Page 184 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“Boating accident. The engine exploded.”

“Just like--,” she bit off the final “my parents” before she gave herself away.

Nick looked at her curiously. “Like the Baxters? Yeah, I guess so. Strange things happen in these waters though. Superior is beautiful, but it’s never safe.”

“I thought she drowned.”

“Well, she did. She was thrown from the boat by the explosion. Max too. He tried to haul her to safety, but started getting hypothermia. He got so cold he couldn’t feel his fingers. He lost his grip, and she went under and never came up again.”

“Poor Max,” she said with feeling.”

He frowned. “I wouldn’t have told you if I’d though it would make him a romantic hero in your eyes. You just agreed to go out to dinner with me, and I want your attention. Leave my brother alone. He’s not for you.”

So in spite of their closeness, Nick had it in him to be jealous. Becca suppressed a smile. “I’m not getting any ideas about him. I’m not in the market for a relationship with anyone,” she said.

“I take that as a personal challenge,” Nick said, grinning.

She found herself smiling back. “Friends only,” she warned.

“Fine. We can start there.” He touched her cheek and went out the door.

Smiling and a little flattered, Becca went back to her desk. Men had never pursued her, and it felt strange for Nick to show his attraction so obviously. Strange but good.

She’d just finished notes on the Ojibwa culture book when she heard a commotion in the hall. Tate was shouting at Shayna, and Max was trying to calm him.

“How could you be so stupid?” Tate raged. “You didn’t even check the gas.”

“We aren’t all obsessive/compulsive like you,” Shayna retorted.

They’d seemed like the perfect couple when she first met them. Now all they did was squabble. Was it Max’s fault? Tate seemed tense every time Max was around, and Becca knew he suspected is wife of having an affair with Max.

She was suddenly sick of this house and these people. She glanced at her watch. Five-fifteen, past quitting time. A breath of fresh air would help clear her thoughts. She grabbed her sweater and went out the office door so she didn’t have to see or talk to anyone.

A stand of birch trees began where the garden ended, and she stepped into their cool shelter. She hadn’t walked in this woods since she was a little girl. There was a tree around here somewhere with their names carved in it. Maybe she could find it.

The trees didn’t seem as big as she remembered, but then neither did the house or the island. The scale of everything was different when she was five-ten instead of four-ten.

She saw the shed where she, Jake and Wynne used to play house. Grams had let them fix it up like a real playhouse. It was nearly falling down now. She would have thought Gram would have fixed it up for Molly, but maybe the little girl had never seen the possibilities like Becca and her siblings had done.

If she remembered correctly, the tree with their initials was just past the shed and to the right. Becca moved through the trees, last year’s leaves crunching under her Sketchers tennis shoes. A brisk breeze blew through her hair bringing with it the scent of wet leaves and wildflowers.

She remembered the crook in this tree. Her fingers ran over the rough bark, and she found the indentations. RLB. Rebecca Lynn Baxter. She still belonged here, even after so many years. Jake’s initials were to the right of hers and Wynne’s to the left.

Glancing up, she saw the tree platform where she and her siblings used to sit by the hour and watch. She often brought a book out here to read. Would it still be safe? Rounding the tree, she saw the rope ladder still attached. It looked like someone had replaced some of the rungs, so maybe Molly still used it.

Or maybe not. Molly was a little young to be up a tree this size. Testing the strength of the rope, Becca put her right foot in a rung and began to climb. Halfway up, she made the mistake of looking down. The ground was a long way. If she fell now, she could easily break a leg.

She’d never worried about that as a child. Why was so fearful now that she was an adult?

Turning from her downward stare, she began to climb again until she finally lay gasping on the platform in the tree’s heart. From here, she could see almost straight into one of the bedrooms at the back of the house. She’d never noticed that before.

A figure passed in front of the window, and she realized it was Tate and Shayna’s room. Shayna pushed back the curtains and sat at the desk in front of the window. Becca felt strange sitting here knowing she could see the other woman so clearly. It felt like she was peeping.

She glanced around the platform. A pair of binoculars lay half hidden by a sheaf of low-hanging leaves. Someone else likedto look through binoculars. Max. Would he spend time up here looking through this pair? And if so, why?

Becca’s gaze was drawn again to Shayna silhouetted in the window. She shivered. Had Max been watching Shayna? She remembered Tate’s accusation about the affair. Was it more than that? Could Max be obsessed with Shayna and stalking her?

The brush rustled from the west. Someone was coming. Undecided about whether to stay hidden, she decided she’d better not be caught up here. She quickly clambered down and turned to face the tall form coming through the hedges.

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