“I always have fun with you,” she said. “Even my dad noticed that you bring out a happier version of me.”
“We’re pretty good together,” he said, then wished he could take it back. “As dancing partners, I mean.”
“That’s clearly because of you.” She moved closer and rested her head on his shoulder, just above his chest.
His heart jumped again as he senses were overwhelmed by her- the clean smell of her hair and skin, the warmth of her breath on his neck, the smooth satin of her dress under his hands.
“This was nice,” she said when the song ended. “Thank you.”
“The pleasure was mine, Olivia.” He returned her smile and swallowed hard as she leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“I’ll get us drinks,” she said, her hands slowly leaving his neck.
Nate watched her hips sway as she walked away. She turned at the edge of the dance floor and caught him watching. Their eyes locked for several long seconds before she turned away again. In those seconds, something unspoken had passed between them. Whatever Nate was feeling for Olivia, she saw it in his eyes.
He ran a hand through his hair and muttered, “Shit.”
They both did a decent job of pretending nothing had changed the rest of the night, teasing each other and making sarcastic jokes. But Olivia wouldn’t make eye contact with him and Nate made sure to keep a few inches between them at all times. Olivia also downed a few more champagne glasses and was pretty tipsy by the time they called it a night.
Nate lay in bed later, trying to think about anything but Olivia. He should be focusing on Rosie and Karen’s murder investigations. He shouldn’t be having sexual thoughts about his best friend. It was no use. Every time he tried to force himself to stop thinking about her, he only thought about her more.
When the bedroom door creaked open a couple hours later, Nate was still wide awake.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting up with a start when Olivia appeared in the doorway.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. Nothing’s wrong.” She hugged her arms over her chest like she was cold. That was when Nate realized she was wearing only an old t-shirt that barely reached her thighs. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Join the club.” He was sure that her insomnia was the result of purer thoughts than his.
Olivia rocked from foot to foot. “Will you totally freak out if I ask to sleep in here with you?”
His jaw clenched reflexively. He tried to sound natural when he said, “That’s fine. Climb in.”
He scooted over on the bed to make room for her and when she slipped under the sheets next to him, her smooth legs grazed against his. His heart pounded in his chest.
There was no way he was getting any sleep tonight.
“Thanks again for coming with me this weekend. I’m not sure I could’ve done this without you.” Olivia’s voice was small. She turned on her side so that she was facing him.
“I’m sure you would’ve been fine. You’re a strong woman.”
“Maybe. But it definitely wouldn’t have been as much fun.” She smiled at him in the darkness.
As her eyes closed, Nate brushed a strand of hair from her face and kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, Olivia.”
The next morning, Ed helped Nate load their bags into the car. Olivia was still inside, preparing coffee to-go. When Nate had woken up in the morning, she had been long gone. They’d been avoiding each other all morning, but that would have to stop once they hit the road.
“It was good to meet you,” Ed said, slapping Nate on the back as he shut the car trunk. “Thanks for taking care of my little girl. And for taking an interest in Rosie’s case.”
“I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help, but I’m going to look into every angle.” Nate glanced at the house to be sure Olivia was still inside. “As for Olivia, sometimes I think she’s the one that takes care of me.”
Ed smiled knowingly. “She’s good at that. But I saw her on the dance floor with you last night. She adores you, and she’s a tough nut to crack, so you must be a pretty decent guy.”
“She’s quite a woman,” Nate said.
“Huh...” Ed looked at Nate in surprise.
“What?”
Ed grinned. “You’re in love with my daughter.”
“What? No,” Nate stammered. “We’re just friends.”
He looked at Ed and it was clear that the old man had just realized what Nate had learned in the past couple of days. There was no use denying it.
“You might be right,” he admitted. “I think maybe I am in love with her. But she deserves better than me.”
“Damn straight.” Ed slapped Nate’s shoulder again. “But if you have any sense at all, you’ll never let her know that.”
Olivia threw open the door right then and held up two travel mugs triumphantly. “Don’t worry. I’ve got the essentials.”
Nate shook Ed’s hand and climbed into the driver’s seat to give them some privacy while they said goodbye. He watched through the window as they exchanged some words and a long hug.
Olivia was quiet as she settled into her seat, taking her time with the seatbelt. Nate waited a moment and asked, “Ready?”
She nodded. “Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER NINE
One more stop and Olivia would be leaving Mercy behind. She couldn’t wait. But they had one more important person from Rosie’s life to question before they could get out of town.
Olivia gave Nate directions to Crystal’s home on the edge of town. He did as he was directed, but he was unusually quiet.
“What did you and Dad talk about while I was inside?” Olivia glanced at him, surprised to see that his face was tense. “Did he interrogate you again about how you plan to provide for our unborn child?”
“Funny.” Nate wasn’t laughing. “Is this the road?”
“Yeah.”
Crystal lived in a small farmhouse on an unpaved road. Nate was being reckless with Olivia’s car, kicking up dirt and rocks. Normally, she would’ve yelled at him to slow down. But Olivia’s mind was on other things.
She hadn’t seen or talked to Crystal since moving away and she wasn’t sure what kind of reception to expect.
“Classy,” Nate said, observing the old trailer’s yard, littered with beer bottles.
“Not everyone can be as fancy as you,” Olivia said, distinctly remembering that Nate’s apartment had looked quite similar right after his separation. “Crystal has simple tastes. She doesn’t need craft beers like you.”
“Hey, I was going through a divorce.” Nate pretended to be offended. “In my emotional state, I wasn’t in the mood for extensive house cleaning.”
“Throwing away trash and washing your underwear are not considered extensive house cleaning tasks.”
“When we get back to the city, I’m finding a new best friend.”
Olivia opened the car door. “Good. I was getting sick of you anyway.”
Nate smirked. “We both know you’d be lost without me.”
It was meant to be a joke. They always engaged in this type of teasing repartee, but for some reason it felt different to Olivia this time. She looked hard at Nate to see if he felt it, too, but he was already rapping hard on the trailer door.
“Maybe you should let me do the talking,” she suggested.
“Which one of us is the detective?” Nate took a lot of pride in his profession and Olivia knew it irked him when she stepped on his toes.
“Fine. I just meant because Crystal and I have a history, but if you think you-”
Nate waved her off. “Trust me. I’ve got this one.”
The door opened with a painfully loud screech. Olivia winced, but managed not to grab her ears. The face that peered at them through the screen door was aged and weathered, but Olivia recognized her sister’s old friend.
“Crystal Masters?” Nate spoke before Olivia could.
“Yeah?”
Crystal’s voice was as har
d as her face. It betrayed a pack-a-day habit and a distrust of strangers. Olivia couldn’t blame her for the latter.
“It’s Olivia, Crystal. Olivia Thompson.” She stepped in front of Nate and he frowned hard at her; she chose to ignore him. “Rosie’s sister.”
Those last two words made Crystal’s eyes widen. “Holy shit.”
It wasn’t the best greeting Olivia could’ve received, but she knew it could’ve been much worse. She also noticed that after Crystal gave her a quick once-over, her eyes immediately went back to Nate.
“This is Detective Tucker.” Olivia gestured to Nate and he stepped forward, bumping Olivia aside.
“Nate.” He held out his hand and Crystal shook it slowly.
“We were hoping to ask you some questions about Rosie.” It was like Olivia hadn’t spoken. Crystal was a lost cause.
Nate bumped Olivia further out of the way, smiling his movie-star grin. “Olivia mentioned that you might be able to help me out. I’m investigating the circumstances around Rosie’s murder, and you might know something that can help.”
Crystal smiled shyly and batted her blue-shaded lids. “Oh, I don’t know about that… I mean, we were best friends. And I would like to help if I can.”
“So you’d be up for answering some questions?” Nate’s smile stayed strong.
“I suppose I could do that.” She pushed the door open wide. “Come on in.”
The inside of the trailer was just a touch cleaner than the outside. Olivia carefully dodged a pile of old newspapers.
“Sorry about the mess,” Crystal said, not sounding at all sorry. “Three kids in the house makes it impossible to keep things clean.”
“It’s just a little clutter,” Nate said. “You should see my place.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. Aside from those first couple of months in depression, Nate kept a clean apartment. He was obviously flirting with Crystal, attempting to charm her, and by all accounts it was working.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing your place,” she said with an exaggerated wink. Then she turned to Olivia. “Sorry.”
“No apology necessary,” Olivia muttered.
While Olivia didn’t exactly enjoy witnessing women drool over Nate, she knew that for once it was going to work to her advantage. Crystal might not want to open up to her dead best friend’s little sister, but she might share a secret or two with the man she wanted to impress.
“Please, have a seat.” Crystal waved her hand in the direction of the couch.
As subtly as possible, Olivia nudged away a dirty sock before sitting. Nate sat next to her, his long leg cutting into her personal space.
“How’ve you been, Crystal?” Olivia pretended not to notice the empty bottle of vodka on the coffee table. “It’s been a long time.”
“Fifteen years.” Crystal was bored with Olivia already. “What do you want to ask me about Rosie?”
“Who was Rosie sleeping with when she cheated on Dylan?” Olivia asked directly. Nate stepped down hard on her foot. Olivia didn’t care. She wanted to know if Crystal had known about Tim.
Crystal had been trying to play it cool the whole time, but now her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “What are you asking?”
“You heard me,” Olivia snapped.
Nate cleared his throat loudly. “You’ll have to excuse Olivia. This is obviously a very sensitive subject for her.”
Crystal glared hard at her for several seconds before turning to Nate. “She isn’t the only one that misses Rosie.”
“Of course not,” Nate agreed hurriedly. “You were her best friend. That’s why I was so desperate to speak with you. I’m pretty sure you know something about what happened to Rosie.”
“I already told the police everything I know.” Crystal blinked her eyes several times, like she was thinking about crying.
“But that was a long time ago. Are you sure you haven’t thought of some detail, however small, since then?” Nate prodded gently, just like an experienced detective.
Crystal’s face wrinkled into ugliness as she thought. “Rosie and I weren’t on speaking terms. We’d had a bit of a falling out. Stupid teenage girl stuff, really. But that’s why I wasn’t with her that night.”
“Where were you instead?” Nate had a way of asking questions that didn’t sound accusatory. Olivia could understand why he was such a good detective.
“Well, I was at the high school football game. Just like I told the police.” She flashed Nate a sly smile. “I was on the cheerleading squad.”
“Where did you go after the game?” Nate kept a smile on his face, but Olivia knew that he wasn’t at all charmed by Crystal and her flirting attempts. “A pretty gal like you must’ve had a lot of party invitations on the weekends.”
Crystal faked a shy smile. “Maybe a few. That weekend was Homecoming though and the dance was the next day. I went home after the game to get my beauty sleep.”
“And you have no idea where Rosie went that night?” Nate’s leg brushed harder against Olivia’s in a way that felt purposeful.
“I heard that some kids were having a party in the old abandoned church on Grover Street that night. I always assumed that’s where she was headed when the killer found her.” Crystal exaggerated a shudder.
Olivia nudged Nate’s foot to remind him that her question still hadn’t been answered. He didn’t look at her, but his next question was, “We heard the reason you and Rosie had a falling out was because you caught her cheating on your brother. Who was the other guy?”
“I don’t know.” Crystal didn’t look at all annoyed at Nate which made Olivia glare at her. “I caught her sneaking out of school one day. She got onto the back of a motorcycle with some guy I didn’t recognize. But she stuck her tongue down his throat before they left.”
“You didn’t know him?” Olivia couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. “Rosie never even mentioned some other guy in her life?”
“She was dating my brother,” Crystal snapped. “Do you really think she would’ve confided in me about her affair? Besides, this guy looked way older. She was probably embarrassed about having a sugar daddy.”
“You make it sound like she was a whore,” Olivia said, finding it very hard not to slap her sister’s friend. “She loved you like a sister.”
Crystal’s turned her hateful eyes on Olivia. “She wasn’t the saint that you have filed away in your memories. She slept around, did drugs, and even stole things. Rosie was wild and she was asking for trouble.”
Olivia was on the verge of snapping and Nate could tell. He said, “Hey, I think I left my phone in the car. Can you check?”
It was a dismissal and they all knew it. Olivia would’ve been offended if she didn’t know that Nate had her best interest in mind. He was going to dig deeper into this dark side of Rosie and he didn’t want her to hear bad things about her sister.
“Fine.” Olivia gave Nate a hard look before leaving the room.
His lips turned up in the faintest of smiles. Despite being annoyed that she had been banished from the interview, Olivia felt better seeing that smile.
She battled conflicting thoughts as she waited in the car for Nate. Part of her was fuming about the accusations that Crystal had made about Rosie. But another part of her kept thinking about the previous night. She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to sneak into Nate’s bed. She couldn’t just blame it on not wanting to sleep alone. As a single woman in her thirties, she was used to sleeping alone.
Instead, Olivia had felt a strong urge to be near Nate, to feel him lying next to her. It wasn’t like anything she had ever felt, and she was starting to wonder if just maybe everyone else had been right. Maybe there was something between them stronger than just friendship.
Nate joined her in the car about ten minutes later. He had a smudge of hot pink lipstick on his cheek.
“Did you kick me out so you could get laid?” Olivia asked, rubbing a thumb over the stain.
“What?” Nate caught a glimp
se of his reflection in the rearview mirror. “She caught me as we were saying goodbye. I was a helpless victim.”
“You’ve never been helpless in your life, Nater.” Olivia finished wiping away the last traces of Crystal. “Did you learn anything useful after you kicked me out?”
He flinched. “I’m sorry about that, Liv. It was pretty clear she hated you and I was afraid she wouldn’t open up with you in the room.”
“Whatever.” She slid on a pair of sunglasses. “What did you learn, Detective?”
“I’ve read Rosie’s file a dozen times. This is the first time that Crystal mentioned that party at the church.” Nate smile smugly. “If she didn’t mention it back then, she had a good reason.”
“Because she was there and she didn’t want anyone to know,” Olivia said, finishing his train of though. “If the police didn’t know about the party, they never would’ve checked out that church.”
Nate turned over the engine and started driving. “It was just on the other side of the park. We could see if from the swings.”
“Which means people at that party could’ve seen what happened to Rosie.” Olivia took a few deep breaths to control the adrenaline that was now coursing through her body. “This is good, Nate. This is information that no one has ever had.”
Nate waggled an eyebrow. “Let’s go to church.”
Olivia had never been inside the old church. It had been engulfed in a big fire in the fifties according to what she had heard as a child. No one had wanted to spend money repairing it, so it had sat abandoned ever since. They had been warned by their parents not to go inside since most of the framework had been damaged in the fire and the entire structure was just a giant hazard.
“Why would a bunch of teenagers want to party in a place like this?” Olivia stared up at the charred remains.
“Are you kidding?” Nate gave her a surprised look. “An abandoned, creepy, and dangerous church? It’s the ideal place for teenagers to throw a party.”
“I don’t get it,” Olivia said, reaching for the rusty door handle. “This is the last place I would’ve partied as a teen.”
Ring Around the Rosie (An Olivia Thompson Mystery Book 1) Page 7
