Maggie's Guardian (Harlequin Super Romance)
Page 14
The second the doors opened, he stepped out and immediately saw Weldon and his youngest deputy waiting outside the revolving doors.
“What now?” Tessa asked.
In thick navy nylon coats and their regulation caps, wreathed in the steam of their own breath, the men pushed away from the marble wall that surrounded the building.
“Wait.” Noah reached for Tessa’s hand.
“Something’s on his mind. Could he be planning to arrest me?”
“For what? You’re innocent,” he reminded her. “Look at the envelope in his hand. I’d say he wants to show you something.” Still he held her back. “We can call your lawyer.”
She parted from him again. “I don’t care what he’s found. I’ve done nothing, so he can’t incriminate me.” She pushed through the doors, her head high.
Weldon was already opening the envelope when he nodded a greeting at Noah.
“Why are you waiting out here?” Tessa asked.
“We didn’t want people to think we’d come to arrest Hugh Carlson.”
“But you don’t mind pinning me down in the doorway?”
“What choice do I have, if you two are trying to do my job? When you decided to talk to Hugh Carlson, you fired up the gossip mill.”
Noah silently cursed himself. Weldon was right. If Carlson turned out to be innocent, he’d owe the man an apology for making it look as if they’d interrogated him.
“Chief, we’re getting nowhere with all the games. Why don’t you listen to us for a change, and we’ll try not to step on your toes.” He glanced at Tessa for confirmation, and she shrugged.
“Anything to make you see I’m your least likely suspect, Chief Weldon.”
The policeman looked doubtful, his deputy, even more so.
“If you’re innocent, why didn’t you cooperate from the start?”
“You didn’t want cooperation. You wanted me to confess, just because I found him and we disagreed at work occasionally.”
“And carrying on your own investigation?” the chief said.
“We aren’t,” Noah cut in. “You heard about Tessa’s problems with a few of her clients. When you didn’t look at them, I asked her to give me some information on the ones who’d been dissatisfied.”
“I had to get their permission to share my files with you,” Tessa said.
Weldon braced his free hand on his holstered gun while he weighed their explanation. Finally he finished pulling a photo from the envelope. “I came to ask Tessa if she’s seen this man.” He turned the picture her way. “Have you?”
Noah peered over her shoulder at the grainy likeness of a male in classic burglar’s attire—black slacks, sweater and knitted cap. Wraparound sunglasses hid half his face. It would have been laughable if not for the long knife he was already brandishing as a weapon.
“That’s our office.” Tessa spoke low in her throat, in a voice he hardly recognized. “He’s standing outside David’s door.”
“We got it off the security camera. I’ve been passing it around your building, but no one recognized him.”
“Are you sure it’s a man?” she asked.
Weldon took a closer look at the photo. “You think it’s a woman?”
“No.” She shook her head, miserably pushing the picture against the policeman’s chest. “I don’t know who it is, and I don’t want to look at it.”
“Once more.” Weldon held it up and waited until she complied. “Do you know him?”
“I don’t think so.” She shook her head. Noah moved closer, but he stopped when she stiffened. “There’s something…” She looked up. “I don’t think so. I mean he’s a tall, rangy guy. He looks like a lot of men I know.”
“I have to ask you.” For the first time, Weldon seemed reluctant. “You didn’t hire him?”
Rage flashed in Tessa’s eyes, but she kept to their truce. “I loved David.”
Noah slid his arm around her waist, and she leaned against him. Pride tightened his arm around her. They must be getting somewhere if he’d offered the right comfort at the right time.
Weldon showed him the picture. “I don’t expect you know him?”
“No.” But he studied the man’s clothing, looking for labels or anything else that stood out, something they could check further.
The police chief plucked off his sunglasses and rubbed his eye with his thumb. “The thing is, we had a report of this guy driving down your street yesterday, Ms. Gabriel. One of your neighbors thought he looked suspicious and phoned minutes before Mr. Worth called us.”
Tessa’s indrawn breath hissed. Noah stroked her arm. “It’s okay,” he said, but then he turned to Weldon. “Obviously, you need to find the money to station someone outside her house.”
“My budget won’t allow it.” Weldon’s temper kinked a little. “You have no idea what it’s like to run a department in a town this small.”
“I know we need to keep Maggie and Tessa safe.”
At the mention of the baby’s name, Tessa grabbed Noah’s sleeve and turned toward the parking lot. “We should get back to her.”
“Wait.” Weldon unzipped his jacket and pulled a sheet of paper out of the inside pocket. “This is a copy of a warrant to search Eric Sanders’s house. My other deputies are already started, and I don’t want to meet up with the two of you there. You can leave Ned Swyndle alone, too. I already established his alibi.”
Tessa stumbled, and Noah caught her elbow. “A warrant?” she said.
“I have been doing my job.” Weldon’s sarcasm simply wasted time. Apparently, he thought so, too. He went on. “You both seem to forget how much gossip goes around this town. I knew about your clients, Tessa, and Eric harassed you. I had probable cause, and I would have taken action sooner if you’d come to me.”
“Why didn’t you look at him first,” Tessa asked, “instead of concentrating on me?”
“Because his problem’s with you, not David.” Weldon tucked the paper away again. “If David had found you instead of the other way around, Eric would have been my first suspect.”
Noah didn’t want Tessa thinking about that. “Did you show the photo to the Worths yet?”
Weldon nodded, and Tessa stared at the other man. “You didn’t,” she said. “You’ve probably scared them half out of their wits.”
The policeman shook his head. “I don’t think so. They didn’t recognize him, so I left. I would have gone on to Sanders’s house, but I had to chase you down.”
Tessa burned him with an angry gaze. “Eleanor can’t keep a single secret from Maggie. She’s like an emotion conductor, and I don’t want her to scare the baby.”
Noah held her long enough to ask Weldon one more question. “You’re forwarding that photo to other jurisdictions?”
“From here, north to Canada, and south to Virginia. We’ll find him.”
“Boston’s the closest large city for him to get lost in,” Noah said. “Although if he’s been paid, he’s probably already gone. I’ll call and make sure they give the search an extra push.”
“Thanks.” Weldon tipped his hat. “Good to work with you.”
Dumfounded now, Tessa was still glaring at the other policeman as Noah turned her toward the parking lot. “It’s a boys’ club,” she said.
“Not exactly.” But he could have handled the situation better from the moment he’d come to town. “Maybe a contest that wasn’t working for either of us. I thought it was time for a change of tactics.”
“All right.” She walked at his side, but when they reached the car, she looked up at him, her eyes brighter than he remembered, her smile softer than he dared believe in.
She curved her hand around his throat, and her bare fingers set a fire beneath his skin. She pulled his head down, so she could kiss his cheek.
With the tiniest movement, he could have taken her lips beneath his. He ached for the texture of her full mouth. He longed for one taste of her, one breath filled with her heat.
Terrified he
’d frighten her away with passion so furious and impatient it startled even him, he let her take the lead. His muscles ached with the strain of not reaching for her, but he accepted the tender touch of her kiss at the corner of his lips.
“Thank you for putting us all on the same side,” she said.
He could have admitted Weldon had wanted to work with them or he would have made it harder. But he was still just a man. If she wanted to be grateful, he was willing to be thanked.
She kissed him again, a fraction of a frustrating inch closer to his mouth. “I know he was in the mood to cooperate, but I was so angry I wouldn’t have made the effort.”
She caught him by surprise, offering a glimpse of the funny, generous wife who’d turned his dreams to sleepless nights. Her husky voice raised a shiver that nearly dropped him to the sidewalk. While he ached to wrap himself around her in front of Hugh Carlson’s entire complement of employees, she slid into the car.
He shut the door and stumbled to the driver’s side. His own harsh breathing echoed like tearing paper in his ears.
With one touch of her lips, Tessa had healed his hurt heart. For the first time since the day a judge had declared their divorce final in court, he couldn’t make himself stop wanting to hold her.
He’d find a way to make her remember when they hadn’t lived separate lives. They’d been one, a passionate sum of two incomplete human beings who’d loved each other completely.
TESSA BARELY KEPT HERSELF from stroking her mouth as Noah drove through the quiet, icy streets. She’d meant to thank him, the way she’d have thanked David, or any other friend who’d helped her.
Instead, she’d kissed his cold, chapped lips and barely stopped herself from sinking into the shelter of his hard body. He’d even made her forget her urgent need to reach Maggie.
“Tessa?”
“Hmm?” She kept her eyes on the snowy road, wary of letting him see how much she needed to touch him again.
“I think we’ve both forgotten our access to technology. You have your cell phone. Call Eleanor.”
“Jeez.” She flipped the phone open and dialed. In moments, Joe answered.
“We just saw Chief Weldon,” Tessa said. “Everything all right there?”
“We didn’t recognize the man in his photo, but he took it pretty well.”
“I mean, are you all—is Eleanor all right?”
“She’s fine, Tessa. What are you trying to ask me?”
His attitude was slightly “don’t worry your pretty head.” Tessa tried again. “I was afraid Eleanor might be nervous about a killer roaming my street.”
“We talked it over. We think he’s probably long gone by now. He’d have to know someone would see him in such an outlandish getup. And a stranger would stand out here as much as a guy in a disguise.”
He had a point. “So Eleanor and Maggie are fine?”
“Perfectly. Take your time. Everything going well?”
“Great,” she said. “We had a talk with Weldon. Noah seems to have bargained a truce.”
“Good. Maybe he’ll start doing his job. I promised Eleanor I’d bring in some firewood. Talk to you later.”
She hung up, but stared at the phone. “That was weird.”
“What?”
“They’ve decided the killer must have left town because people here would have noticed him. Joe said to take our time.”
“Maybe he and Eleanor are doing some wishful thinking. I don’t intend to let Weldon stop his patrols yet.” He turned at a corner. “Could you call his office and ask them to send you a copy of the photo? If they have e-mail, have it sent to your e-mail address. I’d like another look at it in case I missed something, and you could look again, too. You were right about it looking like a lot of tall, lean men, but something looked familiar to you.”
The deputy on duty promised to e-mail the photo, and she spelled out her e-mail address. Hanging up, she finally risked a glance at Noah. He tried to smile at her, but his mouth remained a straight, unforgiving line.
She refused to jump to conclusions. He’d tensed against her when she’d kissed him. She hadn’t mistaken his awareness of her, and he wasn’t angry. Not now, anyway.
“I wish we’d worked together after Keely died,” she said.
“What do you mean? Worked on what?”
“If we’d talked to each other, if we’d tried, even a little. I walked away, telling myself your feelings had changed, but now I think I was guessing at what you felt.”
“My feelings changed? After Keely died?”
“I knew you blamed me.” Again she couldn’t look at him—couldn’t stand to see the old accusations in his eyes, so she turned back to the frozen sky. “I understand. It’s the frustration. Someone has to be at fault.”
“I didn’t blame you.” He reached for her hand.
She wrenched it away, fighting hot tears that stung her eyes. “I thought we were different today, that we could finally be honest with each other, but if you still can’t—”
“Wait,” Noah said. “I can’t talk to you around Maggie and the Worths. We need privacy.”
He jerked the steering wheel, and they skidded across the left-hand side of Prodigal’s main street. Noah cut the engine as they neared the curb outside Jimmy’s Italian Bistro. Tessa eyed him, startled into listening.
“Come inside with me.” He reached for her hand, and this time she made herself take his troubled, tired expression at face value rather than assigning hidden meaning to his feelings. “We need to talk and I don’t want you to freeze in the car.”
“I have some things to say to you,” she said, “and some questions to ask.” She opened her door and met him at the front of the car.
Heat hit them with force as they entered the restaurant. A young blond woman greeted them with a wide, practiced smile from behind her podium.
“We’d like a private booth if you have one,” Noah said.
“Yes, sir.” A cynical smile curved her mouth as she recognized Tessa. “Afternoon, Mrs. Gabriel. Sorry to hear about Mr. Howard.”
“Thank you.” Tessa’d had no idea so many people thought she’d been having an affair with David. No one bothered to hide salacious interest now, but she didn’t care. She had nothing to prove, except that she could actually speak though grief swamped her every time she thought of him.
The other woman pulled two menus from a slot and led them to a dark booth in the restaurant’s far corner. “Plenty of privacy here. I’ll send Louise to take your orders.”
“Not yet,” Noah said, but then he softened his tone. “Thanks. We’ll call when we’re ready.”
Tessa took off her coat and hung it on a peg drilled into the side of the tall wooden booth. Noah did the same as she slid into the side hidden from the rest of the restaurant. Noah sat beside her, stopping her breath.
“What do you mean I blamed you?” He sounded angry. “I never blamed you. I was the one who checked her last. I’m the one who didn’t notice anything was wrong with her.”
She ignored his antagonism and simply absorbed the words that freed her from months and months of shame. If he saw nothing to forgive, maybe she wasn’t guilty. She wrapped herself in feeling nothing—no guilt, no rage, no pain. As if the freedom to feel just “normal” were a warm blanket Noah had wrapped around her after she’d crawled in from a blizzard.
But then she heard the rest of what he’d said, that he’d been the one who should have known Keely was in trouble. She finally saw his guilt, a twisted reflection of her own.
“Neither one of us could have saved her.”
She’d said so over and over, a million times, since that horrible morning, but she’d never believed until now. Until Noah’s forgiveness had eased her pain, maybe cleared the fog a little so she could see Keely’s death, and the death of her marriage, as they’d really happened.
“We both blamed ourselves because we thought someone should have saved her,” she said. “But we’ve both been wrong.”
She understood what had happened now.
Taking his hand, she pulled his arm around her shoulders, and scooted as close to him as she could get, surrounding herself in his scent. This close to him, she sensed time slowing down.
She had time for second thoughts, which she resisted. If she didn’t face the past, she’d never learn to live with it. “We should have found a way to stay together, to talk to each other about what we felt, but we couldn’t. We’ve been standing still since she died, Noah, and we should stop. For Keely, if not for ourselves.”
He didn’t answer. Was he so determined to hold on to his self-control? She cupped his chin and turned his face, terribly aware of the scratch of his beard against her fingers.
“You helped me. Let me help you.”
Everything happened at once. With a groan, he lowered his head until his face pressed against her hair. His weight pushed her into the edge of the table, but she welcomed the slight discomfort. It reminded her they were both real, both still alive and able to feel, both together.
Noah put his arms around her, inch by inch, as if he could barely make himself move, but then he was holding her so close she could hardly breathe. He shook as if he were crying.
She froze, unable to turn, unwilling to believe Noah knew how to cry. Though she’d resented him for not needing her, she’d admired his strength. Could she endure tears from the strongest human being she’d ever known?
She struggled to loop her arms around his neck. If he needed her to survive tears, she would. “I let you down because I couldn’t stop being hurt myself long enough to care for you.” Her own regret choked her.
“You didn’t let me down.” Muffled in her hair, his voice shook as violently as his body.
She leaned back to look at him. His face was hard with the effort to keep himself from crying. His eyes, reddened and hollow, seemed like a stranger’s. Tessa stroked his unruly hair. The familiar, silky feel of the dark strands reminded her this was Noah. This man had been her husband.