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Not even daring to use the word date, she scribbled a note to Seth explaining that she had other plans, then tacked the card to the front door before she headed back toward Jasper.
Junior greeted her in the Mountainview Inn’s parking lot. He was standing with an attractive man dressed in a Prada suit. Savannah’s expectations rose a notch.
“Savannah, this is Bill Grayson.” Junior introduced them.
She smiled as she extended her free hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Grayson.”
“Bill,” he fairly cooed.
I don’t like cooers, Savannah thought. They’re almost as bad as grovelers. But, hey, she was having dinner with him, not children.
Savannah went into the ladies’ room and switched her snow boots for her pumps. As was the custom, she left her boots on the tile floor inside the bathroom to dry during her meal.
When she emerged, Bill was seated at a table near the large window of the A-frame building. In her peripheral vision, she spotted Junior at the bar, watching her reflection in the glass behind the counter.
“I haven’t been back here in almost a year,” Bill said as he pulled out her chair. “But it isn’t like Jasper ever changes.”
“It’s pretty once you get used to it,” Savannah offered.
Bill’s blue eyes roamed freely over Savannah, in spite of her silent rebuke of crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“So, what brings you back to town?” Savannah asked after they had ordered drinks.
“Diamonds and rubies.”
She studied Bill’s expression and determined he was serious. “Real diamonds and rubies?”
He nodded as he took a sip of his beer. “My family made its money in gold mining. I didn’t want to join the family business, so I branched out.”
“Pretty expensive branch,” Savannah commented as an elegant salad of field greens and raspberry vinaigrette was placed before her.
“I used a small portion of my family trust to start my own wholesale business.”
“Why wholesale?” she asked. “Wouldn’t a store have a higher profit margin?”
He offered her a smile full of perfectly capped teeth at the very instant she noted a familiar silhouette reflected in the window behind Bill’s perfectly coifed hair.
Seth Landry. Damn! she thought silently.
Bill was explaining something about his business, but Savannah was distracted as she watched Seth join Junior at the bar. Whatever he said to Junior made the shy man laugh.
She watched for a few more seconds as anger formed and grew in the pit of her stomach. Seth and Junior seemed to be having a fine old time. Surely Junior had told Seth what he was doing at the bar. So why hadn’t Seth turned in her direction? Worse still, why did she want him to? The guy had her brain all twisted.
“…must be boring you,” Bill commented, his cheeks stained a pale pink.
Savannah regrouped and gave him her very best smile. In a feline fashion, Savannah reached out and touched Bill’s hand, then made breeze-soft circles on his palm. “Not at all,” she assured him. “I was just distracted for an instant. Please, continue.”
Bill’s fit body seemed to swell inside his designer silk jacket as a result of her suddenly rapt attention. And Bill wasn’t the only one to notice. In the reflection she could see that both Junior and Seth had swiveled on their bar stools and were openly watching them.
Bill, thankfully, was oblivious. He continued his mostly one-sided conversation even after their entrées were served. “At first I was going to go the jewelry store route, but if you grow up in a small town, you either love it or hate it,” he explained.
“I’ll guess you hated it,” Savannah said.
Bill nodded and then waved in the direction of the bar. To Savannah’s utter mortification, Junior was leaving. Actually, the mortification was because, apparently, Seth was staying. Nothing like having the sheriff as your babysitter on a date.
“You’re nice to Junior,” Savannah opined with genuine admiration.
“He had it rough,” Bill said. “He’s always had that lisp and those glasses. The kids were cruel to him growing up, which was exactly what he didn’t need. Especially after his dad died in a hunting accident when he was about thirteen.”
Savannah remembered that there were no photographs of Olive’s husband around. Perhaps losing someone she loved suddenly had been so painful, Olive preferred not to display them. “Children can be nasty to one another.” She repressed her desire to recall some of the hateful things she and her siblings had said to one another over the years. All chances for her to apologize had ended six years ago.
“Don’t look so depressed. Junior took most of it in stride and he always had Olive to rebuild his self-esteem.”
“Still,” Savannah commented, “it must have hurt to have every kid in town ragging on him.”
“Not every kid,” Bill corrected. “Seth made sure of that.”
“Seth—as in Sheriff Seth?”
Bill nodded, but his mood seemed to sour. “The same Seth who is sitting over there watching us.”
It was Savannah’s turn to blush. “I think he thinks he’s doing his job.”
Bill snorted dismissively. “I had a couple of reservations about this evening, but now that I’ve met you, I can’t believe for one minute that you’re some sort of serial killer.”
“Thanks. You’re a minority, though.”
“That’s why I left town as soon as I could. The gossip mongering in this town makes Peyton Place seem like the friendliest community on earth.”
They both laughed. Then Savannah asked, “Were you ever the subject of gossip?”
“Sure. When I was seventeen, the whole town knew I lost my virginity before I did.”
Savannah laughed again. She was beginning to relax. Bill’s sense of humor was a wonderful salve on her frazzled nerves. “I think you’re exaggerating.”
“A bit. But I got labeled as a—” he made quote signs with his fingers “—pillager of Jasper’s crop of young women.”
“Seventeen is pretty young.”
Bill made a noncommittal move with his shoulders. “I got lucky all of two times when I lived here. The pillagers were the sainted Landry brothers. But no one dared disparage a Landry. Not in Jasper.”
Based on his sudden frown, she realized Bill wasn’t fond of their lookout. “I guess boys will be boys,” Savannah quipped, hoping to lighten the tone of the conversation.
“They weren’t boys, they were a herd,” Bill countered with open hostility. “It wasn’t like you could have a beef with one of them. If you made one Landry mad, they all showed up to dole out some attitude adjustment.”
“I’ve met Sam and his wife. They seem awfully nice.”
Bill downed the remainder of his drink. “I don’t know why I’m complaining about them now. That was more than twenty years ago and they all seem to have settled down. At least, that’s what my mother used to claim in her letters.”
“Enough about Landrys,” Savannah insisted. “Since there’s no jewelry shop in Jasper, I’ll assume you just stopped for the night for old times’ sake?”
“For Angelica Seagal,” Bill countered with a wide grin.
“Sorry, the name isn’t familiar.”
“Angelica designs jewelry. I supply the gemstones.”
“So you have to come all the way here from…speaking of which, where is your home base?”
“Saint Paul. And if I didn’t come here to haggle with Angelica, she’d find a way to hunt me down.”
“Why?”
“Angelica and I go way back. She was my prom date, in fact.”
“Seagal Signature Jewelry?” Savannah asked, suddenly putting the name together with the pricey jewelry sold in only the top jewelry stores. A Seagal Signature was the present-day equivalent of having a Louis Comfort Tiffany piece at the turn of the century.
“The very one.”
“I had no idea Jasper had a genuine celebrity.”
“Angelica is an artist,” Bill said. “Which really only means she’s a bit on the weird side. She has some live-in assistant. His name is Vincent.”
“Vincent what?” Savannah queried. “Maybe I’ve met him.”
“Just Vincent,” Bill said with humor in his voice. “He looks a little bit like Lurch from The Addams Family, only with white hair.”
“I think I’ve seen him walk past the shop to the post office. He is a tad on the creepy side,” she admitted with a wicked grin.
“I believe Angelica thinks it’s terribly artsy to have Vincent around. If nothing else, he’s probably a good deterrent to anyone thinking of breaking into her studio.”
“Where does she work?”
“The old assay office at the end of Main Street. But I wouldn’t suggest visiting. Angelica is very private.”
Savannah pushed away her nearly empty plate. “I wouldn’t dream of disturbing a genius at work. But I would love to see some of her work up close—not behind the glass of a store window.”
Bill finished his plate, as well. “I can’t show you her work, but I can show you some sketches she sent me and the jewels I brought for them.”
Savannah felt her eyes grow wide. “Really?”
“Sure,” Bill said. “I’ve got them up in my room.”
He must have registered her reaction to the notion of going to his room because he added, “I have no ulterior motive,” he promised. “Although, if you’re interested, I’m game,” he teased.
“Sorry,” Savannah said on a breath. “I’ve really enjoyed having dinner with you, but it stops there, okay?”
“No,” he said as he stood, pulled several bills from his pocket and took her hand. “It stops right after I show you Angelica’s sketches and the most incredible diamonds, rubies and emeralds anywhere on the face of God’s great earth.”
Savannah pretended to ignore the look of censure from Seth as she followed Bill to the guest room elevators.
Once they were inside the elevator compartment, Bill asked, “Am I poaching on Landry territory?”
“Heavens, no!” she insisted. “Seth’s only interest in me is professional.”
“The looks he’s been giving you all night look more personal to me.”
“He was probably just hoping I’d whip out a .22 and shoot you at the table so he could close his investigation.”
“He’ll figure out who did the other murders,” Bill assured her as he guided her inside his suite. “Seth can be a pain, but he’s pretty good at his job.”
Savannah surveyed the room. There was a comfortable living room area with beautiful views of the moonlit mountains in the distance. She ran her hand along the edge of the leather sofa while Bill disappeared into the adjoining room, closing the door as he mumbled something about a safe. It was quiet in the room, save for the insulation. She could hear muffled voices and the sound of a car backfiring in the parking lot below.
Savannah checked her watch. Bill had been in the bedroom for almost ten minutes. Maybe he’s in the little gem sellers’ room, she thought. After another minute went by, Savannah called out to him.
Just as she did, there was a knock at the door. Savannah was still calling Bill’s name when she opened the door to a scowling Seth.
A scowling Seth with his weapon drawn.
“What are you doing?”
“Where is he?” Seth barked.
“In the bedroom. He went in there about ten minutes ago to bring out some gems to show me.”
Seth shoved her onto the sofa as he went to the door and kicked it in.
From her vantage point, Savannah could see Bill on the floor.
Blood trickled from a single hole in his forehead.
Chapter Four
Ignoring Savannah’s shocked expression, Seth raced out into the hall, crouched and ready to fire. Only problem was, there was no one in the long, deserted hallway.
It made no sense, he thought as he returned to Bill Grayson’s suite and called the coroner and J.D. Savannah was as still as a painting.
He went over to where she sat on the couch, stark white and staring blankly into space. He took her hands in his. She was trembling.
“He was shot with a .22. Where’s the gun, Savannah?”
His question brought her out of her fog. “The gun? I don’t have a gun! I didn’t shoot him.”
Seth frowned deeply, trying to make sense of her proclamations of innocence and the conflicting facts.
The facts were he had received a call of shots fired at the inn and was inside the elevator in less than ten seconds after the call. It was maybe a total of thirty seconds before he kicked in the door to Grayson’s bedroom. The room still smelled of gunpowder. Meaning the fatal shot had been fired within the last few moments. He checked his watch, noting the time was 9:33.
Though there was a second exit from the bedroom, Seth had already noted that it was bolted from the inside. Which meant the killer had to run past Savannah to make his quick escape. Or—
