by Mary Burton
Kelsey stared at Stu. He'd been the only one who hadn't. "I've been meaning to ask you why? All those years you stuck by her, sent her money or helped her out when she needed it."
Stu dropped his gaze to the register and seemed to take a sudden interest in one of the buttons. "I don't know. She just seemed like a lost soul to me."
"I never thought of her as lost so much as selfish."
He shook his head. "She wasn't always like that. When you were born, I went to see her in the hospital. She'd stand at the nursery window, just crying because she thought you were so pretty."
Kelsey had never seen her mother cry, unless she had been trying to convince a police officer to let her out of a speeding ticket. The image Stu conjured touched a part of her heart she'd long closed off. She blew out a breath to relieve the sudden pressure in her chest. She needed to change the subject. "You can bet Sylvia never saw the tender side of Donna."
He shook his head. "You're right."
Kelsey sensed Stu had left a lot unsaid and she was ready to question him further when the bells on the front door jingled. She turned and saw Mitch stride into the shop. His brown sheriff's uniform shirt stretched over his broad chest. His creases were crisp and a shiny silver badge winked in the sunlight. He pulled off his aviators and blue eyes settled on her.
Her heart kicked.
She regretted being so abrupt with him last night.
"Kelsey," Mitch said. His deep baritone voice struck a chord inside her that had her wishing she had fewer hormones and more brains.
She nodded, not quite able to trust her voice.
"Hey, Mitch," Stu said. "Got any news on Chris?"
"No."
"Stu," she said. "Is there anything I can do to help? Do you need help with the shop?"
"No way, honey," he said.
"I don't mind helping." Work kept her sane.
"You just found out your mother died, Kelsey. You just worry about yourself."
She'd had a long, good cry last night. "Donna's been out of my life for ten years. I've known all along she wasn't coming back. But this business with Chris, you just saw him a couple of days ago. You're going to find him aren't you, Mitch?"
Mitch hesitated. His expression reflected a mixture of sadness, wishful thinking and hard reality. She could see he struggled with all three. And it was that struggle that had her heart opening to him. He might have broken her heart eight years ago, but he cared about Stu. In that moment, Kelsey saw Mitch for the good, decent man he had become.
"Let's just take this a step at a time, Stu. Let me handle this," Mitch said.
Stu's shoulders slumped, as if the burden of worrying over a friend was too great for him. "Okay."
Mitch looked squarely at Kelsey. "Might not be a bad idea if you two stick together today. You're good for each other."
"Where are you headed?" she asked. It was none of her business, but a part of her wanted to delay his departure for just another moment or two.
He lifted a brow, surprised by the question. "To the quarry."
She straightened. "Why?"
"The crews from Roanoke are coming today and we're going back down to investigate."
Kelsey itched to go with him. She wanted to be a part of the investigation. She wanted to know who had shot her mother. But Stu was upset and she sensed her place was here with him.
"I don't suppose Kelsey could tag along with you?" Stu said.
Kelsey didn't hide her shock. "I thought I'd hang out with you today. I've been itching to have a look at those dive computers I saw earlier."
Stu shook his head. "I got too much work to nursemaid you." The old buzzard knew she wanted in on the investigation.
"She can't come, Stu," Mitch said.
"See, Stu?" Kelsey said, shaking off the twinge of annoyance Mitch had stirred. "The Big Bad here says I can't tag along, so I might as well stay with you."
Stu shook his head. "Now I've seen it all. Kelsey and Mitch agreeing on something."
"Don't get carried way, Stu," Kelsey said.
Stu arched a thick gray eyebrow. "You want to go?"
Yeah, sure she did. She wanted to go more than anything. "I'll stay here."
Stu looked at Mitch. "Do me a favor and get this woman out of my hair." He touched his balding head. "Or at least what's left of it. I really do have work to do. I don't want Chris returning and busting my chops for shirking."
Mitch studied the old man. The idea of taking Kelsey didn't appeal to him at all, but he wanted to help Stu out. "All right, I'll take her."
Neither Kelsey nor Mitch said much as he drove through the town streets toward the quarry. The day was stunning. The skies were a brilliant crystal-blue, the air warm and a gentle breeze teased the tops of the trees.
Yet for all the day's beauty, Kelsey felt sick inside. Old emotions she'd tried so hard to bury bubbled to the surface, tightening her throat.
"What's wrong?" Mitch said.
His deep voice surprised her. "Nothing."
He glanced at her quickly then back to the road. "You look like you're about to jump out of your skin."
"I'm fine."
"No one's going to give you a medal for going to the quarry. Why don't you let me take you back home?"
"I'm good."
From the corner of her eye, she could see his jaw tense. "You're too damn stubborn."
She shrugged. "Not exactly breaking news."
He slowed the car and pulled off to the side of the road. "That does it."
"What!"
"When you start acting like a smart-ass I know you're upset."
She couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses, but she imagined they snapped with anger. "I cracked a couple of wise remarks to ease the tension."
"You're scared."
Terrified was more like it. "I'm fine. But I'll admit I have a lousy sense of humor. Look, I want to go to the quarry."
"Not until you tell me what's eating you?"
If only she could. She shrugged, hoping he'd get tired of the questions and just start driving again. "Nothing!"
"Not good enough."
Having him this close unsettled her. "Start driving and maybe I'll start talking."
"Start talking and maybe I'll drive." To prove his point, he shut off the engine, leaned back in his seat and pulled off his sunglasses. "I'm all ears."
Having those blue eyes of his piercing into her didn't help at all. She sighed. "I'm just out of sorts, which I think is natural, don't you?"
"This goes beyond finding your mother's body. You were like this back…then."
Then. When they'd worked together. When they'd been lovers.
When she didn't say anything, he started to talk. "I remember a couple of the girls from high school coming into the shop around July Fourth. They acted like they were there to buy scuba equipment, but they spent most of their time talking to you."
She remembered that day very clearly. "Tammy and Mona. The evil twins."
"You were full of jokes after they left. What did they say to you?"
Her throat felt dry. "They came to invite me to a holiday lunch for mothers and daughters."
He sighed and sat back.
"Torturing me was a favorite pastime." She pushed a shaking hand through her hair. "Look, it was a long time ago and it's safe to say I took care of them both before I left town."
His eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"
Good. She'd rather talk about Tammy and Mona than Donna. "Well, if you must know, it involved lots of molasses and wood chips."
He held up his hand. "Better not tell me that one. I'm a cop."
"I'm sure the statute of limitations has expired. And it looks like Tammy's hair has grown back."
Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're doing it again."
"What?" she said in all innocence.
"Deflecting the conversation from Donna."
"Donna! God, how I wish you would just leave this alone. She's dead. And even if she were alive
, she'd be long gone to God knows where. She didn't want me. I was a thorn in her side. And if you want me to say it, I will—having a mother dump you hurts like hell."
"She didn't leave you. She was murdered."
Tears tightened her throat. "She left a hundred times before that last night. I can't tell you how many nights I sat up, scared out of my wits, waiting for her. Or how many times she didn't think to feed me. Being Donna Warren's daughter was not a happy place to be."
He didn't say anything.
Just having Mitch close did something to her. For a moment, she was back in high school and in love with him. Before she thought, she said, "And God help me, but I loved my mother. I tried so hard to be good so that she'd love me like other mothers loved their children. But she never did."
His expression softened in a way that tore at her heart and made her regret her candor.
Tears filled her eyes and she looked out the passenger side window, trying her best to tamp down the emotions. "I should punch you, Mitch Garrett."
"Why?" he said softly.
"Because I don't cry and I sure don't wallow in sloppy emotions."
"Maybe you should."
"I've never talked to anyone about this stuff."
"Again, maybe you should." He laid his hand on her shoulder. Warmth and strength from his fingertips seeped into her shoulder.
A tear fell down her cheek and she viciously swiped it away. "Talk doesn't mean anything to me. I got a bellyful of talk from Donna over the years. Action is what I respect."
Gently, he placed his hand on her chin and turned her face toward him. She didn't resist. He leaned closer to her, resting his hand on the back of the seat. "I will find your mother's killer."
The steel behind his words almost had her believing him. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Sheriff."
He didn't flinch. "I never do."
"It's been ten years. She's been at the bottom of the quarry all that time. A case doesn't get any colder." He possessed a strength about him that made him think he could conquer anything. But she wasn't a teenager in need of rescue anymore.
"If you haven't noticed, I'm stubborn," he said softly. "And I gravitate toward the tough cases."
"Like me."
"Yep."
His hand shifted a fraction and lightly touched the tips of her hair. If she'd not been so focused on him, she might have missed it. It would have been easy to ignore. All she'd have had to do was shift her position slightly and the connection would have been bro-ken. Mitch wouldn't have pushed it. It would all have been forgotten.
But Kelsey didn't move away.
She moved a fraction closer to him so that his knuckle brushed the side of her ear.
Mitch stared at her. He didn't move.
All he had to do now was lean over and kiss her. And she'd let him. Losing herself in sex appealed to her more than she could say.
Anticipation had her heart thundering, left her mouth dry. So easy. So easy.
"No." She couldn't believe what she just said.
He eased back a fraction. "Okay."
The survival instinct buried deep inside her had taken over, understanding that she couldn't let herself fall for Mitch again. When they parted, and they would, it would shatter her. "I think we better get to the quarry."
He didn't seem offended as he started the engine. "You're right." He checked for traffic and then pulled out onto the road. "Because when I do kiss you, there'll be nothing standing between us."
Mitch drove into the quarry entrance and was still very aware of Kelsey. He didn't know what had happened back there with her, but whatever it was had kicked him in the gut.
He drove down to the parking area and shut off the car. The recovery crews had already gathered around the edge of the quarry. They were dressed in dry suits, designed to keep divers warm at greater depths.
Kelsey noticed the suits as well. "Dry suits? That means they're diving into the crevice."
"Yep." He put the car in Park and shut off the engine.
"Do you really think they'll find anything?"
"I'll let you know."
A slight frown creased her forehead. "You're going, too?"
He didn't want to leave her. "Not unless I hurry."
He imagined he saw a flash of worry in her eyes. Did she want to say something else to him?
After a pause, she said, "Then I guess you better get going."
"Right." He was tempted to bag the dive, because he sensed Kelsey needed him. Of course, hell would freeze over before she asked, but he knew her emotions were a raw nerve now.
She opened her door and walked to the back of the Suburban, as if needing fresh air and space. "Let me help you with her gear."
Kelsey was pushing him away. She was good at that. Mitch met her at the tailgate. He opened the door and yanked out his gear.
As much as he wanted to give in to his urge to stay behind, she was right to give him the shove. He wanted in on this dive. He wanted to see the bottom of the crevice with his own eyes to make sure nothing was missed. He owed that much to Kelsey. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
She smiled and nodded her head as if she didn't care one way or the other if she ever saw him again. "I'll be here."
Kelsey stood on the edge of the quarry.
Mitch and the other divers had been underwater for fifteen minutes. They'd be up very soon. The divers were in the crevice, which had to be over one hundred feet deep. Using Nitrox, a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, in their tanks, they could stay at the deeper depth longer than the average recreational diver. But even with the Nitrox, they couldn't stay down longer than twenty more minutes.
The police pontoon boat was moored in the center of the lake and an officer sat in the boat, waiting for the divers. It was almost a replay of Sunday.
Kelsey hugged her arms around her chest. A gentle breeze wafted along the trees rimming the quarry's north face, which rose a hundred feet higher than the south end where she stood. The leaves rustled. The breeze should have felt good in the hot sun, but her skin was chilled. Cold quarry waters lapped at her feet.
Her skin prickled and her heart began to race. It felt as if someone were watching her. She glanced to-ward the policeman, but he was staring into the water, waiting for signs of his divers.
For unknown reasons, her gaze was drawn to the center of the north rim above the quarry. Thick dense trees ringed the land above the granite walls. She couldn't see past the dense vegetation, but she kept staring.
She imagined she saw the shrubs move as if someone were walking along the ridge. She couldn't tear her gaze from the crest. An unsettling fear had her taking a couple of steps back.
"You're being silly, Kelsey," she whispered.
She started to turn when a flash of light from the ridge caught her eye. She froze.
Someone was up there!
Irritated by her fear, she moved back to the edge of the water, searching harder for another flash or a rustle of movement that would prove someone was moving around up there.
"Hey!" she called out to the policeman. "Did you see a flash on the ridge?"
He shook his head no and turned back toward the water.
"Of course you didn't see it. I'm turning into a paranoid freak that gets spooked by the wind," she muttered.
She shoved her hands in her pockets. "Hurry up, Mitch."
Mitch and the men came up twenty minutes later. Mitch took off his equipment. Instantly, she could see he wasn't happy. Grim-faced, he strode toward her.
Water dripped from his suit and the chill from the greater depths still clung to him. "Let's head back to the car," Mitch said when he reached her.
"Why?" He was trying to get rid of her—which was all the more reason to dig in her heels, even if this place gave her the spooks.
He yanked off his hood. "For once, would you just do as I say?"
She shot him a you've-got-to-be-kidding glare before her gaze skipped from him across the water to the police boat.
<
br /> There were three divers in the boat. They had taken off their tanks and unzipped the tops of their suits. All three men were pulling on a rope.
Suddenly, a figure wrapped in ropes and an algae-covered tarp floated to the surface. The officers secured it to the side of the pontoon and started toward shore.
The color drained from her face. There was no mistaking what it was.
They'd found another body.
Chapter 9
"Do you have any idea who it is?" Kelsey asked.
"No. By the looks the body hasn't been in the water as long…" Mitch let his words trail off.
"As my mother," she said finishing his sentence. "Lose the kid gloves, Mitch. I'll deal with all this a lot better if you don't treat me like a wimp."
"Right." No anger, just understanding in his gaze as he shifted it to the water. "If I had to guess, I'd say this body has been in the water at least three years."
"How long before you can identify the body?"
"Unless there is some clue on the body that helps us along, it could be weeks, maybe never."
"You identified Donna so quickly."
"Based on your hunch, the medical examiner checked your mother's dental records first. He was as surprised as anyone that he had a hit on the first try." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Do me a favor and keep all this quiet. I don't need a thousand tourists down here trying to dive these waters. Two bodies are too much of a coincidence."
"Are you saying whoever killed Donna killed this person?"
"I don't know. We'll wait until the autopsy."
She glanced over his shoulder at the tarp-wrapped body lying on the beach. An odd sensation tickled the back of her neck. "At least it's not Chris."
Her relief lasted until she looked up toward the ridge. Uneasiness settled in her bones. "I saw a flash of light on the ridge while you were in the water. Did you have a policeman up there?" She wasn't sure why she mentioned it to Mitch. Maybe she wanted him to tell her not to worry so she could convince herself that her imagination had just gotten the better of her.
Frowning, his gaze shifted to the ridge. "There were no policemen up there."
"I thought I saw someone up on the ridge watching me. Must have been my imagination."
