Pine Lake

скачать книгу бесплатно


“He took classes at the community college where I sometimes teach at night. He was one of my favorite students.”

Jack stared at her in astonishment. “Leon went to night school? I never knew him to be interested in anything but fishing.”

“Then it may surprise you to learn that your uncle was a very gifted writer.”

He cast her a doubtful glance. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same Leon King?”

She smiled. “Yes, same man. He always spoke highly of you. He was very proud of the way you’d turned things around after everything you went through.” She paused thoughtfully. “For the record, I never believed you did it.”

“Why?”

His blunt challenge seemed to catch her off guard, but she recovered quickly. “Because of the way you would look at Anna. Anyone could see you were crazy about her. And why wouldn’t you be? She was a beautiful girl, inside and out.”

“She was,” he said quietly.

“And because it wasn’t in you. You weren’t capable of hurting anyone. I doubt you are now unless someone backs you into a corner.”

“You deduced all that in the space of one car ride?”

“I deduced all that a long time ago. You’re a good guy. Just like your uncle. Why else would you have climbed to the top of that bridge to rescue me?”

Her conviction caught him off guard. When Jack had decided to come back to Pine Lake, he’d braced himself for the whispers and gossip. The lingering suspicions. But he hadn’t prepared himself for Olive Belmont.

“I’ve been away from here for a long time,” he said. “I may not be the man you think I am.”

“I may not be the woman you think I am,” she countered. “If you think about me at all,” she added sheepishly.

“Hard to forget someone you meet on top of a bridge.”

He saw a shiver go through her as she turned to stare out the windshield. She looked very enticing with her hair all mussed and her lips slightly parted. Another time, another place and Jack might have responded to the subtle invitation in her smile. But a hookup was the last thing he needed, particularly with Nathan Bolt’s cousin. He’d come to town to poke a hornet’s nest. Depending on what he found, things could get ugly. Sides might have to be chosen. After all was said and done, he’d return to Houston while Olive would still have to live here. Jack knew only too well what it was like to be a pariah in Pine Lake.

She gave him another tentative smile and he tamped down the urge to tuck back her hair as he studied her face in the dim light.

“I know now why you told the sheriff I had just arrived at the lake,” she said. “I figured it out in the boat. You think I was on top of the bridge when the killer dumped Jamie’s body in the water.”

“Seems a safe bet. It couldn’t have taken more than five minutes for me to get to the bridge after I first heard a splash and you were already up there.”

“So you wanted to place me on the road rather than the bridge.”

He shifted his position, turning toward her as he relaxed his arm across the back of her seat. “I heard that splash and then a few minutes later, a car engine. The vehicle drove away on the other side of the lake. Even if you really had been on the road at the same time the body was dumped from the bridge, you wouldn’t have seen anything.”

She gave him an anxious look. “That explains why you asked if I’d heard a car engine. But I told you before—I never remember anything when I sleepwalk.”

“Jamie’s killer wouldn’t know that, though. He or she might not want to take the chance that something would eventually come back to you.”

That gave her pause. She cast an uneasy glance over her shoulder. “Do you really think I could be in danger?”

He wanted to reassure her that all would be well, but a false sense of security was never a good idea. She needed to watch her back. They weren’t out of the woods yet. The story they’d concocted for Tommy Driscoll was only a little more plausible than the actual truth. “As long as we don’t give the killer a reason to feel threatened, he’ll lay low. As far as anyone knows, I was the first to arrive on the scene. If he gets skittish, he’ll come after me.”

“That doesn’t give me much comfort,” she said with a frown.

“It should. I know how to handle myself.”

“Leon told me that you’d been a cop. And now you’re some sort of security consultant. With all your experience, you must have some idea of how Jamie died.”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

She swallowed. “I wasn’t. But now I think you have to tell me.”

“She has what appears to be a large exit wound between her eyes. I’m guessing she was shot at close range in the back of the head.”

“In the back of the head...” Olive repeated numbly.

“Without a closer examination of the body or a look at the autopsy report, I can only speculate. But I’ve seen the pattern of the wound before in execution-style murders.”

“Execution?” She stared at him in shock. “Who would do such a thing to poor Jamie?”

“You never heard talk about her involvement in any illegal activities?”

“She got into some trouble when she was younger. Drugs. Possession, I think. Her mother asked Nathan to represent her, but the family didn’t have any money. He agreed to take the case pro bono if Jamie agreed to go to night school and get her GED.”

“What about her boyfriend?”

“I don’t know him personally, but Tommy was right. Marc Waller is bad news. He was also arrested for possession but with the intent to sell. If convicted, he could have gone to prison for a very long time. But Nathan got the case dismissed because of an unlawful search. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with local law enforcement.”

“Nathan Bolt seems to be the go-to attorney for drug charges,” Jack observed.

“Well, there aren’t a lot of choices in the area and my cousin is very good at what he does.” She sighed. “The news about Jamie will devastate him. If it turns out that Marc Waller had anything to do with her death, Nathan will never forgive himself.”

These revelations were all very interesting to Jack. On the night of his return, he’d stumbled across a murder victim who happened to be a young woman that Nathan Bolt had taken under his wing. The timing was a little more than Jack could swallow as happenstance.

“It’s late,” Olive said. “And we’re both expected at the police station first thing in the morning so...”

“Right. I’ll walk you to the door.”

“You don’t need to do that. I’m fine.”

Jack reached for the door handle. “For my own peace of mind, I’d like to have a look around before I go.”

“To be honest, it’s probably best for my peace of mind, too.”

They got out of the car and walked up the porch steps together. The front door stood ajar and Olive turned to him with a worried frown.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I probably failed to close it earlier.”

Jack brushed past her, glancing over his shoulder to scan the street and all the shadowy corners of the yard before toeing open the door. “Where’s the light switch?”

“To your left.”

“Wait here.” He eased through the quiet house, giving each room a thorough search before returning to the foyer. “All clear.”

“Thanks for checking.” Olive stepped inside and followed his gaze to the bolt at the top of the door. “A precaution. Not that it did any good tonight.”

“You unlocked the deadbolt in your sleep?”

“Apparently.”

“You should get a security system, one with a loud enough alarm to wake you if a door or window is opened.”

“Yes, my mother had one put in when the episodes first started. As I said, I thought I’d outgrown them, but after tonight, I won’t take any chances. I’ll arrange for an installation as soon as possible.”

Jack took a last sweep of the small, but comfortable living area. The walls were white and the furniture gray, not unlike the nondescript color scheme in his apartment. But Olive had punctuated the space with pillows and throw rugs in bright shades of red and turquoise. He observed everything, not because her design aesthetic interested him, but because a house could reveal a lot about the person who lived there.

Olive Belmont seemed to be an open book. If her cousin was involved in something as shady as Tommy had implied, Jack doubted she knew anything about it. But then, he had been fooled before.

He stepped out on the porch and scoured the darkness. The breeze had picked up, fluttering through the trees in Olive’s front yard and unleashing the scent of jasmine from the bushes that grew up her fence. It was all very lush and homey and familiar and yet Jack felt strangely unmoored as if coming back here to his hometown had caused him to lose his bearings.

He turned back to Olive. “Are you sure you’ll be all right for the rest of the night?”

“I’ll be fine. If I sleep at all, it won’t be deeply enough to leave my bed.”

An image of that bed floated through Jack’s head—crisp white linens and soft, soft pillows.

“Well, good night, then.” He bent impulsively to kiss her cheek. The action took both of them by surprise and she jerked her head just enough so that his mouth brushed hers.

He didn’t pull away or offer an apology. Instead, he tangled his fingers in her hair and brought his mouth to hers, this time on purpose. She responded by parting her lips and kissing him back. When he pulled away, she looked disoriented, as if she had just awakened from another harrowing adventure.

“What a strange night this has been,” she murmured.

“Hasn’t it, though?” he said over his shoulder as he strode down the steps.

Chapter Four (#ue6b58201-9381-5980-ba81-7339b74a0793)

Olive was just coming out of the local coffee shop the next morning when she spotted Jack on his way in. He held the door for her and she stepped out on the sidewalk to join him, taking a moment to discreetly admire the fit of his faded jeans and the cotton shirt that he wore untucked and rolled up at the sleeves.

His hair was even darker than she remembered, his eyes a deep, rich chocolate. Despite what she’d said the night before, he had most definitely changed since their high school years. The harsh light of day emphasized the fine lines around his eyes, the resolved set of his jaw and a chiseled chin. The changes didn’t so much age him as harden him. He was a man in his prime rather than the seventeen-year-old boy who had been driven out of town by both his elders and his peers.

“Good morning,” she said in a tone far too bright for the circumstances. “Looks like we had the same idea.”

“It would seem so.” He stood with one hand still on the door as he gave her a long assessment.

His scrutiny was only fair, she supposed, since she’d done the same to him. Still, she was secretly relieved that she’d taken time with her appearance even though the sleeveless white dress and caged heels were for work and not for Jack King. Normally, she wouldn’t have been so formally turned out during summer break, but she had a faculty meeting later that morning, the first of the new school year, and she wanted to make a good impression. That Jack seemed to appreciate her fine-tuning was merely icing on the cake.

“Are you headed over to the sheriff’s office?” he asked.

“I’ve already been in.” They moved away from the door to the edge of the street so as not to block customer traffic. “We spoke briefly. I really couldn’t add much to my previous statement and Tommy revealed very little about the investigation. Although I gather word has already gotten out about Jamie’s death. That’s not surprising. Secrets are hard to keep in a town this small.”

“That hasn’t been my experience.” His tone was enigmatic. “You repeated what you’d already told him last night?”

“I stuck to our story if that’s what you mean.” She shot a quick glance over her shoulder and then leaned in. “Lying to the police before breakfast, let alone my first cup of coffee, is a lot more stressful than I would have imagined. I don’t know how career criminals do it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, you ad-libbed like a champ last night.”

She winced. “That doesn’t make me feel better. Worse, in fact. I work with kids. I take my responsibility as a role model very seriously. What does it say about my character that I could so easily withhold the truth in a murder investigation?”

“You have every right to protect yourself. Nothing you could have told him would change the course of his investigation. You didn’t see or hear anything. Why put yourself needlessly at risk?”

“I guess.”

He glanced back at the shop door. “I should grab my coffee and go. Tommy will be expecting me.”

“And I need to get to work. Good luck with your interview.” She paused. “Should we get together later to compare notes? I have a meeting at ten, but I’ll be in my office all afternoon.”

“I’ll try to give you a call.”

A noncommittal answer if Olive had ever heard one, but she decided not to take it personally. She’d enjoyed their good-night kiss—had been quite stunned by it, in fact—but she didn’t attach too much importance to the gesture. Jack had acted on impulse and she’d responded in kind. Blame it on the lingering adrenaline from her rescue. Olive freely acknowledged an attraction to him, but really, wasn’t his allure little more than an old memory?

Besides, it was probably for the best to keep some distance. After last night, there would undoubtedly be talk. Olive wasn’t one to live her life in fear of gossip, but like it or not, reputation mattered in a small town, especially for someone in her position. The next few weeks were crucial. They could well set the tone for the whole school year, if not the rest of her career. She would be foolish to invite distraction and controversy when everything she’d worked so hard for was at stake.

She murmured a goodbye and then turned to cross the street only to have Jack grab her arm and yank her back to the curb as a black pickup truck roared through the intersection. Her heel caught in a crack and she went down in an ungainly sprawl. The coffee cup flew out of her hand, exploding on impact with the pavement. Mortified, Olive could only stare helplessly at the spreading brown splotches on her white dress.

Jack was instantly at her side. “You okay?”

“I think so.” She took his hand and quickly scrambled to her feet. A small group had already started to gather and Olive would have liked nothing more than to sink right through the sidewalk.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, fine.” She dusted her hands and tried to salvage her poise. If anything could be more embarrassing than taking a spill in public, it was doing so in the presence of a high school crush. “That’s the second time you’ve had to come to my rescue in as many days. And the second time in less than a week that I almost got hit stepping off a curb. I really should pay more attention.”