Page 98 of Guilty as Sin
“Something you could control,” he suggested. “Something that gave you some power.”
“Could be. Who knows why anybody does anything? Anyway—I did. I tried it, and I made it through the academy, then through training, and that was pretty satisfying. And I was right. It did matter. People ask me why I didn’t become an EMT instead. I don’t know. I just know that I like being a cop. I’ve hated it, and I’ve loved it. I’ll bet it’s like the Army that way. It matters, and you know you’re alive every minute.”
“Yeah. That’s it, I reckon.”
“Life’s too short not to have every minute count. When you’re a cop, every minute counts.”
“Plus,” he said, “there’s that extra protectiveness gene you got in the life lottery.”
“Probably. You got it, too.”
“I did. And what was crazy last night was that you didn’t just want to lie with Lily and take care of her. You wanted to lie with me as well.”
“Sounds a little dirty.”
“Mm. You’re doing it again, you realize. This getting too close for you?”
“Well, yeah. Maybe. I’m not used to relaxing when I’m with another person.”
She fell asleep before him all the same. He lay there with her hand still on him and her legs tangled with his and thought,Mate, you’re in trouble. And I don’t think you’re getting out.
Paige didn’t end up thinking over what Dr. St. John had said until after eight the next morning, until she and Jace were back at the inn after doing the animals and checking in on Lily. And even then, it was an effort.
She sat with him at the marble table under the windows in the most sumptuous bedroom she’d ever seen, looking out at springtime bright-pale green of new leaves on the trees, the false western fronts of the Main Street shops, and the dark mountains beyond, while they ate waffles and strawberries, drank coffee, and she let Jace pour some of the leftover champagne from the night before into her orange juice glass.
“I’d object,” she said without much conviction, “but I’m on vacation.”
“Is that what you call it?” he asked. “Odd choice of holiday activities.”
He didn’t say anything about the temporary nature of vacations, and neither did she. It wasn’t a secret anymore that she’d be leaving, so there was no need. “Your stalker,” she said instead. “Assuming she’s female, and assuming the other things. The personality disorder part, and that she’s the one who hit me, because I can’t think of another way to look at that incident that makes any sense. I don’t know whether you can really rule somebody out based on age, but surely somebody who’s running a fairly complex business, who’s in her forties, or who’s married with kids, like Jennifer or your waitress, wouldn’t fit the bill. That kind of problem seems like it would come out in your marriage, with your customers. Jennifer sure didn’t seem happy with me, and she sure seems stressed, but she doesn’t seem… disordered enough to have those issues, either. And neither does the Timberline Inn owner, and certainly not the gas-station guy. Or, really, anybody who’s spoken up about Lily selling. Not Jarrod Knightley or his daughter, either. I don’t see him hitting me in the head. And the most logical place, if you really can’t remember anybody at the gas station, is the gym.”
He said, “The gas station is a barely-twenties kid, a woman in her fifties, and, yeah, one younger woman. I went by twice in the last couple days and reminded myself. How many times has that woman been my checker? Four, maybe? Could be the grocery store, though. Or the gym. Kelli isn’t blonde or curvy, but it sounds like that isn’t a dealbreaker. Maybe she wants to be. Maybe she was throwing me off. She was there last night, and she could have hit you on the head. She told me she’d worked at the gym six months, so that fits. She hasn’t looked at me and looked away, exactly, but she’s got some brittleness in her manner. Something off. I’ve known she was interested, but even though she was my type, I didn’t have any desire to pursue it. Which is odd.”
Paige had been cutting a bite of waffle. She stopped. “It’s odd that you didn’t pursue it? Really? She was interested, and she’s attractive, so you’d have pursued it?”
Most men would have been flustered. Jace still looked calm. “I was single. I wasn’t going out of my way to be with somebody, but it wouldn’t have been out of my way.”
“A pit stop.”
“Well, if you want to be crude about it.” He grinned, then looked at her more closely. “You jealous? Could be a good sign.”
“Right. We’re talking about crazy stalkers, and you think jealousy is a good sign?”
“As opposed to, ‘I can take you or leave you?’ Well, yeah.” She was still digesting that when he said, “She told me she was into Krav Maga.”
“Oh. Whoa.” The martial arts form originally developed for the Israeli Defense Forces. Its focus wasn’t on anything pretty, but on applying the maximum lethal force as fast as possible. Not a lot of bowing and ceremony in Krav Maga.
“Yeah,” Jace said. “That’s serious. Seriously aggressive. Seriously destructive.”
“And tends to be practiced,” Paige said, “by the same kind of guys who get pit bulls because they’re looking for a scary dog, and then don’t neuter them. Angry guys. On the other hand, practicing any of the martial arts takes focus and commitment. Which doesn’t sound like our perpetrator.”
“If you’re serious, it does,” Jace said. “How do we know that she is? Maybe it’s one more thing she picks up with enthusiasm and then drops again when it doesn’t work out. She took a class once, for all I know, and thought the idea would impress me.”
“Right. Unfortunately, we can’t go to Jennifer and ask to see Kelli’s employment records, or even whether she’s certified as a personal trainer. I don’t think certification means as much as you’d think, though. I can ask Hailey what she knows about her, for what it’s worth.”
“And I’ll go see Sergeant Worthless,” Jace said, “tell him I talked to a profiler on my own dime—which is true—who she was, and what she said. I’ll hope he’s impressed enough to care. I’m guessing he won’t share back, though.”
“No cop would. They’re not going to say, ‘Here are our suspects, and here’s what they’ve said so far.’ Especially not to somebody with vigilante tendencies like yours. On the other hand, he wants it to be somebody other than his sister.”
