Authors: Stephanie Rowe
Bill waved absently as he studied the screen. “Yeah, go shower. You need it.” He spun the monitor toward Sean, a color image filling the screen. “Before you go, take a look at this.”
He didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to see it.
But he looked. It was a photo of Kim in a hospital bed, wearing a gown that had been pulled to the side. Her eyes were closed and she looked tiny and wan. She was covered in bruises, and there were gashes across her stomach and ribs.
Then he looked closer and his stomach heaved. Her entire thigh had been torn open, practically from hip to knee.
He swore. Death was far too good for Jimmy Ramsey.
“Look at the one of her sister.”
Bill opened another image that showed Cheryl in a similar position with her arm at an unnatural angle and one side of her face so puffy she was almost unrecognizable.
Sean cursed again and clicked on the picture of Kim again. She’d endured all that to protect her sister. Half the guys in his Special Forces unit would have spilled their guts for less.
“You still want to hand this off to one of the rookies?”
Sean leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to quiet his
stomach. He, of the cast-iron gut, who’d seen more blood and body parts than he could count, getting nauseous because of a couple of photos? He was going soft. “The guy got six months.”
Bill whistled. “Six months? That’s it?”
“He’s a cop.”
“A cop. How many years of service?”
“Fifteen before he was suspended.” The situation was ugly. “He’s been investigated three times for excessive violence against female suspects but never disciplined. He has connections. Influence.”
“Damn.”
Yeah, no kidding. A cop with fifteen years’ experience knew what he was doing. Ramsey would take down a rookie cop in a heartbeat. And rookies were all Bill had working for him.
Hell.
Sean picked up his phone and called the parole officer again. It was almost eight in the morning Pacific time, so he should be in by now.
A raspy voice answered on the first ring. “Vin here.”
“Officer Sean Templeton here calling from the Ridgeport Police Department in Maine.”
“Yeah, I just got done listening to your message. Ramsey hasn’t checked in.”
“Will you call me when he does?”
If
he does.
“Yeah. Later.” Vin hung up.
Chatty guy.
“So?”
Sean hung up the phone. “He hasn’t checked in.” So Jimmy
could
be in Maine.
“I don’t want him in my town.” Bill actually looked a little stressed.
“You and me both.” Sean dug his fingers into his forehead. Miserable friggin’ headache. He had to think.
Needed to figure this out. “You have to take this case. A rookie is no match for Ramsey.”
“Can’t do it. I’m already overloaded. It’s you or a rookie.”
Sean narrowed his eyes at the man he’d once called his friend. “Do it for me.”
“Do it for yourself.”
He cursed. “The woman is my ex-fiancée. Don’t you have rules against taking a case that you’re personally involved in?”
“Not in this department. We’re too small.” Billy lifted an eyebrow. “Besides, you said you don’t care about her.”
“I don’t.”
Billy grinned. “Seems to me, the only reason I’d have for taking you off this case is if you were so screwed up by her that you were incapable of performing your duties. She got you that bad, Templeton?”
“Of course not. I can do my job.”
Billy tossed him the folder. “Then I guess it’s yours.”
Sean caught the file. He was trapped, and they both knew it.
“Welcome back, Sean. Enjoy your first case.”
“You’re too damned cheery.”
All he got was a bigger grin. “And
you’re
too damned ornery. Go take a shower and we’ll see you back here tonight. You’re in charge of the night shift. I’m gonna stick to days now that you’re around.”
“I’m in charge? No way, Billy.” The deal had been that he’d be a patrol officer with a beat, about as far from his Special Forces experience as possible. He didn’t want responsibility for anyone anymore. All he wanted was a paycheck.
“It’s Chief Vega to you. Remember that or I’ll have to write you up for insubordination. The nights are yours. Enjoy.”
Sean groaned. He had to get out of here. He couldn’t deal with someone trying to be friends with him.
He might be off duty, but he wasn’t going to be off the clock until he finished this deal with Jimmy Ramsey and got Kim out of his life.
Right now, he was going to find Kim.
He needed some answers.
E
DDIE WAVED
K
IM
off as he turned toward the docks, leaving Kim on her own to head into the office. As she clomped up the wooden steps, she could almost hear her dad on the phone, or her mom laughing at the reception desk.
Almost, but not quite. Joyce wasn’t there, Max was in a coma and Kim had a psychopath stalking her.
Not exactly the utopia of her youth. That utopia was a mirage she’d never fall for again. Behind those moments of laughter, Joyce had been suffering and no one had realized it. Even now, Kim was the only one who really knew why her mom had killed herself, thanks to the letter Joyce had mailed right before she ended her life.
A letter that would haunt Kim forever.
She nodded at one of the maintenance guys on his way out of the office, the logo on his shirt identifying him. A giggle caught her attention and she turned in time to see one of the female employees latch on to his beefy arm and guide him in the direction of the laundry facilities.
Yeah, when Kim had been young, she’d lusted after the maintenance guys, too. Today, she only noticed their muscles and assessed how hard they’d be able to hit their wives.
Was she messed up or what?
She stepped inside the screened porch foyer and saw two strangers working the front desk. That was where her mom had spent her days, enjoying the contact with the guests and the outside world they represented.
Now it was a guy in his late twenties wearing a tight, black T-shirt that showed off his well-developed upper body,
and a slightly older woman with blond hair pulled into two pigtails. They were arguing about something, and the woman seemed to be winning.
Kim was all in favor of avoiding both of them, but her dad’s office was behind the reception desk. She cleared her throat, trying not to feel like a stranger in the place that had been her home. “Hello.”
They ignored her and kept bickering.
“Hey!” What was up with this? For all they knew, she was a guest. Having the staff arguing in front of her was hardly what her parents would have allowed. It was as if anarchy had taken over now that Max wasn’t around.
The woman spun toward her, plastering a cheery smile on her face in an amazing metamorphosis. “Good morning and welcome to the Loon’s Nest. May I help you?”
“I’m…Max Collins’s daughter, Kim.”
The woman’s eyes snapped wide open and she clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh!” Then she dropped her hand. “I’m so sorry about your dad. Such a nice man.”
“Yeah, I know.”
And no, I haven’t visited him yet, so don’t ask.
Gee, think she was getting a little testy? She tried to smile and put on a friendly voice. “And you are?”
“Didi Smith. I work here year-round, helping out your dad in the winter.” Didi was supermodel-skinny, but her eyes were sharp and intelligent. Maybe a fraction too much makeup for working the front desk at the Loon’s Nest, but she knew how to maximize it to enhance her looks. Didi was a woman who wasn’t afraid to admit her femininity. She’d fit in perfectly in L.A. Kim shook her hand, then nodded at the man, who stuck out his hand, as well.
“Will Ambrose. This is my first summer. Welcome.” He gave her a nice smile that she could see would have a good effect on guests. It made her want to smile back, so she did. Felt weird to grin, but good, too. She should do it more often.
“I’m going to be in my dad’s office for a bit, okay?”
“Sure.” Didi fished a set of keys out of her back pocket. “I’ll unlock it for you.”
“He locks his office during the day now?” Since when did that happen? It wasn’t as if he kept any money in there, and with Didi and Will running around out front, no one would be able to wander in unnoticed. Sure, she’d locked the door at the house, but that was because she had a homicidal maniac after her. Not too likely Max had landed one, as well.
Didi shrugged. “He started locking it in early June, maybe a month and a half ago.”
“Did someone break in or something? Why the concern with security?”
“I don’t know.” Didi looked at Will, who shrugged.
“Never mind.” The last thing she needed was to start thinking too much about her dad. “I’ll be inside if you need me.” She stepped inside and shut out Didi and Will, leaning back against the door while she looked at her dad’s office for the first time in a decade. The room looked as if it belonged to a stranger.
Gone were all the family photos, except for a few of Cheryl and herself. Absolutely no sign of her mom, right down to the removal of the light fixtures Joyce had installed. The furniture was different, the curtains had changed and there was carpet on the beautiful old pine floor. It was as if someone had tried to transform it from a rustic camp office into something more suitable for suburban Boston.
Was this the handiwork of her dad’s new concubine, or Max’s attempt to erase the memory of his wife?
Not that it mattered. Kim was here to preserve a future for her sister, not dwell on the past. So she lifted her chin, walked to the desk and sat. She flicked on the computer and waited for it to boot up. Maybe she hadn’t been to the hospital yet, but she could at least save this camp. No worries of running into her dad or his wife-from-hell.
This was good. Since she couldn’t occupy herself with her own work, she could use the camp as a distraction from remembering that the last time she’d been in this town, her mother had been alive. A heaviness settled around her and Kim clamped down on the memories. See why she hadn’t wanted to come back? Thinking about the past made it harder to deal with the present. Who needed that? Not her.
She shut off her emotions and opened that year’s financial statements, which made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever.
She was a magazine editor, not a numbers person.
But Alan was. Maybe he could help. She picked up her cell phone and dialed his mobile. He answered on the second ring. “How’s Maine?”
“It sucks. Any sign of Jimmy?”
“None. I’ve staked out your place and your work, and he hasn’t turned up. No hang-up calls on your machine or at work. He’ll show, though. I know he will.”
Or maybe he’s already in Maine.
No, dammit. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. She was going to focus on Alan and how good it was to hear his voice. Alan. Safe and secure, her only real friend in L.A. It was amazing how close they’d gotten in the year and a half they’d known each other. Nothing like a couple of attempted murders to accelerate the bonding.
“How’s the camp?” Alan asked.
“Just about in bankruptcy. Hey, can you tell me how to read financial statements?”
“Not in the five minutes I have until my next meeting. Why?”
“Apparently, the camp is in bad shape, so I promised an old friend I’d check it out.”
“Seriously? You’re actually looking at camp financial statements? I was joking when I asked you how it was. You said you weren’t even going to set foot in the camp.”
“Yeah, well, things changed. Can you help me? Where do I start looking to find out what’s going on?”
He made a noise of exasperation. “I can’t tell you how to audit a company in thirty seconds.”
“Well, teach me something. I have work to do.” She opened another file. Payroll. Will and Didi were on there. And Eddie. She didn’t recognize any other names.
“I have extra vacation time. Why don’t I fly out there and help you?” He hesitated. “I’m not sure I like you being out there alone when we don’t know where Jimmy is.”
She almost smiled. It felt good to have someone care about her. It was a shame that there was zero romantic interest between the two of them. Though if there had been any, they would have broken up by now. Between Jimmy and Sean, she wasn’t exactly a poster child for healthy romantic relationships. Jimmy had made worse that which was already broken. “You can’t come, Alan. You have to stay out there to watch for Jimmy. Remember the plan?”
“Yes, but the plan also entailed you hiding out in a secure hotel, not in a defenseless cabin in the middle of the woods.”
Excellent point.
A loud rap sounded on the office door, startling her. It swung open before she could extend an invitation and she lurched back, grabbing a paperweight and aiming it at the intruder. Sean marched inside and her hand dropped in relief.
He was wearing jeans, boots and an old gray T-shirt that showed off the hard, lean body of a military warrior.
When she’d left ten years ago, he’d been a skinny eighteen-year-old who hadn’t grown into his long limbs.
Not anymore.
He was all man, and he looked furious.
And for some stupid reason, she was glad to see him. Probably the fact that she had a stalker after her and Sean had a gun on his hip and looked ready to kill.
God help her if it was any other reason.
“I gotta go. Bye.” Tension rushed over him as Kim quickly hung up the phone.
Was she hiding something?
“Who was that?” Sean shut the door and leaned against it, taking a quick scan of the office. No threats, nothing out of place. Safe, for the moment.
“My friend. Alan Haywood. He’s watching my apartment in L.A. to see if Jimmy shows up.” Her cell phone rang again and she glanced down at it. “It’s Alan.”
He held out his hand. “Give it to me.” Alan, huh? He didn’t like the sound of a friend named Alan. Sounded fishy to him.
She glared at him. “No.” She answered it. “What?”
She waited for a moment, then smiled. “No, I’m fine. The cops just arrived and I sort of panicked. But nothing has happened.” She covered the mouthpiece and directed her next question to Sean. “
Has
anything happened? Did you find him?”
He shook his head and tried not to think about how the man on the other end of the phone had made her smile. Sean used to make her smile. Now all he did was make her panic. What had changed the night she’d decided to leave him? Not that he’d ever ask. She wasn’t his problem anymore. Time had given him the distance he needed not to ask. Not to care. Not to obsess.
“I promise I’ll call you every hour,” she said into the phone. “Love you.” She hung up and set the phone down. “Why are you here?”
“‘Love you’?”
“He’s a friend, Sean.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Why do you care?”
“Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t someone working for Jimmy trying to find out where you are.”
Tension flickered in her eyes, but she quickly shoved it aside. “Didn’t you get my message this morning? Jimmy isn’t after me. I was being irrational and letting my imagination get to me. I’m fine.”
Why did she have to be so stubborn? Anger roiled through him and he threw down the photos of her in the hospital. His ability to dismiss his concern about the case vanished the moment he’d seen those photos. Yeah, he’d tried to pawn the case off on Billy, but now that it was his, he was going to be haunted by those images until Jimmy Ramsey was back in jail—or dead. As a cop, he couldn’t walk away. As Kim’s ex-lover…well, that was something he had to get over. That wasn’t why he was here. “He’s no threat? I should drop the case? You’ll be fine?”
“Where did you get those?” Her hand went to her thigh, where he knew a nasty scar had to be hidden.
He leaned against the desk, his hands flat on the surface. “Jimmy hasn’t checked in for parole.”
She caught her breath, her fingers curling around the arm of the chair. “It was a bear.”
“Why are you shutting me out? I’m here to help you.” Hard to imagine there was a time when he’d known every secret she had. She wouldn’t even let him into her worst nightmare now.
Kim seemed to steady herself and threw him a challenging stare. “Why are you here? I thought you were going to assign someone else to the case.”
He gritted his teeth. “It has to be me.”
“Why? Do you think maybe you’re too personally involved—”
He held up his hand. “It’s been ten years, Kim.”
“Believe me, I know how long it’s been.”
So she’d been counting the years as well? “What happened back then doesn’t matter anymore.”
Her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. “It doesn’t?”
“No.” It couldn’t. He’d moved on, and he wasn’t interested in revisiting their past. He simply wasn’t. Instead, he nodded at the pictures. “That’s what matters now.”
She followed his gaze to the photos, and said nothing. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking anymore. Oh, sure, he could sense her anxiety and fear, but nothing else. He sure couldn’t see inside her mind. Didn’t know why she’d left, why she hadn’t visited her dad, why… The list was too long.
“Kim.”
She looked at him. “What?”
“Let’s make a deal. I’m here as a cop. That’s my job, and let’s not take it any further than that. The past is gone.”
After a long moment, she nodded. “Fine. No past. It’s better that way.”
“Yeah.” Then why did he so desperately want to find out what had happened? Why had she left? Dammit! Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it? Was he so weak that one moment with her in his arms caused ten years of immunity to collapse?
“I’m getting an alarm installed today. I’m going to alert the staff to keep an eye out for him.” She met his gaze. “He won’t get me.”
“It’s my job to keep you safe. I’m not going away.”
She groaned. “Why does it have to be you?”
“Because it does.” He felt years of rage bubble up, bitterness he’d kept buried for so long. He couldn’t contain it.
“I might not have been good enough to marry, but trust me, I’m good enough to keep you alive.”
Her glittering eyes snapped to his face. He wished he could see pain and regret in them, but he saw nothing beyond the defensiveness. “I thought the past was off-limits.”
“I won’t let you use it to endanger yourself. Get over it and let me help.”
“Sean—”
The door swung open and Sean was on his feet with his hand on his gun before Didi had even stepped inside. “You have a visitor,” she said. She lifted her eyebrow at Sean in the same not-so-subtle flirtation she’d directed toward him when he’d first arrived.
As if he had time for that crap. “Who is it?”
Didi narrowed her eyes in the typical look of a woman who wasn’t used to men being immune to her charm. “Tom Payton from the marina.”
“I’ll come out and meet him,” he said.
“Me, too.” Kim jumped up, ignoring his glare to stay in the office. “I have to run this place, Sean. I’m not going to let Jimmy rule my life.”
“You’re taking over the Loon’s Nest?” Didi asked Kim as she trailed along after them. “Really?”
“Really.” Kim walked into the reception area one step ahead of Sean, but he made sure she wasn’t between his gun and their guest, who appeared to be a skinny kid wearing cutoffs and sneakers. He looked like he was eighteen, but something about his eyes said he was more likely to be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a Yankees cap and his nose was sunburned. He blushed when Didi shot him a come-hither look. Guess the kid hadn’t figured out that Didi probably gave that smile to anyone with a Y chromosome.
“I’m Kim Collins.”
The kid nodded. “Tom Payton. Eddie sent me up here to
get you. He wants to show you something on Max’s boat.” He looked nervously at Sean. “You’re the cop?”
“Yeah.”
“He saw your cruiser. Wants you to come, too.”
Sean glanced at Kim as they followed Tom out the door. Her face was shuttered and she wouldn’t look at him. Was she pissed at Sean or upset because they had to deal with her dad? What had happened to make her hate Max so much?
No, that wasn’t Sean’s problem. It was so frustrating to find himself falling into the old patterns: caring about her, wanting to know what she was feeling, wishing he could take away her anguish. He’d thought he hated her too much to lapse into past behaviors. Habit. That’s all his feelings were. A bad habit it was time to break so he could focus on the more important questions. For one, what was going on with Max’s boat?
Eddie met them at the door to the boathouse, where he had Max’s boat in dry dock. He wasted no time on pleasantries. “You guys gotta see this.” He walked them over to the boat and pointed to the steering column. “Right there.”
Sean could see some scratches on the casing. “What am I looking for?”
Eddie pulled out a screwdriver and pointed to a small piece of metal poking out. “That little piece wedged in there?” He tugged on the steering wheel and it didn’t turn. “Jammed the steering column so it can’t turn.”
Sean squatted and pulled a flashlight off his belt. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah.” Eddie leaned on the rim of the boat. “Told you his wife was trying to kill him.”
Sean had been treated to Eddie’s murder theories during their late nights at the hospital and he still didn’t buy them. In Sean’s opinion, Eddie felt guilty and was trying to absolve himself. Sean was certain Helen adored Max, even if she didn’t want to operate the Loon’s Nest for the rest of her life.
“Assuming for a minute it wasn’t Helen, how else could this have happened?”
Kim was standing back, her arms folded across her chest. She was acting as though she didn’t care, but he couldn’t believe it. He simply couldn’t. He’d seen her love for her family too many times. It had been real and enduring. How had it come to this?
Eddie frowned. “I didn’t do it.”
“I know, Eddie. But could it have happened by mistake?”
He hesitated. “Well, Tom was working on the boat earlier in the day. He might have made an error, I guess.”
Sean could hear Tom outside talking to one of the resort guests about renting a boat to go waterskiing.
He sat back on his heels. “If the piece got wedged in there before Max took the boat out, how could he have steered from the start? Or it is possible that it shifted?”
“It definitely shifted as he drove. Helen probably wedged it in there and knew the steering would freeze up at some point.”
“But that could have been when he was going slow and was in no danger. It’s not a very good way to kill someone.”
Eddie frowned. “She’s not real bright when it comes to lake things. Lucky for us.”
Sean ground his teeth, trying to remain neutral. “Why are you so against Helen?”
Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be on her side? She’s the outsider.”
“I’m not on anyone’s side, Eddie. I’m just trying to get answers.”
Eddie turned away and looked for Kim, who was standing even farther away, her arms hugged around her body. “You believe me, don’t you, Kim? It was Helen trying to kill him.”
She glanced at Sean and he saw such stark angst on her face he felt it slap him. He had to close his eyes for a moment to force himself not to reach out to her. Dammit!
Break the
habit, Sean!
But at least he’d been right to doubt her claim that she didn’t care about her dad at all.
“I don’t know what to believe.” Her voice was so pained that Eddie immediately softened.
“I’m sorry, Kimmy. I know it’s hard for you to talk about it.” He refocused on Sean. “But this is your job. You find a way to pin it on Helen before she destroys this place. I love this family and I’m not going to see it destroyed by some scheming outsider like Helen.”
“I’ll look into it. Keep the boat off-limits and I’ll send someone to check it out.” Sean inspected the rafters of the boathouse. There was a ledge around the ceiling where life jackets and some small boats were stored. Perfect hiding spot for someone who wanted to tamper with the boat and needed a place to wait until the opportunity arose.
This whole place was rife with opportunity for a stalker. It was a bunch of cabins in the woods. If Kim tried to run this place, she’d be walking on secluded trails all day long. He looked at her, and she was checking out the rafters as well. When she met his gaze, he knew she’d been thinking the same thing.
Good. Maybe she’d listen to him now.
K
IM WAS TRUDGING
back toward the office when Sean caught her arm. He nodded toward Tom. “Let’s chat with him.”
“About my dad’s accident?” She swallowed hard.
“Yeah.” He didn’t let go, forcing her to accompany him. He wouldn’t let her run away from her own father’s fate. Not when she’d given him that glimpse of her hidden angst. He wasn’t going to make it easy for her to reject Max. Because he loved Max. Not because he gave a rip about Kim’s happiness anymore. Or at least he was trying not to. It was harder than he wanted it to be. “Tom. Got a sec?”
Tom turned away from the guest who was paddling away in a canoe. “Yeah. What’s up?”
“You worked on Max’s boat before he took it out?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you inspect the steering column?”
“I did the normal maintenance. Everything was fine.” But he wasn’t making eye contact, and he was shifting restlessly on his feet.
“But did you check the steering column?”
Tom’s hands settled on his hips. “I didn’t look for things wedged in it.” There was a defiant edge to his voice. A challenge.
Interesting. “Eddie showed you the steering column?”
“Uh-huh.”
Yeah, Eddie would make a good investigator. “Any thoughts on how it got there?”
Tom shrugged. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t screw up.”
Sean lifted his eyebrow. “No one says you did. I’m just trying to gather information.”
“Well, it wasn’t me.” Tom picked at the edge of his T-shirt. “Is that it? I gotta get back to work.”
Sean let him go.
Kim stared across the lake, her arms folded across her chest. “You think my dad’s crash wasn’t an accident?” Her voice was clipped and reserved.
He didn’t buy her aloofness. “Do you?”
She pressed her lips together. Finally, she shrugged.
“Do you even care?” He had to ask. Had to know if she could even acknowledge that she felt something inside that frigid wall she’d erected around herself. Had to understand how the woman he’d loved had become the woman she was today.
After a long moment, she nodded once. Then she walked away.
S
IX HOURS LATER
, Kim waved the hunky maintenance guy away after she locked the door behind him and set the new
alarm. Carl, the head of maintenance she’d seen flirting with one of the girls that morning, had driven her home and done a walk-through of her house before leaving.
She hadn’t asked for his escort, but Sean had had a little chat with Carl before taking off for the day. After she’d refused Sean’s bodyguard offer, he’d compromised by giving her someone else’s assistance.
She leaned against the locked door and sighed. She couldn’t live like this, but she couldn’t deny that a small part of her felt better after Carl had inspected the place. Was Jimmy here? Was he in California? Was she losing her mind? He was making her so crazy she didn’t know what to think.
Her cell phone rang. She flipped the phone open. “You don’t need to call me every five minutes.”
“Still no sign of him out here,” Alan said. “I’m getting worried. He should have tried to find you by now.”
She swallowed. “You know he’s going to show up out there. He has to.”