“What’s wrong?”
“You don’t feel it?” When he shook his head, she turned back to the water. “I have the strongest sensation that someone is watching us.” She peered across the lake, trailing her gaze all along the bank and tree line. Or was the watcher behind them? She glanced over her shoulder, suppressing another shiver as she tried to calm her jitters.
He braced his hands on the rail as he scanned the opposite bank. “Someone could be out there. Or you could be experiencing the aftermath of an adrenaline rush.”
“I know the difference.”
He straightened. “Then don’t discount your instincts. If we’re starting to rattle some cages, things could get dangerous. Don’t let down your guard.”
“I won’t. But let me play devil’s advocate one more time and remind you that we don’t even know for certain we’re dealing with a homicide. We don’t know anything yet.”
“That’s not true. We know that Dr. Nance asked me to come down here and look into something he’d found. We know he had a change of heart about his trip to Houston and that he left clues in book spines. We know that little more than twenty-four hours after his body was found, someone shot at me at his cabin and tried to run me down on a busy street. Granted, none of that adds up to murder. Not yet. But we both need to stay vigilant. Until we know more, we should consider anyone connected to Dr. Nance a suspect, and that includes Dr. Wingate and Dessie Dupre.”
“It’s just so disconcerting to think that someone I’ve known my whole life could be a stone-cold killer,” Nikki said. “I keep going over what you said about motive. Who stood to gain from Dr. Nance’s death? I wonder if there’s any way we can find out the details of his and Dr. Wingate’s partnership agreement.”
“That could be difficult, but see if the assistant knows anything when you talk to her about the files. Be discreet. We don’t want to tip our hand too soon, much less cross the line into harassment.”
“I’ll do my best.”
He ran a hand through his short hair, a habit he seemed to have when he was agitated or pensive. Funny how she was already starting to recognize his mannerisms. She wondered what he had picked up about her.
The moonlight seemed to deepen his gaze. “Can you think of anyone who would have a key to Dr. Nance’s cabin besides Dr. Wingate? I left the door to the cabin open last night while I was inside, but I got the feeling the suspect, whoever he was, knew his way around.”
Nikki shrugged. “He was always having work done at the cabin or at his house in town. He had a thing about maintaining his properties. He could have given a key to a worker or repairperson, I suppose. Maybe your shooter is the same thief who took the gold watch and hid it at the Ruins.”
“Why would he leave it there all those years?”
“Panic. Fear of getting caught. All the pawnshops in the area would have been alerted by the police. Maybe once the heat finally died down, he’d forgotten about it. My point is, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. By the time you went to the cabin, word was already out about Dr. Nance’s death. Maybe your attacker went out there to see what he could steal. Maybe he thought he’d find drugs. Who knows? When he saw you, he freaked.”
“This guy didn’t seem the type to freak,” Adam said.
She slid her gaze over his bruised face. “Do you have another explanation for the watch?”
“Yes, but nothing I care to share at the moment.”
“That doesn’t seem fair. Didn’t you say we’re in this together?”
He hesitated. “Give me a day or two. Like I said, I need to do some digging.”
Nikki couldn’t leave it alone. “You don’t think Dr. Wingate took the watch, do you?”
“She’s hiding something, but I doubt it was that watch.”
Nikki grew quiet and pensive as she listened to the night sounds all around them. A breeze rippled through the leaves like the trickle of a stream. The bullfrogs and whip-poor-wills were still out, their serenade mournful and nostalgic from the shadows. On such a soft summer night, it seemed obscene to Nikki that they spoke almost casually about the possibility that Dr. Nance had been murdered by someone he trusted, someone she might have passed on the street that very day.
Adam was still watching her in the moonlight. Intently, she thought. She wondered if he felt the attraction, too. Had he experienced the same pull of destiny that had caught her off guard at the Ruins that first night? Or was there a darker explanation for his keen scrutiny? He’d told her he remembered the rumors and whispers about the Belle Pointe Five. He said he never believed them, but a part of him must have wondered about her. Maybe subconsciously he was still wondering. All it took was a single niggling doubt to make him ponder the possibility, no matter how far-fetched, that she may have been the one to take that watch. Or worse. Anyone who had been connected to Dr. Nance should be considered a suspect, he’d said. Did that include her? Why else would he be so evasive now?
The very notion turned her blood cold and threatened to erode the trust and camaraderie they were building. She told herself he wouldn’t have asked to work with her if he thought her capable of murder, but what better way to keep a close eye on a suspect than to put yourself in her orbit?
Nikki had tried to walk away from her past the day she left for college, but in the space of a heartbeat, the old doubts and insecurities returned with a vengeance, along with her defenses. She reminded herself she was no longer that girl. No one side-eyed her anymore when she walked down the street. People no longer speculated about those
