Kitabı oku: «Obsession & Eyewitness», sayfa 4
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SHAGGY MAN in the closet spread his arms wide and smiled. “Caught me.”
Michelle crossed her arms over her chest as if to ward off a blow or a bullet…or the man’s pungent odor. His hands were empty, but that didn’t mean anything. He could have a hidden weapon or he could strangle her with his bare hands.
She choked and spun around, colliding with Colin as he charged through the door, his weapon grasped in one hand.
He gripped her arm with the other hand to steady her. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
She thrust a shaky finger at the closet where the disheveled stranger still hadn’t moved. “He’s in there.”
Colin shoved her toward the door and strode toward the closet. He flung the doors wide and leveled his gun at the man slouching amid the dresses and skirts.
“Get out now and put your hands where I can see them. Call 9-1-1, Michelle.”
She patted the pockets of her shorts and dragged out her cell phone. While she breathlessly relayed the pertinent information to the dispatcher, the man in the closet inched a tentative foot forward.
“Be careful, Colin.” The fact that Colin had the man at gunpoint didn’t ease her fears.
Colin gestured with his gun. “Hurry up and keep your hands in front of you.”
The man shuffled forward a few more steps, his arms held out. He started whistling.
Michelle sucked in a breath. Was it some sort of signal? She dipped into the hallway and looked both ways.
The man stood before Colin and peered at him through a veil of stringy hair. His filthy clothes hung on his gaunt frame, his lips, still puckered in song, framed by a wild beard. He dropped his arms to his sides and his hands nestled amid the folds of his raggedy clothing.
Colin steadied the metal-gray barrel of the gun. “Put your hands back in front of you where I can see them.”
The man gave him a gap-toothed smile. “I had a gun once. Don’t have it no more.”
“Let me see your hands. Real slow.”
The man hunched his narrow shoulders and raised his arms again. He held his hands, tipped with dirty fingernails, in front of him where they trembled. “Is that what you want, boss?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Is this your house, boss?”
Colin’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“Not mine, either.”
“So what are you doing here?”
Michelle glanced at the time on her cell phone. The police had a mile to get here at high speed. Where were they?
The man moved his hand toward his face, and Colin’s finger tightened on the trigger.
He scratched his beard and turned his head toward Michelle. “I scared the pretty lady, huh?”
Michelle nodded, and her heartbeat began to return to normal. He seemed harmless enough now, but maybe Colin’s big gun had something to do with that impression.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and the grungy man swore. “You didn’t have to go and call the cops on me. I didn’t do nothing wrong. Just scared her. Wasn’t even trying. Heard her going through the rooms and figured I’d better wait it out in the closet. Didn’t know she’d go snooping in the closet.”
Colin narrowed his eyes. The hand on his gun seemed to relax, or at least his knuckles were no long the color of white marble.
Michelle shifted her gaze to Colin’s face. Was he thinking what she was thinking? This man with his long hair, overgrown beard and disheveled clothing didn’t fit the profile of Amanda’s killer. And he definitely wasn’t responsible for the murders in Vegas and San Francisco.
Colin repeated his previous question. “What are you doing in this house?”
Waving his arms at his sides, the man said, “It’s empty, isn’t it? I needed a place to crash.”
Several pairs of footsteps charged up the stairs. “Michelle? Roarke? You up here?”
Colin backed up to the door, keeping in front of her and keeping his gun trained on the homeless man. “In here.”
His own gun drawn, Chief Evans barreled through the door almost knocking Michelle’s shoulder. “Face down. Prone position.”
Colin lowered his weapon and shook his head. “I think he’s just a homeless guy camping out.”
Another officer had joined the chief and shoved the stranger onto the hardwood floor. The cop dragged the man’s arms behind his body and snapped a pair of cuffs on him.
The homeless man started whistling again.
“We’ll take it from here, Roarke. Looks like we just might have our man.”
Colin cleared his throat. “I think…”
The chief hustled the stranger past Michelle and Colin. “We’ll handle it.”
The man winked at Michelle as Chief Evans shoved him out the bedroom door. Another officer squeezed past Colin into the bedroom.
“Did he have a weapon? Did he hide anything in here?”
“We didn’t get that far. I think the dude’s just a homeless guy looking for some temporary shelter.”
“Chief thinks we just nailed Amanda’s killer.” The officer pulled a pair of gloves out of his pocket. “I’m going to do a thorough search of the room. Thanks for your assistance. You can leave now. The chief knows you’re not officially on the Gunderson case, Roarke.”
Colin glanced at Michelle and rolled his eyes. “Come on.”
He steered her through the front door, which was now standing open. The curious folks from down the street gawking over Amanda’s murder site had shifted their attentions to Columbella House and the scruffy man now being stuffed into the backseat of a Coral Cove P.D. squad car.
Michelle gulped in a few breaths of salty air. “He’s not Amanda’s killer, is he?”
Colin wandered to the side gate, grabbed the top and leaned forward, peering at the path that rambled to the beach. “No.”
“Maybe—” Michelle twisted the arms of the sweatshirt that she’d wrapped around her waist “—he’s mentally ill. He could’ve been on his way to Columbella, stumbled across Amanda getting in her car and just gone off.”
He turned his head and raised one brow. “Did that guy look capable of attacking someone the way Amanda was attacked?”
“You mean sneaking up on her and slitting her throat.” Michelle kicked at the weeds clinging to the gate, sending puffs of dandelion floating through the air.
He brushed the back of his hand along her fingers where she’d hooked them, like claws, onto the chain-link fence. “I’m sorry.”
She sniffled and blinked. “No. He didn’t look capable of kicking a cat. He’d fall over. But that’s not going to stop Chief Evans or Mayor Davis from railroading this guy. He’ll be languishing in some jail cell just in time for the summer tourists to start flooding Coral Cove.”
“That’s stupid.” His fingers curled around hers. “If they’re that shortsighted, they just might allow the real killer to walk. And maybe strike again.”
Michelle shivered. “You think I’m on his list?”
“I know you graduated the same year as the other women.”
“The three murders could be completely unrelated—a coincidence.”
“And the petals?”
“The petals.” The terror from this morning when she’d seen the rose petals on her porch punched her in the gut. She sagged.
“Let’s get out of here.” Colin peeled her fingers from the gate and laced his own with hers.
They skirted the lingering knots of people in the street and Michelle tugged on his hand. “So which is it, Colin? Do you believe the killer scattered those petals on my porch or do you believe some innocent bystander carried them there on the bottom of his shoes?”
Colin wanted to reassure her, drive the fear from her big, brown eyes, but he couldn’t lie to this woman. He couldn’t pretend that she didn’t face some danger from this wily killer.
“If it’s the former, I’ll make sure he never gets that close to you again.” He tightened his grip on her hand.
A bicycle wobbled down the street between pedestrians, and the bespectacled rider raised his hand in salute. Michelle waved back, and Colin blew out a breath. What now? Couldn’t he ever get this woman alone? He had some more reassuring to do.
The cyclist pulled up beside them and shoved the glasses up his nose. “Michelle, are you okay? I heard what happened this morning and that it happened right outside your front door.”
The man lurched off the seat of his bike, straddling it with his feet planted firmly on either side. His gaze dipped to their clasped hands, and Michelle disentangled her fingers from Colin’s.
“It was horrible, Alec. I can’t believe it happened. I can’t believe Amanda’s gone.”
Alec extended his hand to Colin. “I’m Alec Wright.”
“I’m sorry.” Michelle tilted her head toward Colin. “This is Colin Roarke. Colin, this is Alec Wright. We teach at the high school together.”
For a skinny guy Alec had a strong grip. Then Colin noticed Alec’s legs encased in Lycra bicycle shorts and realized the guy was wiry, not skinny. But he still wore Lycra bicycle shorts. “Good to meet you.”
“I’ve seen your name all over the school. Yours and your brother’s. Kieran, right?”
“Right.” At the mention of his brother’s name, Colin’s face tightened. Would it always be this way? Would he ever be able to think about his brother without this pain shooting into his gut?
Alec’s eyes widened behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “I—I’ve seen your names on a lot of trophies in the trophy case.”
Colin shrugged. “Don’t know why they don’t replace those old things with new trophies.”
“Because they’re school records.” Alec cocked his head at Colin as if studying some strange specimen.
“Whatever.” The guy annoyed him. He needed to take his Lycra and ride away.
Michelle drew her eyebrows over her nose. “If you have some time this weekend, Alec, maybe you can look at my laptop for me. I have a couple of questions about my email.”
“Yeah, sure.” Alec blushed as red as his bike. “Give me a call. I’d be happy to help.”
Of course he would. The guy had a crush on Michelle as far as he could stretch his stretchy pants.
“Nice meeting you.” Colin jerked his thumb toward Michelle’s house. “We gotta…”
“Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. I’m glad you’re okay, Michelle. Sorry about Amanda.” He clambered onto his bike and headed toward the coast highway.
Colin squinted after him. “Didn’t sound sorry about Amanda.”
“He and Amanda never got along.” She dug her hands into her hips. “What is wrong with you? Did you take an instant dislike to Alec or something? He’s a nice guy and a good teacher.”
“I didn’t like his bicycle shorts.”
Her chocolate-drop eyes studied his face. “You didn’t like that he mentioned your trophies—yours and Kieran’s.”
He didn’t like that he’d mentioned Kieran, period.
He shrugged. “Don’t know why they keep those things around.”
They’d been walking and talking and had wound up at Michelle’s front door. She unlocked the door and shoved it open. Colin didn’t even wait for an invitation as Michelle stepped across the threshold, still talking.
“You should be proud of those trophies. Heck, if the school gave trophies for academic excellence, I wouldn’t mind a few of those scattered around with my name on them.”
Colin laughed, rubbing the last of the kinks out of his neck. “You were a brain, weren’t you?”
She stuck out her tongue. “Go ahead. You can say it. I was a nerd, complete with glasses and braces and bony chest.”
As if pulled by a magnetic force, his gaze dropped to the gentle curve of her breasts beneath her cotton T-shirt. By the time he’d trained his eyes back to her face, a rosy blush had claimed her cheeks.
“The years have been kind.”
She giggled and spun around. The compliment had made her uncomfortable. A truth smacked against his forehead and made its way to his lips. “You played up the nerd persona in high school, didn’t you? Because of your mom.”
She froze and her back stiffened. “That’s ridiculous. Why would you think any high school girl would want to be a geek?”
“Any high school girl who had a hootchie-cootchie mama.”
Her eyes flashed fire as she turned on him. “You’re… you’re…”
“Despicable.” He’d been so excited to discover something about Michelle, so intrigued to have chipped through her cool exterior, he’d lost all sense of social etiquette. “I’m sorry, Michelle. I had no right.”
She blew out a breath and dragged a hand through her thick hair. “No. You’re right. I wanted to put as much distance as possible between me and my mom. I didn’t want people thinking I was anything like her.”
Her dark eyes pooled. He preferred the fire. In two strides, he was at her side. He slid a knuckle beneath her chin and a tear dangled on the end of her long lashes. “I’m an idiot.”
Her lush lips trembled into a smile. “You’re an astute idiot. The only person I’d ever admitted that to was Amanda.”
The tear dripped onto her cheek, and he halted its downward path with his thumb. “I’m going to find this guy, Michelle. And he’s not some whistling homeless dude.”
Sniffling, she pulled back her shoulders. “I—I might have another clue.”
“Something you remembered?” He stepped back from her warmth, squashing his desire, shelving it…for later.
“Emails.”
“Emails?”
She ducked around him and headed for her kitchen table. “It actually occurred to me before, but I was too embarrassed to tell you about it. But now that my pathetic insecurities are out in the open, I may as well lay it all out there.”
She didn’t have the corner on pathetic insecurities.
“Has someone been threatening you?” That’s why she was calling in the help of the bicycle geek. The fact that she’d planned to open up to Alec before him irritated the hell out of him.
“Sort of… I don’t know.” She hovered over her laptop, clicking keys on the keyboard. “Darn. I should’ve been saving them.”
He joined her at the table as she scrolled through her inbox. “What did the emails say?”
“I was too chicken to open them.” She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “But the subject line said, Like mother, like daughter?”
“That sounds like a threat to me. Or at least harassment.” He sat in front of the computer and opened her Deleted Items.
“Don’t bother. I did a hard delete and sent them to cyberspace oblivion.”
“Do you think Bicycle Boy can help?”
She huffed and punched him in the arm. “He’s a good guy.”
“I hope he knows how to retrieve those messages.” He rubbed his biceps where her delicate hand had nailed him. “Do you know if Amanda had been receiving any emails? Any threats?”
“She didn’t mention anything to me.” She hugged herself and wedged a hip against the kitchen table. “Amanda didn’t have any enemies.”
“Had she been on any dates since the separation from her husband?”
“No. She talked a good game, but she missed Ryan.” Michelle’s face tightened and she pursed her lips. If she was going to burst into tears, he had a strong shoulder.
Her cell phone played some hip-hop song and Colin raised his brows.
“I like to keep current with the kids.” She answered the phone and moved to the window.
Colin clicked around Michelle’s computer as she talked in a low voice across the room. He’d have to give over to Alec’s computer skills and hope the guy knew what he was doing and could retrieve those messages. Maybe someone was trying to scare Michelle, put her on edge. Killers played games, especially the smart ones.
“That was Chief Evans. He wants to see me this afternoon. You, too.”
“Is he still convinced he has his man?”
“He wouldn’t go into it with me.
“Any luck?” She pointed at the laptop screen.
“No. I’m going to have to defer to Alec. Dammit.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know why you took an instant dislike to Alec. He’s harmless.”
Harmless is not the way Colin would describe the way Alec had looked at Michelle. Did the woman have no clue how sexy she was? She’d probably be uneasy to hear herself described as sexy…thanks to that mother of hers. Hootchie-cootchie mama. What had he been thinking?
“I hope Mr. Harmless can get those emails.”
“They may be nothing, Colin, totally unrelated to Amanda’s…death.”
“Anything out of the ordinary needs to be examined.” He smacked his forehead. “I completely forgot.”
“What?”
He shoved his hand into his pocket to dig out the chain he’d found in the basement at Columbella House. He dangled it from his finger. It was a bracelet.
“I found this in the basement right before you screamed bloody murder. Do you recognize it? Is it Amanda’s?”
Michelle fingered the bracelet and the charms hanging from it. She plucked one charm out from the rest and squinted at it. Then she dropped her hand as if the charm had scorched her.
CHAPTER SIX
MICHELLE RUBBED THE tips of her tingling fingers against the leg of her shorts, trying to erase memories.
“Is it Amanda’s?” Colin cupped the charm bracelet in the palm of his hand.
“N-no.”
“But you know the owner?”
Warmth flared in Michelle’s cheeks. It’s like the woman had come back to haunt her this summer. “It’s my mom’s.”
“This is your mom’s bracelet?” Colin hooked his index finger around the chain and dangled it in front of his face.
“It didn’t belong to my mom. She made it.”
“Oh.” He dropped the bracelet next to the laptop, where it coiled like a snake. “She made jewelry?”
“Yeah. No big deal. She crafted the pieces at home and sold them to her friends and some of the teenaged girls.”
“But it didn’t belong to Amanda.”
Michelle poked at the bracelet, a bit tarnished and forlorn. “There’s a charm with the initials MS. I’m assuming it belongs to one of the St. Regis twins since they were both in and out of the house when they were last here.”
“Mystery solved. I won’t bother turning it over to the police today.” He glanced at his watch. “Do you want to head to the police station now?”
“Sure. Do you have a car or do you want me to drive?” She swept the bracelet into her hand and stuffed it into her pocket.
“I have a rental.”
She hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her shorts where the bracelet burned against her leg. Maybe she should leave it here. She didn’t need the constant reminder of her mother gouging her thigh. “You know, I never even asked you where you live now. Are you in San Francisco?”
“L.A., although I’ve been thinking of requesting a transfer to San Francisco. One of my buddies is with the Bureau up there. He’s the one who first told me about Tiffany Gunderson’s murder.”
“The local cops realize now that you’re not here in any official capacity.”
“I know, but I still feel obliged to share my opinions with them—that the Gunderson and Frank murders are related, and I believe Amanda’s death is tied to theirs. This is the same guy.”
“But why? Does he plan to work his way through the entire Coral Cove class that graduated ten years ago? Does he have something against those particular women…or me?” She couldn’t stop the goose pimples that rushed across her arms.
Colin must’ve noticed her shiver because he took a step forward and rubbed his knuckles along her skin. “That’s what I’m here to find out, whether the local cops like it or not. My parents were friends with the Gundersons. I at least owe it to them.”
Michelle practically purred at his touch. If the local cops didn’t like Colin’s presence in Coral Cove…she did.
Two hours later, Colin stepped onto the sidewalk outside the Coral Cove Police Station and squinted at the sky. The sun was staging a valiant attack against the stubborn marine layer, hurriedly pricking through the gray muck before it was time to sink into the ocean.
Settling his shoulders against the brick facade of the building, Colin crossed his arms and dug his heels into the sidewalk. The small-town cops hadn’t appreciated his meddling. They’d found a smear of blood on the transient’s sleeve and had closed the case before the blood analysis had come back from the lab.
They hadn’t been interested in rose petals, class connections or class reunions. The summer tourist season loomed less than two weeks away, and the chief and the mayor wanted to make sure nothing more than the haze from the ocean was hanging over Coral Cove by the time the crowds staggered in from L.A. and San Francisco.
Michelle rounded the corner, accompanied by a pumped-up guy in jeans and a Coral Cove High School sweatshirt, and waved. After she’d had her turn with the police, she’d gone to the high school to collect an answer key for some quizzes she had to grade. Looked like she’d brought the mascot with her.
Colin pushed off the wall of the police station. Michelle had been holding up well under the shock of her friend’s murder and her proximity to the killer. But Colin had sensed her busywork and interest in helping him investigate sprang from a desire to keep her sadness at bay. Whatever worked. God knows, he’d employed a million devices to hold his own sorrow at arm’s length.
“That didn’t take long.” Her eyes sparkled above flushed cheeks. “Colin Roarke, this is Larry Brunswick. He’s head of the math department.”
Colin shook the man’s hand. Brunswick looked familiar. Must’ve been teaching when he’d attended CCHS. “I don’t think I had you for any classes, but I think you were teaching when I was in high school.”
“I started at Coral Cove the year your brother, Kieran, was a senior. So I had the thrill of watching him play. Helluva quarterback.”
Colin schooled his face into a bland smile. If he went off on Brunswick like he had with that other teacher, Michelle would have him pegged as a loose cannon. And her opinion of him mattered more than he cared to admit.
“Yeah, he was.”
“Not that you weren’t an amazing player yourself.”
Colin held up his hands and twisted his lips into a grin. “I’m not looking for kudos. Kieran was the better athlete.”
The better man.
Brunswick’s eyes clouded as he drew his brows together. “They still haven’t… I mean, is he still considered missing?”
“Yeah.” Colin felt Michelle’s sharp glance like a needle poking his flesh. He kept his gaze pinned to Brunswick’s sympathetic face.
“That’s rough.” Brunswick adjusted the satchel on his shoulder. “And now this in Coral Cove, Amanda’s murder, I mean. And practically on Michelle’s doorstep. I hear they got the guy.”
“Maybe.” His training had taught him never to give away too much information…to anyone.
“I hope so. My wife, Nancy, is nervous.” Brunswick clicked his tongue. “Glad I decided to clean out my desk today and ran into you at school, Michelle, and had that answer key you needed.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I didn’t want to do all those quadratic equations myself to grade the quizzes.”
“Anytime.” He rolled his wrist and checked his watch. “I’d better hurry or I’m going to be late picking up my wife. Good to see you, Colin.”
One quick wave and Brunswick was practically jogging down the sidewalk. “Does his wife keep him on a short leash or what?”
“She’s a judge’s daughter, kind of a diva.” Michelle studied his face, and he smiled to avoid her scrutiny, to mask any residual pain that might be marking his features. “Do you want to grab a late lunch, compare notes?”
“Yeah, let’s compare notes.”
He steered her toward his buddy’s restaurant, Burgers and Brews, but she shook her head.
“I just can’t, I just…that’s where Amanda and I had dinner last night.”
“I’m sorry. Stupid of me to suggest it.”
“I know Bryan Sotelo’s your friend. I hope the macabre association doesn’t hurt his business.”
“In my experience, it tends to help a business—curiosity seekers.”
“Ugh. I don’t get that.” She pointed across the street. “The Great Earth is pretty good.”
He grabbed his throat and stuck out his tongue. “I don’t do vegetarian.”
“They have burgers and brews over there, too. Don’t worry. I won’t force you to eat alfalfa sprouts.”
Five minutes later they were ensconced at a corner table, and Colin was running his fingers down a short list of burgers. “The sweet potato fries sound good.”
“They are.” Michelle’s menu covered her entire face and she had a white-knuckled grip on its edges.
Colin tapped a finger on the top of the plastic menu. “Are you okay in there?”
She inched the menu down so that her big, brown eyes appeared over the top. “Everyone’s talking about the murder. I keep catching snippets of conversation, and people keep throwing me sidelong glances. Maybe I shouldn’t be out.”
“Stop.” He clapped the menu closed with his hands and she flinched. “Of course everyone’s gossiping about the murder. It’s a big deal for a small town. Remember when that girl disappeared a few years ago from the music festival? I even heard about that and I wasn’t living here.”
“I hate it.” She dropped her lashes, where they created dark crescents on her cheeks. “The gossip.”
“It’s a small town. And you have every right to be out for lunch. It doesn’t mean you mourn your friend any less.”
She grabbed a napkin and bunched it up at her nose. “I’m going to miss Amanda. You have to catch her killer, Colin. Amanda needs justice. She deserves justice.”
“Maybe the Coral Cove P.D. has already caught him.”
She snorted and then blew her nose. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
“Did the chief tell you about the blood on Chris’s shirt?”
“Huh?”
The waitress interrupted to take their orders, and as she scribbled her shorthand on her pad, she glanced up at Michelle. “I’m really sorry about Amanda. I know you two were friends and you were right there when it happened.”
“Thanks.”
“You take care of yourself.”
“See?” Colin touched the rim of his water glass to hers. “Nobody is blaming you or thinking you’re weird because you’re eating lunch.”
She blew out a breath and took a sip of water. “Who’s Chris?”
“Chief Evans didn’t tell you?” The cops who’d questioned him hadn’t exactly told him to keep mum about anything. He didn’t owe them, anyway. He owed Michelle. “Chris Jeffers is the name of the transient. He had a smear of blood on his sleeve.”
“Amanda’s?” Her eyes widened.
“They don’t know yet. They sent it out for testing and depending on how backed up the lab is, it could take a while for them to get the results.”
“But it’s something. Maybe you’re wrong, Colin.” She shot him an apologetic look from beneath her lashes. “Maybe Amanda’s murder was just a random act. I’m not saying the other two murders, Tiffany’s and Belinda’s, are random, but maybe Amanda’s death has nothing to do with those other women.”
His gut rebelled against her reasoning. Three women from the same high school class? Two with slit throats and all with rose petals? But his heart softened when he saw the hope shining in Michelle’s eyes.
She wanted to believe Amanda’s murder was a random act of violence. She wanted to believe she had nothing to fear from the same killer. And he didn’t want to dash that belief. Not now.
“Maybe.” He shoved their water glasses aside as the waitress brought their plates. “Now let me see if they snuck any alfalfa sprouts on my burger.”
Pointing to her salad, she said, “You can toss them on here if you find any.”
They ate in silence for several minutes, and then Michelle started shoving lettuce leaves around her plate.
“What’s wrong? Tired of rabbit food?”
“How’s the burger? Not too healthy for you?”
Chewing, he raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Just the right amount of grease. And these sweet potato fries are great. Have one.”
She picked a fry from his plate and twirled it around. “Colin. What happened to your brother in Afghanistan?”
He nearly choked on his water. Damn. He thought he’d escaped the inquisition. He blotted his mouth with a napkin, stalling for time. Of course he could take his usual route—stare down the questioner and grunt. But Michelle wasn’t some random nosy person on the street. She’d opened up to him about her past hurts and now she’d volleyed the ball into his court.
Isn’t that how relationships worked? Give and take. Not that he and Michelle had a relationship. They had more like a partnership. He’d keep her safe and she’d feed him information about her graduating class at CCHS.
Did he have to open up to a partner?
“Of course, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” She dropped the sweet potato fry onto her half-eaten salad and brushed her fingers together.
His eyes met hers. Tiny creases marred the smooth skin between her dark, sculpted eyebrows. She looked worried…worried about him.
He scooped in a breath and twisted the napkin in his lap. “My brother and I were both on the same intelligence-gathering team. We’d been watching a particular bunch outside of Kandahar. We made our move, but someone had betrayed us. They were ready for us.”
“What happened?”
“The Taliban killed a few of the team members and captured the rest of us, including me and Kieran.”
“I—I had heard something about that, later when you escaped.”
Colin’s heart hammered in his chest. He could never get past this part of the story with anyone, not even in his own mind. “I escaped. But Kieran didn’t. We’d planned our escape, but our captors chose that night to take Kieran away for questioning. I wanted to stay, but they had talked about moving us to a different location. The others convinced me, but I should’ve held out. I should’ve stayed with my brother.”
“Of course you couldn’t have stayed.” Her hand inched closer to his and then froze as his fingers curled into a fist.
“Is he dead?”
“No.” Colin smacked his clenched hand on to the table. “After we escaped, we went back for him, but, of course, the Taliban had pulled up stakes and moved on.”
“And you never…” Her fingers nervously pleated the tablecloth.
“We never found Kieran’s body. That’s why I still hold out hope that he’s alive somewhere.”
“You blame yourself.”
