This time Duke took a table. Cat noticed that he maneuvered himself in a way that kept his back against a wall. Interesting.
Duke went over to the bar and snagged a longneck for Cat and a draft for himself. It wasn’t long after he sat again that a man came over to him and shook his hand before accepting an invitation to sit with them. Duke didn’t move, his chair still positioned to keep his back to the wall.
“I’m Frank Ludlow,” the guy said. “I enjoyed Larry’s company. You never saw anyone get accepted around here as fast as he did. People barely met him before they liked him and decided he was okay.”
Duke spoke. “A talent for a journalist, to be able to do that.”
“Well, he seemed to do it naturally. You never got the feeling it was an act.”
“It wasn’t. That was just Larry.”
Frank nodded. “That I can believe. He sure livened this place up. Not that it’s ever dull, but when he’d play darts with some of us, he gathered a whole group to watch. He could always tell a good joke or a good story. Everyone was glad to see him walk in.”
“Did he ever mention what he was working on?”
“A book. That seemed reasonable, given that he was a reporter. I don’t think anyone asked more about it.”
Cat spoke. “Did he ever seem to be questioning anyone?”
“If he was, no one mentioned it. Why? You think that could be a clue?”
“I don’t know,” Cat admitted. “I’m looking everywhere and anywhere that might help.”
“I can help,” Frank said. “I’ll ask around, see if anyone noticed anything. I’ll let you know.”
That was a step in the right direction. It sometimes amazed her how much people knew that they didn’t realize they knew. Little things, occasionally very useful.
“Mind if we stay for a second beer?” Duke asked her.
“Not at all. That may have been productive. If someone else wants to meet you, I’m up for it.”
After a little while, he went to get more beer for them. He also came back with a bowl of nuts to share.
When he settled again, she noted the restless roving of his eyes, as if he were trying to take in every little detail. Or maybe to memorize faces. She could have asked him, but she didn’t. It just didn’t seem important enough.
“Did something grab you at the Hodges place?”
His gaze snapped back to her. “Only that it was an easy place to rob. Big privacy fence, windows low enough to peer into rooms, a door latch that could have been opened with a credit card. Not exactly much security.”
“Not something you need a whole lot of around here. Is that important?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, it was easy enough to get in there unseen, so that argues for kids again. Or it just may have been easy.”
She curved one corner of her mouth. “All that uncertainty you mentioned.”
“It sure didn’t clarify the matter. It wouldn’t have required any real skill to carry that burglary off.”
“Anything else?”
“Actually, yeah. The idea that Larry’s story might have triggered someone in the Army? I could be targeted, too.”
Shock rippled through her, icy and electric. “But no one could know you were coming out here.”
“Really?” He arched a brow. “I took leave. Who wouldn’t have guessed that I was going to show up here right after my brother was murdered? Only someone who didn’t know we were brothers.”
“But...”
“What if I’m the rat they suspect?”
Cat settled back in her chair, turning the cold bottle in her hands, feeling stupid for not having put that together herself. “Damn, Duke.”
“Yeah.”
She looked up from the bottle, noticed he had leaned forward, surrounding his draft glass with powerful forearms. “Is that why your back is against the wall?”
“You noticed.”
“I’m not completely dumb. Yeah, I noticed.”
“I don’t think you’re dumb at all. Why would you think so?”
Cat sighed. “Because I didn’t make the connection you just did. It’s not like you didn’t give me all the pieces.”
“Maybe I assembled them differently. I’m used to having to consider things in terms of threat. No reason you should be.”
“It’s my job, in a way.”
“No, getting a solution is your job. Not planning for off-the-wall threats.”
Duke had a point. She sipped more of her beer, seeing the bar in a different light. He hadn’t just been taking mental snapshots. Maybe he was looking for something out of place.
She looked around, really looked, for the first time. “I know all these people. Regulars.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
She hoped he could relax a bit with that information. Not that she was sure she’d ever seen him truly relaxed. All she knew was that he sometimes seemed less tense.
A couple of other patrons came over to shake his hand and express their sympathy, but neither of them knew Larry, or even what he’d been working on.
“I hope Frank can find out something,” Cat said later, while they walked home.
Agreement seemed to radiate from him.
That night, for the first time, she checked all the windows and doors to make sure they were locked. Remembering what he had said about looking into windows, she closed all the curtains. Then she considered upgrading her locks the next day.
She didn’t like the feeling. She’d gotten used to the mostly bucolic life around here. Yeah, bad things happened, but usually on such a limited scale that folks around here didn’t live in constant fear.
That might be changing for her, for a while.
ALONE ONCE AGAIN in his bedroom, Duke stared out at the night. It was possible that someone was watching him right now. Standing out there in the dark, out of sight, eyes on.
He didn’t feel watched, however, and he had a deep trust for that instinct. It had served him well more times than he could remember.
He remembered Cat’s reaction to him saying he might be a target. She shouldn’t have felt stupid
