“Yes, well, she’s a work in progress.” Astra took a moment to look Nick over. “Are you playing for the other team these days, Coop? Last time I checked, you were still with that insipid blonde you insist on hanging with. This guy is a step up.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “We’re here on a mission, Astra. We don’t have time for games.”
“There’s always time for games.”
“Not today.” Cooper was firm. “I want to talk to you about your whereabouts yesterday. We have multiple reports that you were sighted in the Casper Creek parking lot. I thought we made it clear that you’re not welcome on the property.”
Astra’s stiff smile turned into a sneer. “And I thought I made it clear that you’re not the boss of me. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. There’s no one who can stop me.”
“We both know that’s not true.” Cooper refused to raise his voice even though Astra always managed to flip a switch and hit his anger button dead-on. “Why were you at Casper Creek?”
“Would it do any good if I said I wasn’t there?” Astra queried. “I mean, you have no proof.”
“Multiple people saw you,” Cooper argued. “You can deny it all you want, but we both know that you were out there. I want to know why.”
She held her hands palms out and shrugged. “Perhaps I just like hanging out in parking lots. Have you ever considered that?”
“No.” Cooper shook his head. “Did you have something to do with Velma Sanders’ death?”
Astra was good at hiding her emotions, but Nick was watching her closely for a reaction and the way her expression shifted told him the news was surprising to her. She covered quickly, turned blasé, but he was certain she’d been stunned to hear about the famous psychic’s death.
“I have nothing to do with that woman.” Astra went back to flipping through her catalog, although her movements were brisker now. “How did she die?”
There was curiosity there, Cooper realized. Astra was mining them for information as much as they were mining her. “Someone stuck a huge knife in her chest.”
“Really?” Astra’s odd eyes were back on him. “Someone killed her with a knife in front of people?”
“In the brothel,” Cooper countered. He saw no reason to lie. The news would be made public soon enough. “Apparently she was in there alone. She was gearing up to make some huge announcement. Someone stopped her from doing it.”
“And what was the announcement?”
“We don’t know. In fact, nobody knows. That information, at least for the time being, appears to have died with her.”
“Well, she was a miserable old bat, so I can’t say I’m sorry about any of this.” The smile Astra unleashed was brutally pleasant, to the point of being painful to look at. “If you’re looking at me as a killer, though, you know as well as anybody that I’m not allowed on Casper Creek’s grounds. Besides, what motive do you think I have?”
“I think you hated her,” Cooper replied coolly. “You just said it with your own mouth.”
“I did hate her,” Astra agreed. “She was a fraud. She made a name for herself doing parlor tricks and telling fortunes for the rich and famous. She didn’t have a single drop of real magic and yet she collected accolades from people who didn’t know any better.”
Cooper eyed Astra speculatively for a full beat. “You sound jealous,” he said finally. “Did you ever meet her in real life?”
“No. All I knew was that she was a fraud. I had nothing to do with her death. Honestly, why would I bother killing her? She was old.”
“You would kill anyone you thought was in your way,” Cooper countered. “We both know that.”
“No, you want to believe that. Either way, you know as well as I do that I would only go through the effort of killing someone if there was profit in it for me. What did I gain out of this?”
Cooper wished he had an answer, if only to wipe the smug smile off Astra’s face. He didn’t, though. “Stay away from Casper Creek,” he ordered, pushing himself to a standing position. “I’m going to have Jackie extend that line. The parking lot is going to be off limits from now on, too.”
“Whatever.” Astra airily waved her hand. “Do whatever you want to do. I don’t care about you or that stupid piece of land.”
“You’re a bad actress, Astra,” Cooper noted as he headed toward the door. “You might want to work on that.”
“I am what I am. I don’t intend to change.”
“And that’s why you’ll never get ahead in this world. I meant what I said. Stay away from Casper Creek. Stay away from Hannah, too. I don’t want to see you out there again.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
“Keep pushing and we’ll just see about that.”
9
Nine
“She’s lovely,” Nick noted as Cooper navigated his truck toward Casper Creek. “I can see why you fell for her.”
Cooper scowled. “She was different ... and it’s not as if I loved her or anything.”
Nick’s gaze was speculative. “You were just biding your time with her because there was no threat of you legitimately falling for her.”
Cooper appeared frustrated at the suggestion. “I ... no. That’s not fair. It makes me sound like I was using her. I wasn’t. I just didn’t realize at the time that I wasn’t open to loving someone.”
Nick snickered. “It’s okay. I get it. Before Maddie ... .” He trailed off and collected himself. “This is going to make me sound bad, but before Maddie I had a schedule.”
Cooper cocked an eyebrow. “A schedule?”
“Yeah. I know. It’s terrible.” Nick’s smile was rueful. “It’s just ... Maddie broke me when she left town after graduation. I knew it was going to be difficult living life without her, but I thought we would have weekends together ... and summers. I didn’t realize she planned on
