Eddie frowned. “She’s not real bright when it comes to lake things. Lucky for us.”
Sean ground his teeth, trying to remain neutral. “Why are you so against Helen?”
Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be on her side? She’s the outsider.”
“I’m not on anyone’s side, Eddie. I’m just trying to get answers.”
Eddie turned away and looked for Kim, who was standing even farther away, her arms hugged around her body. “You believe me, don’t you, Kim? It was Helen trying to kill him.”
She glanced at Sean and he saw such stark angst on her face he felt it slap him. He had to close his eyes for a moment to force himself not to reach out to her. Dammit! Break the habit, Sean! But at least he’d been right to doubt her claim that she didn’t care about her dad at all.
“I don’t know what to believe.” Her voice was so pained that Eddie immediately softened.
“I’m sorry, Kimmy. I know it’s hard for you to talk about it.” He refocused on Sean. “But this is your job. You find a way to pin it on Helen before she destroys this place. I love this family and I’m not going to see it destroyed by some scheming outsider like Helen.”
“I’ll look into it. Keep the boat off-limits and I’ll send someone to check it out.” Sean inspected the rafters of the boathouse. There was a ledge around the ceiling where life jackets and some small boats were stored. Perfect hiding spot for someone who wanted to tamper with the boat and needed a place to wait until the opportunity arose.
This whole place was rife with opportunity for a stalker. It was a bunch of cabins in the woods. If Kim tried to run this place, she’d be walking on secluded trails all day long. He looked at her, and she was checking out the rafters as well. When she met his gaze, he knew she’d been thinking the same thing.
Good. Maybe she’d listen to him now.
KIM WAS TRUDGING back toward the office when Sean caught her arm. He nodded toward Tom. “Let’s chat with him.”
“About my dad’s accident?” She swallowed hard.
“Yeah.” He didn’t let go, forcing her to accompany him. He wouldn’t let her run away from her own father’s fate. Not when she’d given him that glimpse of her hidden angst. He wasn’t going to make it easy for her to reject Max. Because he loved Max. Not because he gave a rip about Kim’s happiness anymore. Or at least he was trying not to. It was harder than he wanted it to be. “Tom. Got a sec?”
Tom turned away from the guest who was paddling away in a canoe. “Yeah. What’s up?”
“You worked on Max’s boat before he took it out?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you inspect the steering column?”
“I did the normal maintenance. Everything was fine.” But he wasn’t making eye contact, and he was shifting restlessly on his feet.
“But did you check the steering column?”
Tom’s hands settled on his hips. “I didn’t look for things wedged in it.” There was a defiant edge to his voice. A challenge.
Interesting. “Eddie showed you the steering column?”
“Uh-huh.”
Yeah, Eddie would make a good investigator. “Any thoughts on how it got there?”
Tom shrugged. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t screw up.”
Sean lifted his eyebrow. “No one says you did. I’m just trying to gather information.”
“Well, it wasn’t me.” Tom picked at the edge of his T-shirt. “Is that it? I gotta get back to work.”
Sean let him go.
Kim stared across the lake, her arms folded across her chest. “You think my dad’s crash wasn’t an accident?” Her voice was clipped and reserved.
He didn’t buy her aloofness. “Do you?”
She pressed her lips together. Finally, she shrugged.
“Do you even care?” He had to ask. Had to know if she could even acknowledge that she felt something inside that frigid wall she’d erected around herself. Had to understand how the woman he’d loved had become the woman she was today.
After a long moment, she nodded once. Then she walked away.
SIX HOURS LATER, Kim waved the hunky maintenance guy away after she locked the door behind him and set the new alarm. Carl, the head of maintenance she’d seen flirting with one of the girls that morning, had driven her home and done a walk-through of her house before leaving.
She hadn’t asked for his escort, but Sean had had a little chat with Carl before taking off for the day. After she’d refused Sean’s bodyguard offer, he’d compromised by giving her someone else’s assistance.
She leaned against the locked door and sighed. She couldn’t live like this, but she couldn’t deny that a small part of her felt better after Carl had inspected the place. Was Jimmy here? Was he in California? Was she losing her mind? He was making her so crazy she didn’t know what to think.
Her cell phone rang. She flipped the phone open. “You don’t need to call me every five minutes.”
“Still no sign of him out here,” Alan said. “I’m getting worried. He should have tried to find you by now.”
She swallowed. “You know he’s going to show up out there. He has to.”
“Have you seen any sign of him yet?”
“No.” She hadn’t told Alan about the noise on the roof last night. Why would she? Growing up, she’d heard so many noises and they had never been a homicidal maniac. Until she had proof it was anything other than a bear, she wasn’t going to let her paranoia rule her. “I got an alarm and the cops are on it.”
“I think I should come out there. Stay with you.”
She frowned and forced herself to walk into the kitchen to find something for dinner. “I’m fine. Really. We have to stick to the plan.” Stay organized. Stay in control. It was the only way to win. “His goal is to get us to react emotionally and make a mistake. We can’t let him win.”
Alan was quiet for a moment. “I don’t like it.”
“Join the club.” She paused. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Can you double-check the date Jimmy got out of prison? Find out for sure if he was still there a month ago?”
“Why?”
“There’s been some stuff going on around here. Weird stuff. I just want to make sure that Jimmy didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“What’s going on, Kim?” His words were rushed, almost panicky. “Talk to me.”
“Just find out, okay?” She didn’t want to talk about the possibility that Jimmy had tried to kill her dad. Talking about it gave the swirling innuendos validity, and she didn’t want to do that. Not unless there was a reason. “I’m seeing ghosts where there are none and I need to remind myself of the facts, okay?”
“That’s all it is?”
“Yes.” Heaven help her, she hoped that was all it was.
He grunted. “I’ll check. Call me in an hour, okay? To check in.”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Thanks for caring.”
“See you later, Kim. Be careful.”
She disconnected and shoved her phone in her pocket. No way was she leaving it in another room. Such