Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Having backed her car into the garage the night before when she and Lovell first arrived, she pulled straight out onto the heated driveway, a handy perk Harper installed a few years earlier so the plows only needed to reach her gate.
Daphne had never been to the cabin before, but touches of her friend were everywhere: the butter-soft sheets on the bed, the perfectly positioned desk in front of a picture window that looked out on the lake, the sweary coffee mugs in the cabinet.
Lovell had chuckled when he’d pulled one out, drawing her attention.
She’d laughed with him after reading it, then they’d had to see what the rest said so had looked at all forty-three.
Who knew coffee mug makers were so hilariously foulmouthed?
Other than that moment, though, Lovell had been true to his word and left her to do her thing.
He’d set up his air mattress to the side of the fireplace, as out of the way as he could in the small cabin, plugged in his phone, and lay down on his sleeping bag.
At some point after she went to sleep, he changed and used the bathroom; he’d been in a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt in the morning and his Dopp kit sat beside the sink.
She’d gone back to her room after pouring herself a morning cup of coffee and put in four hours of writing from the comfort of her bed rather than the desk in the living room.
Lovell had given her no reason to think he was annoyed at not being the center of her attention, but she hadn’t wanted to test that boundary.
Too many men had passed through her life who assumed she’d drop everything and spend time with them if they were around—or worse, make her justify why she couldn’t or wouldn’t.
She didn’t want to paint Lovell with that same brush, but it seemed easier to stay in different orbits—her in her room and him in the living room.
Now, though, they were headed into the police station for a quick meeting with Ryan before she and Callie met for lunch and window shopping.
She’d poked around town a little but had wanted her sister by her side the first time she really explored it.
Gabe and Lovell planned to tag along, but both men promised to be unobtrusive.
Or as unobtrusive as they could be. Gabe was a good-looking guy, but Lovell, a six-foot-four wall of muscle with intense green eyes and smooth dark skin, was striking.
Even sitting beside her in the passenger seat, his dark blue Henley draped perfectly over the planes of his chest. And his jeans hugged his ass and thighs just enough to catch a woman’s eye but still look comfortable.
He’d trimmed his goatee that morning, and whatever scent he wore, as light as it was, did something to her hormones she didn’t want to acknowledge.
Or maybe it was him. Or a combination of him and his cologne.
Either way, she wasn’t going to think about it.
It had been awkward enough lying in her super comfortable king-size bed knowing he slept on an air mattress two inches too short for him on the other side of the wall.
She didn’t need to think about burying her nose in the crook of his neck and inhaling the scent of him.
“Do you have any work you need to do? Am I keeping you from anything?” she asked as she turned onto the highway leading into town.
“Nothing I can’t manage between my phone and my computer,” he answered. So focused on holing up in her room, she hadn’t noticed he’d brought his computer. “Besides,” he continued, “I offered to be here, and you wouldn’t even be in this situation if not for me.”
“I wouldn’t be in this situation if not for Weeks and Beeks and whoever hired them.
I wouldn’t be in this situation if they hadn’t come into Maggie’s or sat so close to me.
There are a lot of factors that, if life had played out differently, would result in me not being a part of this.
But you weren’t shot, you weren’t left to die on the side of the road, and you’re alive, so frankly, I’m glad I was dragged into this. ”
Four days ago, all he’d been to her was one of Callie’s brothers-in-law, important to Daphne only for that reason.
She wouldn’t say they were the closest of friends now—no, what thrummed between them was more elemental than that—but she didn’t want to imagine a world without him in it.
So yes, despite everything, she felt lucky that Weeks and Beeks happened to wander into the same diner where she’d been stuffing her face with pancakes.
“When Philly and Callie first got together, you were planning to visit a few weeks later. What delayed it?” he asked.
She glanced over to find his green eyes steady on her.
“When you didn’t come, I thought maybe you two weren’t as close as Callie made it seem.
It’s obvious that’s not true, but when you start talking about life’s weird coincidences, like you being in Maggie’s that day, it made me wonder what brought you to town when you came to town? ”
She spotted the police station and put her signal on.
“The initial delay was a combination of a few things, both Callie’s work and mine.
Not my writing, but the other ventures I’m a part of.
” She pulled into a spot and killed the engine.
“As for why I decided to come early, I don’t really know.
I just…felt the need to be here. I haven’t lived through nearly half the things you have, but I’ve still learned to trust my instinct when it’s telling me something.
I’m not saying there’s some big cosmic force that brought me here so that I could be at Maggie’s that day, but, well, maybe I am.
” She ended with a shrug and a grin. Who the hell was she to unravel the secrets of the universe?
She remained seated as he studied her. Sometimes when he looked at her, he made her feel exposed and bare, but now she felt a distant coolness.
He’d wanted more from her. But just because she felt things didn’t mean she could explain them.
And just because she couldn’t explain them didn’t mean she didn’t feel them.
“You ready to go in?” she asked, nodding to the building.
His eyes held hers, then he nodded. A few minutes passed as they bundled up for the short walk to the front door, and soon, they were disrobing everything they’d put on. The joys of living somewhere cold.
“Oh, good, glad you’re here,” Ava said, emerging from the hall by the reception. “I was going over a few things with Ryan. I have to pop back to work, but he can fill you in. Will we still see you tonight?”
“We’re planning on it. You sure it’s okay for all of us to join, all things considered?” Daphne asked.
Ava waved the question off. “My dad’s already cooking. Some sous vide something-or-other, and there will be sides. Honestly, I don’t pay much attention. He’s a great cook, but also, anything Mitch and I don’t prepare is fine by me.”
Daphne laughed. With three kids under three, Ava and Mitch had their hands full, but Callie and Gabe would be in a similar boat soon. Not quite so wild, but with her sister’s type-A personality, it was going to be interesting.
“I’ll text him to see if there’s anything we can bring,” Daphne said.
“Feel free, but he’ll tell you nothing,” Ava said, tugging her hat on. “See you both tonight!” And then with a puff of cold air, she exited the station.
“I don’t know how she and Mitch do it,” Lovell said after she gave their name to the receptionist.
“You and me both. I will be an excellent auntie and I’m really looking forward to it, but kids of my own? No thanks.”
She registered the surprise on his face before he could mask it, but Ryan appeared, cutting off anything either of them might have said.
“Thanks for coming in. We have a few updates, but I want you to have a look at a couple of photos as well,” Ryan said, ushering them back to his office.
When the door closed behind them, he gestured to two seats. “I assume you saw Ava on her way out. Do you want her news or ours first?” he asked, taking a seat behind his desk.
“Whichever makes most sense,” Daphne answered.
“I’ll start with my update,” he said. “As you know, we found Beeker’s phone caught up on a tree. It’s a burner, but there are two numbers on it. The first is one from Atlanta.”
“Where Daisy is,” Lovell said.
“Also where his mother lives,” Ryan said. “She’s in an assisted care facility and has Alzheimer’s. He called her every other day.”
Daphne winced. “The juxtaposition of someone willing to kill another person, probably for money, being the same someone calling his mom every other day is a hard one to marry.”
A commiserating look passed over Ryan’s features.
“We talked to the staff there. Apparently, he was a very attentive son despite his mother not recognizing him most of the time. We’ve touched base with the police, and they’re working with the facility and the guardianship to make sure she’s taken care of. ”
“And the other number?” Lovell asked.
“Burner phone with a New York area code, but Ava was able to triangulate the most recent three calls to the northern New Jersey area. Different cell towers, but same general area.”
“And we can’t get real-time location because it’s a burner and either turned off or dumped somewhere,” Daphne said. She hadn’t expected a miracle discovery, but a little wave of defeat rolled through her.
“HICC is keeping an eye on it, but that pretty much sums up where we are. Unless you know someone from that area who might be behind this? Someone we should look into?” Ryan asked, directing his question to Lovell.
“I grew up in Trenton, but that’s not that close, and I haven’t been in touch with anyone from there since I left at eighteen,” he responded.
“Old sins cast long shadows. So they say,” Daphne said.
Lovell’s smooth brow wrinkled. “Who says that?”
“Agatha Christie made it popular, but it was around long before she was even a twinkle in her great-grandparents’ eyes.”
He stared for a beat, then turned back to Ryan.
“That may be true, but I was a good kid. I kept my head down, got through school, played a lot of sports to keep me busy. Was even offered scholarships, one for football, the other for baseball, to different D2 schools. Home life sucked, especially after my grandpa died, but I never got into trouble.”
The image of a young Lovell—James—appeared in her mind’s eye.
Tall, lanky, maybe even gangly. She didn’t know why, but she assumed his muscles only came later in life, after he’d joined the military.
With his looks and his athletic prowess, he’d probably been popular.
But with an unstable home life, she wondered if his accomplishments masked insecurities.
“We’ll keep looking,” Ryan said. “In the meantime, can you have a look at a video clip from the pass? We caught Weeks leaving the area, but getting your confirmation would help,” he said, a question in his dark eyes.
“Of course,” she replied, wishing she could force Weeks off the road with the power of her mind. Sure, the video would be hours old, and Weeks was probably already in LA or wherever he was headed. That didn’t mean she couldn’t fantasize about his accidentally slipping off the icy road, though.
Fifteen minutes later, they were donning their coats and hats again after confirming that the man driving the twenty-year-old Yukon, which he’d hot-wired from god knew where, was in fact Weeks.
“I’m glad he appears to have left,” she said, pulling her hair out from her collar. “Not that he can’t come back, but I’m going to live for a while in a little fantasy where he’s far away.”
Lovell chuckled, not a common sound, and she looked up to see his warm eyes on her. “I would think you could come up with a better fantasy than that.”
She blinked. Had he just made a joke? Well, more like a teasing commentary. But still… She ignored the swoop in her stomach that hinted at all the fantasies she’d have no problem coming up with if she let her mind go there. But she would not. As tempting as it was.
Instead, she hooked her arm in his and led him toward the door.
“I’m also fantasizing about French onion soup for lunch.
Maybe with some of the delicious bread the café gets from that bakery in Sonora.
Then long hours of walking the streets with Callie shopping.
I’m thinking of moving here, or at least getting a place, since I’ll have a little peanut niece or nephew soon.
If I do, that means I’ll need to furnish it.
Which means hours and hours of shopping. ”
Beside her, he grunted. “Woman, you need to work on your fantasy skills.”