“You work for the government?”
“Yeah, I’m like a cop only I work mostly undercover. I came out here to see what I could find out, not as an agent, but because Jefferson and my grandfather were friends.” He lowered his head and swore. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t pick up the clues that someone was running drugs sooner. I thought they were just using abandoned cabins for meth labs. I didn’t know someone was selling out here. Dillon could have been killed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I didn’t know who I could trust. Except Willie, of course. He and Mrs. Deals are the only two out here who know what I do for a living.”
“Willie! You told Willie? What about me?”
“I didn’t tell Willie, my grandfather did years ago. But that doesn’t matter. You stood to gain the most from Jefferson’s death. You were my most likely suspect.”
“What?” I scrambled to my feet. I felt his big hands sliding along my body as I moved, but he didn’t try to stop me. “When were you going to finally trust me? When I lost the store and Carla became number-one suspect in your book?”
Luke had the nerve to laugh. He jumped up on the dock and caught up to me. “No, I knew you didn’t kill him. And of course I let Nana off the list as soon as I learned she could make homemade cinnamon rolls.”
He was trying to be funny. I wasn’t buying. How could I even think of getting involved with a man who didn’t trust me? No, worse-thought I might be a killer. I shoo spiders outside.
We reached the door to the store and he whispered, “I couldn’t figure out how to tell you, Allie. Telling people what I do is not something that’s ever come easy for me. My safety in the field depends on it.”
“How did Mrs. Deals find out?” It was a dumb question that didn’t matter, but I asked anyway.
“Her only child was an agent. He disappeared years ago while working undercover.” Luke forced words out as if each came hard. “I met him when I was a boy out here and looked up to him. He got me the job, then vanished a month later. He was a good agent. When he didn’t come in, we all knew he was dead, but officially he was missing.”
I faced him. “She doesn’t act like she knows you.”
“I know. I can’t tell if she thinks it should have been me who disappeared, or if facing me reminds her that her son is gone. Last night, with everyone around, was the first time she’d even looked at me.”
He straightened before me, no longer with the rounded shoulders of a man trying not to be seen. “I’ve made more enemies than friends, and the few people I know when I’m off-duty don’t know what I do.”
I looked at him, needing time to get away and think. “Your secret’s safe with me, Officer Morgan.” My words seemed to freeze the air between us.
“It’s Agent Morgan and it’s time I went to work.”
He shoved away from the door frame and disappeared into the night before I could think of anything to say.
One tear worked down my face. I was going to lose this place, this home I almost believed I had. Nana and I would be out on the streets again. But worse, I’d already lost what I thought I had a chance of having: Happiness.
Luke had been friendly because I was a suspect and I’d been fool enough to think it might be love.
When would I ever stop turning those corners looking for a better world on the other side?
Chapter 32
Luke stormed through the pine trees to his place, frustrated at the way he’d handled Allie. Or, more accurately, not handled her. A moment before she’d touched his shoulder holster, he’d been thinking about bringing her back to his place and going a hell of a lot further than kissing.
He wanted her so badly he couldn’t sleep. All through dinner, she’d played a game of brushing his leg, then looking away like nothing happened. He’d been so turned on he could have been eating part of the table and he wouldn’t have noticed. When they’d stepped out on the dock he’d known it was time for him to go, but he’d wanted just a few more minutes with her.
That few more minutes had cost him her trust. If he’d just told her who he was before she found the Glock, she might have understood him and his reasons for hanging around. He could have counted on her to help him piece together the last few minutes of Jefferson Platt’s life.
Now he wasn’t sure she’d ever speak to him again. He’d spent too many years being nobody, saying nothing. Now the silence that had always protected him had cost him dearly.
Luke reached his cabin and grabbed his gear. He knew the three stooges from the other night were probably setting up another lab somewhere right now. This time when he found them, he’d call in and wait for backup.
He moved soundlessly to his canoe. If he didn’t spot the new lab by midnight, he’d come back, store the canoe, and drive across the bridge flashing his lights twice. Luke reminded himself he was an expert trained to do a job. In his gut he had a feeling the drugs on this lake and Jefferson’s death were connected. He’d find the meth lab first, then go back and face Allie.
Luke smiled, knowing he’d picked the easier of the two jobs to do first.
Chapter 33
I tried everything to sleep, but my eyes were broken blinds stuck on open. Nana snored from the other bed. She’d had a busy day, what with Carla coming and then cooking a big meal, but her love for this place grew daily. This morning she’d even mentioned that she planned to have a garden next spring.
I’d read the letter from Garrison D. Walker twice before I finally turned off the light. It was all official, but I couldn’t help but feel it had been hurriedly written. My mother wasn’t one to waste time, but this seemed more than that. This speed seemed near panic. I could imagine her rushing into Walker’s office crying so hard she didn’t notice the first two buttons of her blouse were undone. She’d plead until he agreed to look into the matter and then, before she left, she’d demand he inform me. In my mother’s mind, she probably thought the letter would frighten me off the land.
Grinning, I remembered something Nana might have said if she’d understood the problem. “Well,” she would say, “Carla better have another think coming.”
In my mind, I flipped through all the things my mother had said. One kept rolling around in my thoughts. She’d said she’d been promoted and the car was a bonus. Judging from the stream of lies she’d told me since birth, I could almost bet that she was lying about the promotion, and maybe about the car. Also, I could never remember her coming to check on us. Once, when I’d called to tell her we were out of money, she’d responded, “How is that my problem?”
There wasn’t a mothering bone in Carla Daniels. She’d come for the place and nothing more. But she’d lived in Boston and New York. Why would she want a little nothing house on the lake?
All I could come up with was that Carla must need money bad and she needed it fast. I felt sick to my stomach realizing that Nana would give it to her if she could. Carla blamed everything bad that happened to her on Nana. I even heard her blame Nana for having me. Carla had said if Nana had watched her closer, she wouldn’t have gotten into trouble. I’d figured out a long time ago that Nana thought that if she kept on giving, at some point Carla would give back.
I saw no hope of that ever happening. Something must have twisted in Carla years ago and no amount of love from Nana would turn it back.
I was no longer a child who had to stand and watch Carla take next month’s grocery money when she left. I’d been on my own long enough to be strong. If she wanted anything from me, she’d have a fight on her hands.
About two A.M. I got up, pulled on my jeans and sweater, and went for a stroll along the same stretch of beach
