Dust Up with the Detective

by Danica Winters

  He looked toward his mother. “What about Mrs. W?”

  “She’s watching a little television. I’ll go keep her and your father company,” she answered, swirling the tea bag around in her cup.

  As the door to the kitchen swung shut, his phone rang. It was Casper.

  “What did you find?” Jeremy asked, trying to keep his nervous excitement in check.

  “It’s nice to talk to you, too, snotface,” his brother chided.

  “Yeah, yeah. If I wanted an etiquette lesson I would ask for help from Dear Abby.”

  His brother laughed, reminding Jeremy just how much he missed him...and, regardless of the animosity they had held for each other, how much he would miss Robert now that he was gone.

  “So you’re taking on Robert’s case?” Casper asked, almost as if he could tell by the silence what Jeremy was thinking about.

  “Yeah. Helping out our former neighbor, Blake West.”

  “I remember Blake,” Casper said, his voice filled with the excitement that came with reminiscing. “She still hot?”

  “Uh...” Jeremy looked over at Blake. His cheeks warmed, and he tried to staunch his blushing. For the first time that evening, she smiled. “She’s as beautiful as ever.”

  She looked away as her features seemed to take on a reddish hue of their own.

  “I’ll have to check her out when I come down for Robert’s services. You know when they are going to release the body?”

  “Probably not until we get a handle on the murder. Speaking of...did you find anything in the handwriting analysis?” He set the phone down and put it on speaker.

  “I don’t know what you were expecting, but I did find some interesting things in the note.” Casper paused, and there was the sound of rustling papers on the other end of the line. “If you take a look at the physical characteristics and the pattern in the note, the letters are almost at a forty-five-degree angle, and they’re jagged, rushed. Whoever did this was in a hurry, but they were likely driven by passion or anger.”

  If they were in a hurry, they had likely written it on-scene. Which meant they knew there was a chance of being seen. Yet they had thought that their mission was worth the danger.

  “Looking closer, whoever wrote it was a woman.”

  “A woman?” he repeated, shocked by his brother’s claim. “How do you know that?”

  “If you look at the loops and swirls in the handwriting, it’s distinctly feminine. And, based on the angle of her letters, she’s left-handed.”

  “Left-handed, huh?” His thoughts moved to the fingerprint the tech had found on the gun.

  “Did you find out anything about Tiffany yet?” Casper asked, his voice full of suspicion.

  “No, but we’re going to use all available resources until we do. Dead or alive, we need to know if she’s involved in this.”

  Jeremy looked to Blake, his eyes conveying his conviction. He couldn’t help noticing her eyeliner was smudged and bits of mascara had flaked onto her cheeks. Even slightly disheveled, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  “Thanks, Casper.”

  “No problem. And hey,” Casper added, “if you need me, I can be there within a few hours.”

  “No worries. Blake and I can handle this,” he said, never breaking eye contact with her. “We can handle anything.”

  * * *

  BLAKE TWITCHED AS the brothers spoke of time, the measurement of everything in her world. Yet now the only time that really mattered was the mounting hours that had slipped by since Robert’s murder. With every passing second, the chances of their solving this case were going up in smoke.

  She stood up and grabbed the uniform jacket she’d hung on the coatrack by the door. “Ready?”

  Jeremy looked up at her. “For what?”

  “We need to get out there. Get a line on Tiffany.”

  He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost eleven o’clock at night. Where do you think we can go that we’re going to find her at this hour? First, we don’t know if she’s even the woman behind the fire. There’s no direct evidence of her being involved. Second, we haven’t heard anything about her whereabouts since the start of this investigation.”

  “What other woman, besides Tiffany, would care if we’re investigating your brother’s murder?”

  “Blake, the note never mentioned the investigation. It was a death threat, nothing more. For all we know, it was just some whack-job who’s been reading the paper and got it in her head that you’re the devil. Who knows?”

  Blake gripped her jacket so hard that her fingers on her good hand throbbed. “You wouldn’t feel the same way if it was you or your family being threatened. You’re minimizing this.”

  “I can assure you I’m not. I’m just as upset about what happened as you are, but you need to rest. When the sun comes up, you and I can go full-on guns blazing, but tonight you should take a break and let your body heal. You’re no good to anyone if you end up back in the hospital because you’ve refused to take care of yourself.”

  He was right, but it didn’t lessen the urgency she felt. Whoever thought they could come into her house and threaten her family needed to pay.

  Jeremy stood up slipped her coat over her shoulders. “Why don’t we go for a walk and get some air?”

  She nodded, glad that he hadn’t attempted to calm her by requesting she stay put. This was one of those times when the only thing that was going to make her better was the feel of pavement under her feet.

  He opened the door and followed her outside. The night air was brisk and had started to take on the smell of fading leaves and the last blooms of the season.

  They made their way down the sidewalk and started down the hill. The full moon lit their way, and far off in the distance atop a mountain was a white sculpture called Our Lady of the Rockies.

  “Did you know that she is dedicated to mothers everywhere?” Blake asked, pointing up at the woman atop the mountain.

  “You ever been up there?”

  She shook her head. There were hiking tours and helicopter rides that went up to the ninety-foot statue, but she’d never been.

  “You can see the Berkeley Pit and the entire city. It’s hard not to think about all the people who gave their lives for this corrupt place.”

  “Who owns the mines around the pit?” Jeremy asked.

  “The one and only Tartarus Environmental Investments—headed by our glorious mayor. They shut down the mines in the 1990s. I think they weren’t making enough money per yard to keep the large-scale mines running. Ever since then they’ve been hurting for money.”

  They had cleared the mayor as a suspect, but she couldn’t help the nagging feeling that he was still somehow connected.

  They walked in silence, their footfalls and the occasional passing car the only sounds. Jeremy reached over and took Blake’s hand, and his heat soaked into her cold fingers. It was wonderful to have a man want to touch her, to reach out and take her hand not with ownership but rather something deeper, more visceral...more caring.

  She glanced down at their entwined fingers. For a moment she couldn’t tell where he stopped and she began. Noticing her attention, he ran his thumb over the back of her hand, stoking her desire.

  “Do you think Mayor Engelman is involved in all this?” she asked him.

  He nodded. “There’s something so wrong about him. It has to be more than circumstantial that all of a sudden Robert gets a tax lien. Then he ends up dead...and the mayor’s company is there to scoop up the claim. I just wish we could find concrete evidence to tie him to this thing. Something he can’t deny.”

  They walked slowly up the hill that led to Montana Tech’s School of Mines and Engineering. The brick buildings in front of them acted as sentinels as they approached. On the side of one wa
s a picture of a man wearing a hard hat and holding a pickax, and above him read Go Orediggers.

  The small college campus was eerily quiet. There were a few cars parked in the lots, but there wasn’t a single student hurrying across the grass or making his or her way back to the dorms. As silent and desolate as the campus seemed, it was a comfort. The last thing she wanted right now was to share the silence with anyone other than Jeremy.

  There were a few lights on in the buildings, but most were black and closed down for the night. Near the edge of the campus was a gazebo nestled in bushes and covered in yellow roses. Jeremy let go of Blake’s hand and made his way over to them, breaking one off. He came back to her and handed her the flower. Its heady fragrance filled her senses.

  “That’s sweet, thanks,” she said, twirling the open bud in her fingers.

  “I hope you know how bad I feel...about everything.”

  “The fire wasn’t your fault,” she said, taking another sniff of the flower.

  “That’s not what I mean. I mean I’m sorry for everything,” he said, looking into her eyes. In the moonlight, his eyes appeared as if they were full of stars. He took the rose from her and slipped it behind her ear.

  She could hold a grudge, but after everything that had happened over the past few days she didn’t have the energy to deny her true feelings. He was nice to have around, and it was nice to have someone who wanted to help her, someone she could trust.

  He stepped up into the gazebo and disappeared behind the roses. She followed him up the steps and sat down on the bench at the center. He walked over to her and gently put his hands on her shoulders. She reached up with her good hand and placed it on his. The concrete had started to cool in the night air. A chill moved through her, but she wasn’t sure if it was the cold or Jeremy’s nearness.

  “I never wanted you to get hurt,” he said, running his finger over the strap of her sling. “I never wanted you to feel threatened.”

  She looked up at him, and her lips brushed against his arm. She paused and let the sensation of his soft hairs against her skin sink into her. Ever so gently, she leaned her face against his arm and let herself just feel his touch.

  “I made my choices, Jeremy. I’ve known ever since I chose this path that it was possible I could get hurt. What happened at Todd’s wasn’t your fault. I froze.”

  “You shouldn’t have been taking point.”

  She didn’t want to argue with him, not when he was looking at her like he was searching for forgiveness and maybe something more. He touched her face, soft at first, unsure. Taking his hands in hers, she kissed his palm. She stood up as she ran her lips down the length of his finger and took the tip of it into her mouth and sucked. His breath hitched, and his body tensed with anticipation.

  Moving into him, she pressed against his body and traced his wet finger across the curve of her lip, over her chin and down her neck.

  “I’m not the kind of woman who is going to stand back and let others get what I want.”

  He looked at her as he played with one of her loose hairs, wrapping it around his finger and unwrapping it as if he was in a daze.

  “What is it that you want?”

  “Right now?” she asked, her breath catching in her throat as she admitted what she had repressed for so long. “Right now, I want you.”

  He took her lips. His kiss was hard and hungry. He tasted of salt and the sweetness of desire. Jeremy wanted this. He wanted this as badly as she did.

  Wrapping his arms around her, he led her to the concrete column behind them, pressing her body against the cold stone. It made the heat of his kiss more intense, and her body throbbed with lust.

  He stopped and looked down at her sling. “Are you sure you are okay? You can do this?”

  She answered with a seductive smile. There was no possible way she was going to pass up on her chance to be with Jeremy. This may be the last time they could be together. He would go back to Missoula as soon as their investigation was over, and once again she would be alone. At least this way she could be left with the memory of their time together.

  One by one she undid his buttons, making her way down his shirt and exposing his chest. She felt his muscles tighten as she moved lower and ran her fingers over the ridges of his perfect body.

  “I only need one good hand,” she said, slipping her hand in the waistband of his pants until she found her target.

  She took control of him and stroked his length. He threw his head back and pulled in a ragged breath as she moved.

  After a moment, his hard, hot hand stilled hers and he withdrew it. Giving as he got, he reached down and unfastened her pants. Sliding the fabric down her thighs, he let them fall to the stone. He took off his shirt and laid it on the ground. The muscles of his chest were highlighted by the moon, making him seem mystical, like a Greek god who had come to her in the night.

  Ever so gingerly, he laid her on his shirt and pulled her panties down her legs, kissing her skin as they inched lower.

  She relished the feel of his moist breath and the tender movement of his kiss, but as she looked around she suddenly remembered where they were.

  “Don’t you think we should hurry? What if someone sees us?” she said, her voice breathless and drunken with want.

  He looked up at her from between her thighs. “I’ve wanted this...and you...for too long to want to rush.”

  Reaching up, he pulled the rose from behind her ear. Ever so slowly, he traced the velvet petals over her legs, kissing each place the flower brushed. He ran the petals toward the heat at her center. As his lips moved up her thigh, she forgot her apprehension.

  His tongue fluttered against her, light at first but stroke by stroke his mouth drove harder against her, making her body feel as though she would fall to pieces under the pleasure of his touch.

  “No,” she whispered, though her body begged her to say only yes. She ran her fingers through his hair as he looked up from between her thighs. “I want to feel you... All of you.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, making her tremble with lust.

  “Please,” she begged.

  He smiled as he looked at her, his eyes mirroring her want and he moved up between her thighs.

  “I’m yours... I’ve wanted you... This... Always.” He drove himself inside of her with just the right mix of gentleness and force.

  He moved inside of her, her body rising to his. She shifted her hips, pulling him deeper. Their bodies moved together until she wasn’t sure exactly who was who. The world disappeared as he laced his fingers through her hair and took her lips.

  Her body parted for him, taking all of him, wanting all of him...needing everything he could give.

  She wanted this moment to last. Yet her breath caught in her throat as her body disobeyed her mind.

  “Jeremy...” she whispered, her voice urgent and telling of what her body promised.

  “Yes,” he said, his mouth caressing her earlobe. “Yes, be mine.”

  She let herself go as he drove hard and fast inside of her.

  Stars flecked her vision and, as Jeremy’s body mimicked hers, for a moment she wasn’t sure if something that felt so glorious and right could be real.

  Jeremy lowered his body, letting his head fall to her chest as if he wanted to listen to the sounds of her heart. She held him, running her fingers dazedly over the muscles of his shoulders and through his hair.

  She had waited for so long for this moment, if only it could last forever.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jeremy wasn’t the type to smile like an idiot, but he couldn’t help the contented grin that had taken over his face and made his cheeks grow sore. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was, at least for one night.

  He held Blake’s hand as they crested the hill that led back to his parents
’ place. As they approached, the front porch light was on, but inside the house was dark. He was a bit relieved. There was no way he could have hidden what had happened and the giddiness he felt.

  Making love with Blake was everything he’d hoped it would be. And he never wanted it to end. But he knew it must. She needed to rest, and they had a case they needed to get back to in the morning. A case riddled with questions.

  As if she read his mind, she asked him one. “When you guys went back to Todd’s place, did you find any evidence of a woman living at his property?”

  “Why?”

  “What if Tiffany had been living with Todd? Maybe she had been there, hiding out. Maybe that was what Todd was hiding.”

  It made sense. If Blake was right, it was no wonder that Todd wanted nothing to do with them or their investigation.

  “Was Todd’s truck still there?”

  He frowned. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then I think we need to put an APB out on his truck. If we find it, we may find Tiffany.”

  * * *

  OVERNIGHT A LATE-SUMMER storm had rolled in. The gray, ominous clouds that had dampened the earth still loomed overhead, threatening more rain. They had been making phone calls all day, tracking down Tiffany’s friends, and they had gotten their first solid lead when they had called a woman named Judith. She had sounded concerned about her friend’s disappearance, but there had also been an edge of panic in her voice that made Blake want to reach out and talk in person with the woman.

  The truck sloshed through the mud puddles, kicking up fat droplets of muck onto the windshield as Jeremy bumped down the road that led to Tiffany’s best friend’s house.

  Despite her administrative leave, Blake had refused to be left out of this investigation. It felt strange to not have her badge on her chest. Yet with or without her badge, she had to protect her family, and the only way she knew how was by stopping whomever had threatened them. It had been painful to watch as Megan had spent the morning cautiously lurching around the house, looking out the windows toward their home and talking about the threat. Megan had wanted to go home, but the idea hadn’t been discussed. They needed the relative safety of Jeremy’s parents’ place.