Maggie's Guardian (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Adams, Anna

  Noah turned her toward the stairs, and she let him. “You’re using this as an excuse to search Tessa’s home. The crime happened outside. You can search the property to your heart’s content, but this house is off-limits until you produce a warrant.”

  “I don’t need a warrant to follow the bullet’s path,” Weldon said, a bantam rooster trying to claim his barnyard. “I’m running an investigation in this house, and you know better than to sleep under a roof that’s been shot up.”

  “Your job is to make sure we’re safe. It’s time you stationed a patrolman outside.”

  Tessa left them to battle it out and flew up the stairs to Eleanor and Joe’s room. She knocked, and a deputy came out. Behind him, she saw Joe, red-faced and flustered on a straight-backed chair.

  “We’re busy here, Ms. Gabriel,” the deputy said. “I need to find out exactly what Mr. Worth saw.”

  “Eleanor’s in your room with Maggie,” Joe said.

  Tessa nodded, but she didn’t move. “Joe—”

  “I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with, and maybe they’ll start doing their jobs.”

  The deputy shut the door, and Tessa headed for her own room. Eleanor was sitting in the rocking chair with Maggie in her lap. They were passing a small blue ball to each other. Maggie looked up, clapping her hands as she saw Tessa, and Tessa scooped the little girl into her arms, trying not to squeeze her too hard.

  “I’m so glad everyone’s all right.”

  Eleanor nodded, reaching up to stroke Maggie’s leg. “We happened to be up here. Lucky thing, I guess.”

  Barely standing on her weak knees, Tessa rocked the baby. “Was she scared?”

  “Only when she noticed I was, but I’ve calmed her down.”

  Tessa sank onto the bed, which left her near Eleanor. When the other woman’s hand smoothed her hair, Tessa jumped.

  “You were afraid, too,” Eleanor said. “Don’t be. We’d never let anything happen to this little one.”

  Common sense almost forced her to remind Maggie’s grandmother they couldn’t have stopped a bullet, but Tessa bit her lip. Eleanor’s kind touch offered an unfamiliar sense of peace.

  Her mother tended to frown from afar and then close in to pluck at her flaws. Hair that strayed from all semblance of style, an untucked blouse, skirts that fit too tight because her mom had purchased them a size too small, hoping the hint would take.

  “What’s going on?” Eleanor asked.

  “Noah’s throwing the policemen out, I think. One of the deputies is talking to Joe.”

  “Why do they want to search your house, Tessa?”

  She straightened. Eleanor and Joe had been shot at. They were all in this mess together. It was time to tell the truth. “Weldon still hopes to find evidence against me.”

  At first, Eleanor didn’t seem to understand. Finally comprehension dawned, widening her gaze. She began to rock in her chair. “They honestly think you—”

  “I didn’t. I loved David.”

  Eleanor grimaced as if she were in pain. Tessa reached for her hand where it rested on the chair arm. The other woman’s fingers were chilled, and she jerked back.

  “I’d never do anything to hurt David or his family.”

  “I know, dear.” The older woman closed her eyes. “Joe and I know exactly how close you were to David and Joanna. This is just another instance of the police not knowing their own job. How do they expect—”

  “Try not to get too upset with Weldon.” Tessa’s affection for Maggie now included Eleanor and Joe. She hadn’t meant to upset the other woman. “Noah was offering him plenty of free advice downstairs, but Weldon and his men aren’t used to investigating murder.”

  “He’s so desperate to say he’s solved a big-city crime, he tried to make my daughter look like a druggie.”

  Tessa kept her mouth shut. Obviously David had tried to spare Joanna’s parents, but the shot fired into her house changed things. A bad drug deal might explain David’s death and the gunshot. Someone could have wanted payment or revenge for some perceived wrong Joanna might have done.

  She had to stop feeling guilty because Joanna had misunderstood her friendship with David. And she had to remember Maggie’s safety was more important than the promise David had extracted. She’d start with Hank Sloma, a dealer David had defended on a misdemeanor charge. Joanna might have met him.

  “I don’t know what Chief Weldon expects us to tell him.” Eleanor twisted her mouth. “We were up here when we heard the glass break. It was probably a high school kid playing a prank. Someone who heard you’d already had trouble.”

  “In Prodigal?” As Maggie began to struggle in her arms, Tessa gave her back to Eleanor, and the little girl scrambled to retrieve her ball. “We don’t have that kind of problem with kids here,” Tessa said.

  “No towns are that small anymore.” Eleanor rocked a little harder. “Why is that man taking so long with Joe? He wants to talk to me next.”

  “Are you anxious? I’d be glad to stay with you.”

  “No, thanks. I just don’t like Weldon. Noah may think he’s capable, but I’ve begun to despair he’ll ever find out who killed David. He’s too busy making up stories about Joanna—and now you—to find a guilty party. And I have no idea who’d hurt David. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “To me, either.” Tessa rose from the bed and began to tidy the room. She couldn’t imagine why a drug dealer might have surfaced seven months after Joanna’s death. Unless he’d been harassing David all along.

  He’d pulled every string he possessed to persuade the town’s former police chief to drop the drug evidence from Joanna’s accident investigation. He’d said the whole family had gone through Joanna’s first supposedly successful rehabilitation. He didn’t intend to let them suffer through her failure, too.

  Tessa clenched one of Maggie’s sweaters in her hands. A drug dealer would have been as anxious as David to keep the truth quiet. But would he be after the Worths now? Could today’s gunshot be a warning?

  Would Eleanor or Joe know what was going on? Could they be so blind to the truth about Joanna that they would ignore a warning?

  And would an angry dealer try to take revenge on Maggie? Tessa choked on her sudden fear for the baby. She’d like to whisk her away from this town where someone had killed her father and then shot at her new home.

  She couldn’t run. She had to find out what had cost David’s life. She studied Eleanor, trying to peer through the other woman’s grief to secrets she might be hiding. A warning only worked if she and Joe knew they’d been warned.

  “I have to ask you an uncomfortable question,” Tessa said.

  Eleanor pressed her toe to the pine floor to stop rocking, but she faced Tessa with a bland expression. “What?”

  “Has anyone tried to talk to you about Joanna?”

  “I wish.” Eleanor lifted her foot and the rocker tilted forward again. “We can’t persuade anyone to listen to us. You’re not starting to believe Weldon’s lies about her?”

  Tessa tried another tack. “I mean, maybe Joanna had bills that David didn’t know about. Has anyone talked to you about something Joanna might have owed?”

  “For what? She never had her bills sent to us. I’m sure David paid everything.”

  She couldn’t seem to get to the point with Joanna’s mother. Eleanor’s wide gaze betrayed no doubt, only confusion.

  “Did Joanna borrow money from you, Tessa?”

  “No.” Talk about subtle—she’d managed to imply Joanna had been begging money. Unless Eleanor was a phenomenal actress, she hadn’t known about Joanna’s relapse.

  And Tessa suspected she’d watched too many TV detective shows. Noah believed in his angry client theory. Maybe she’d dismissed Carlson too easily. And she had a feeling they’d be looking more closely at Eric after today.

  “What made you ask about Joanna’s debts?” Eleanor asked.

  “I saw a piece of paper in David’s office one day.” She snatched anoth
er of Maggie’s blankets from the pile on her bed and racked her brain for a believable story. “It was a note. I couldn’t read the name at the bottom, but it showed an amount. Of money.”

  “You thought you saw Joanna’s name?”

  “A name that started with a J.” She looked away. She was a lawyer for pity’s sake. She should at least know how to apply spin. “I’d better go downstairs and start Maggie’s lunch.”

  “Will you stop by Joe’s door? I’d like to know what the police want from us.” Eleanor rocked fast, tightening her grip on Maggie. “I hope they’ll call me in soon.”

  “I doubt the police will open up and ask me to join them.”

  “I keep forgetting how inconvenient this is for you, but I’m glad we can all be together for Maggie.”

  “Me, too.” Nodding reassurance at the other woman, she eased the door shut behind herself, and ran straight into the deputy who’d been guarding the reception area that first night at the police station.

  She glanced over the gallery rail. Noah and Weldon were no longer downstairs. Tessa turned aside to pass the deputy.

  She resented these men in her home. She had no faith anyone except Noah was trying to find the real killer. And letting Noah into her house went against everything she’d planned for her future without him.

  She’d wanted nothing of her old life in this house—no memories, nothing that reminded her of her ex-husband or her baby. But she’d hungered for a real home, a place that belonged to her and welcomed her out of the cold.

  She’d shopped each antique shop and garage sale up and down Route 1 for every stick of furniture. She knew each curve in the plaster walls. She’d hovered as the chimney sweep had dragged tons of creosote out of her chimney. She’d searched appliance stores all the way back to Boston for a stove to fit in the large kitchen nook that had once held a wood-burning iron hulk.

  It was her place, marked by her personality, branded with her choices. She hadn’t even allowed her parents to visit, because her small place wouldn’t meet their Back Bay standards. And now, because some nut with an arsenal had decided to launch an assault on David and his family and friends, she had to allow strangers inside.

  She was mixing cereal when Joe and Noah came through the door, with Maggie on Joe’s shoulder.

  “The young guy’s digging the bullet out of the wall above the fireplace hearth,” Joe said.

  “Where’s Eleanor?” Tessa asked.

  “She told us to leave her with the other two,” Noah said.

  “And you listened to her?” Tessa moved toward the door, carrying the cereal bowl in one hand, a plump-handled baby’s spoon in the other. Someone had to protect Maggie’s grandmother, and she might not have practiced criminal law, but she knew the rules.

  “Stop, Tessa.” Joe sounded certain. “She’s no fool. She would have asked one of you to listen in if she was concerned about Weldon.”

  “I don’t like having him in the house when he’s so determined I had something to do with it.”

  “I wondered if you knew,” Joe said.

  “He’s not exactly subtle.”

  “He’s determined we saw something.” Shaking his head, Joe reached for Maggie’s hand, and the little girl clenched her grandfather’s finger in her small fist. “All I could think was that we had to keep her out of harm’s way. I all but shoved Eleanor and Maggie into a closet.”

  “I would have if someone was shooting at the house,” Noah said. “You were lucky no one got hurt.” He glanced at his watch. “How much time do you think we should give them?”

  “Eleanor can hold her own.”

  Tessa glanced at Noah, and she was positive they shared the same thought. Joe knew a stronger Eleanor than they’d met.

  Behind the men, the door opened again, and Eleanor sailed through. Her color ran high and her eyes looked too bright, but she was clearly satisfied with herself.

  “They’re getting ready to leave, Tessa. You might want to make sure they don’t plant evidence from every crime committed in this town for the past year on your premises.”

  Tessa pushed the cereal bowl and spoon onto the counter, but she barely passed through the doorway ahead of Noah. They found Chief Weldon, overseeing his men as they measured from the window to a hole chipped into the plaster above the fireplace.

  “Don’t assume I don’t know what I’m doing because I don’t come from Boston, Detective. We don’t plant evidence around here any more than you would.”

  “You won’t find any evidence here, because I didn’t do anything,” Tessa said.

  “Are you offering to let me search?” Behind him, one of his men held up the bullet in an evidence bag while the other began to gather tools.

  “No,” Noah said. “But I think you should remember you might be letting the real killer go with your concentration on my wife.”

  “Ex,” Weldon and Tessa said together.

  She’d said it unconsciously, her mind on the possible suspects they hadn’t told him about. Noah’s sharp glance made her regret her quick correction.

  “I don’t have to tell you not to leave town,” Weldon said as his men left.

  “And you will have your deputies patrol this road.”

  “We’re watching this house.” Weldon tipped his cap and exited on the line he might have been saving just for them.

  Tessa waited for Noah to blow up, but he merely locked the door behind the chief and set the alarm. When he turned away from the wall panel, he must have seen her surprise.

  “I don’t care why he patrols. I just want to be sure someone keeps an eye on you.”

  “I think we should give him a copy of the notes I gave you.”

  “All of them?” He arched a dark brow. “I don’t think you can if you want to keep your license.”

  “I mean an expurgated copy. So they’ll know we had problems with some of our clients. If it’s one of them, I want Weldon to find him before he hurts Maggie.”

  “You could talk to them and get their permission to give the information to Weldon.”

  She nodded. “And you could try them out on your suspect meter?”

  He laughed. “Can’t hurt. I think Swyndle’s a non-starter, but Eric looks good for my bet.”

  “You haven’t met Hugh yet, and I doubt Eric will agree to talk to you.”

  “I plan to deal with Eric the stalker.”

  His pleasure with the plan made her nervous. He never ran low on testosterone, and someone stalking his ex-wife clearly raised the levels, but they both needed to remember his role. “I’ll handle Eric. You act more like a husband than a cop around him.”

  “I’m serious. I’m going to talk to him.”

  Why waste time arguing? She was no gothic heroine anxious to put herself or her makeshift family in danger just to prove her own strength. “I’ll ask Eleanor to look after Maggie and we can schedule visits with Hugh Carlson and Mr. Swyndle and Eric.”

  “Eric gets a surprise visit,” Noah said. “Otherwise, I think he’ll suddenly fall in love with his family in Boston again.”

  “I’ll go along with what you want. And by the way, thank you.” She wasn’t sure she’d said it before, and she found it hard to say now. “For coming, and for keeping Weldon in line. I’m so stunned I forget I have rights.” She sputtered to a stop. Simple gratitude shouldn’t be so hard to express. She’d fallen out of the habit of thanking Noah, just as she’d learned to stop loving him.

  “It’s natural,” he said. “You’re in shock. You’ve lost your best friend, and you can’t imagine someone would think you’d kill David.”

  He slid his hand around her arm. Gently massaging, he forced her to meet his dark brown gaze.

  She saw more than she wanted to. Empathy and compassion, recognition of the past that had nearly driven them both out of their minds.

  Suddenly he smiled. Lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes, and his mouth tightened. “I should have said you’re welcome.”

  “Who knows what w
e’re supposed to say to each other?”

  He tilted his head back, as if he didn’t want to see her or to let her see his face. “I’m glad we’re working together, but I wonder why we couldn’t after Keely died.”

  He’d said her name, finally, without stopping to think. “We loved her too much.” The answer was so obvious. What he couldn’t know was that she’d sensed the thwarted anger he’d tried so hard to hide from her. She’d just thought it was blame.

  “How much do you love Maggie?” he asked.

  She blinked. It was the last question she’d expected, but she answered honestly. “Not as much as I loved Keely yet, but I believe I’ll feel that much for her, if I remember history won’t repeat itself.”

  His eyes seemed to hollow. The pupils dilated until she saw only black. “Can you be sure?” He pitched his voice so low she had to move closer to him to hear. “How do you know you can love Maggie without losing her?”

  “I have to make myself believe, or I won’t be able to love her.”

  “Mind games.” Noah crooked his finger beneath her chin. His skin felt warm and coarse and too damn familiar. His short almost-laugh lightly ruffled the hair at her temples. “When did you start playing mind games with yourself?”

  “When the stakes became irresistible.” She moved, not wanting him to see the pulse banging in her veins like a drum. “For Maggie’s sake, I have to win.”

  She went back to the kitchen, where Eleanor had taken over making the baby’s cereal while Maggie watched from her grandfather’s arms.

  “I told him again that Joanna wasn’t using drugs, so we weren’t about to find any evidence of it,” Joe was saying.

  “I don’t know why he insists.” Eleanor turned around, but jumped a little when she saw Tessa and Noah. “See, Tessa? You’re not the only one he’s determined to convict. He won’t leave Joanna alone, and he can’t get to her now.”

  “Do you know why he’s so certain?” Noah asked.

  A chill fingered its way down Tessa’s spine. “He doesn’t need a reason.” She jumped in, to protect David’s secret as always. “He lets his crazy ideas confuse him about reality.”