“Although the possibility grows less and less likely every day, her killer could still be here. I need to ask you about the drugs. It’s one of the best leads we have. If the cops are right about Sarah’s involvement, you know more about her world than any of them. You’ve been there.”
His face flushed. She didn’t like doing this to him but she had to—this wasn’t about them as friends...or lovers. The tension was palpable and the sudden insane urge to lift onto her toes and kiss him flooded through her, negating her previous thought. Her gaze fell to his lips. She wanted to take away his pain and him hers.
“Jay—”
His mouth came down on hers so roughly she staggered back, his arms wrapping around her waist, thick and strong. Just for a moment she’d let this happen. She closed her eyes and drank him in as if he were an oasis in the desert. His tongue found hers and together they grappled for supremacy, for a demonstration of who controlled the kiss. She dug her nails into his wide muscular shoulders, holding on to him like a lifeline.
A low guttural moan escaped from deep within him, vibrating into her mouth, making her shudder and cling harder. His skin smelled masculine and true and entirely Jay. She breathed him in, kissed him and held him before gasping for breath as they parted.
She stared. His eyes were wide and hungry, his mouth reddened. Cat pushed her hand through her hair, holding it there.
“That was...that was...”
“Necessary.” He laughed.
Cat smiled, looked to the ground. “And entirely inappropriate.”
Their gazes held for a long moment. “The last thing I want is to hurt you, Jay. This is going to be hard. The whole process. I’m here to catch her killer. Our emotions can be dealt with when we have him, or her, locked up. In the meantime, we push whatever is happening between us to the background. We have to.”
“Maybe.”
He walked forward, pulling her deeper into the forest. Cat shuddered out a heavy breath. They were both surviving, no matter their different stories. That’s what the frenzied intensity of that kiss said to her and she could deal with that if she remained focused. So why then was she looking at him from the corner of her eye and wondering when they’d kiss again?
CHAPTER NINE
THE RUSTLE OF THE LEAVES above them and the snap of twigs beneath them serenaded Cat and Jay’s progress into the forest. Eventually the air was punctuated with what Cat recognized as the flapping of police tape as it rose and fell on the increasing breeze. They came to a standstill. Both staring ahead, Cat sensed Jay’s heart beating as painfully as hers.
The scene had been swept for DNA, Sarah’s body taken, leaving behind the remnants of a police investigation by way of trampled bracken and the eerie silvery-white remains of fingerprint dust. Nothing else was there to reveal the horror that took place. Everything was still and quiet except the crudely cut, bright yellow tape snapping and pulling from the four huge oak trees to which it had been tied. Their trunks stood like corner markers around the spot where Sarah’s young life had been cut brutally short.
Cat trembled. Jay’s arm felt heavy when it slipped across her back; his fingers clasped her shoulder, firm and secure.
“What was she doing here?” she whispered. “It’s so damp. So cold.”
He didn’t answer and she hadn’t really wanted him to. She focused on what clues the seemingly empty crime scene could provide. It would provide. They always did.
She narrowed her gaze, centered her mind. “Is coming through the meadow from your house the only way into the forest? Or is there—”
A child’s playful shouting cut through the tense and macabre silence. Cat jumped and cold sweat burst onto her forehead. “My God, are kids allowed in here?” She whirled out from beneath his arm and turned toward where the incongruous sound came. “This isn’t a freaking playground.”
“It’s fenced off. They can’t get in here.”
“Are you sure? That scream sounded close.”
He came to stand beside her and gestured in the same direction. “The other side of the forest backs onto a holiday park, remember? You, Sarah and I used to sneak in there to play on the zip wire and climbing frames.”
“Tetherton Holiday Park? That’s where those kids are?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus. He didn’t care, did he?”
“Who?”
“Whoever killed Sarah. What are we? A hundred, two hundred yards from the park?”
He took a couple of steps forward and pointed in the opposite direction. “Over that way is near the outskirts of Funland. That’s why I’m convinced someone must have seen something.”
Cat looked around. “This couldn’t have been the first time Sarah and her killer came here. When I spoke to Bennett, he said there haven’t been more than half a dozen phone calls from people offering information. None of then added substance to their enquiries. This is a holiday spot. It’s August, and when you have a highly publicized murder like this, people remember things. Especially when something happens when they’re away from their home towns. Parents are more alert. They watch their kids more, stay together in family groups.”
He planted his hands on his hips and looked first toward the holiday park and then Clover Point and then Funland. “You’re right. There are three possible ways into the forest and whichever way Sarah came, she came in willingly and without a fight.”
Cat studied him. His brow was furrowed in concentration, his eyes clear. No trace of anything but determination showed in his face. “I think she knew her killer, Jay. I think people were used to seeing them together.”
“Like a couple.”
Their eyes met and Cat nodded.
“She had to have been seeing someone.” His excitement at an imminent step forward lit a flare in his gaze and with it the mistake so many rookie cops made on their first few cases—and so many parents made when their kids went missing. A link. An anchor. Something to hold up and say, “We’ve got something. We’re going to catch you.”
“Don’t get your hopes up.” She sighed. “If there was no boyfriend, it could’ve been a friend, an associate...anyone she knew, really.” You.
He lifted his shoulders. “Maybe. But it’s more likely she came here because she was seeing someone out of bounds. A married man, a school governor, even a parent of one of the kids she taught. It makes no sense to meet a friend in a damn forest.”
Cat watched him, waited to see if he noticed the accusation in her tone. Waited to see if he turned away from her, opened the distance between them. He did neither. She drew in a breath, released it. “You’re right, it doesn’t, but until we know why she came here, we have to keep our minds open to every possibility. Every scenario. We assume nothing at this point, okay?”
“But Sarah didn’t have enemies. Everyone loved her. She was known for her generosity, her affinity with the kids, her patience.”
“Yes, but she had her limits.” She met his gaze directly. “She didn’t want to see you for close on four years, remember. Sarah knew her mind and stuck to what she believed was right.”
He narrowed his eyes and then his cheeks darkened. “Got it.”
The silence stretched until Cat looked away, hating everything about the situation. The distrust between them and the fact that someone had taken their friend’s life hung like an evil barrier between them. She moved away and stared around the forest.
“I think she was trying to help whoever killed her. Trying to
help them out of some sort of trouble. Why else meet in such a place? Why else call you after all this time? She must have needed you. Saw no one else she could turn to that she trusted. Sarah most likely knew that, despite your estrangement, you were the only one she could rely on.”
“Which means I could possibly know this person, too.”
“Or the whole town could.” She turned to face him and adrenaline started its familiar hum in her blood. Once she and Jay talked about him not telling Bennett about Sarah’s call, Cat hoped the threads keeping her grounded in suspicion of his guilt would snap. She wanted him fighting to find this killer right beside her, in the inner circle rather than the outer.
She cleared her throat. “You’re right. Sarah was a popular teacher, yet she arranges an assignation where no one will see them...or her friend does. I think whoever killed her is known in Templeton. Known and possibly liked. Sarah was protecting them.”
“And doing so got her killed.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “If it turns out I know her killer, I’m going to...”
He opened his eyes and their gazes locked. Anger stormed in the deep brown depths of his eyes and a muscle jumped at his jaw. Cat gripped his forearm and the muscles tensed beneath her fingers.
“You’re a good man, Jay. There’s nothing you could have done to help her, because you knew nothing...right?”
Lifting her hand from his arm, he took her hands and pulled her into the tight circle of his arms. Cat stiffened. Was he hiding his eyes from her? She inhaled a deep breath and the comforting scent of him weakened her stupid feminine resolve. She leaned into him, surrendering to the welcome feel of his masculine strength around her and the broad flat width of his chest against her cheek.
Her breath whispered across his T-shirt. “This is going to get worse before it gets better, you know.”
“What is?” he asked, softly. “Looking for Sarah’s killer or us?”
Cat pulled up straight. His eyes shone in the half-light and her heart pulled to his. “Both. It’s both going to get worse.”
He brushed some fallen hair from her face. “I can handle it if you can.”
Before Cat could respond, he dropped lips that tasted of sweetened strength and burgeoning belief to hers. Moaning, she kissed him back and wondered what the hell to do next. How was she supposed to keep accusing him? Wondering? Suspecting? His lips moved against hers, the pressure increasing and she didn’t fight him. She wanted this. Wanted to believe him an innocent and good man.
It hurt like hell that she couldn’t.
She eased back. “Jay, not here. Not now. We have work to do.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
She nodded and turned away before she pulled him back to her. “Okay, well, first I want us to comb this entire area. I don’t doubt the police have done a thorough job, but until I know we’ve checked every square foot of this marked space and beyond, I won’t be happy.”
He drew in a heavy breath behind her. “Then let’s get started.”
* * *
NIGHT HAD FALLEN AS Cat strode through the patio doors of Jay’s cabin and onto the vast wooden veranda stretching its width. She walked to the surrounding balustrade and crossed her arms tightly around her torso. The forest in the distance drew her gaze and her mind’s eye once again filled with images of Sarah’s smiling, happy face. Then those images merged with the photos pinned crudely on the incident board at the police station.
Instinct reared hot and heavy in her stomach as the suspicion she’d had earlier gathered strength. Sarah knew her killer. Cat was sure of it. The problem was, in a place like Templeton Cove, where everyone seemed to know everyone, how did she start to narrow down possible suspects and eliminate Jay?
She tipped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. Growls of anger and whimpers of fear reverberated in her head. Time and again, since they’d scoured the crime scene, Cat could almost hear the murmur of Sarah’s final conversation. Although by no means psychic, more often than not Cat sensed a victim, felt their final moments ring with fear and loathing in her brain.
This time she sensed a man more than a woman with her friend. Sarah knew him either intimately or maybe he was someone she’d known since childhood. She felt their connection, felt her friend’s desperation to be heard. Unable to hear what they said or even the timbre of their voices, Cat forced her brain to the sounds and emotions coming from Sarah and her faceless companion. Nothing but a barrage of white noise and the thundering of Cat’s blood came through.
She opened her eyes and shivered. Purposefully turning her head from the forest, Cat concentrated her gaze on the blinking lights and neon signs of the Templeton Cove town center in the distance. It looked beautiful. The picture-perfect holiday destination for fun and frolics, good times and laughter, yet even the soft warm breeze drifting over her skin did nothing to appease the tension aching at the base of her neck—or lessen the knowledge that a seaside town could prove just as dangerous as an urban town like Reading.
She gripped the balustrade. Thoughts of Jay asking her to stay, asking her to find out if anything still lingered between them mixed with everything else on her mind. She couldn’t deny that something still burned hotter than fire between them. It had shot through her heart like an arrow the moment she’d realized it was him on the train. He was her friend, the person who lifted her, believed in her. Every summer she willed her father to press harder on the car accelerator so she could get closer to Jay’s smile, his spirit, him.
When she left that final summer before her father died, neither she nor Jay followed up with the other. Neither made sure they didn’t lose what they had. What did that say about their relationship? Did it mean any love they had wasn’t real? Or that they were both stupid enough to let a one-time love slip through their fingers? Cat swallowed. They’d been stupid. Both of them. Now their lives were tainted with addiction. Jay’s in the past. Hers in the present. The stain ran deep.
Her gaze returned to the forest. Looking back provided little more than a rose-tinted memory of Templeton and a rose-tinted memory of Jay. They were all grown up now and if she proved his innocence in Sarah’s murder and they tried to start anew, this time it wouldn’t be a one-time thing. She’d want it for life or he’d break her heart. It wasn’t her fear he wouldn’t want the same, it was the knowledge he would that frightened her.
Sarah would never enjoy another summer in Templeton—so why should she? Was her dearest friend any guiltier of keeping secrets and telling lies than she and Jay were? No. So Cat would return home and help her mum. Once she was in recovery, maybe things would change.
She swiped at her cheek and shot a glance in the direction of the patio doors. Jay had left the kitchen. Damn it. He could be watching her from an upstairs window for all she knew. Could have seen her wiping her face and known she cried. She turned back to the vista ahead and straightened her shoulders. He couldn’t see her weakness. He would want to swoop in and fix her, wipe her tears and kiss her lips.
She wasn’t handling her life well, buckling beneath the weight of her inability, and Jay was an available, desired release. She had to resist him no matter what. Yet she came to the Cove to solve a murder as well as spending time being the old Cat. The Cat with a mother who cared for her, who didn’t drink...who knew when her daughter was sad and lonely. She was away from home and responsibility and, God help her, she’d relished the raw need in Jay’s eyes in the forest. Enjoyed the w
ay he looked at her like she was a real woman. Not a savior or prop but a real bona fide woman whom he wanted to take to bed and taste every part of.
Didn’t she have the right to feel human, loved and desired? Even for a while?
The ringing of her cell phone startled her and Cat pulled it from her back pocket without looking at the display. Her hand shook. She’d fight her feelings for Jay. There was no alternative.
“Hello?”
“Good evening, little sis. How’s it going?”
Cat shot back to reality like a bullet from a gun. All thoughts of Jay obliterated. “Chris.”
“The one and only.”
Cat glared. Had she ever sounded so damn chipper when looking after their mum?
“Well, don’t you just sound fine and dandy,” she said dryly.
He laughed. “So? Is that bad?”
“Yes, it’s bad. What have you done with Mum? Taken her to the Severn bridge and tossed her over?”
“Well, isn’t that nice. Don’t you trust me?”
She ignored his question. “Why are you so happy? What’s going on? Do I need to come home?”
“Will you stop? Mum’s fine...well, coherent anyway.”
Cat closed her eyes as her pulsed throbbed at her temple. “Great. I suppose you’re getting a feel for how hard it is now, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
Cat blew out a breath as his silent apology whispered down the line. “I’ve been doing my best to keep her sober for the last six years since you moved out. It’s not easy, is it?”
“No, but I’m here now.”
She stared toward the forest. “It hurts to hear you smiling through this, Chris. It makes me feel...useless.”
Finding Justice Page 12
