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“Columbella House. I’m checking it out. It was too dark to see anything last night, but it would’ve made a great hiding place for someone looking to get away in a hurry.”
Folding her arms, Michelle wedged her hip against the counter. “I’m coming with you.”
“You sure?”
“I’d rather know what’s over there than not.” She dug her fingers into her upper arms. “Amanda was my friend. I can’t sit around and do nothing. Maybe if I’d walked her out to her car…”
“Then you might both be dead.” He came around the counter, joining her in the kitchen, crowding her. “Don’t blame yourself, Michelle. It’s a useless exercise.”
Blue-gray clouds scudded across his eyes, veiling them. Again, she sensed a deep sadness lurking behind the confidence and courage. The caretaker in her wanted to banish his sadness.
As if she had that power.
She turned toward the cupboard and grabbed two cups from the shelf. “I guess…it’s like stories of survivors. There’s always that sense of guilt, isn’t there? I wonder if it ever completely goes away.”
Colin was so close behind her the warmth of his body penetrated her cotton T-shirt. When he spoke, his breath stirred the tendrils of her hair.
“I don’t know if it does.”
She reached for her tin of tea bags. “Earl Grey okay?”
“Earl Grey?”
She turned and Colin took a step back, blinking, as if coming out of a trance. She held up the foil pouch. “Earl Grey? You’re not much of a tea drinker, are you?”
“Coffee man.”
“You could’ve told me.” She ripped into the pouch and dropped the tea bag into a cup. “I can make coffee.”
He lifted one of those square football-player shoulders. “I’m a low-maintenance guy. Besides, I came over here to make sure you got through the night okay, not to demand breakfast.”
The kettle whistled and Michelle poured the boiling water over the tea bags. “I’m glad you stopped by, and brewing a pot of coffee would have been a small price to pay for the chance to search the house…with you.”
He thanked her for the mug of tea, and then blew on the surface of the liquid.
She averted her gaze from his puckered lips. Slurping her own tea, she burned her tongue. “Are we going to wait until the vultures out there scatter before sneaking into Columbella House?”
He crossed the room and flicked the curtains at the window. “Are they ever going to scatter?”
She joined him, her shoulder brushing his. “Believe it or not, the crowd’s a lot smaller than it was earlier.”
“We’ll go around the side of the house. Nobody has to know we’re there.”
“So we are sneaking.”
He cocked his head at her, one side of his mouth curving into a smile. “Does that make it more appealing to you?”
“This is a small town. People talk.”
“I think we’re both aware of that.”
She took a sip of her tea, hiding the bottom half of her face with the mug. “People said good things about you.”
“People say good things about you, too, Michelle. It was just your mother, and you’re not your mother.”
Not according to those emails. “I know, but when your parent screws up, the trash gets heaped on you, as well.”
“What your mom did is in the past, and I’ve heard nothing but people singing your praises since I’ve been back.”
“You must be talking to the parents of my students. They like that I hold their kids’ feet to the fire in algebra.”
He blew out a noisy breath and ruffled the back of her hair. “You make it hard on a guy to pay you a compliment.”
She ducked her head, embarrassment warming her cheeks. That’s what Amanda always used to tell her. Pain sliced through her left temple and she pressed the mug to her head.
“Are you okay?”
“Let’s get over to Columbella House and see if we can find something. Amanda didn’t deserve to die in the street like that.”
Michelle put their cups in the sink and dragged a hoodie from a hanger in the closet. “I’m sure it’s cold in that old house. I don’t think anyone’s been in there since the twins were last here.”
“And they haven’t been back?”
“Mia’s in New York and nobody’s heard from Marissa since she took off with Mia’s boyfriend.”
Colin grinned. “I remember Mia’s temper. If I were Marissa I wouldn’t come back, either.”
Michelle crouched by the front door and plucked the flashlight she’d used last night from the basket. “I don’t think the electricity is on over there.”
Colin opened the door for her. When he stepped onto the porch, he shoved the rose petals off the step with the toe of his shoe.
Michelle unlatched the front gate and pushed through, keeping to the sidewalk and avoiding the people on the street.
“Michelle!”
Darn. Not fast enough.
She cranked her head around and spotted Ned Tucker, the high school football coach, peeling away from the group.
“Did you see anything last night?”
She shook her head, shoved her hands in her pockets and continued up the sidewalk with Colin close behind her.
He took her arm. “Let’s cross here like we’re heading toward the beach path.”
On one side of Columbella House, a path led down to a rocky beach. A cave was carved out in the rocks and teenagers hung out there even as they avoided the ramshackle house.
A gate hanging from one hinge separated the sidewalk from the path, and Colin unlatched it and shuffled onto the sandy path.
Instead of taking the winding trail down to the beach, he hopped over the dilapidated fence that enclosed the side yard of Columbella House.
Although the fence was low, Colin lifted Michelle to the ground on the other side. They stood silently in the yard, listening to nothing but the sound of the waves crashing below them.
And the thud of Colin’s heart beneath her cheek.
A strange sense of lethargy seeped into Michelle’s bones. She didn’t want to move from this spot, encircled in Colin’s arms, protected, safe. Once they moved, the magic spell would dissipate like sea spray.
Colin cleared his throat and gave Michelle’s waist a squeeze. Not that he couldn’t stand here forever holding Michelle close and inhaling the scent of wildflowers that clung to her hair. “Let’s try to get in through the side door.”
She jumped back, as if his words had startled her, had dragged her out of some dreamworld. He’d gladly return there with her, but right now he had a murder to investigate. And he had to do it before his vacation ended.
He kept hold of her hand and led her through a tangle of weeds and tall grass. He motioned toward a side door sporting a broken window. “Looks like someone already had the same idea.”
He jiggled the door handle, but it was locked. “Can I borrow your sweatshirt? I promise to replace it if it rips.”
Michelle raised her brows and dangled the sweatshirt from her fingertips.
Colin tucked his hand and arm into the hood of the sweatshirt and plunged into the hole in the glass. He grappled for the dead bolt and turned it, and then felt for the door handle. He turned it once, popping the lock.
He shook out Michelle’s sweatshirt. “Thanks. Not one tear.”
“I knew there was a good reason to bring it.”
Colin opened the side door and poked his head inside the house. “It’s the kitchen.”
He stepped onto the chipped tile. Someone had already shoved aside the pieces of glass from the broken window. Considerate.
Michelle wrinkled her nose. “It smells musty.”
“Thanks to the ocean, it smells a lot better than I expected. At least that broken window let in some fresh air.” He poked around the kitchen, but the previous residents had left nothing there. “Did the twins actually live here the last time they were in town?”
Michelle opened the fridge, pinched her nose and slammed the door shut. “No. I think Mia was going to try to fix things up a bit, but after her boyfriend took off with her sister, she abandoned that idea along with the house and went back to New York.”
“Is there anything in the fridge?”
“Just that unused fridge smell.” She peered into the hallway. “No sense in searching this big house together. It’ll take half the time if we split up. Just tell me what to look for.”
“You sure you’re okay looking around here by yourself?”
Michelle straightened her shoulders. “I’m good. If there’s anyone else in here, I’ll make a run for it…and you have a gun.”
“You take the upstairs and have a look in the bedrooms and bathrooms up there. I’ll stay on this floor and head down to the basement. Just be on the lookout for anything new. I mean any sign that someone has been here recently.”
“Rose petals?”
He nodded and squeezed her hand before she headed for the staircase.
“And be careful on those stairs.” He rubbed a hand across his mouth, feeling like an idiot. Michelle was a grown woman, not a shy teen anymore.
He turned his attention to the search. Columbella House had been beautifully crafted and designed. It was a shame it had been left to ruin, but the house had a reputation.
Bad things happened here.
He snorted. He was as pathetic as the superstitious residents of Coral Cove, avoiding the house and calling for its demolition. The mayor was probably on that bandwagon.
He ran a hand along the intricately carved banister, his fingers clearing a trail in the dust. He called upstairs. “You okay up there?”
Michelle’s muffled reply floated down. “I’m okay. You?”
“Going to look around a little more and then head for the basement.”
She didn’t respond, so he finished wandering through the dining room, the living room, another sitting room, a library and a half bathroom. Nothing amiss.
He pushed open the basement door and flicked on the flashlight Michelle had given him. A flight of stairs tumbled into the darkness below. He aimed his beam of light on the first step and grasped the scarred wooden handrail. He tested the step with his weight and continued downstairs, the chilly air wrapping its fingers around him the farther he descended.
That fresh ocean breeze hadn’t permeated the depths down here. The dank smell of mold and water rot assaulted his nostrils.
When he reached the bottom step, he aimed his flashlight into the four corners of the room. The sword of light cut across generations of beach paraphernalia—tattered umbrellas, broken beach chairs, deflated inner tubes and air mattresses. Their bright colors muted and depressed by the darkness shrouding their final resting place.
Colin shuffled across the floor, his footsteps the first to imprint the dust in many years. He poked through the long-forgotten summer accoutrements. Nobody had been hiding down here.
He brushed his hands on the thighs of his jeans and turned back toward the stairs. As the beam of light tripped up the steps, something glimmered on the floor.
Colin crouched in front of the staircase and reached between the steps. He ran his fingers across the cement. They stumbled over a chain of some sort. As he scooped it up, the hair on the back of his neck quivered.
* * *
MICHELLE SMILED AS she pushed through the door of the first bedroom after the bend in the hallway. Colin’s concern for her well-being sent tingles along her skin. And the fact that he’d taken the basement sent a wave of relief through her body. No way did she want to head down those stairs into the darkness.
The bedrooms at Columbella surprised her with their order. A thick layer of dust coated everything in sight, but the grime couldn’t hide the beautiful lines of the furniture, and all the beds sported full linen, including matching bedspreads, shams and pillows.
She lifted a flounced duvet and peered under the bed. She strode to the closet and sneezed as she flung open the doors. Empty hangers swayed on a rod, boxes sat in neat rows on the floor.
She exited the room and a creaking noise from the next bedroom slowed her gait. Probably just the floorboards protesting her intrusion.
Despite her commonsense approach, her heart skittered in her chest as she eased open the door. She glanced over her shoulder, longing for Colin’s reassuring voice.
She shuffled into the room. Her gaze darted toward the bedspread, wrinkled and wavy with indentations. She ducked and peered under the bed. Dust bunnies scurried into the corner.
She slid a sidelong glance at the closet, almost wishing she could ignore the sliver between the two doors. Every other closet door in every other bedroom had been closed. Holding her breath, she tiptoed to the closet.
“Colin?” She licked her dry lips. He was probably in the bowels of the house…the spooky part. She squared her shoulders and whipped open the closet door.
Her mouth dropped open and she stumbled backward. She hit the bedpost. The jolt of the collision cut through her shock and she let loose with a scream that had to be piercing straight through the floors to the basement.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SHAGGY MAN in the closet spread his arms wide and smiled. “Caught me.”
