Page 14 of Nicole's Shelter

She swiped at the single tear rolling down her cheek. “It’s private. I have to leave. As soon as possible. Just give me my purse and tell Allie I’ll call her.”

“No.”

“You don’t understand. It’s better this way.”

Rick’s phone let loose a riff from ‘Bad to the Bone’ and he swore under his breath. Eva had the worst gift for interrupting, but his gut told him he couldn’t take the chance of ignoring the call.

Answering, he prowled a path back and forth in front of Nicole as he listened to Eva’s rushed report. He wanted to be clear he’d give her no chance to escape.

Nothing Eva said made him feel any better about the current situation. According to Eva’s digging, Nicole’s background was too clean and orderly. In his experience, that only happened in rare cases of excellent identity theft or official government protection. Which camp did Nicole fall into?

He wanted to ask more questions, but that would definitely scare her off. As much as he wanted to study the full report, without a computer, it wasn’t going to happen.

“We’ll have a rental car by morning.”

Eva didn’t argue, just asked his destination. “After the errand I came for, I want to snoop around the fire scene, see if I can get my hands on a preliminary report.”

He ignored the doubting signals from both the woman on the phone and the woman in the room. “Keep me posted,” he said to Eva, knowing she would interpret that to mean he wanted a warning about further developments.

He disconnected, tapping the phone against his open palm. “Well, what’s your decision?”

“Can we call a truce for tonight?”

He rolled his eyes and muttered a prayer for patience. To his surprise, she laughed.

“My mother used to do the same,” she admitted.

Used to. He grinned, trying to put her at ease. “So you’ve been challenging the limits of patience from an early age?”

“We all have our skills.”

And he had the distinct feeling she needed his, whether she’d admit it or not. He dipped his chin at the camera. “Speaking of your skills, can we see if there’s anything on there that would make you a target?”

“It’s doubtful. I didn’t even use it when I went in to see Oscar.”

“Meaning?”

“If the guy you say cut the ladder thought I’d caught something incriminating, he’d be wrong.”

“But he wouldn’t know that, would he?”

She conceded the point, handing him the camera. “There’s more on an SD card in my purse.”

“Let’s save that one for tomorrow.”

She shot him a fake pout that made him laugh again. “Even if I promise not to run?”

“Especially if you promise not to run.” He said it with a smile, as he started reviewing the pictures saved on her camera. “How old are these?”

“Just the last week or so. You can turn on the date feature.”

Rick found the setting and made the change. “You take pictures every day?”

“It relaxes me.”

He could understand that. Everyone needed a way to let off steam. There were worse habits. “Why don’t you order a pizza,” he suggested handing her his phone. “There’s a list of places who deliver in the other room.”

She sighed. “Veggie okay?”

---