Don

Natalie smiled. 'I didn't mean to be rude. I'm distracted about Tamara's funeral.'

'And you also didn't get much sleep because of a prowler.'

'You've talked to Ted.'

'Yes. I wish you'd called me last night.'

'You weren't on duty, and it was just a Peeping Tom.'

Nick tossed her a skeptical look. 'You don't seem like the kind of woman who calls in the cavalry over a Peeping

Tom.'

'You're right. After what you told me about a possible connection among the victims, I got spooked when I saw a guy watching the house.'

'Did you get a good look at him?'

'No. I really only saw the cigarette burning.'

'Then why are you sure it was a man?' Natalie stared at him a moment. 'The height of the cigarette, although it could have been held by a tall woman.'

'Ted said they found two cigarette butts. He'd been watching you for a while.'

'I'd only been in the bedroom a few minutes.'

'His bad luck was that Blaine sounded the alarm before he could watch for long.' She looked at him closely. 'Ted gave me the details.'

'Dad also got the details later in the night when he spotted a patrol car. I was going to spare him until morning. He's furious with me, and that's without knowing I might be on the killer's list.'

Nick's thick eyebrows drew together. 'He has to be told,

Natalie.'

'I will.'

'If you don't, I will.'

Irritation prickled through her. 'This is my business.'

'Not if you get killed. Then it's my business, and business has been too good lately.'

Natalie felt slightly chastened. 'I'll be careful.'

'I have a feeling your idea of careful and my idea of careful aren't the same. I don't want anything to happen to you,' he said fervently, then added as an afterthought, 'or

Lily or Alison.'

'Who do you think the prowler last night was?'

'Jeff Lindstrom. Trudy at the diner told me he was staying at the Lakeview Motel. I checked last night, but he wasn't in. I went by again early this morning. No Lindstrom, no car, but he didn't check out.'

'Then where did he go after he left here?'

Nick shrugged. 'Maybe he figured he'd be the first person we'd suspect after you saw him at Tamara's and decided to lie low.'

'He can't lie low forever.'

'No, but he can leave town.'

'Oh, great. Can't you find out where he is?'

'I can run prints from his room, although at this point I have no evidence for a warrant.'

'It's a motel room.'

'Rented to him, so temporarily it's his property. Natalie, this isn't television. Things don't just fall into place.'

For the first time she noticed he had smudges under his dark blue eyes and lines of strain around his mouth. She also realized that, tired as he was, he was good-looking in a strong-boned, square-jawed way. Definitely not the male model type but definitely handsome.

'Why does everyone in this town stare at me?' Nick asked in amused exasperation.

Color rushed to Natalie's cheeks. She felt like she did at fifteen when she'd had a crush on seventeen-year-old Hart Sullivan. A crush? More blood rushed to her cheeks.

'Natalie, are you all right? You're flushed.'

She blinked. She swallowed. She stretched her mouth in a semblance of a smile. 'I'm fine. I'm just dreading today.'

'Sure you are.' He was all solicitous concern. She felt ashamed. Tamara was being buried today and she was sizing up the new guy in town. Worse still, he'd caught her doing it. 'I'll be at the funeral,' he said.

'I thought you would be.' Natalie fought to regain some of her poise. 'Still looking for potential suspects?'

'Unfortunately, yes. I also need to talk with Viveca Cosgrove and Oliver Peyton.'

'Do you think the funeral is an appropriate place to do it?'

'No, but they've both made themselves unavailable to me,' he said.

'That must be annoying.'

'Annoying? It's pissing me off. This isn't a game.'

'Oliver and Viveca don't realize Lily and Alison might be in danger.'

Nick sliced his hand impatiently through the air. 'So what? I'm the sheriff, dammit. I'm trying to solve three murders, one of them Peyton's daughter's. The Cosgrove woman is supposed to be in love with him and to care about Tamara. I shouldn't have to chase them down. They should be eager to help me in any way they can instead of acting like I'm some nosy pest.'

Natalie looked at him sympathetically. 'They're both really highhanded.'

'Well, they can get off their thrones voluntarily or I'll damn well drag them off. I'm getting sick of people like Oliver Peyton and Max Bishop.'

'Max Bishop won't talk to you, either?'

'I stand corrected. He will. He called yesterday to yell that I'm not doing my job. His body may be debilitated, but his voice is in fine working order. He says Purdue would have had this whole thing solved in twenty-four hours.'

'Purdue wouldn't have known what to do if the killer walked right up to him and confessed,' Natalie said scornfully. 'Real 'police work scared him to death, sent him straight to his office for a shot of courage he thought no one knew he kept in his desk drawer. Nick, you have to realize that Oliver Peyton, Viveca Cosgrove, and Max Bishop are big fish in a very little pond called Port Ariel and Purdue was their flunky. Don't let any of them run over you because you're trying to fit in around here. You'll never fit in like Purdue did and most people in this town thank God that you don't.'

Nick relaxed slightly and grinned. 'Thanks, coach.'

'I didn't mean to preach.'

'I needed a sermon. You're right-I can't let these people get to me. If I do, I can't think clearly.'

'Well, I for one want you thinking as clearly as possible, Nick, because without you, this killer will go free.' Natalie shivered. 'And I think he'll kill again. I can feel it.'

Natalie could not remember enduring a longer funeral service. Lily looked as pale as death itself. Oliver sat frozen faced, his black-and-silver hair slicked into place, his dark gray suit exquisite, although he looked as if he'd lost ten pounds; the suit was too big in the shoulders. Beside him Viveca posed in equal sartorial splendor, diamond studs glistening on her earlobes. Alison slumped in her pew, her face vacant, her restless hands twisting strands of her flaxen hair. Several times Viveca reached up to gently stop the nervous movement.

Lily shot Viveca and Alison scalding glances, clearly resenting their places with the family while aunts, uncles, and cousins were relegated to more distant pews. Warren 's father had not come, although his young wife fidgeted in stylish boredom beside Warren 's hulking brother who seemed to be dozing.

Natalie sat with her father and Ruth. Every time Andrew kneeled, his knees popped and his face reddened. Ruth cast him a couple of encouraging smiles. Natalie wondered how serious they were. They hadn't been seeing each other long, and Andrew swore he 'barely knew' Ruth, but they seemed close. Natalie wished he would find someone. He'd been alone too long.

Suddenly she realized she was thinking of everything except the service. Deliberately. If she didn't, she would cry and she didn't want to cause a scene. Long ago Natalie had learned to shed tears in private. She would do the same today.

At last the service ended. As they filed out of the church, Ruth let out a tiny gasp and dropped her purse.