Irritated, he stopped long enough to take off his shoes. He’d looked everywhere in the small town. It was still off- season, so there weren’t that many places to look. His last resort had been the beach.
He could feel the sand weighing down the cuffs of his dress pants. Great.
“Torie,” he called.
Either she didn’t hear him, or she was ignoring him. He repeated the call, louder this time, and saw her frown, but she didn’t turn.
“TORIE!”
Her head whipped around and her mouth dropped open in an O of surprise. At least he’d finally gotten her attention.
“Paul, what are you doing here?” She struggled to her feet, untangling and brushing at the full skirts she wore. They were a bright whirl of gypsy colors. He’d never seen her wear that style before. She was usually more conservative.
“Looking for you, of course. What else?”
It pissed her off, he could tell. Well, good. He was plenty pissed off himself to have to hunt her down. Again. Not to mention that the cops were all over him about Todd’s affairs. She was smack in the middle of everyone’s questions, and wasn’t there to be the target of them.
Each part of the jumbled puzzle connected to Torie. To have to find her so
“Why?”
“Don’t play stupid, Torie, it doesn’t suit you.”
“Stupid? You arrogant prat,” she fired up. “I ask a simple question, a logical one, and you call me stupid? What the hell do you want from me?”
“Logical? Todd’s dead, your house is a wreck, and you run off to North Carolina? Yeah, and don’t expect someone to come looking for you? That’s logical?”
She threw up her hands. “Yes, it’s logical. With Todd gone, you don’t ever have to see me again since you despise it so much. And my house isn’t any concern of yours, now is it? What does it matter that I’m in North Carolina, North Dakota, or the north quadrant of hell?”
“You need to be home for the reading of the will,” he said, ticking the points off on his fingers. “Second, your friends are worried. Third, you’re a murder suspect.”
She went pale, and staggered as if she’d been shoved from behind. “I’m a…a what?”
“Murder suspect.” For some reason, the vindictive relish he’d felt when hearing that news dimmed in the face of her reaction. She looked as if she’d been punched.
“But I would never…You know I wouldn’t…couldn’t…”
“It doesn’t matter what I know or what I think. It’s about what the police think. I managed to find out some things. They have your hair and blood at the crime scene, or so I’ve been told.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not saying I believe you or them, but I do know you need to come back. Whatever trouble there is, you’ve got other matters to attend to.”
“What other matters?”
“Not my business to tell you, but Todd left you something in his will.” He frowned to think of all she was going to inherit. He really didn’t think she was capable of putting a bullet in Todd, but he didn’t like her, or trust her either.
“What?” She strode toward him, standing in front of him, her own arms crossed. “What could he possibly leave me? He long ago paid any debt to me, which I never thought he owed in the first place, by the way. You know I never expected anything from him.”
“You took it, though,” he snapped.
“I offered to pay him back, every time I saw him,” she fired back. “I’ve saved a lot of money, thinking that one day he’d take me up on it.”
“Not Todd.” That thought broke his anger. It was stupid to blame Torie. Todd did what he wanted to do. Paul knew it, but Torie was a handy target for his grief.
“No.” She shook her head, turned to look at the sea. He followed her gaze and they both watched a V of pelicans skim the wave tops and disappear around the spit of land toward town. “But thanks to him, I have a great retirement fund.”
Paul nearly told her she wouldn’t need it.
“Come on, let’s get out of this wind.” He took her elbow and steered her toward the parking lot. His car was the only one there, so she must have walked. She waited unspeaking, as he shook the sand out of his cuffs. She kept a cautious distance between them as they walked to the car.
“Get in.” He held open the door, but she shook her head.
“I’ll walk. It’s about a block. I’m all sandy.” She pointed to a bed-and-breakfast facing the street with blue shutters and a Canadian flag flapping in the breeze below the North Carolina flag. “I’m staying at the inn.”
“It’s a rental,” he indicated the car. “It’ll manage some sand.”
“No.”
His blood pressure spiked as she turned and left. He had to forcibly stop himself from grinding his teeth.
He let her get a bit of a start as he brushed more sand off his clothes, then got the car turned toward the hotel. He needed time to compose himself. She still got under his skin every time. The years hadn’t dimmed his response
