Chapter 2
“Wait before you call in Acer.” She pushed against his chest, forcing him to release her and not wanting him to release her at the same time.
“Let’s go over to State Police Headquarters and have a talk with Cap about the dead man. We have a responsibility to the former subject of our divorce case investigation.”
“You mean you want to get Cap to let you see the body so you’ll be able to tell our client, without lying, that you located her husband.”
She stopped in the bathroom to run a brush through her hair and decided, after hitting two snarls, to put it into a ponytail.
Wondering briefly whether Dane would commit suicide if she cut her hair short, she snapped the neon pink scrunchy in place.
She smiled at herself in the mirror because she knew the bright color would annoy him.
Or rather he’d pretend to be annoyed and give her grief.
She adored his grief.
Stepping back into the hall, she found Dane waiting for her, blocking her path like a wall of solid hunky muscle.
The familiar sizzle hit her again, but she’d become good at hiding it from him.
Hoped she had. It was sometimes a mystery with Dane, whether he’d read her mind or not.
Maybe he always read her mind but let her get away with her defiance now and then.
Right now, he looked slightly down at her with those piercing, intense eyes of his, exploring her secrets and creating havoc with her nerve endings.
“That what you’re wearing for a professional meeting with the Captain of the State Police?
” His voice vibrated low and she couldn’t tell if it was dark or turned-on or maybe some of both.
He had an irrational jealous streak when it came to their friend Captain Colin Lynch.
Cap was an honorable man and Dane’s best friend which was why she would never understand Dane’s blind spot of jealousy that creeped in at odd times.
Then he reached his hand out and slipped it under her short cotton sundress, skimming his fingers along the inside of her thighs. She shivered. Her mind went blank for a beat as the pulse of desire zipped through her.
“Cap’s a gentleman. Unlike you.” She pushed him aside. He let her.
As she passed he tugged on her hair and she noticed the grin on his face like he was a boy teasing a girl at the playground. That only made her hotter for him. Because she was irrational when it came to Dane.
Whenever he captured her in his wild orbit of power she went weak. Like a fourteen-year-old girly-girl, the kind she’d never been—not even when she was fourteen—until she’d met Dane.
Hurrying ahead of him, she pushed the screen door open and let it go before he could catch it.
“Damn it, girlie. That’ll cost you.” She heard him behind her as the tightly sprung door slammed in his face.
He drove them in his jalopy Jeep the short distance to the State Police Headquarters.
Digging in her purse past the Baby Glock 26 9mm and a small wallet, she pulled out her cell phone and clicked on the client’s number. There was no time like the present to get rid of the unpleasant—one of her mother’s many sayings.
She dreaded calling Penny Lake to tell her about her husband, not because she thought the woman would be devastated about the loss of Harvey.
No, Penny had made it clear it would be no great loss to her if she never saw the man again.
What concerned Shana was exactly that—what if her client had been so anxious to get rid of her husband that she decided not to wait for the divorce?
She didn’t relish the idea of suspecting her client of murder.
And not only because Penny was a well-paying client.
Dane watched her as she put the phone to her ear. She kept her face neutral, even as he took a corner purposefully fast, making her lean toward him. After six rings, she left a message for Penny to call her back right away.
“Don’t you hate telling people their loved ones are dead?” Dane said. His wicked smile told her he was being sarcastic.
“It’s never my idea of a good time. Even if the dead guy wasn’t exactly her prince charming.”
She wished she’d worn jeans. Dane’s hand rested on her thigh the entire ride and her nerves were shot with anticipation in the five minutes it took them to arrive.
She could have brushed his hand away, but from long experience these past not-yet-two years, she knew that would only make it worse.
Besides that, she loved this never-ending game of seduction he played with her. He made a great tomcat, but she was no mouse. She was the ultimate feline and she would plot her turn to pounce back. Later. After their business meeting with Cap.
She fell into him as he swerved into a parking spot right out front of the small building that looked more like a Cape Cod house with double glass doors than State Police Headquarters ought to look.
*****
“What makes you think we need Acer?” she finally asked him the question as they got out of the Jeep.
He watched her straighten her dress. It didn’t cover nearly enough of her long legs for decency—which was why it was his favorite. He caught up to her before she got to the door.
“You said our client’s husband—the dead guy—owned an IT consulting company. I figure he has a computer filled with clues somewhere. No one’s better than Acer at deciphering clues from a computer.”
“The dead guy’s name is Harvey Lake.” She pushed the door open—or tried to because he beat her to it. Strictly to annoy her. She wasn’t sure whether Dane didn’t know Harvey’s name or if he didn’t want to remember.
They walked past the front desk sergeant with a wave and Dane followed Shana down the tiled hall to Cap’s office—otherwise known as the adjunct office of Beachcomber Investigations. He liked walking behind Shana, especially when she wore that dress.
Before they got to the door, Dane said, “Don’t tell me you think our client offed her husband?”
She looked up at him with mock indifference, trying valiantly to hide her uncertainty, then entered the open doorway to Cap’s office.
She took a seat. Dane remained standing.
“I put a call into Penny Lake. She’s our client so I’ll give her the bad news about her husband.”
“No need. I already called her and she’s on her way.”
Shana tried not to look surprised. She had no idea that Penny had been on-island.
“When is she getting here?” Dane leaned against the windowsill with his arms folded.
Cap checked his watch. “Two minutes. I take it you hadn’t planned to meet her here?”
Shana grumbled something noncommittal. Penny’s unexpected presence on the island seemed suspicious.
Dane knew Shana hadn’t known Penny was here, but he was keeping his mouth shut.
She was running this show. She’d jumped at the case when Gable called.
Dane still wasn’t sure why Gable called her and not him.
He’d called last week with a sob story about a friend in need of their help.
He hit a bullseye in Shana’s weak spot. A fellow female in distress.
Her husband theoretically up to no good.
Maybe Gable knew he’d turn him down flat. He had to know this was not a typical Beachcomber Investigations caliber case. The last time they took a charity case it had been dead of winter and it was about a missing Santa.
A flash of insight shot through him in a wave of heat. He was getting soft. Damn it.
He’d been softening steadily since he’d let Shana in his life. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
*****
Dane and Shana glanced at each other. He had that accusing look but she refused to be concerned and scowled back at him.
“Some client,” Dane said.
“You know anything about her?” Cap asked Shana.
“She’s not a criminal, if that’s what you’re thinking. I ran a CORI on her.”
“That all you have?”
“She suspected her husband of an affair because he’s been coming to Martha’s Vineyard a lot on business lately and she didn’t know of any clients he might have here.
So she hired us to follow him on this trip.
Harvey owns and operates an IT consulting firm.
Penny fondly refers to him as Harvey the Nerdy Bastard. ”
“What’s the name of his company?” Cap had a pen in hand.
“It’s called Lake Technical Consulting and he operates it from a home office in their swanky Beacon Hill condo.” She gave him the address. “Anything else?”
“She have any previous dead husbands?” Dane asked. She didn’t bother answering him and tried not to smile. Dane was such a jerk. She needed to double down on behaving professionally, though she feared if she did, he’d regress from acting like a fourteen-year-old back to single digits.
“I’ll have to call the governor and have him send someone to Harvey’s office and home to take his computers into custody.”
Shana waited for Dane to object, but he didn’t. He stood there looking bothered and she wondered if he was planning to quit the case. Or if maybe the case had become interesting enough to bother him. She forged on.
“In the meantime, we’ll wait for Penny and go with her to identify her husband,” Shana said.
“Of course.” Cap smiled. “You figure on extending your services now that Ms. Lake’s husband is dead?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shana knew exactly what it meant. She was hoping Cap would come right out and tell her if Penny Lake was a person of interest in the murder of her husband.
“You’d let me know if my—our client was a person of interest, wouldn’t you?” He would, wouldn’t he? He should know he didn’t have to be concerned about her keeping important information from him.
Cap shrugged. He was very good at keeping his face passive. Not as mysterious or devious as Dane, but Cap was very under control. She needed some of that.
“I don’t think she did it,” Dane said. He stood and paced around.