“Not wrong. What do you know about this Grace Harmony?”
“Why, she a murderer?”
His eyes dropped closed. Little did she know. “I’m serious, Lors. What do you know about her?”
“She’s a medic at Community Hospital.”
“Did she tell you where she lived before coming to Glen Hills?”
“No, I didn’t ask. Why the interrogation?”
His other line rang, but he ignored it. They’d call back. “She’s in the computer. She’s been charged with a crime.”
“Was she convicted?”
“No, but-”
“Well, then she’s fine.”
The clock ticked on the wall. His cheap, metal blinds clanged in the breeze.
“Cops don’t charge people with crimes for no reason,” he argued.
“But sometimes innocent people get charged. You know that.”
You’d think she’d be more jaded having been married to him for so long. He rubbed a hand down his face. Maybe his cynicism blocked him from seeing the good in everyone. “They may be innocent of that crime, but not of others.”
“We’ve had this argument before. Let’s not go there,” she said.
“You’re right, but when is she moving in?”
“Later this morning. I’m taking an early lunch and giving her the key.”
“What time?”
He had to be somewhere in an hour, but he’d fit it in no matter what the consequences. He needed to confront this woman before she moved in and couldn’t be moved out.
“Eleven. She’s eager to get in.”
“Can you stall until I get there?”
“Why?”
“I need to see her for myself.”
She sighed. “You don’t trust me.”
“That’s not true. I just trust my own instincts more.”
And his were better, unless they involved love. For sex, he could pick them, differentiate the losers from the winners, but when any emotion entered into the bargain, what a mess.
“Jerk,” she said, but no venom colored her words.
He’d always been honest with her. “Yes, but you like me anyway.”
“You have a charm about you. A very, raw, rugged one at that.”
Just like his desk.
He chuckled. Her flirting on another day would have put him at ease. Today he had a bad feeling. “Will you stall?”
“Okay, but not too long. You know I’m not good at that.”
“Thanks, dear,” he said.
He hung up before he realized what he called her.
For a woman on her lunch hour, Dolores was chatty to Grace. They stood on the driveway in front of Grace’s car, loaded to beyond full.
The day had dawned overcast with a forecast for possible showers. Grace wished it held off until she finished. Listening to Dolores, she shifted from foot to foot.
“I cleaned the furniture last week, right after I put the ad in the paper.”
Dolores looked around as she spoke as if waiting for someone. The next moment a battered compact came into view. The driver parked the vehicle on the street behind Dolores’ car.
Maybe an inspector, but Grace’s cop radar pinged when he stepped out of his vehicle. He reeked of the self- assurance borne of fighting bad guys.
Not a bad sight to look at either. Too bad. Relationships didn’t last when you time slipped. You didn’t forget, but your lovers did.
Damn.
He surveyed the area before walking to the women. Confidence colored his steps. Shoulders a mile wide sat atop a fit body. His slicked back, black hair crowded at the base of his neck in a mob of curls.
His movements reminded her of a cat, despite his bulk. Was he just as predatory? She swallowed hard and clenched her fists behind her back. Something about him awakened her as if she were a female panther reunited with her mate.
The man in the gray suit with a perfectly pressed, white shirt leaned down to kiss Dolores on the cheek. Not a friendly kiss, but a rather intimate one without being on the lips.
The father of Dolores’ child? Suspect number one even if he was a cop.
“Grace, this is my. .” She stopped as if unsure how to introduce him. “This is Zach. He’s my overprotective ex-husband.”
Graced nodded and held out her hand. “You wanted to check me out before I moved in.”
“Yes.”
His firm grip didn’t hurt or intimidate her. But the fleeting touch sent a ripple of sensation down her spine. Had she ever met this man? A sense of deja vu swept through her, different than when a corpse touched her.
Her gaze never left him, never letting on about her emotions. “So you’ve met me. Am I an axe murderer?”
He tilted his head and his gray eyes bore into her over his sunglasses. “I’ve never met one of those.”
She cocked her head. “Use your imagination. What would an axe murderer look like?”
His tongue came out and did a slow trail across his lips. “Probably not like you. You’re much too petite to wield such a bulky weapon.”
As he spoke his gaze swept over her and she might as well have been naked. Or a steak dinner with all the trimmings for the intensity of his look. His eyes went back to her face, a sly smile tilting his lips.
“Good. May I move in?”
“He doesn’t have a say in that,” Dolores said.
Grace slid her gaze to her new landlord.
“I have a few questions for Grace,” Zach said.
Bet he ran a background check. “Oh? Is your name on the lease?”
His jaw tightened around his already chiseled face. “No, but I have a vested interest in you being the right tenant.”
Grace looked at Dolores who said, “Just humor him. I have to get back to work. You need anything else? All the utilities are turned on. I took the liberty of putting them in your name, you just have to call the companies with the rest of the information.” She backed away toward her Toyota parked on the street. “The numbers are on the table by the door.”
“Thanks, Dolores.”
She waved a hand at Grace and slid into her car. Zach watched her drive away as Grace watched him. When he turned his gaze back to her, she handed him a box.
“I’m not a moving company,” he said.
“You want to interrogate me, you have to work. I only have today to move in and get settled. I work the next four days.”
He looked at the box in his hands as if it were an alien, then shrugged. “Fine.”
Grace didn’t look back to see if he followed her. She assumed he intended to extract information about her last residence and that last case. With a deep breath and a heavy suitcase, she braced herself for the onslaught.
“Tell me about Ridge Oaks,” he said when they reached the apartment above the garage.
