Murder in Roseville

by Denise McGee

  "That's not the issue right now."

  "Really? Then what's the issue? Your inability to answer a simple question?" Nicki asked, infuriated.

  "No," he turned hard eyes on me. "The issue is someone is going out of their way to try to hurt you, Laurel, and the people around you are paying the price. I want to know why."

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Questioned

  AARON

  I stalked angrily away from the front hall, looking for the bathroom Kyle had indicated. I felt like a fool. Laurel had thrown my feelings for her back in my face. Worse, she thought they were a by-product of the explosion and not real.

  I tried to ignore the niggling voice that wondered if she might be right. So, maybe it's in my nature to protect. And everyone knows how much I hated feeling helpless.

  My footsteps slowed and no longer trod as heavily on the hardwood floor as for the first time I truly thought about what Laurel had said. The hard knot of mixed anger and embarrassment in my midsection dissolved and I sighed. Laurel had been smarter than I. She'd known our situation wasn't normal and that our emotions were heightened because of it.

  I found the bathroom at the very end of the hall and put off thinking about Laurel for a bit. I itched from head to toe and was raw in places I didn't want to think about.

  Kyle had anticipated my choice, there were fresh clothes laid out on the counter. I stripped down and entered the shower stall with a sigh of contentment.

  I hesitated before turning on the water, wondering how best to handle the soft cast. I finally propped the arm on the top of the shower door and tossed a towel over it. I'd just have to manage as best I could one-handed.

  "Jesus, Kyle." The shelf in the shower was lined with soaps and shampoos. No man needed more than one bottle and that one did double duty as shampoo and body wash. I grabbed a bottle at random and scrubbed my hide until my skin glowed a nice shade of red. It was awkward with my arm elevated the way it was, but I managed.

  The shower head was an expensive model with a variety of spray settings. I rotated the dial to pulse and let it pound the knots from my shoulders. The steamy stream of water washed away the last of my discontent.

  As I stood there, watching the barely cooled water swirl down the drain, what Laurel hadn't said lifted my spirits. She hadn't said we had no future. She hadn't said she felt nothing for me. She'd merely asked me to be sure.

  I may owe her an apology.

  Oh, who was I kidding? I owed her an apology and I damn well knew it. I'd overreacted and lashed out at her. She hadn't deserved one syllable of it.

  I shut off the water and grabbed a waiting towel. Not bothering with footwear, I barely dried myself before tossing on the waiting clothes and padding into the hall. The shirt stuck to my damp back and the sweats chafed my thighs, but I was too anxious to see Laurel to mind.

  "Aaron!" Kyle called as I passed the open patio doors. I hesitated. The urge to find Laurel was eating at my gut. "C'mon, man. We need to talk about some stuff before the girls come back down."

  I sighed and followed his voice outdoors.

  He was seated on one of the comfy sofas, holding an opened beer bottle out for me. Drops of water joined the dampness on my shirt as I flopped down on the couch across from him and took a long swig of the chilled brew.

  "So, what's up?" I asked.

  He looked at me for a moment. He was hesitant, unsure and utterly not like Kyle Dean at all. My gut clenched. I wasn't going to like this at all.

  "I wanted to talk to you about Laurel, man."

  "What about her?" I tried to not feel defensive, but my own feelings for her were all over the place and my tone was sharper than I would have liked.

  He gave me a look that said chill dude. I took a deep breath and nodded. We'd known each other too long for me to ignore anything he might have to say. We'd been best friends in college, joined the force together and had saved each other's life more than once. He was more of a brother than a friend and I owed it to him to listen.

  "Ok. First, I need to know why you were so pissed with her."

  "I was being stupid."

  "I need more than that, dude. You're stupid on a daily basis."

  "Fine." I shifted, uncomfortable. I grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under my aching arm. It wasn't the only reason I felt twitchy but fussing with the pillow helped steady me. "I started getting all mushy and she stopped me. Said we'd been under a lot of strain and we needed to be sure before saying something we'll regret later. I reacted badly."

  "Point in her favor."

  "Meaning?" I kept my tone even this time.

  "What do you know about her, man? I mean really know?" He started ticking off points on his fingers. "Her husband dies and in less than two weeks she's all over you. Her house is ransacked, blown up and then Nicki gets attacked while there. Something's not adding up here. I think she knows more than she's said."

  "Well, when you put it like that," I said, sarcasm oozing from my words. But he was right. I kept forgetting her recently widowed status. Or maybe I just didn't want to remember.

  "C'mon, man. Quit thinking with your dick. You found her husband with another woman, right? Who's to say Laurel didn't bump them both off? What if the rest of it is his family trying to even things? Or maybe she's into something dirty and got her husband killed because of it. Even you have to admit there's something going on."

  I sighed. "Fine, there's a possibility that she may know what's going on."

  "Great. Now, I want your word you won't interrupt or try to stop me when I grill her later. You know how this works and I don't want you being a hero and messing things up."

  "You're asking an awful lot, man."

  "I know. But you know I wouldn't ask it if it wasn't important."

  "Man, I hate this." I ran my hand through my damp hair, causing it to stick up in odd places. "Dammit." Pounding the pillow with my sore arm, I gasped at the sudden pain.

  "Dude, you've done dumber things but not many. Need your meds?"

  "Yeah." The arm was pounding. He left the patio, returning soon with my painkillers and a comb. I washed the pills down with the remains of my beer. Kyle handed me another and then motioned to the comb.

  "You've got a nutty professor thing going on."

  The pain in my arm cleared my head, so while I fixed the crazy hair I said, "Alright, I won't interfere. I feel in my gut that Laurel's innocent but you're right. We need to know what she knows."

  "Good." He set his bottle down on the low coffee table with a clink and the conversation turned to football until we heard the ladies coming down the hall.

  I was glad that Kyle waited until I'd smoothed things over with Laurel before he started his interrogation. I still tensed, of course, but I kept my word and didn't interrupt.

  Her beautiful eyes widened in shock and her mouth parted in a soft 'o' as she pulled away from my side. Kyle kept up the pressure.

  "You've been a widow, what? A week and a half? 2 weeks? And yet here you are all snuggled up with Aaron."

  Laurel's lips moved a few times but no words emerged. Not for the first time, I wished my talent worked on people as well as objects. It was useful but severely limited as to application.

  "Kyle," Nicki said. "Shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about."

  He ignored her. "Well, Laurel?"

  "You're an idiot, Kyle." Nicki seated herself next to Laurel and slipped her arm around Laurel's shoulders, pulling her away from me. "Nathan and Laurel didn't have that kind relationship. Nathan had lots of girlfriends and Laurel stayed home and wrote books. I don't think they did more than wave bye to each other for years and I know for a fact they had separate bedrooms. Satisfied?"

  Whatever truths I'd expected from Kyle's interrogation of Laurel, this hadn't been one of them. Kyle looked poleaxed, and I probably looked the same.

  "Why did you stay married, then?" I asked.

  Laurel turned sad eyes to me and shrugged. "I never had a reason to get divorced
."

  "But he cheated on you!"

  She waved a hand. "I didn't care about that. I encouraged it actually. I'd even set him up a couple times. We'd settled into a comfortable routine and I was...content."

  "But not happy."

  "Not like I've felt with you, no."

  I gently pulled her away from Nicki and held her against my chest. Just when I thought I had Laurel figured out she threw another curve ball my way.

  Kyle cleared his throat and continued. "Ok, so that's explained. I still wonder if you know more than you've said, though."

  Laurel swallowed as if tasting something bitter and then smiled. "No, you don't. But maybe we can work out what's going on if we work together."

  I shared a look with Kyle over her head. How had she known Kyle was no longer suspicious of her? I'd known but she'd barely met him. She didn't have a history with Kyle like I did.

  "What makes you say that?"

  "Say what?"

  "That I don't wonder about you."

  She took a deep breath. "Your words tasted like licorice."

  "They what?"

  "They tasted like licorice. Lies always taste like licorice."

  "Are you saying you can tell when someone lies to you?"

  "Most of the time, yes. It doesn't work if the person truly believes what they're saying but other than that it's pretty reliable."

  "That's a pretty remarkable talent. Can you do anything else?"

  I felt the motion of her shrug against my chest. "It's not just lies. I taste emotion. It's why I don't go out much. I get headaches in crowds." She paused. "Don't any of you have a gift? Nathan had an affinity for plants. It's why his yardscapes always came out so beautiful."

  "Wait. Yardscapes? Was Nate Edwards your husband?"

  She sat up and looked at the lush yard. "The Dean Manor. It never connected. Your property was the last he did. The papers never got his name right." She lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug of discontent. "It was reported as Nathan Edward Wentworth. Wentworth is my maiden name. I was already a published author when we got married so I didn't change it."

  "So it was him. The man was a genius. I guess if he had a talent...that would explain it."

  I plucked at the edge of my soft cast with my free hand. This was where I should confess my talent but I hesitated. I'd never told anyone before, not even my mother. But I couldn't let Laurel open herself that way and not speak up. I opened my mouth but before I could get the words out Kyle spoke up.

  "I, uh, catch glimpses of the future. Most of the time it's useless stuff. But every once in a while I see something pertinent."

  "Todd Pankey," I said, things snapping together in my mind. Todd Pankey had shot a state trooper in the chest after a routine traffic stop and then fled into town. The entire force was led on a merry chase throughout town that had culminated with him shooting the shit out of several squad cars with a submachine gun he'd ordered off the internet. Kyle had been the one who'd taken him out.

  He looked surprised. "Yeah."

  "I wondered how you'd known he'd wind up at his grandma's."

  Kyle shrugged. "That was common sense. She was the only one who never judged him."

  "Then what?" I was confused.

  His eyes flickered to Nicki and back so quickly I thought it was my imagination. "I saw him shoot Nicki so I...prevented it."

  "Was that how you got hit?" Nicki demanded, sitting upright.

  He shrugged. "It was just my vest."

  "It was just your vest." She repeated, looking angrier than I'd ever seen her. "And if he had missed your vest and shot your head instead?"

  He shrugged again. "I didn't see that happening."

  "I see." Her voice was cold enough to make my beer feel warm. "And have you had any other 'beneficial' visions?" She used her fingers to put quotes around the 'beneficial'.

  "One or two," Kyle said, not willing to be baited.

  I decided to step in and head off a fight. I could guess, sitting in his luxurious mansion, what else he'd caught a glimpse of. "I have visions, too." Three sets of eyes turned my way. "I can touch an object and see the past if there's strong enough emotion attached to it." I looked at Laurel. "I did it with Nathan's car."

  She inhaled sharply, "What did you see?"

  I held her eyes as I told them about the man and woman leaving the parking lot, the fear they had felt. I told them of the SUV that forced the couple off the road and the torture and eventual death of Gina.

  When I had finished the silence stretched on and on as we all came to grips with what I had seen.

  Kyle broke the silence. "You didn't get a look at the guy’s face?"

  "Nah, it was all in shadows. He was a little shorter than me but not by much. Strong but not musclebound. That was pretty much all I saw. That and he was a total pro about it all. He knew precisely what he was doing at all times. I was hoping the cigarette butt would give me a name but if it did no one told me."

  "Results haven't come back yet," Nicki said. "That description is pretty vague but it sounds similar to the guy who stabbed me."

  "I wonder," said Laurel slowly, eyes unfocused. She was rubbing her arm. "If it's the same guy who grabbed me in the alley..."

  "When did this happen? Why were you in an alley?" She didn't respond. I leaned closer to her, touched her cheek. "Laurel?"

  She came from wherever she'd been and gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry. It, uh, was yesterday. Right after Andy knocked you out. I went to Nancy's and this guy was there. I thought he was a reporter because several had been hanging around the hospital and it looked like he was with them." She made a face. "I snuck out through the kitchen into the alley and he followed me. He grabbed me, slammed me against the wall and then..."

  "And then?" Nicki prompted when Laurel trailed off.

  "I dunno. Somehow the dumpster got in his way and I took off, found a cab and hightailed it back to the hospital."

  "The dumpster got in his way?"

  "Yeah, it knocked him away from me and then blocked him from catching me again."

  "Was someone else there? Someone hiding maybe?"

  Kyle glanced at Laurel's bandages in concern when she shook her head. I could see he was wondering if her head wound was more serious than we'd thought.

  I pushed up the sleeve on the arm Laurel had been rubbing. Five bruises marred her fair skin, the lone one on her inner arm darker than the rest.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Ambushed

  LAUREL

  "What the hell, Laurel? Why didn't you say something?" Nicki asked.

  I shrugged. Truthfully, I'd almost convinced myself it had been a dream. Seeing the marks had shocked me and I shivered, suddenly chilled to my core. Aaron put his arm around my shoulders and gave me an encouraging squeeze.

  "I was going to tell you over pizza...." I trailed off, made a face and then continued. "I sort of forgot about it after you were attacked."

  "We'll want pictures of that," Kyle said after a moment. "And a full description of the guy that accosted you. Any more of these little adventures, Laurel?"

  I shook my head. "I've told Aaron everything else that happened."

  "How 'bout we go over it all, see what we can figure out? First off, what are you working on now? Maybe you ran into something incriminating while researching."

  "I only have a preliminary plot idea. I haven't done more than do a little reading about Thailand for the background."

  Beside me, Aaron settled back and propped his arm on the pillow again. I missed the warmth of his body against mine but understood the pain he must be feeling.

  "What will the story be about?" Kyle continued.

  "Finding Happily Ever After at a baking contest."

  "In Thailand?"

  "You think they don't bake in Thailand?" I was amused.

  He grinned but let that pass. "Ok, what about Nate? What was he into? Any projects besides mine?"

  "Yours was the last he mentioned to me." A thought o
ccurred to me. "Was there a problem with the side yard?"

  "Not that I'm aware of, why?"

  "Nathan's boss showed up on the day he died looking for some papers. He said they had gotten overcharged or got the wrong plants or something." I added thoughtfully. "His words tasted of lies."

  "Remember when I asked you if there was anything else? This is the sort of thing I meant. If he was lying you should have told someone," Kyle said.

  I gave him a pitying look. "Everyone lies. Big lies, little lies - everyone is hiding something. I didn't think his lying was anything special. And since this was several hours before Nathan died, I didn't think it was relevant."

  I leaned back and Aaron snuggled me against his side again. A little thrill went down my spine as I realized thus far he was the only person who'd never lied to me. I never felt like he was holding anything back or shading his words with half-truths.

  Something of my thoughts must have shown on my face. "What?" he asked.

  "Except you. You're the only truly honest person I've ever met."

  "That's his trademark," Kyle said. "He's like friggin' Abe Lincoln. His moral code is off the charts."

  "Funny," Aaron rumbled against my side. He gave Kyle a glare. "Back on topic, so there may or may not be something to these papers. What happened with his boss?"

  "I tried calling Nathan a couple times but didn't get an answer so we looked around Nathan's office. We didn't find what he was looking for, though."

  "So he got a good look at your home?

  "Well, he was only in the living room and Nathan's office. But yeah, he was looking around, peering down hallways and such."

  "I'm sure he noticed you don't have an alarm system," Nicki said.

  "Probably." I frowned. "He asked if Nathan had a safe. I told him I didn't know."

  "What's this guy's name?" Kyle asked.

  "Graham Hamilton."

  "Ok. He's our best lead at the moment. I'll call dispatch and have him checked out." Kyle said.

  "We'll need pictures of your bruises, Lo," Nicki said. "My camera is in my gear bag..." She trailed off as she realized she didn't know where that currently was.