Page 29 of I'm Watching You

Lindsay shifted her fast-food bag and drink to one hand so she could shake Kendall’s with the other. ‘Since you interviewed me a couple of months ago for that freelance article forInside Richmond.’

Kendall’s grin broadened. Her grip was strong and firm. ‘That article was well received. The paper said that their sell-through for that month was eighty percent. You were a hit.’

‘It wasn’t me. The other gals you profiled were pretty amazing.’

Kendall let her gaze travel over the white vinyl siding and the trimmed boxwoods. ‘So this is Sanctuary. I always wondered what Sanctuary actually looked like. Those couple of times we met at the coffee shop, you never said where it actually was.’

‘That’s the idea. We need to keep our location secret. We still do.’

She nodded. ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. I won’t talk location. None of the news stations are.’ She slid manicured hands into her pocket and pulled out a slim notebook. ‘But I was hoping you could tell me more about what went on here this morning. The cops’ public relations guy said Harold Turner was killed here but won’t say much else. Any thoughts why?’

That was the million-dollar question. ‘I don’t know anything else. I’m just as much in the dark as you are.’

Kendall didn’t look convinced. ‘Oh, come on, you must have an idea.’ She’d dropped her voice as if they were somehow co-conspirators. ‘Detective Kier was in your office for over a half hour. And he was very tight-lippedwhen I tried to talk to him. He must have told you something.’

Zack hated the press. He never spoke to them unless he absolutely had to. ‘I really don’t know anything, Kendall.’

‘I thought he was your husband?’

Lindsay didn’t ask Kendall how she’d found out about her marriage. No doubt she’d done extra digging while working on the article. ‘I can’t add anything.’ She inched past Kendall up the stairs toward the door.

Kendall followed. ‘Harold’s death didn’t have anything to do with the Pam Rogers case?’

Tension snaked up Lindsay’s back as she reached for the doorknob. She’d never considered the two could be linked. But Kendall thought more like a cop.

‘Kendall, I’d help you out if I could.’ Another lie. ‘But I don’t know anything.’

Kendall’s smile was smooth as she laid her hand on the front rail. ‘Oh, come on, you must know something that you can share with me. I mean, I figure you owe me.’

Lindsay dropped her hand from the doorknob and faced the reporter. Whatever goodwill she’d felt toward Kendall had vanished. ‘You want to run that one by me again?’

Kendall didn’t look intimidated. ‘You were quite the “it” girl there for a few weeks after the article came out. I’d heard that donations to the shelter had soared.’

Donations had risen for a while but that didn’t mean Lindsay liked being pushed. ‘Right now I can’t say a word.’

Kendall’s eyes hardened but she maintained her trademark smile. ‘But when you can you’ll give me a call.’

‘Don’t count on it.’ Lindsay escaped inside the shelter but the well-being she’d felt on the drive back had evaporated. Kendall Shaw’s questions had set her teeth on edge and reminded her that no matter how hard she worked on the pending grant applications, the specter of another shelter-related murder could shut her down permanently.

Lindsay headed to her office. Carefully, she laid the butterfly in the center of her desk as she studied a long white flower box sitting on her chair. It was wrapped with a thick red ribbon. There was a card on the box. It read, ‘For Lindsay.’

No one ever sent her flowers.

‘Hey, Ruby,’ she shouted, ‘what’s with the flowers?’

‘They just came.’ Ruby rounded the corner, a big grin on her face. ‘They’re for you.’

‘Do you know who sent them?’ Had Zack remembered her birthday? Could he have sent the flowers?

Ruby grinned. ‘Open the card and find out.’

Tenderly, she touched the ribbon that seemed to have been wrapped with care. ‘There must be some kind of mistake. I’ve never gotten flowers.’ The truth was she didn’t like flowers, because her father always gave her mother flowers after he hit her.

Ruby shrugged. ‘No mistake. And if you’ve never gotten flowers, it’s high time you did.’

Her curiosity rising, Lindsay opened the card. ‘Lindsay, you are not alone anymore.The Guardian.’

Ruby came around behind Lindsay and glanced over her shoulder and read the note. ‘ “Lindsay, you are notalone anymore.” What does that mean? And who is the Guardian?’

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