Doug shrugged again. His voice was devoid of emotion. “She may have had a little help, but it was what she wanted to do. She was the one with the guilty conscience.” He frowned. “That should have been the end of it. I know dead bodies. No one would be able to say exactly when Nola died. I made certain I was seen at the auction less than twenty minutes later. It was an excellent alibi. I even bid on a few items. I won a hand-crocheted pillow with a cat on it.” He made a moue of distaste.
Silence descended on the little group gathered around the boulder. Doug's seeming indifference made the tale seem even more hideous.
Gordon cleared his throat. “I think that's enough. Come on, Doug. Let's get you back to civilization.”
“Hold on a minute,” Liss said. “I have more questions.”
She waited until Doug looked up, wanting him to meet her eyes. She was momentarily disconcerted by the blankness of his gaze. He seemed to look right through her. She had to swallow hard, but she asked her questions anyway.
“Why did you bring a gun to the tea? Why did you follow me out here? Did you think I knew you were guilty of murder?”
“Don't play dumb with me, Liss MacCrimmon. My wife told me you were looking for me after Lenny's funeral this morning. What else could you have wanted except to ask nosy questions? And if you were asking, then you were getting close to the truth. Everyone in town knows that when you stick your nose in where it doesn't belong, people end up in jail.”
“I only wanted to talk to you about your son,” Liss whispered.
He didn't seem to hear her. She didn't suppose young Frank's attitude mattered now. His life would be shattered when he found out that his father was a murderer. She doubted the funeral home would stay in business after the news broke. That was not the way she'd expected to correct the boy's lack of respect for the dead, but it would certainly solve the problem.
“If you knew,” Doug volunteered, “then I had to eliminate the threat. I had it all worked out in my mind. I meant to force you into my car at gunpoint and drive you somewhere remote, somewhere I could shoot you and no one would hear. Then I'd hide your body.” He chuckled. “That part would have been easy. I have plenty of caskets. No one would think twice about it if I buried one more, and no one would ever know what happened to you.”
Liss shivered convulsively, although the sun was high in the sky and the day was pleasantly warm. Doug's voice sounded so ordinary, his tone almost conversational.
He'd followed her when she left the hotel looking for Gordon. He'd overheard part of what she said to Yvonneâoverheard his own name. How ironic that, until that very moment, she hadn't had the slightest suspicion that he was involved.
This time, when Gordon hauled Doug to his feet and led him away, she did not object. As soon as they disappeared around a curve in the trail, she turned to Dan, standing patiently beside her, and walked straight into his waiting arms.
Epilogue
A
full day later, Liss was still haunted by Doug's confession. Filling Sherri in on the details helped. Repetition dulled the sharp edges and reinforced the most important facts: She was safe; Yvonne was safe; and Jane and Nola's killer would get what was coming to him.
After Sherri left, Liss sat in the rocker in her bow window, waiting. She'd left a message on Gordon Tandy's voice mail, asking him to stop by. She'd not yet had the chance to clear the air between them on a personal level. She could not move on until they talked.
Gordon arrived just before five that afternoon. Liss invited him in, settled him on her sofa with coffee and coffee cake, and resumed her seat in the Canadian rocker with her hands primly folded in her lap. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dan crossing the town square. She knew the moment he spotted the state plates on the unmarked vehicle parked in front of her house. He stopped dead, right in the middle of the street, then turned back the way he'd come.
He wasn't angry, or jealous, either, only considerate. He would keep watch from his own front window and when Gordon left, he'd return.
The thought comforted her and gave her the courage to say what needed to be said to the only other man she'd ever considered as a potential husband.
“I should have told you myself when I accepted Dan's marriage proposal,” she said. “You shouldn't have had to hear about it from your brother.”
She'd succeeded in surprising him. He set his cup aside and left the coffee cake untouched. “
That's
what you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Liss, I wasn't around for you to tell. I was out of state at the time.”
“Right before you left, I wasn't sure you wanted to be around me. I caused you a great deal of trouble. You broke the rules because of me. And I almost got both of us killed.”
“You have a way of convincing me to let you in on things you shouldn't know anything about,” he admitted, with a rueful smile. “That doesn't seem to have changed since you got engaged to Ruskin. What the hell was I thinking yesterday, letting a civilian conduct an interview with a suspect?”
“Will Doug's confession hold up in court?”
“It should, especially since he broke down and repeated it a couple of hours laterâwith his lawyer present.” He reached for the coffee and sipped.
“Are you in trouble because of my meddling?”
“I doubt it. It got results.” He started on the coffee cake.
Liss sighed. “You wouldn't tell me anyway, would you?”
“As to that, it's on a need-to-know basis and you don't need to know.”
“Well, at least your sense of humor is improving.” Liss bent forward, inclining her body a little closer to him in an attempt to gauge his reaction. “I need you to know this, Gordon. It wouldn't have workedâyou and me.”
“I know.” He polished off the coffee cake. “If I'd ever gotten around to proposing, and if you'd been foolish enough to accept, we'd probably have been divorced within a year.” His eyes locked on hers. “Still, it would have been one hell of a year.”
“Be serious!”
“What makes you think I'm not?”
“I've never been able to read you,” she complained, exasperated. “I'm trying to apologize here, Gordon. I should have phoned you, or at least written to you.”
“Because a âDear John' letter would have made things so much easier on me?” The glint of amusement in his dark eyes was unmistakable.
“You're not going to make this easy on me, are you?”
“In fact, I am. I'd already done a lot of thinking about us before my brother sent me the news of your engagement. I'd decided it wouldn't be smart to continue to see you after I returned home. I was planning to keep my distance. We aren't good for each other, Liss. I don't know how to explain it any better than that, but that's the honest truth.”
“I can't explain it either,” Liss admitted as she sat beside him on the sofa, “but I know exactly what you mean. You tell me things about your cases that you shouldn't, even when I don't ask. And I ... take risks. I still get the shakes every time I think about what happened just before Christmas. I should never haveâ”
He touched a finger to her lips to stop her words. “It's over. Done with. And so is this case. You're going to marry a good man and try harder to avoid getting tangled up in unsolved murders.”
“Yes, I am. And you?”
He chuckled. “I've been seeing someone for the last couple of months. It's getting serious.”
“That's wonderful, Gordon. I'm happy for you. Is she anyone I know?”
He rose and she walked him to the door. “You met her once,” he said, “back when you first got back to Carrabassett County.” He stepped out onto her front porch, turned, and grinned at her again. “Her name is Penny Lassiter.”
Liss was frowning as she watched him get into his car and drive away. The only Lassister she knew wasâ
“Good grief,” she whispered.
“Good grief, what?” Dan asked, overhearing. As she'd expected, he'd lost no time trotting across the square to her house once he saw Gordon leaving.
“Gordon is dating Penny Lassiter.”
“Who?”
“Penny Lassiterâthe sheriff of Carrabassett County.” Liss could see them together, and the image made her very happy.
“So, loose ends all tied up?” Dan asked as they went inside. “Air cleared?”
She slipped her hand into his, savoring the warmth and firmness of his grip. “Now all I have to worry about are my lists of things to do before our wedding.”
“Uh, Lissâabout the wedding?”
“You're
not
backing out,” she said, giving him a poke in the arm with her free hand, “and we're not eloping.” A laugh caught in her throat when she looked up and saw the serious expression on his face.
“I got a phone call a little bit ago,” Dan said, turning her so that they were standing face-to-face in the center of her living room. “From your parents. You remember how they were going to leave ahead of schedule and drive straight here because Dolores Mayfield told them what was going on?”
“Please tell me they decided against it. I love them dearly, but there was no reason for them to change their original plan. They'll still be here in plenty of time for the wedding.”
“They certainly will.” He glanced at his watch. “They decided to fly instead of drive. Their plane landed at the Jetport in Portland about an hour ago and they rented a car. In, say, another forty-five minutes, they'll be on your doorstep.”
Liss felt her jaw drop.
“Before they show up, there's something I need to tell you.”
Watching Dan swallow hard and hesitate made Liss's heart stutter.
Was
Dan going to call off the wedding? Had her reckless meddling finally pushed him too far?
“When Tandy came back into your life, I had to wonder if you were really certain you picked the right man to marry.”
“I'm sure. Iâ”
“Let me finish. Please. I figured out pretty quick that I had nothing to worry about. I know you love me. And I love you. And because I love you, seeing you with Tandy this morning made me realize that I want to do more than
tell
you I love you.”
“You show me how you feel every day,” Liss assured him.
“Yeah? Well, good. But I wanted you to have
proof
of that love. I'm not going to change my mind about this. I'm resigned to making the ultimate sacrifice.”
She blinked at him in confusion for a moment before she saw the twinkle in his molasses-brown eyes. She started to smile. “You meanâ?”
“Yes, Liss,” Dan said. “When we get married, at the Western Maine Highland Games, I will be wearing a kilt.”