Page 7 of Crash and Burn

“I didn’t know,” Maggie said. She hadn't been in the area for long. Abodywas bad.Another bodywas worse. She felt her brows pull together but Mrs. Miller kept talking.

“They're saying the Blue River Killer is starting up again.”

Chapter Seven

The more Sebastian handled the jewelry, the more his stomach turned.

He worked diligently while Maggie met with Mrs. Miller. He wasn't exactly sure what Maggie was doing for the older woman. He only knew that Maggie was a lawyer, and that her sign out front said: estate law, prenups, divorces, contracts.

He didn't think anyone around here was going to need a prenup, but he didn’t tell Maggie that.

When she came in to do her station volunteer work, he’d found excuses to chat with her, and found that he liked her more than just a little. Seeing her every week was something he’d looked forward to, until she’d begun taking Rex’s daughter during A-shift.

Sebastian told himself again it was a sign that they were serious and that he needed to get his head out of his ass. Nothing good could come from wanting a woman who was with someone else.

Besides, he wasn’t anything special. She talked freely with all the guys. He’d gotten the impression—the way her voice sometimes tightened—that she wasn't all that confident her business was going to bring in enough money. So he didn't want to interrupt her now.

The old, scratched wood floor was too dark to be a good background for the pictures. So he headed into the room she'd converted to an oversized supply closet and found a few reams of white paper sitting lonely on a mostly empty shelf.

He picked up one of her pens and thought about taking it. The monogrammed “Magdalyn Willis, Attorney at Law” might have cost her something, so he put it back. The beautiful gold script was all Maggie.

Back in the room, he got down to business. Photographing the jewelry went much better with the white paper as a background. By the third piece, he admitted what he was doing. He was photographing evidence.

Evidence of what, he didn't know. But the more he examined the jewelry, the more he realized Maggie was right. No one person would want this odd collection. And which of Sabbie’s boarders would want so much jewelry?

Who would collect such odd pieces, and then hide them in a cigar box under the floorboards? Sebastian didn’t like any of the answers that came to mind.

When he was done, he scooped the jewelry back into the box without touching a piece. Using only one fingertip, he flipped the lid closed.

With nothing left to do, he needed to head home. As he snuck by the door Maggie had left ajar, he waited for a moment, watching her work. He thought about popping in and telling her he was leaving. But her serious expression and the words “my will” made him realize he shouldn't be listening. So he simply crept out the front door and pulled it closed tightly behind him.

His thoughts rolled, turning back to the box.

He’d known Sabbie. Hell, they all knew she had boarders in and out of the house for years. Some had stayed a long time and others had rotated through in a week or just a few days.

The guys at the station had always worried—an older woman running a boarding house for men she often didn't know. Men often no one in town knew. But Sabbie had stayed safe and strong. She ran the house with an iron fist and a side of freshly baked cookies right up until the night she passed in her sleep.

Heading home, Sebastian figured he should take a nap, which was his usual routine. Starting the next morning he had a twenty-four hour shift. He needed to be alert the entire time. But he found he struggled to fall asleep this time and, an hour later, he was online.

He started by searching “boxes of jewelry.” Which was possibly the stupidest search he could have tried, unless he wanted to buy a new, elaborate jewelry box.

The next thing he tried was finding a list of Sabbie’s boarders. There was no way Sabbie would have kept this jewelry, let alone stuffed the box into the floorboards in a room she was renting. It definitely belonged to one of the men who’d come through.

So if he could figure out who they were, he might be able to figure out which one had left it.

Three hours later, Sebastian had only three names, spanning the last fifteen years of renters. That was not nearly enough, he thought, given the number of people he knew had stayed at the boarding house.

There had to be a better way, he thought. Then he realized the better way was simply to ask Maggie. Surely, Sabbie had kept records.

And seeing Maggie again wouldn't hurt. He didn’t like that she thought someone had been in the house. Between the noises and his growing concerns about the jewelry, Sebastian was fighting that churning premonition in his gut. He decided he would keep a closer eye on Maggie. Rex wasn’t doing it and someone needed to

Could he just subtly watch over her and still keep himself in the box that was ‘just her friend’? Sebastian wasn’t sure, but the alternative wasn’t an option anymore.

Chapter Eight

Maggie shot up out of bed, her bare feet hitting the rug before she even realized she was awake.

Her blood rushed in her ears and her heart pounded.

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