Читать книгу Single Father Sheriff - Carol Ericson - Страница 9
ОглавлениеThe room tilted and Sheriff Sloane’s handsome face blurred at the edges. The pink hair ribbon that she’d found in the drawer of the cabinet burned a hole in her pocket where she’d stuffed it.
What did this mean? Who had put the ribbon in the drawer? What was the significance of the ribbon left at the scene of the kidnapping?
She swallowed. “A dinosaur?”
“You didn’t know that, did you?” He reached over and took the glass from the counter. “When Stevie Carson was kidnapped, his parents insisted that one of his dinosaurs from his collection was missing. When Harrison Keaton was taken from his bedroom, the same kind of dinosaur as Stevie’s was on the floor.”
“The boy’s parents confirmed the dinosaur didn’t belong to him...to Harrison?” She twisted her fingers in front of her.
He gulped down half of the water. “No. That’s why the FBI isn’t looking at this angle. Harrison’s parents can’t say whether the dinosaur belongs to him or not.”
“And the p-pink ribbon?”
“Same thing. The ribbon was on the little girl’s dresser. Cheri Douglas wears ribbons. She likes pink.”
Kendall eked out a tiny breath. Sounded like a coincidence to her. Lots of little boys played with plastic dinosaurs. Lots of little girls wore ribbons, especially pink ones, in their hair. Sheriff Sloane was grasping at straws, perhaps trying to stay relevant as the FBI moved into Timberline and took over the investigation.
She hooked her thumb in the front pocket of her jeans, the ribbon tickling the end of her finger. “Your theory is a stretch.”
“Could be.” He downed the rest of the water. “I’ll let you get back to work, Kendall. If anything comes to you while you’re still in town, give me a call.”
He plucked a white business card from the front pocket of his khaki shirt and held it out between two fingers.
Taking it from him, she glanced at the embossed letters before shoving it in her back pocket. “I’ll do that.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention the ribbon or dinosaur to anyone else—just in case they mean something.”
“My lips are sealed. As a therapist, I’m good at keeping secrets. It’s part of my job description.”
“I figured you were, or I wouldn’t have told you. I think you’re probably very good at keeping secrets.” He jerked his thumb toward the living room. “I’m gonna head on out.”
She followed him into the other room and then scooted past him to open the front door. “It was nice meeting you, Sheriff Sloane—Coop. I sure hope you can help those families, and I wish I could do more.”
“I appreciate your time, Kendall. I’ll probably be seeing you around before you leave.” He stopped on the porch and did a half turn. “Watch out for those...spiders.”
She squinted through the heavy mesh of the screen door at the sheriff as he climbed into his SUV. He beeped his horn once as he backed down the drive.
He hadn’t bought her story about the spider. She did hate the creepy crawlies, but that mad flight from the house would’ve been over-the-top even for her.
Shutting the door, she dug into her pocket, the ribbon twining around her fingers. She pulled it free and dangled it in front of herself.
The soft pink had a slight sheen to it that caught the lamplight. It couldn’t be the same one yanked from her pigtail that night or even its companion. A twenty-five-year-old ribbon would be faded and frayed, not buoyantly dancing from her fingertips.
She dropped it on top of the cabinet and shuffled through the drawer where she’d found it. Nothing else jumped out at her, not even a spider.
Although the ribbon had spooked her, there was probably a good, reasonable explanation for its presence in the drawer—not that she could think of one now.
She grabbed another handful of papers and shoved them into the plastic garbage bag. The sooner she got Aunt Cass’s place ready, the sooner she could get out of this soggy hellhole.
And the sooner she could escape the tragedies of Harrison and Cheri. Damn Sheriff Sloane for naming them and making them human—a boy who liked dinosaurs and a girl who liked pink hair ribbons.
And damn Sheriff Sloane for peeling back her facade so easily. He’d just given her another reason to run back to Phoenix.
A man like that spelled trouble.
* * *
A FEW HOURS LATER, Kendall scrubbed the grit and dust from her skin under the spray of a warm shower—her first since arriving in Timberline because she’d forgotten to contact the gas company until she got here. If she’d known she would be having a meet and greet with the hunky sheriff in town, she would’ve gotten on that sooner.
She’d been dreading the social engagement tonight but after finding that ribbon and answering the sheriff’s prying questions, she was glad for the distraction.
Melissa Rhodes, a friend of hers from high school, had invited her over for a dinner party. Even if she didn’t plan to stay in Timberline longer than she had to, she’d use the time to catch up with some old friends—the few that still remained.
The dinnertime conversation had better not revolve around the current kidnappings or she’d have to cut the evening short.
She stepped into a pair of skinny jeans and pulled some socks over the denim and finished off with knee-high boots. Topped with a sweater, the outfit pretty much defined the casual look for the Washington peninsula.
Her flip-flops and summer skirts called to her, but she hadn’t even packed them for this cold climate.
She braided her long hair over one shoulder, brushed on a little makeup, and then yanked a wool shawl off the hook by the door.
Crossing her arms, she faced the living room and took a deep breath without worrying about choking on the dust for the first time since she’d arrived. After Sheriff Sloane had left, she’d gotten down and dirty with a rag and a can of furniture polish. She even took a vacuum to the drapes at the windows.
Rebecca, her Realtor, would be thrilled with the progress.
After locking up, she slid into her aunt’s old truck and trundled down the drive to the main road. The lush forest hugged the asphalt on either side, the leaves still dripping moisture from the rain shower an hour ago.
The brakes on the truck had seen better days, and Kendall mentally added the sale of the vehicle to her list of to-do items. There had to be some local kids who wanted to practice their auto shop skills on an old beater.
She drove the few miles on slick roads and pulled behind a line of cars already parked on the street in front of Melissa’s house—Melissa and Daryl’s house. Daryl had come to Timberline almost two years ago to take a job with Evergreen Software and had fallen for a local girl. Melissa had never left Timberline since she’d had to take care of her mom who’d had Parkinson’s disease. She’d found her prince charming anyway, in the form of a software engineer.
As she ground the gear shift into Park, Kendall winced. Anyone interested in this truck had better be a good mechanic.
She jumped from the truck and wrapped her shawl around her body as she headed up the pathway to the house. Warm lights shimmered from the windows and smoke puffed from the chimney.
She knocked on the door, tucking the bottle of cabernet under one arm.
A man—presumably Daryl—opened the front door and broke into an immediate smile. “You must be Kendall.”
“I am.” She stuck out her hand. “And you must be Daryl.”
Taking her hand, he pulled her over the threshold. “Honey, Kendall’s here.”
Kendall’s gaze shifted over his shoulder to the living room, and her fingers tightened around the neck of the bottle as several pairs of eyes focused on her. The few friends Melissa had mentioned looked like a full-scale party, and it seemed like she’d just interrupted their conversation.
She rolled her shoulders. She liked parties. She liked conversations—some topics better than others.
“I brought sustenance.” Kendall held up the bottle of wine.
“We can always use more alcohol.” Melissa broke away from a couple and approached Kendall, holding out her hands. “So good to see you, Kendall.”
Kendall hooked her friend in a one-armed hug. “Same. You look great.”
“And you look—” Melissa held her at arm’s length “—tan. I’m so jealous. I’m as pale as ever.”
“What do you expect when the sun shines maybe three times a year, if you’re lucky?” Kendall jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the damp outdoors.
“She’s dissing our lovely, wet, depressing weather.” Melissa held up the bottle to read the label. “But she’s not snobby enough to dis our local wineries.”
As Melissa peeled away from her side to put the wine in the kitchen, Kendall stepped down into the living room. She waved and nodded to a few familiar faces, shrugging off her shawl.
Melissa materialized behind her, a glass of wine in one hand. “This isn’t yours. Is merlot okay?”
“Fine. The other stuff’s for you and Daryl to drink later.”
“Thanks. Let me take your shawl. We keep it warm in here.” Daryl joined them, and Melissa patted her husband’s arm. “Daryl’s a transplant from LA. After two years, he’s still not acclimated.”
“Has my scatterbrained wife introduced you to everyone?” He went around the room, calling out names Kendall forgot two seconds later, until he named everyone there.
Melissa started carrying dishes to the dining room table, and Kendall broke away from the small talk to help her. The other guests’ conversation had seemed guarded, anyway, and she’d bet anything they’d been talking about the kidnappings before her arrival.
Joining Melissa in the kitchen, she tapped a Crock-Pot of bubbling chili sitting on the kitchen counter. “Do you want this on the table, or are you going to leave it here?”
“You can put that on the table next to the grated cheese and diced onions.”
Kendall hoisted the pot by its handles and inhaled the spicy aroma. “Mmm, this has to be your mom’s recipe.”
“It is.” She patted the dining room table. “Right here.”
Kendall placed the Crock-Pot on the tablecloth and removed the lid. “What else?”
“Can you help me scoop some tapenade and salsa and some other goodies into little serving dishes?”
“Absolutely, as long as I can sample while I’m scooping.” Kendall pulled a small bowl toward herself and plopped a spoonful of guacamole in the center. “I like Daryl.”
“Yeah, he’s an uptight programmer—just perfect for his flaky, artsy-fartsy wife.”
“Opposites do attract sometimes. He’s a good balance for you.”
“And what about you?” Melissa pinched her arm. “Any hot guys in hot Phoenix?”
“Lots, but nobody in particular. You single gals here in Timberline hit the jackpot when Evergreen Software came to town, didn’t you?”
“It definitely expanded the dating scene, but a lot of the Evergreen employees came with ready-made families. Came to Washington for clean air, clean living, safety. Or at least it was safe until...” Melissa shoved a tapenade-topped cracker into her mouth.
“I know all about the recent kidnappings, Melissa.” She scraped the rest of the guac into the bowl. “Wyatt Carson dropped by today and so did Sheriff Sloane.”
“Coop already talked to you?”
“He came by the house this afternoon.”
“Talk about your hot property.” Melissa licked her fingers.
“He is definitely hot.” Kendall elbowed her friend in the ribs. “I’d like to see him without all that khaki covering everything up.”
“Ladies? Need any help?”
Kendall’s face burned hotter than the salsa she was dumping into the bowl. She didn’t have to turn around to know who’d crept up behind them. She’d been listening to that low-pitched, smooth voice all afternoon.
“Hey, Coop. Glad you could make it.” Melissa nudged Kendall’s foot with her bare toes. “Have you met Kendall Rush yet?”
Kendall got very busy wiping salsa spills from the counter as she glanced over her shoulder, trying not to zone in on the way the man’s waffle knit shirt stretched across his broad chest. “We met this afternoon. Hello again, Sheriff Sloane.”
“I thought we were on a first-name basis. Call me Coop.”
He entered the kitchen with a few steps and, even though he still must’ve been yards behind her, it felt like he was breathing down her neck.
“Do you need any help in here, Melissa?”
“I do not. We have it all under control.” She tapped Kendall’s arm. “My hands are goopy. Can you grab a cold beer for Coop from the fridge?”
Kendall shuffled over a few steps and yanked open the refrigerator. “What kind would you like?”
“Anything in a bottle, not a can. Surprise me.”
She studied the bottled beer, grateful for the cool air on her warm cheeks. Had he heard their schoolgirl conversation about him? She grabbed a bottle with a blue label and spun around, holding it up. “How’s this?”
He ambled toward her, his eyes, as blue as the label on the bottle, sparkling with humor. He reached for the beer and for an electrifying second his fingertips brushed hers. With his gaze locked on hers, he said, “This’ll do.”
“Well, then.” Melissa grabbed a dish towel and wiped her hands. “Once we get these bowls to the table, dinner will be served.”
Coop reached around Kendall, his warm breath brushing her cheek, and pinched the edge of a serving dish between his fingers. “I’ll get this one.”
Kendall followed him to the dining room while Melissa made wide-eyed faces at her, which she had no idea how to interpret.
“Come and get it,” Melissa called out to the group. “Paper plates and bowls on both sides of the table. Nothing but first class around here.”
Coop stuck to her side as they both filled up plates and bowls with food.
Stopping at the chili, Kendall spooned some into her bowl and held up the ladle to Coop. “Have you tried Melissa’s famous chili yet?”
“Nope. Fill ’er up.”
She dipped the spoon into the dark red mixture and ladled it into his bowl. “Another?”
He nodded.
“This stuff only makes it better.” She sprinkled some grated cheese, chopped onions and diced avocado on the top.
Holding her plate in one hand and a bowl in the other, her fingers curled around her plastic cutlery, Kendall shuffled into the living room and nabbed a spot at a card table Melissa had set out for her guests. As she placed her food on the plastic tablecloth, Coop joined her.
“You left your wineglass in the kitchen. Do you want a refill?”
“I don’t have far to drive, but I’m still driving. I’ll take some iced tea. There are some cans in the fridge.”
“Responsible driver.” He put his fist over his heart. “Just what a man of the law wants to hear.”
By the time Coop returned with their drinks, Melissa and Daryl had claimed the other two places at the table, but they didn’t last long. One or the other and sometimes both kept hopping up to see to their guests’ needs, which left Kendall alone with the sheriff...which suited her just fine.
“Verdict on the chili?” She poked the edge of his empty bowl with her fork.
“Awesome. I’m going to have to ask her for the recipe.”
Blinking, she stole a glance at his ring finger, which she hadn’t bothered to check before. Bare. She hadn’t pegged him as a domestic sort of guy. Maybe he was joking about getting the recipe.
With his face all serious, he took a sip of the beer he’d been nursing all through dinner and started cutting into a piece of barbecued chicken.
“Did you have any more scares cleaning up your aunt’s place after I left?”
Knots tightened in her gut, but she didn’t know if thinking about the pink ribbon had caused the sensation or the fact that Coop had nailed her as a liar.
“If you don’t count the scary dust bunnies, all went smoothly. I’m going to hire a cleaning crew to come in and finish the rest of the house, so I can focus on selling my aunt’s things.”
“You’re not taking any of it back home?”
“Aunt Cass’s decorating style and mine clash.” She slathered a pat of butter on a corn bread muffin and took a bite.
“She had a lot of collections, didn’t she?”
“Mermaids, wood carvings from the old days when Timberline was a lumber town—stuff like that.”
“And you’re just going to sell that stuff? Might be nice to hand down to the kids one day.”
She almost inhaled a few crumbs of corn bread. Kids? She had no intention of having kids. Ever. She coughed into her napkin. “Maybe.”
He reached forward so suddenly, she jerked back, but then he touched his fingertip to the corner of her mouth. “Corn bread.”
To quell the tingling sensation his touch had started on her lips, she pressed the napkin to her mouth again. “Great. Do I have chili in my eyebrows, too?”
Taking her chin between his fingers, he looked in her eyes, his own darkening to a deep blue. “Not that I can see.”
Laughter burst from the crowd sitting on the floor around the oversize, square coffee table, startling them both. He dropped his hand.
“You heard that story, didn’t you, Coop?” A woman from the group called to him.
He eased back into his chair and finished off the last of his beer. “What’s that, Jen?”
“Davis Unger, the little boy in Ms. Maynard’s class, who announced to everyone that his mom and the mailman were boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Coop chuckled. “Out of the mouths of babes. Does Mr. Unger know about that relationship?”
“I think it was all a misunderstanding.”
“Riight.”
“Doesn’t your daughter give you the kindergarten report every day?”
His daughter? Kendall sucked in a quick breath, her gaze darting to that finger on his left hand again.
“Steffi’s in her own little world half the time.” He stood up and stretched. “When I ask her about school, she tells me bizarre stories about unicorns and fairies. Should I be concerned?”
Jen and a few of the other women laughed. “She just has an active imagination, and all the kids are crazy about that fairy movie that just came out.”
Coop piled up his trash, and his hand hovered over her mostly empty plate. “Are you done?”
“You don’t need to wait on me.” She pushed back from the table, crumpling her napkin into her plate. “After all that food, I need to move. Let me take your empties, and you can go over there and discuss kindergarten.”
A vertical line flashed between his eyes as he handed his paper plate and bowl to her. “I’ll do that.”
“Another beer?”
“Wouldn’t do for the sheriff to set a bad example, would it?”
“Not at all.” She meandered back to the kitchen, exchanging a few words here and there with Melissa’s guests.
She slipped the trash into a plastic garbage bag in the kitchen and cleaned up some other items from the counter. Maybe Coop was divorced and had joint custody with his ex. Melissa would know. She made it her business to know everyone else’s.
But the interrogation would have to wait. Melissa took her hostessing duties very seriously, and Kendall couldn’t get one word with her alone.
After chitchatting and helping out with the cleanup duty, Kendall checked the time on her phone and decided to call it a night. She had a meeting with Rebecca tomorrow morning and wanted to check out a few online auction sites to assess Aunt Cass’s collections.
She eyed Coop across the room talking with a couple of men and mimicking throwing a football. Thank God she hadn’t stuck her foot in her mouth and admitted to never, ever wanting children since Coop had one.
Not that Coop’s parenthood, marital status or anything else about his personal life would matter to her one bit once she flew the coop. She grinned at her lame joke and strolled to the den off the foyer to grab her shawl.
She dipped next to Melissa sitting on the couch and whispered in her ear. “I’m going to take off. I’m exhausted.”
“Are you sure? There’s still dessert.”
“I can’t handle another bite, but let’s try to get together for lunch before I leave.”
“Let me see you out.” Melissa rocked forward, and Daryl placed a hand on her back to help her up.
“Nice to meet you, Daryl. You and Mel are welcome in Phoenix anytime.” She pecked him on the cheek, and he gave her a quick hug around the neck.
Melissa took her arm as they walked to the front door. “Daryl and I are taking off for Seattle for a few days, but we should be back before you leave. Don’t be a stranger while you’re here and if you need any help with Aunt Cass’s house, call me.”
“Call you for help cleaning a house?”
“Hey.” Melissa nipped her side with her fingertips. “I know people.”
“I think I know the same people.”
Coop materialized behind Melissa. “I’ll walk you to your truck.”
With her back to Coop, Melissa gave her a broad wink.
“Okay, thanks.” Kendall hugged her friend goodbye and stepped out onto the porch with Coop close behind her.
He lifted his face to the mist in the air. “Ahh, refreshing.”
“Are you a native of Washington?”
“No, California. I’ve been here about five years.”
“Oh, the reviled California transplant.”
He spread his arms. “That’s me.”
“Well, this is me.” She kicked the tire of her aunt’s truck.
He took her hand as if to shake it, but he just held it. “Good to talk to you tonight about...other things.”
“It’s always good to talk about other things.” She squeezed his hand and disentangled her fingers from his.
She climbed into the truck and cranked the key twice to get the engine to turn over. Waving, she pulled into the street. As the truck tilted up the slight incline, an object in the truck bed shifted and hit the tailgate.
She drew her brows over her nose. She didn’t have anything in the back.
She reversed into her previous parking spot and threw the truck into Park. As she hopped from the seat, Coop turned at the porch.
Using the light on her cell phone, she stood on her tiptoes to peer into the truck bed. She traced the beam along the inside where it picked up a bundle wrapped in a tarp. Then the light picked up one small, pale hand poking from the tarp.
Kendall screamed like she’d never stop.
