Get a Clue

contemplated the fact that she was entirely alone and a possible murderer walked around unencumbered.

A murderer. Her heart started pounding, and then a sound scraped behind her and the poor organ practically stopped.

Chapter 14

Sometimes I just want to stop the merry-go-round that is my life and take a nap.

– Breanne Mooreland's Journal Entry

Breanne leapt to her feet and whipped around, nearly falling to the floor in a relieved pile of Jell-O when she saw Cooper standing in the doorway.

At just the sight of him, tall and big and sure of himself, she began to shake. Delayed shock, she knew.

He strode across the room toward her in his loose-legged stride, looking deceptively lazy and completely at ease. He always did, as if all motion was effortless.

Somewhere deep inside, she hoped he would haul her close. Instead he lifted her chin with a finger and peered into her eyes. 'You okay?'

Since her teeth were rattling in her head, she simply nodded.

'I need you to hang in there a little bit longer.'

No problem. She didn't need him. She didn't need anyone.

Especially a penis-carrying human.

'The phones are still out,' he said. 'No cell service at all now, which means until I can reach the police, I'm it.'

She stared into his set face, so determined to do the right thing, and felt something deep within her give. She was dcsperately afraid it was her pride, which meant that any moment now she was going to throw herself at him. 'What do you have to do?'

'For starters, Fd like to know what happened. Tell me again what you know. You left me in the library and…'

'And I went running down the hallway. I made a couple of turns and got lost. I ended up in the wine cellar.'

'You tripped over him?'

'Yes, I had my eyes locked on the bottles. I was going to take as many as I could carry to my room for a pity party.'

'You didn't move him at all?'

'No. Did he fall down the stairs?'

He looked at her for a long moment. 'The body's positioned just far enough away from the stairs that I don't see how that happened.'

And then there was the hole in his chest.

'Have you seen any guns here?' Cooper asked.

She shivered. 'Oh, my God.'

He put his hands on her arms and pushed her to the leather chair. 'Have you?' he asked more gently.

Her chest tightened and she moved her head in the negative.

'Have you seen or heard anything strange?'

A harsh laugh escaped her. 'Are you kidding me? Everything has been strange.'

He was still touching her, an oddly soothing gesture, considering she didn't want to need him. 'You know what I mean,' he said.

She sighed. 'Well, yesterday I kept hearing odd noises.'

'What kind of noises?'

'Odd bumps. Humming. Then there was that face over my bed last night. And then today…'

'Today…?'

'Just before I went into the cellar, I thought I heard more noises, but Fm losing it, so what do I know?'

'What do you think of the staff?'

'Why, do you think one of them…?' Unable to finish, she trailed off.

He looked at her for a long beat. 'I don't know.'

She saw the tension in the lines bracketing his grim, unsmiling mouth, in the dark shadows under his eyes.

'You're not making me feel better,' she whispered.

'I'm not going to lie to you, Breanne.' Their gazes locked. 'Ever.'

And she knew. He was telling her that despite what she'd learned from the men in her life, he was telling her the truth and always would.

She could believe in him.

But she just wanted to be far, far away, where there were no dead bodies, where there were no sexy-as-hell strangers now that she'd given up men.

'Can you think of anything else I need to know?' he asked.

'No.'

'Are you sure?'

'No, I'm not sure! The only thing I'm sure of is I'm scared to death.'

'Okay,' he said, and pulled her against him. 'Stay close to the fire,' he murmured. 'I'll be back when I can.'

It took every ounce of courage she had not to cling to him when he pulled away. 'Where are you going?'

'To talk to everyone else.' With a quick stroke of his finger over her hairline at her temple, he was gone, leaving her to obsess over how she'd thought she'd hit bottom yesterday, but she'd been very, very wrong.

She was hitting rock bottom now.

***

So much for being on vacation, Cooper thought. He had a dead body and a houseful of possible suspects, including one hauntingly beautiful, high-spirited, and happy-to-hate-all-men Breanne Mooreland.

And nothing added up.

Because it didn't, he went back to the starting board-the cellar.

Edward lay exactly as he'd been left. He looked to be a man in his late fifties, and in prime shape for his age.

Except for the hole in his chest.

Several things were niggling at Cooper, the last of which was how Shelly had assumed at first sight that Edward was dead. In the dim lighting, Edward could have just been taking a damn nap, and yet she'd taken one look at him and had cried, 'Not missing, but dead!'

A guess?

Or prior knowledge?

Another thing was that Edward lay on his back, sprawled out. Not a likely position for a person who'd fallen