Chapter Six
“We found one set of prints on the note,” Frank told Daniel, his gaze drifting across the room to where Rose sat in a chair by the wall. “Hers.”
Daniel had feared as much. “And the handwriting?”
“We’ve got our analysts on it, but that could take a while.” Frank glanced at Rose again. “How’s she holding up?”
“She’s scared, but holding it together.”
“Wonder why she called you instead of me?” A faint undertone of suspicion threaded through Frank’s voice.
“I think she was afraid she was overreacting. Easier to pass it by me than someone official.”
“How long have you two known each other?”
“A few days. I met her through her friend Melissa.”
“Melissa Bannerman? How do you know her?”
Daniel nodded. “She’s a publisher. I write books.”
Frank looked suspicious, but he dropped the subject. “Maybe that note will be the break we need.”
Daniel wasn’t so sure. Without fingerprints, all they had was the handwriting. Great, if they found a suspect and could connect him to the block printing, but useless until then. “You through with Ms. Browning?”
“Not much more she can add at the moment. I’m going to canvass her neighbors, see if anyone saw anything.” Frank grabbed his jacket and headed for the exit.
Daniel crossed to where Rose sat, tense and wide-eyed, by the wall. “Done here. Think you can handle a little lunch?”
“I don’t know. I’m feeling a little queasy.”
“Nerves.” He led her to the door. “We’ll grab something light and see how it goes. What are you in the mood for?”
She flashed him a lopsided grin. “Pepto-Bismol.”
He chuckled. “How about a BLT on wheat? I know a place just around the corner.”
“I’m not sure I’m up for a lunch crowd.”
“We’ll grab something to go.”
The diner Daniel had in mind was a hole in the wall tucked between a dry cleaner’s and a stationery store in Forest Park. He parked the Jeep and cut the engine. “I was half afraid this place wouldn’t still be here,” he admitted. “Haven’t been back in a while. Lots of things have changed.”
A blast of fragrant warmth and the murmur of a lunch crowd greeted them inside the diner. Rose decided on a chicken salad with tomato, while Daniel chose a BLT and coleslaw. Within minutes, they were back in the car, heading to Rose’s.
Rose said. “Was this diner here when you were younger?”
“Yeah, though it was more of a mom-and-pop place then. Not as trendy.” The place had passed on to the second generation, a brother and sister with a much more bohemian sense of style and cuisine than their meat- and-three parents. But the food was still good and affordable and the service had seemed quick and friendly. “Do you eat out or in more often?”
“In,” she said with a half smile. “Cheaper that way.”
“Hard to start a business in a new town. You buying your house or renting?”
“Buying. I loved it the moment I saw it.” Her eyes softened as if she were reliving the first time she’d seen the house. “It had been renovated a couple of years ago, as a rental, but the owner was tired of dealing with transient and student renters, so he jumped on my first offer to buy it.”
“Putting down roots, huh?”
She nodded. “It was time.”
“Nothing left for you in Willow Grove?”
Her gaze lifted, a hint of wariness in her eyes. “I have family there, but as far as business…”
“Parents? Brothers and sisters?”
“Two sisters. My sister, Lily, lives with her husband in Borland. Only Iris is still in Willow Grove.”
Daniel pulled into Rose’s driveway, parking behind her Impala. “Nice that they’re both close.”
Her expression shuttered. “Yeah.”
Interesting, Daniel thought. Her reticence about her sisters suggested there was more to the story. Were she and her sisters estranged?
He followed her into the kitchen and laid their food out on the table while Rose poured them two glasses of iced tea. She handed him a glass and sat at the kitchen table. He slid in across from her.
Rose tried a bite of her sandwich, making a low, humming sound of pleasure that sent blood racing south of his belt. “This is amazing,” she commented after washing down her first bite with a sip of tea. “It’s got pecans in it, and grapes-”
“Guess you were hungry, after all?” he murmured.
She took another bite, making that same moaning sound that sent a shudder of need skating down his spine.
He took a deep breath and forced his mind back to the reason he was here in the first place. “Maybe you should see if one of your sisters could come stay with you for a while. Until we know more about the note you received.”
She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You think I’m in danger living here alone?”
“I’d feel better if you weren’t living alone. That’s all.”
She put down her sandwich. “I can’t ask my sisters to drop their lives and come babysit me.”
“Maybe they wouldn’t mind.”
“I’m a big girl. I’ll keep my eyes open and take those self-defense classes we talked about. Maybe get an alarm installed. I’ll be fine.” She managed a smile that he didn’t quite buy.
He couldn’t remember seeing a genuine smile from her, he realized. The Granville murder-suicide must’ve done a real number on her.
“You think last night’s meeting did any good?” Rose asked.
“Don’t think it did any harm.”
There was an odd quality to her silence that caught his gaze. A frown creased her forehead and her lower lip was pinched between her teeth.
“You disagree?” Daniel asked.
She looked at him. “It’s too early to know, isn’t it?”
He cocked his head. “It’s because you think the killer was there last night, isn’t it?”
“You thought so, too.”
He nodded. “But maybe it’s a good thing he saw his victims aren’t going to lie down and take it from him in the future.”
“Or maybe he saw the crowd as a big buffet table full of goodies to sample,” she muttered.
“I don’t think it hurts that those women now know a little more about how to protect themselves from him. Safety in numbers, locking doors-”
“All the things people are supposed to remember but never do,” Rose murmured.
“Or refuse to do,” Daniel countered. “Like have a family member-say, a sister-come stay with them.”
She darted a look at him. “Touche.”
He gathered up the remains of their lunch and dumped it in the trash bin. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I have to meet Melissa later to help her pick out a veil for her wedding dress.” Rose hooked her arm over the back of her chair and shot him a bemused look. “What are you going to do if she pursues that book deal you snookered her with?”
He shrugged and walked back to the table, close enough that she had to lean her head back to look him in the eye. “Maybe I’ll take her up on it. I wouldn’t have used it as an excuse if it wasn’t a possibility.”
“What about telling her you might need a wedding planner?”
“Not in the market at the moment.”
