Authors: Chris Redding
“No, I realized that awhile ago, but I guess the idea of a child had me rethinking how I felt. I could have been a good Dad.”
“I’m sure, Zach.”
She didn’t dare put a hand on him, lest those colors come back. Not touching him felt awkward. She put her hands behind her back to resist any urge to make contact with him.
“You think me cold for not loving her?”
“No, you’ve been hurt.”
“Too many times.”
He paced away, his broad shoulders not as slumped as when she arrived. Maybe she’d helped him.
He swirled back to her. “What’s between you and Mark?”
Grace blinked, wondering where the question came from. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”
“Are you lovers?”
“No.”
Why did he need to know?
“Good.”
Mark appeared next to her and she had no time to question Zach further.
***
“Stop here,” Grace told Mark on the way home.
Entering the Robber Baron at the height of Happy Hour, she found all of her suspects at once. Lance Antonio sat at one end of the bar with the same crowd around him.
Kent Winger was at a table with his wife.
Grace bit her lip. She didn’t really want to confront Winger, but she knew Lance had a restraining order against him.
Eeny Meeny Miney Moe. Lance won or lost depending on how you saw it. She ordered a beer then walked over towards him.
“Hey.”
They exchanged witty comments then she got down to business. This time he didn’t mention the restraining order. How could she bring it up? Maybe Zach could check on it for her.
“I need to talk to you about Dolores Holten.”
He scowled. “Heard she got knocked up.”
“You do it?”
“Nope. Haven’t touched her in months.”
He sipped his beer as if dismissing Grace. “Maybe I think differently.”
“Yeah?”
“Prove it. I’ll give DNA if you want.”
“Did she dump you because she was pregnant?”
His beer mug hit the counter harder and she flinched. She touched a nerve with him.
“She tell you that? Well I dumped her.”
Sure.
“I see. So did you dump her because she was pregnant?”
“I dumped her because I was tired of her. She’s a clingy lady.” He looked Grace up and down. “You got a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Good, because she’d steal him. Stole me from a fiancé.” He shook his head. “Stupidest thing I did was go with Dolores.”
A motive. She dumps him after she ruins an engagement. “What would your fiancé say?”
Lance’s eyes narrowed making Grace put up her hands in surrender. “Never mind.”
During her conversation with Lance, Kent Winger had left with his wife. She’d get him at work tomorrow.
***
Zach answered the knock on his door just after he finished his yoga session.
His heart, among other things, leaped to see Grace. His gaze swept the hallway expecting to see her shadow, Mark. Relief washed over him when he saw she was alone. “Come in.”
Her eye twinkled. “I have someone with a motive.”
“Motive?” He rubbed his face. While yoga had cleared his brain, this woman’s presence fogged it. “Oh, Dolores’ alleged murder.”
She stopped just inside his door, her gaze scanning him. Disappointment clouded her formerly sparkling eyes. “I thought you believed me.”
He put a hand on her arm. She didn’t flinch, but didn’t lean into him. “I want to.”
“What about the storm?”
Her eyes pleaded with him. He wasn’t the type to say something just because someone wanted to hear it. The truth usually came from his lips. “I’ll try.”
He closed the door and motioned for her to sit. She did, but perched on the edge of his brown leather couch. He settled on the coffee table, only inches from her. His blood thrummed at the proximity. “So who is going to do it?”
“Well she dumped Lance Antonio when she found out she was pregnant.”
“She stopped seeing him three months ago.”
Grace’s eyes narrowed. “You know the child wasn’t yours, right?”
He looked at the floor. Dolores had admitted to him the truth. The baby had been a girl at twelve weeks of gestation. They’d been together only two months ago. “Yes, she said she seduced me on purpose.” The betrayal cut through him.
“Women do strange things when they find out they’re pregnant.”
“You know from experience?”
“No, not first hand, but I’d feel desperate if I were alone and ready to have a child.”
He nodded. Maybe she had a point. “Go on. Did you talk to him?”
“Yes.”
He grimaced. Why do people intentionally walk into trouble? “Don’t do that again.”
A shrug moved her shoulders. “I was in a crowded bar.”
“Yes, but he’s a cop and can find out where you live.”
“Fine,” she said, but she didn’t believe he’d let it go.
“So what’d he say?”
Her eyes looked dark and exhausted now. “That he was done with her before she was pregnant.”
“She lied about how far along she was. He couldn’t know that.”
She stood. “We need to be having this conversation with Dolores.”
What was the hurry? “You think she’ll entertain the idea that someone wants to kill her? She’s not a big believer in this stuff.” She was too earnest to be lying. She must have some gift that he couldn’t explain.
Her butt went back onto his couch. “No, but she has to have a better idea who she’d pissed off enough to want her dead.”
Zach stood and paced away from her. His body protested the distance from her. Something in his core told him he should stick close to her. Returning to her, he sat on the couch. “If you were killed tomorrow or you knew you were going to be killed, who would you suspect?”
“This is different. Dolores is entrenched in this town. I’m a newcomer.”
“No one in your past? No ex-boyfriend who might have a grudge?” He needed to know that answer.
She stilled. Lines etched her face, then she shook her head. “Maybe.”
“My point is that is isn’t so easy to figure out who would want to kill you. Won’t be for Dolores either.”
A frown creased her mouth. “Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Find others with motive.”
“Your old boss?”
“No way.”
“Dolores said he was the father of her baby.”
“Once again, she lied.”
Grace stood then strode to the door. “Well I can’t sit here arguing with you while a killer is planning a murder.”
***
Grace stopped short walking toward her car. A man leaned against a vehicle three slots down from hers. His head darted around as if he was looking for someone.
She should go back and have Zach walk her out, but her instincts didn’t scream at her to run.
At the moment she wished she hadn’t dropped Mark at her apartment. A Spring breeze ruffled her hair. Lots of people had their windows open in case she screamed. Zach’s apartment was on the back of the building so he may not hear her.
Taking a deep breath, she walked toward her car, willing herself not to look a like a victim. At least she had on sneakers in case she needed to run.
“Grace Harmony?”
He’d spotted her. His voice came from deep in his body. She didn’t recognize it.
“Do I know you?” His posture didn’t relax, instead he seemed to be on high alert and ready to bolt. She couldn’t see his face. He stood just outside the light from a streetlamp.
“I was at the bar tonight with Lance.”
“Go ahead.”
He looked around the array of cars. “She was blackmailing someone.”
“Black mail? Dolores? I thought she was a trust fund girl?”
“She spent most of it.”
Grace surveyed what she knew about her landlord’s possessions. She couldn’t account for all the designer clothes and high end furniture. A bookseller didn’t make that much. “On what?
“It all went up her nose.”
“Coke? She’s a drug addict?”
She hadn’t seen that coming. That opened up a whole new file of suspects, not making her job easier.
“Was. She’s been clean for a year, but not before she blew through most of the money.”
This didn’t make the case any simpler. What if the killer was someone from her drug days?” Grace ran a hand down her face. “Who was she blackmailing?”
“Kent Winger.”
Zach’s former boss? “With what? And how do you know this?”
“Dolores and I have partied together.”
Is there anyone who hasn’t? She wondered why there wasn’t a revolving door on Dolores’ house.
“And you are?”
“Joe Smith.”
“Really?”
Her skepticism, born of too many louts in her life, jumped out of her voice.
“Really.”
Grace mulled over this. Why hadn’t Zach mentioned her drug problem? Joe could be a suspect, too. “Why’d you tell me all this?”
“Just doing a community service, he said.
He waved then disappeared into a car next to her. He drove away before she could ask him anything else.
Chapter Seventeen
Someone pounded on Zach’s door so he clicked off his monitor. No one would be able to see what he was searching for. Especially not Grace.
This time Grace didn’t wait for an invitation, but brushed past him. She sucked in a breath, but didn’t pause. “You didn’t tell me Dolores had a drug problem.”
“Had. She’s been clean for over a year.”
Grace crossed her arms and tapped her sneakered foot on his ceramic tile. “This could be drug related. Someone she pissed off in her former life?” Her eyes were wilder than during her last visit. Something had happened.
“Why now?” he asked.
“They could have just gotten out of prison. Or just gotten sober enough.”
Zach closed his front door, then leaned against it. Tired lines creased her face. He longed to take her into his arms as she had for him at the hospital. But now
she
needed the comfort.
Fighting her demons had to be hard enough, but trying to save someone who didn’t want to be saved must be even more difficult. “Let’s talk to Dolores when she comes home tomorrow.”
Her face lightened. “You mean it. She’ll be more receptive with you there.”
He reached out and brushed a hair from her face. She flinched, but didn’t back away. “Am I that repulsive?”
Her eyes found his. “No,” she whispered.
“Then why do you react or pull away every time I touch you.”
She shook her head, wresting his hand from her face. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“I’m feeling pretty receptive to some odd things at the moment.”
She sighed, her breath coming out between pursed lips. “You believe I go back in time.”
Her voice came out hollow as if the fight had gone out of her.
He took her hand and laced their fingers together. “I believe you have some kind of gift I can’t explain.”
Her gaze rested on their joined hands. Her face didn’t let on what she was feeling. What would he find if he crawled inside her head?
“That’s better than nothing, I guess,” she said.
“Your eyes cloud over and your body becomes stiff when I do this. Why?”
She bit her lip. “I see colors when you touch me.”
“Colors? Like a hallucination?”
“I guess. Having never done drugs I can only guess it’s like that.”
“What are you seeing now?” He traced a line across her jaw.
“Swirls of blues and oranges.”
“And now?”
He used his other hand to pull her closer to him. Her eyes had that faraway look to them.
“The colors are swirling faster. Like spin art. And I’m feeling dizzy. Stop.”
He let go of her. She stumbled back, but didn’t fall. She blinked as if she had something in her eyes.
“Better?”
“Yes, but my heart’s pounding. Don’t do that again.”
Zach frowned. “But I want to kiss you.”
Her eyes widened. “You always this straightforward?”
He thought for a moment. “No, I’m not. There’s something about you. Something I want to protect.”
“Oh. So you’re feeling alpha male.”
“Kind of. Certainly protective.”
She put a hand up to him, but didn’t touch him. He resisted the urge to move closer to regain contact with her. His body had been on fire from within and now he only felt numb from the absence of her heat.
“I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t need someone else to do that,” she said.
“Fair enough. What do you want?”
He stepped closer and she pulled her hand away as if from a hot stove. Not wanting to torture her, he didn’t move, just let her retreat.
“I want to solve Dolores’ murder and go about my life.”
She sighed and he could see her weariness painted into the dark circles under her eyes. He longed to take it all away from her. He’d take the burden, but she wouldn’t let him. Maybe she couldn’t.
His feelings for her were growing. He had no idea what to do with them. “What does it feel like to hold the fate of another’s life in your hands?”
She jammed a hair behind her ear. “More responsibility than I want.”
He moved closer to touch her. His fingertips brushed her arm. “Does anyone know what you can do?”
“Mark.”
“Of course.”
Somehow that guy managed to come between them even when he wasn’t here. “Why him?”
“Because he’s been my friend for a long time. Since high school.”
“And you aren’t lovers?”
She looked away from him. “I think Mark would like us to be.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
“Oh?”
“The way he looks at you.” Zach cocked his head, contemplating his next move.
“And how is that?”
Her voice was quieter now, more intimate. He liked how it took on a husky tone. “Like you were a side of beef and he was a hungry man.”
“That actually doesn’t sound attractive.”
A smile danced across her lips. The first one he’d seen in awhile. Was she even more serious than he was? “Maybe not, but it’s obvious he’s in love with you.”