The Deputy's Proof Page 11

  It was the last possibility that worried him. Who could be obsessed with a woman who had been nothing more than a ghost in the past two years? And why would that obsession be fed by a killing rage against her?

  A new thought struck him, one that had him racing back to Savannah’s house as quickly as physically possible. Had the person in the backyard simply been a ruse to get him out of the house, leaving Savannah alone with the real threat?

  His heart pounded with new anxiety. He reached Savannah’s front door and knocked a frantic rhythm. “Savannah, it’s me.”

  She opened the door to allow him inside, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m assuming you didn’t catch him,” she said as they walked back to the kitchen.

  “He had too much of a head start, and then I lost him.” Josh placed his gun on the table and flopped down in a chair at the table, still slightly winded by his unsuccessful race.

  “You think it was my attacker?” she asked and sat across from him, worry evident on her features.

  “I think we’d be foolish to believe it wasn’t,” he replied.

  “He told me I screwed things up,” she said more to herself than to him.

  Josh sat up straighter in his chair. “You didn’t mention that before.”

  “I just remembered it. He said he was going to kill me because I screwed everything up.” She gazed at him in confusion. “How could I possibly have screwed up anything for anyone?”

  “You said Chad Wilson asked you out and you turned him down. Maybe you screwed things up for him because you didn’t indicate any romantic interest in him. Or maybe Eric Baptiste is using the tunnels for something other than finding plants and roots for his mother’s shop.”

  Josh got up and poured himself a cup of the coffee and returned to the table. “Daniel reminded me that the first attack on you took place in the tunnel, and after that, the tunnel network was no longer a secret.”

  “I ruined things because it’s my fault the tunnel network was no longer a secret?”

  “It’s a theory, but not the only one,” he replied. “It’s possible this has nothing to do with the tunnels, and it’s also possible it has everything to do with the tunnels.”

  “Jeez, thanks for making me feel better,” she replied drily.

  “I just don’t want us to have tunnel vision, no pun intended,” he replied. When he was involved in the investigation into Shelly’s death, Trey had suffered from tunnel vision, focusing on one suspect to the exclusion of any others. Josh wasn’t going to let that happen again. “I should probably call Trey and tell him about this latest event.”

  “Why? What’s the point of bothering him? I’m assuming you couldn’t identify the person at the window. I only got a quick glance at him, and he was wearing a ski mask.”

  “You’re right,” Josh replied in frustration. “I just wish I had caught him. Then we might have all the answers we need. Case closed.”

  She glanced toward the window and then looked back at him. “Why don’t we go into the living room? I feel like I’m on stage sitting here in front of these windows.”

  He took a last sip of his coffee and then placed the cup in the dishwasher. He followed her into the living room, where she sat on one side of the sofa and he sat on the opposite and placed his gun on the coffee table in easy reach.

  “I still don’t understand why I was attacked in the tunnel,” she said. “And you already knew about them when I was attacked.”

  “Yeah, but nobody else knew that I knew about them,” he reminded her. He grimaced. “If I’d told somebody instead of agreeing to let you make that final walk, then you wouldn’t have been attacked.”

  “If Shelly hadn’t gone alone to the stone bench down by the lagoon the night that she did, then she wouldn’t have been murdered,” she countered. “We can’t go back and change things.”

  “I know, but I wish I could,” he replied.

  She looked at him curiously. “What would you change?”

  He leaned back against the sofa cushion. “I would have insisted Jacob not get into a car with a bunch of his friends and a driver I knew liked to speed and drive recklessly. I would have fought to get Trey to do a more thorough investigation into your sister’s death, and I definitely would have asked you out over two years ago instead of being afraid you’d turn me down.”

  She gazed at him in surprise. “You were afraid I’d turn you down?” He nodded. A wistful smile curved her lips. “And at that time, I was afraid you’d never ask me out. Then Shelly was murdered and everything changed, and now there’s no going back.”

  There was such finality to her words. While he believed she was still attracted to him and he certainly was still attracted to her, she intimated that there was no chance for them to ever act on that attraction.

  He was here not because she wanted him here but because she needed his protection. She’d made it clear that she had no desire to change the isolation she’d crawled into in this house.

  He might be able to change things for an investigation. He could force her out of the house, make her interact with other people, but ultimately he had a feeling that once she was no longer in danger, she would return to the isolation that seemed to bring her comfort but no happiness.

  * * *

  SAVANNAH AWAKENED AT ten the next morning, dreading the day to come. She and Josh had stayed up until three and then had agreed to head to bed and get up earlier than usual for both of them this morning to start their foray into the public arena of Lost Lagoon.

  She didn’t want to go out. She didn’t want to talk to other people, but she did want answers, and if Josh thought they might find some by going out, then she’d just suck it up and go along with his plan.

  Hopefully this would all resolve itself quickly. She glanced toward the desk that held Shelly’s memorabilia. She knew it was grief that drove her to remain disconnected from anything and everyone. But the grief had become familiar. It felt so safe and comfortable.

  She dragged herself out of bed and pulled on her robe. Though filled with dread, she moved her feet down the hallway toward the bathroom. The scent of coffee let her know that Josh was already up.

  She opened the bathroom door and gasped. Josh stood at the sink clad only in a white towel wrapped around his slim hips. Half of his face was covered in shaving cream, and his eyes widened in the mirror at the sight of her.

  “Oh, sorry,” she exclaimed and told her feet to move backward and out the door. Her feet weren’t listening. In fact, she was brain-dead. The only thing working in her head was the visual feast of his broad, muscled chest, his lean waist, his slim hips and the length of his athletic legs.

  Heat rushed through her, the heat of fierce desire. He was gorgeous with his clothes on, but with just a towel around his waist, he was sex with shaving cream.

  “Uh...do you want to help me finish shaving?” he asked with a touch of amusement.

  His voice snapped her brain back into control. She grabbed the doorknob, stumbled backward and slammed the door closed.

  She went back into her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to erase the vision of Josh from her mind. It was impossible. It was stuck in her brain like Spanish moss in a cypress tree.

  As if the day wasn’t going to be difficult enough, she thought. Now she had to deal with the vision of a very hot, very sexy man in her head.

  It was eleven when they left the house. Thankfully neither of them had mentioned that moment in the bathroom. He’d been fully dressed when he’d peeked into her bedroom and told her the bathroom was all hers.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been outside the house during the day. She had dressed in a pair of white capris, a gold-tone sleeveless top and sandals, and as Josh backed out of the driveway her nerves roared to life.

  Josh was dressed casually in a pair of jeans with a navy-blue T-shirt tucked in. Around his waist he wore his gun and holster, letting her know that while he chatted about driving around town and sto
pping in at Jimmy’s Place for lunch, he hadn’t forgotten their real purpose and his self-proclaimed duty to keep her safe.

  “It’s a beautiful day,” he said as they left her neighborhood and headed for Main Street.

  “It’s hot and sticky,” she replied.

  He pointed up to the ridge where the construction of the new amusement park was happening. “It looks like they’re making good progress.”

  “It’s just going to ruin the town with all the commercialism.”

  He shot her an amused glance. “Do you intend to be perverse all day?”

  “Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.” She shot him a small smile. “Actually I’m not trying to be perverse. I’m just nervous,” she admitted.

  “You don’t have to be nervous. As long as I’m by your side, I swear nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

  “I know that,” she replied and turned her head to look out the passenger window. What he didn’t understand was that a threat to her physical being was only part of her anxiety.

  She had been pleasantly numb for almost two years, caring about nobody and fine with the fact that nobody cared about her. She was afraid that somehow this entire experience was going to make her care again, feel again.

  They passed the Pirate’s Inn, and she fought against a shiver as she remembered the night of terror she’d spent there. She wondered if she’d ever be able to go back to work there when this was all over.

  “Where are we going first?” she asked.

  “Hardware store to get locks for the spare room and master suite,” he replied. “And after that, since it’s still early, I thought we’d stop by Claire Silver’s place and talk to her and Bo. Maybe their unofficial investigation into Shelly’s death has stirred up something that has to do with what’s happening to you now.”

  “I just can’t imagine the two things being tied together,” she replied.

  “To be honest, neither can I, but I intend to leave no stone unturned. If nothing else, we can exclude that possibility and move on to the next.”

  “Do you have a definite next?” she asked.

  He cast her a quick grin. “I’m working on it as we speak.”

  She looked out the passenger window again as a vision of Josh in that darned towel flashed in her head. Even now she could smell the lingering scent of shaving lotion coupled with minty soap and the spice of his cologne.

  She was grateful to get out of the car when they arrived at the hardware store. It took only minutes to buy the locks and then return to the car that smelled of him. When he pulled up in front of Claire Silver’s house, Savannah was grateful to get away from his evocative scent.

  Claire lived on the shanty side of town. The swamp came precariously close to the backyards of the row of shanties that lined this particular street.

  Some of the shanty-like structures were little more than abandoned lean-tos that had once served as homes to poverty-stricken families. Others, like Claire’s, had been renovated into cute, neat homes.

  “Mayor Burns is probably going to have all the abandoned shanties pulled down before the amusement park opens,” Josh said as he parked in front of Claire’s place. “He’ll consider them a blight on the town and a detriment to the tourist trade.”

  “Those shanties were the first structures to make the town. It’s kind of sad to tear down the history just because it isn’t pretty,” she said.

  They got out of the car and walked toward Claire’s front door. Savannah steeled herself for talking to Bo for the first time in two years. He’d dated Shelly since high school and for ten years after that. He had been the big brother to Savannah that Mac had never been.

  She’d also been friendly with Claire and now considered her a good partner for Bo. She had no resentment that Bo had moved on. She wanted only happiness for him.

  Josh knocked and Bo opened the door. He looked at her and flew out the door and pulled her into a hug. “Sweet Savannah,” he whispered in her ear.

  He smelled just like he had when he’d been dating Shelly, like clean male and a faint woodsy cologne. She hugged him back and fought back tears. He finally released her and stepped back. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted to contact you since I’ve been back in town. Come on, let’s go inside where it’s cool.”

  Claire stood from the sofa as they all came inside. Greetings were exchanged all around, and they landed at Claire’s kitchen table to talk.

  “We heard about what happened at the inn,” Claire said. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “I plan to keep her okay despite the fact that somebody wants her dead,” Josh said.

  Claire’s blue eyes darkened, and she reached across the table and captured Savannah’s hand in hers. “I know exactly what you’re going through. I know the fear of not knowing who you can trust.” She released Savannah’s hand and narrowed her gaze at Josh. “Don’t tell me you’re here because you think Bo had anything to do with the attack on Savannah.”

  “Quite the contrary. We’re here to see if, during your investigation into what happened two years ago, you might have stumbled on something that put Savannah at risk,” Josh replied.

  Bo frowned. “Nothing that I can think of, but we haven’t managed to dig up much of anything new about that night. Our investigation got sidetracked when Roger Cantor, the high school coach who turned into an obsessed stalker, came after Claire.”

  “Did you know that before her death, Shelly had become friends with Eric Baptiste?” Josh asked.

  Bo nodded. “Yeah, I knew about their friendship.” He looked at Savannah, his gaze soft with caring. “You and I both know that Shelly probably wasn’t ever going to marry me. As much as we loved each other, she wanted out of this town. I wondered if she saw Eric as her ticket out of town.”

  “How so?” Savannah asked.

  “I know Eric has a degree. He could probably go anywhere in the country and get a job teaching. Maybe she thought she could talk him into leaving Lost Lagoon and taking her with him,” Bo said.

  “Do you think he’s the person who met Shelly that night? Do you think he murdered her?” Savannah asked, a jumble of emotions rushing through her.

  “I don’t know,” Bo said. Once again his gaze went to Josh. “All I know for sure is that I didn’t kill Shelly.”

  “And you have no clue who might be after Savannah,” Josh asked.

  “None, but I want you to see to it that she stays safe.” Once again Bo looked at her, and in his eyes she saw the caring, the tenderness that spoke of old days and bittersweet memories.

  It was too much for her. Those memories of carefree days and laughter with Shelly and Bo cascaded over her, bringing a pain that pierced through her.

  She stood from the table. “We need to go now.” Josh looked at her in surprise. “They’ve said they have nothing for us.” She swallowed against the pain she’d refused to feel for two long years. “Thank you for letting us talk to you. Bo, I’m glad you’ve found happiness.”

  She didn’t wait for Josh to follow. She raced out of the door and headed for his car, stuffing down the agony that seeing Bo had created.

  She was already in the passenger seat when Josh came out of the front door. He got behind the steering wheel and turned to look at her. “Are you all right?”

  “No, I’m not. I want to go home. Please just take me home.”

  “But we’d planned lunch at Jimmy’s Place,” he protested.

  She opened her car door. “Either drive me back to my house or I’ll walk. I don’t want to see or talk to anyone else today.”

  “Get in. We’ll go back to your place.”

  She slammed the car door and buckled up. Irrational anger toward Josh combined with the aching grief of loss. It was his fault that she had lost her cocoon of numbness that had served her so well.

  Seeing Bo had hurt and reminded her of all she had lost. She didn’t want to feel that hurt. She wanted to crawl back into her detachment from people and life.

  C
hapter Ten

  The next day at noon, Josh and Savannah headed for Jimmy’s Place for lunch. Savannah had spent much of her time the day before holed up in her bedroom while Josh called Trey to make sure the sheriff checked out not only Eric’s alibi for Saturday night but also Chad Wilson. After that he had restlessly roamed the house.

  He hadn’t considered how difficult it might be for Savannah to see Bo again, but when she did appear for dinner, she seemed angry at Josh. While they’d eaten he’d tried to talk to her about her feelings, but she was having nothing to do with any deep conversations.

  She answered him tersely and refused to make eye contact with him. When the kitchen was clean she returned to her bedroom for the remainder of the night.

  This morning it had been as if yesterday had never happened. She’d greeted him pleasantly and they’d shared coffee talking about nonthreatening, nonsensical things.

  Things had remained light and easy between them until it was time to leave the house. Only then did he feel the tension that rolled off her and knew this outing would be another difficult one for her.

  Part of him wanted to coddle her. If she felt most comfortable at home, then that was where she should be. But the stronger part of him believed she needed to get out of the house, start rebuilding a real life for herself.

  Josh knew that grief could be a crippling thing, but he also knew she’d carried hers long enough. It was time for her let go and move into acceptance. Shelly was dead, but Savannah was still very much alive.

  Each time he saw a spark of the woman she’d once been, he wanted more. He wanted her. No woman had ever stirred him like Savannah did. He’d believed she could be the woman for him two years ago, and he still felt the same way.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked as he pulled into the parking area next to Jimmy’s Place.

  “I can’t tell if it’s nerves or hunger that’s making my stomach jump and kick,” she replied.

  “Probably a little bit of both.” He shut off the engine and turned to look at her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Savannah. We’re in a public place and I’ve got your back.”