Page 32 of Sapphire Nights
He didn’t know why he would trust anything she said, but he liked it when Sam was paying attention. Her powers of observation were as keen as herhearing.
“Like you, I know how to keep my mouthshut.”
He nodded approval. “We found Juan up there, the lodge’ssecurity manager. He’d been mauled by a cougar. He was last seen at the bar at the lodge, so I don’t know how he got out there. We’re treating it as suspicious. How did Val know he was there? We need to nail where everyone was lastnight.”
“As far as I know, we were all in bed, listening to his spirit howl,” she said, sounding as unhappy as he felt. “Did he havefamily?”
“No wifeor kids. He’s a long-time local. His parents live down the mountain. They’ve been notified. I hate that part of thejob.”
“I don’t even want to imagine it,” she said in a troubled voice. “But as far as the Lucys are concerned, Juan now rests in a better place and his spirit won’t haunt us. Let’s find a normal topic. Who are you and what are you doing uphere?”
“Wow, that took a nastyturn.” Walker ran a hand through his hair. One thing led to another, and he really didn’t want to open up his life toanyone.
“I ran a search on you, you know. I like knowing I can trust the people to whom I’ve bared my soul.” Her voice was distant andstiff.
Shit. Of course she had. “You didn’t find much,” he said with assurance. “My firm is paid well to keep personal informationout of the news when it’s of no importance to anyone but the peopleinvolved.”
“Yeah, if you’re the Chen Ling Walker from LA, yourfirmdid a good job,” she said with a wry intonation that he deserved. “I don’t want to pry into your family situation, but it would be good to know why a CEO is working a deputy’s job. Is that part of yourbusiness?”
Shit, he was bad at explaining andshe had every right to be ticked at his keeping secrets when she was an openbook.
“I took time off,” he said, weighing his words. “My father started the company. He was into fraud investigations, had an accounting and a criminal justice degree. He disappeared on a case eighteen years ago. At the time, his office was ransacked. The files he was working on were destroyed, the computer harddrives smashed. Back then, cloud computing wasn’t easily available. Even flash drives were pretty high-tech, so he backed up his files on paper. Recent files, he carried on memory sticks, which he carried with him. Needless to say, none of the files werefound.”
She uttered a sympathetic noise and patted his thigh—the sore one. If she thought that would make him feel better, she was mistaken.He got hard. Therapists had told him that it was far easier to get physical than explore the emotion. More pleasant,too.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You don’t have to talk about it if it’spainful.”
Yeah, this itch could become real painful if he didn’t satisfy it—especially since he wasn’t satisfying it with any more lunatics. Walker forced his dirty mind back to a subject guaranteedto cure what ailed him. “The only clue we had was a phone call. Dad called my mother every night that he was away. The last one came from Hillvale. He was staying at the lodge. The police questioned everyone in the blamed town. You know enough to understand how far theygot.”
“Even the Kennedys didn’t cooperate?” she asked insurprise.
Recalling his research on his father’s disappearanceeased the tightness in his pants. “Eighteen years ago, Kurt and Monty were kids. Carmel had just lost her husband to a sudden illness. She was trying to cope with his estate and the business and claimed to know nothing about the guests. They verified my father had checked in. His car wasn’t there. They found it in San Francisco a weeklater.”
“You think the skeleton belongs to your father,”she said inhorror.
“Almost certain. Just waiting on the tests.” He could feel her stare nailing him, but he kept his eyes on theroad.
“Was Val there then? Did she wail hisfate?”
He was relieved she skipped over the sympathies and platitudes. He could handle no-nonsense, practical questions, even if they were about insane subjects. “As far as I’m aware, she didn’t show upin Hillvale until about five years ago. We’re still trying to find out who lived in Hillvale back then—Juan did, he’s lived here all his life, but he swore he knewnothing.”
“And now he’s dead. That’s suspicious,” she said, as if thinking to herself. “All I know is that Mariah, Tullah, Amber, and Dinah weren’t there then, but the Kennedys, including Carmel’s brother, were. I haven’t gotfurther than that. The older people keep to themselves and don’t talk to me much. Cass really is your ticket, isn’t she?” She slumped lower in the seat as they drove intotown.
“Yeah. I’ve got the cops and my firm working on her, but she’s disappeared into thin air. We don’t even know how she gets off the mountain.” He pulled into a run-down shopping center. “Clinic is here. They’re expectingyou, but I’ll go in and show them my badge so they don’t ask for details. Then while they’re drawing blood, I’ll run over to the taco shop and pick up food.” He nodded at therestaurant.
“You’re not hauling me to the hospital?” she askedwarily.
“Not as long as you remain sane.” He got out before he weakened beneath the light of those gorgeouseyes.
While he was here, he’dmake a few phone calls. By now, his firm ought to have a good list of the town occupants at the last census before his father’sdeath.
Pullingher denim jacket on over the bandage taped to her arm, Sam left the clinic to find Walker waiting for her with a heavenly-smelling white bag. He handed her a big cup of sweethorchata.
“I thinkyou’re supposed to eat sugar after you’ve given blood.” He was already tearing into a giant burrito while leaning against hiscruiser.
He’d was wearing his mirrored sunglasses, concealing his expression, she notedgrumpily.
“I have no idea about sugar, but the horchata is good.” She drank deeply, then dug into the bag, producing a deliciously greasy pork burrito. “I don’t know whatI’m accustomed to eating, but I recognize good Mexican. And I know when someone is concealing his thoughts. The Chinese inscrutability thing doesn’t work so well when you have your father’s eyes,right?”
