Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“How on earth do you know about Wham!? They were broken up probably before your mother was even born,” Helia demanded. She and Kendall were in a heated game of Trivial Pursuit, but Collin was playing along purely for the entertainment value.
Kendall grinned as she slid the little pink plastic triangle into her game piece, completing the circle. “My mom hung out with a guy in a band for a while in Seattle. His dad was his manager and a pretty cool guy. Way into all kinds of music. We talked a lot.”
Helia flickered her gaze to Collin, whose eyes dimmed briefly in concern.
Kendall had talked about being in Texas and Seattle, and earlier she’d mentioned living both in LA and on a ranch in Idaho.
Helia had moved around a lot as a kid, too.
She’d been a military brat until moving to Napa, though, and despite living in six countries growing up, there’d been a stability to their lives.
“Bathroom break,” Kendall said, hopping up.
When she closed the door of the powder room, Helia raised her eyebrows at Collin. “There’s not much I can do unless or until she trusts us with her mom’s name,” he said, keeping his voice quiet.
“Even when you find her, I’m not sure that being with her is the best thing,” she responded. “She’s exceptionally intelligent and seems to love learning. She deserves the chance to do that somewhere stable.”
She could see the agreement in Collin’s eyes, but a knock at the door cut off whatever he’d been about to say.
“Yeah?” Collin called, rising.
“It’s Carter,” came the answer.
Helia hesitated, then making a quick decision on how to buy them time to hide Kendall, called back, “We’ll, um, we’ll be there in a second.”
Collin shot her a questioning look, and she mouthed “Trust me.” His brows dipped but he remained still.
Helia darted to the powder room and knocked softly enough that neither Carter nor Jess would hear. When Kendall cracked the door open, Helia waved her farther inside. She took two steps back, bumping into the sink, her eyes wide with panic.
“We’ll get them away from the house,” Helia whispered, pushing aside the shard of pain lancing through her at Kendall’s fear. “Wait ten minutes after we leave, then head upstairs. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“You’re coming back, though?”
Another shard through her heart. “Can I hug you?” Helia asked.
Kendall blinked, then nodded. Helia didn’t hesitate in wrapping her arms around the slight girl.
“We will be back as soon as we’re done. Your memory is astounding, so I know you’ll remember this when I tell you,” she said before rattling off her phone number.
“Call or text anytime.” Kendall gave a jerky nod.
Because she couldn’t help herself, Helia gave her one more quick squeeze, then reached over and flushed the toilet.
Kendall cocked her head in question, but Helia slipped out, not pausing to explain her plan.
When she returned to the living room, Collin stood where she’d left him, an almost identical look of confusion on his face. Without giving herself time to question the sanity of the plan, she stopped inches in front of him.
“Can I kiss you?”
Collin canted his head. They had chemistry, always had, probably always would. But with his history, she wasn’t about to lay one on him without his consent.
She gripped the sides of his flannel and pulled him closer, her lips to his ears.
“The window shades are pulled. As far as they know, we’re in here together.
Making it look as if we were in the middle of something—if you know what I mean—is the most obvious way to explain the extra time we needed to open the door. ”
This close to him, his subtle scent wrapped around her.
She could lie to herself that the kiss was just to protect Kendall, but she wanted it, too.
She wanted to know if the same hunger they’d felt all those years was still there.
She suspected it was, but unlike her, Collin wasn’t a man to dive in headfirst without consideration.
They were probably well balanced in that way, but in this moment, she needed him to decide fast.
His dark eyes bored into hers. She saw questions and doubts but also more. To her utter shock, he slid his hands into her hair, cupped her cheek, then tipped her mouth up and covered her lips with his.
Heat, desire, need, and want detonated through her as his mouth moved over hers in a kiss that felt far more real than even she anticipated. Sliding her hands up, she ran a palm over his beard, its silky bristliness surprising her, before spearing her fingers through his thick dark hair.
His thumb moved under her jaw, his hand wrapping around her neck as his other left her hair and traveled south, landing on her ass, pulling her closer. He kissed her as if he needed her for his next breath, as if he’d devour her if she let him.
And she desperately wanted to let him.
Only another knock sounded, this time sharper, harsher, than the first.
Collin jerked back, his eyes searching hers.
Withdrawing her hand from the short strands of his hair, she drew her thumb across his damp lips.
“I’m not going to lie, the idea started as a distraction, but I wanted that.
” His eyes held steady on hers, and while she didn’t see regret there, a shadow lurked.
“And I think you did, too,” she said before stepping away.
Opening the door, she intentionally made a production of running her hands through her mussed hair and pulling her sweatshirt around her body. “Sorry, we were in the middle of…” She shrugged. She wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by what had happened, but she hoped she blushed a little for show.
Carter’s and Jess’s gazes darted to Collin. Hers followed. The hair on the right side of his head stood on end, his flannel was askew, and he wore the unmistakable look of a man who’d been kissed within an inch of his life.
Jess’s lips tipped into a small smile, but Carter glared at them. “May we come in?” he asked.
Helia shook her head. “We can go to the main house. Anything you have to say or ask will need to involve my parents.”
Carter started to argue, but Collin stepped forward, took her hand in his, and ushered her out. Carter and Jess stepped back on instinct, and he shut the door behind them. Not having any choice, the detectives followed as he led them to her parents’ place.
Ten minutes later, they were seated at the large kitchen table. When everyone settled with their drink of choice—tea for her, coffee for everyone else—her dad set his elbows on the table and asked, “What can you share?”
Carter pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. “Do any of you know Kurt Fisher?”
Beside her, Collin shook his head. She didn’t need to reach for the phone to see the picture.
“Yes,” she said. Carter and Jess turned sharp eyes on her.
“He used to work for Yoshi Ito,” she continued, then as an aside, she added for Collin’s benefit, “Yoshi is the broker who imports fish from Japan for a lot of the restaurants in the area.” Jess and Carter both took notes.
“But he has dark hair, not blond, and Collin said the body had blond hair.”
“Likely lightened. His driver’s license shows him with dark hair,” Jess answered. “Were you close?”
Under the table, Collin’s large hand slid over her knee. She lowered hers and set it on top of his, the heat seeping through her leggings.
Helia shook her head. “No. We do some business with the company when Akin needs those goods. But Kurt moved away several years ago. Two, maybe three. Maybe longer than that.” She paused. “Last I heard, he was working for some business in San Francisco.”
Her mother nodded. “I remember Asuka, Yoshi’s wife, telling me he had a restaurant job in the city. He was young and wanted to live somewhere a little more exciting than Napa Valley. I think he had family there, too.”
“A brother,” Carter confirmed.
“And you weren’t close?” Jess asked, directing the question to her. Collin’s hand twitched again.
“We weren’t,” was all she said. Collin’s hand relaxed.
“You never dated?”
This time, she tightened her hand on Collin’s. She’d learned from her first go-around with them to only give answers to the specific questions.
“Never,” she answered.
“He ever ask you out?” Carter asked.
“No.”
“If you don’t mind, we’d like to search the premises,” Carter said.
“Not without a warrant,” Collin said, drawing everyone’s attention. “This business and the vineyards are separate companies, right, Harry?”
Her dad nodded. “They are. We have an LLC that leases the vineyard, and then Sundaram is another.”
“It’s at least a half a mile between the property here and where the body was found.
Asking to search Sundaram is like asking to search a boutique four blocks from the bank when there’s been a robbery.
The two businesses are unrelated, and Sundaram isn’t even the closest structure to where the body was found.
That would be the winery to the west and the one to the north.
Not to mention, the victim was dumped in that vineyard, not killed there. ”
Her parents had always liked Collin, but a new sort of respect, layered over the affection, reflected in their eyes. As if realizing he was no longer the child they’d taken in, but a man with knowledge and experience.
Carter tipped his head. “How do you know he wasn’t killed there?”
“It’s not brain surgery,” Collin replied.
“Whoever killed him nearly severed his torso from the rest of his body. The blood spray would be massive, and I saw none of that. Not on the ground and not on the vines where it would clearly show up against the pale winter color of the trunks and branches.”
Silence fell across the room before her dad spoke. “Is that true? He was dumped but not killed there?”
Carter and Jess shared a look. “It’s an ongoing investigation. We can’t comment on that.”
“Then we’ll take that as a yes. I trust Collin to know what he’s talking about,” her dad continued. “About the body and the search.”
Another look passed between the detectives before they rose. “Thank you for your time,” Jess said. “We’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Harry said.
In silent agreement, she, her mom, and Collin moved to the window and watched as Harry escorted the detectives to their car.
The three paused to talk, Harry gesturing to the two police cars, then to the field.
Carter and Jess didn’t look happy, but both shook his hand before climbing into their vehicle.
“Well, that was interesting,” Harry said when he returned to the apartment. “I asked them to have the police move their cars to the other property. Was the man really dumped?” he asked, turning to Collin.
“He wasn’t killed there, I can promise you that.”
“Why were they so interested in whether or not you ever dated him?” her mom asked her.
Helia lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe because Justin and I dated and for some reason, they think the two murders might be related.”
All four turned back to the window. Two officers trudged through the vineyard toward parked cars.
“Carter said they’d be another few hours before they clear the field. I called Jeff to let him know,” Harry said.
“Jeff is the business manager for the winery that leases the land,” Helia said to Collin. He nodded in thanks for the clarification.
“What now?” Vanessa asked.
“Now we go back to my house,” Helia said. “Collin has some shopping to do, so we’ll head out in a few minutes.”
Her dad’s gaze lingered on the window. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t much like it either,” Helia admitted. The questions about her and Kurt had rattled her. Only Collin’s hand on her leg kept her grounded.
“I have friends who can look into it,” Collin said. She wasn’t the only one to turn her attention to him. He flashed a rueful smile. “I know interesting people. I already have them poking around Justin’s murder. They’ll be happy to add this to it.”
“The kind of people it would be better for us to not know about?” her mother asked. After twenty years in the military before starting Sundaram, her parents were no strangers to subterfuge.
Collin chuckled, a warm, familiar sound. “Nothing like that. They are a very legitimate company who happen to have a ton of connections, crazy smart people, and, in a roundabout way, see me and my brothers as family. And they’ll do anything for family.”
Her parents studied him a moment longer, then her mom stepped up and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re back in our lives. Not because of this, not because of what you can do to help us, but because we get to know the man you are, the man you’ve become. And I very much like that man.”
Collin blinked and hugged her mom back. When she stepped away, her dad took her place, echoing his wife’s words.
Sensing the mood was heavier than Collin wanted to linger in, she looped her arm through his. “On that note, Collin and I will now go in search of socks and T-shirts and other necessary items. You guys need anything from town?”
Her parents shook their heads and after another round of hugs, she and Collin headed back to her house.
“We need to sneak Kendall out,” he said, sounding happy to be talking about anything other than murder.
She nodded and smiled. “We do, and I have the perfect plan.”