“We need to get-”
Before he could finish, the phone rang. Betty reached over and picked up the receiver, cradling it between her shoulder and ear as she flipped the remaining cakes on the grill. “Hello?”
“Just a moment, please.” She turned and extended the phone toward Chief Cole. “It’s for you, Chief.”
The big man grunted and stood up, pulling the napkin out of the neck of his shirt. He grabbed the phone. “Cole here.”
Tess shifted restlessly, trying not to stare. For some reason, the beefy cop made her nervous, created an anxious flutter in the pit of her stomach. Whenever he moved, the gold bars on his collar glittered, sending off a blinding flash of light. She squinted, trying to hear what he was saying on the phone.
But she couldn’t make it out. The Chief talked low, darting covert glances in her direction every few seconds. Suddenly he straightened up, his dark eyes meeting hers across the length of the room.
He nodded. “All right. We’ll be right there. Don’t let anyone touch anything.” He hung up the phone hard, the receiver rattling in its cradle. He hit her with his best cop stare.
“What?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
Tess swallowed against the lump of pancake that caught in the back of her throat. She fumbled for the glass of orange juice, trying to wash it down. It tasted like grit.
“Something wrong, Chief?” Donovan asked, his coffee cup halfway to his lips.
Chief Cole’s gaze moved over to Donovan. “Seems that this was a night for strange happenings. There’s been an accident out on the Plank Road. A car plowed into Bill Johnson’s cornfield-the one that borders Bud’s and is backed up against the research center’s fence.” He moistened his thick upper lip with the tip of his tongue. “The driver’s dead.”
From beneath lowered lashes, Tess watched Donovan stand up, towering over the table. Damn, he was tall and powerfully built. Concern etched deeper lines around those magnificent eyes. “Anyone else hurt?”
The Chief folded his arms, the leather of his holster creaking loudly. “No.” He turned, his cop stare back on her. “No one else in the car. Just the driver.” He moved over to stand next to Tess, his frame seeming to loom over her, his bloated belly inches from her face. “You wouldn’t know anything about that car in the cornfield, now would you, miss?”
Tess shook her head and took another bite of pancake. She didn’t know anything about the car, but her stomach was clenched up tighter than a fist. It took all her concentration to get the small bite down.
“I think it’s time you told us your full name,” Cole said, pulling a notebook out of his hip pocket.
“I-I’d love to.” Tess laid her fork alongside her plate. “Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten it.”
Donovan moved to the other side of her, and he reached out to lightly touch her shoulder in a protective gesture. She could almost feel his concern, his compassion, radiate down through his long, masculine fingers. Welcome warmth saturated her shoulder. She shot him a grateful look.
“Don’t push so hard, Cole,” Donovan warned.
The Chief snorted. “Look, you two, I ain’t playing games here. I want her name, address and an explanation of what the hell she’s doing here in Half Moon.”
“You seem to think I’m trying to be uncooperative.” Tess paused, pressing the tips of her fingers to her forehead. Her head ached. “But I-I can’t tell you anything that I have no memory of.”
Ryan held up his other hand. “Back off, Chief. She isn’t yanking your chain. She really doesn’t remember.”
“Yeah, right. And I’m the freakin’ Pope. Give me a break, Doc. She’s playing you-playing all of us. That little nudie show was to keep us all interested.”
Anger surged through her, and Tess stood up, pushing her chair back so quickly it crashed to the floor. “I don’t have to take any of this.”
She started for the door, but Cole stepped in front of her, grabbing her upper arm. Tess struggled, but he had a good grip on her.
“You aren’t going anywhere, missy,” he said. “I want answers and I want them now.”
Tess stopped struggling and stepped in close. So close she could smell the heavy stench of old coffee and bacon on his thick breath. Her stomach recoiled in protest.
But she didn’t back down. “I don’t need this kind of harassment from you or anyone else.”
Cole matched her toe-to-toe. “Don’t sass me, little lady, I’ll-”
Donovan stepped between them. “That’s enough,” he ordered. “You,” he said to Tess, “sit back down.” When she hesitated, he gently spun her around and pointed to the chair. “Now.”
He waited until she was actually seated before turning back to the police chief. “And you need to back off. You’re not going to get anywhere with that tone of voice. If Tess knew her name, she’d tell you. She isn’t trying to hide anything, and you trying to force her to answer questions obviously isn’t working.”
Tess watched as skepticism fought for dominance on the cop’s ruddy features. No big surprise there, she thought. All cops and military types held that take-no-prisoners attitude. It was second nature to them.
She paused, her fingers tightening on the arm of the chair. There it was again, another thought that seemed to trigger a value statement out of nowhere. Did it mean that she normally distrusted cops and other people of authority?
“Maybe if she comes with me and takes a look at the crash site, she’ll remember something.” Cole grabbed his cap off the sideboard and slapped it on his head. “Let’s go, miss. We’ll take a drive out to Plank Road and see if you experience a sudden memory flash.” The last sentence dripped with sarcasm.
Donovan shook his head, signaling she shouldn’t get up. “She’s not going anywhere. She needs medical attention, Cole. Not the third degree.”
“I wasn’t about to whip out the rubber hose, Doc.” Irritation flickered across the Chief’s face. “You have to go by the crash site to get to Doc Reed’s. You can come along for the ride. That way you can make sure I don’t abuse the little lady.”
“I’m taking her out to the center. The facilities are better there,” Donovan stated.
Cole threw up his big hands. “Take her wherever the hell you want. But first let her see the car. It might jog her memory. Okay?”
Donovan finally relented and Cole stomped out the door.
Tess stood up, carefully setting her napkin next to her unfinished breakfast. She smiled at the Carsons. “Thanks for the clothes and the delicious meal. It was very gracious of you.”
Betty clucked her tongue and glanced out the window. Her glare of disapproval directed at the Chief’s back spoke volumes. “Ted Cole can be a bully sometimes. Don’t you let him push you around.” She shifted her attention to Donovan. “You make sure to watch out for her, Ryan.”
Donovan nodded and then stepped aside to let Tess go first. A pang of regret shot through Tess. She missed the feel of his hand on her shoulder, the warmth and comfort of those long fingers against her skin. Somehow his touch seemed to reach down and fill a cold, empty place deep in her chest.
And that spot seemed to get bigger and wider with each passing moment, especially when she imagined seeing a car in the middle of a cornfield. A car with a dead man inside it. She hid a shudder as she climbed into the police chief’s cruiser. Something told her she didn’t want to go anywhere near that car.
RAW TRACKS CUT THROUGH the freshly mowed grass leading up to the edge of the cornfield and then continued on into the heart of the field. The ground leading to the crash site was uneven, and Tess stumbled a bit as she skirted the broken stalks.
“Easy, Tess,” Donovan said, reaching out to steady her. “There’s no rush to get there.”
The corn on either side of them seemed to rise up and close in around them, creating a green chute. The raw earth smelled pungent, and a light breeze slipped through the rows, making a soft rustling sound.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked, his big body so close a whiff of his aftershave, something tangy and enticing, swept up her nose. She tried to ignore its effect.
“I’ll do whatever he wants. Just as long as he gets off my back.”
The car was about twenty or thirty yards in. A sleek gold Intrepid. It looked as if the driver had simply lost his way, plowed through a high fence on the end of the field and driven directly into the corn. Broken stalks were caught in the door handles and under the wipers. All the doors were open, and a uniformed policeman was rummaging around in the back seat. He ignored her.
