Page 188 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

He frowned. “Are you okay?”

Becca forced a smile. She refused to show her fear. “Oh sure. But could you look at my lighting? None of the lights are working.” He followed her to her room and checked it.

“The light bulbs are tight,” he said. “Let me check the breaker box.”

Becca followed him downstairs to the utility room. He swung open the breaker box cover.

“We used to get power outages all the time, but this is the first problem since we put in the new breaker box.” He inspected the labeled breakers. “The one to your room is flipped off,” he said. His frown deepened. “That’s strange. I wonder who’s been in here. We haven’t had any electrical work done that I know of. I’ll ask Moxie about it.”

Becca felt cold suddenly. It had to have been someone in the house. But why? No one knew who she was.

She followed Max out of the utility room and stood by the door while he questioned Mrs. Jeffries in the kitchen. Mrs. Jeffries stood stiffly and gestured with clenched hands as Max questioned her. They spoke in low voices, and Becca couldn’t hear all that was said, but it was obvious from the woman’s stance that she resented Max’s line of questioning.

Max rejoined her. “She says it’s a warning for you to leave the house.”

“You don’t think she put it there, do you?” Mrs. Jeffries had seemed truly upset when she found the figurine, but some people found it easy to hide the truth.

“Why? What could she have against you? For that matter, I don’t understand why anyone would try to warn you away. You’ve only been here a week. That seems hardly long enough to make enemies.” His gaze lingered on her face. “Don’t you think it’s time you told me why you’re really here?”

Becca took a step back and looked away from his penetrating eyes. Those eyes looked like they could read every secret in her soul as easily as he read his computer. “I don’t know what you mean,” she stammered.

“I think you do. I didn’t have an ad out for an assistant. You called me out of the blue. Why would you want to come here? Your explanation didn’t ring true then, and it sure doesn’t now either. I think there’s a reason you’re hiding out here. A man? Someone after you?”

Relief flooded Becca. “I’m not hiding out from some man. I told you when I called that a friend had told me you could use an assistant.”

“That’s lame, Becca. Really lame. I’m not sure why I didn’t question it more when you fed me that line. But I’m questioning it now. What friend? I want to know the truth.”

What did she tell him?” Becca thought frantically. She didn’t want to lie. Not telling her real last name was bad enough. She took a deep breath and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I used to come here for the summers. I’d always admired this old house. I wondered what it would be like to get a chance to live here.”

Had his face softened just a fraction? She studied the rigid line of his jaw. Maybe not. He still looked mad enough to spit.

“I used to play with Laura,” she said.

His mouth sagged. “What? You knew Laura?”

Too late she realized it was the wrong thing to say.

“So youareinvestigating her death, prying and digging into things you have no business sticking your nose in.”

“No, no, I’m not interested in Laura’s death. I—I didn’t mean that,” she stammered.

“I want you to pack up your things and leave on the ferry tomorrow,” he said firmly.

“No!” Molly hurtled into the room and threw herself onto Becca’s legs. “I like her, Daddy. You can’t send her away.”

Becca knelt beside Molly. “Don’t worry, Molly. I’m not going anywhere.” She sighed. “You’d better get to bed. I need to talk to your daddy.”

CHAPTER TEN

Max stood with his arms folded across his chest. He was surprised to find a keen sense of disappointment in Becca residing in his heart. Though he’d been suspicious of her, the knowledge that she’d played him for a patsy rankled more than he’d thought it would. There had been something different about the young woman, something that tugged at his emotions in ways he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Well?” he asked when she shut the door behind Molly. “This had better be good.”

She wetted her lips, and he saw the fear in her eyes. She was afraid of him? The startling thought made him drop his gaze and look away.

“I’m not here to pry into Laura’s death,” she said quietly.

“Then why are you here? And don’t tell me it’s for the job. I’m not that stupid.”

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