy that had made Rowena threaten Athena.
Now she suspected differently.
Just because Cat had seen her with one of the FBI agents also didn’t mean Rowena wasn’t capable of murder.
Five women and one man with at least one thing in common—their Russian births and adoptions.
Two were now dead, Ginny Cooper Walker and Athena Grant.
Patty Cooper was missing and so was Athena’s infant son.
What were the chances that Rowena knew where they could find both Patty and the baby? And now Sharese Harmon and her brother Luca might be involved? Was it possible one of them had the baby?
Cat closed her eyes, her head aching as she tried to make sense of it all.
Tomorrow she would tell the DCI team about Sharese and her brother.
She almost hoped they would find Patty and, fingers crossed, the baby.
She kept thinking about that little infant boy, worrying about him.
What seemed like only seconds later, Dylan touched her shoulder waking her up.
She felt electricity arc through her at his touch. She sat up to the stomach-growling scent of grilled steak.
“Hungry?”
he asked.
When he smiled like that, he was even more handsome.
She felt a hard tug on her heartstrings as heat raced to her center.
She’d loved her husband.
But he’d never made her feel the way she was feeling right now.
“Starved,”
she said, realizing how true it was—and not just for dinner.