“Sorry.” He placed the bag on the counter. “Napkins and utensils inside.”
She handed him a twenty. “Thanks, keep it.”
Cole rose from his stool before she did. “Ready?”
“Uh-huh.” She looked at Bud’s curious expression and said, “Cole’s giving me a ride home in the rain.”
“Good idea. Have a good night.”
Caroline turned, hugging the bag to her chest. So now if Cole murdered her and dumped her body in the woods, someone would connect him to her disappearance—and she was only half kidding.
She preceded Cole through the restaurant in thoughtful silence. Was the revelation of Johnny Diamond’s connection to a motorcycle gang news to Cole or was he a member, too? She could always check his body for tattoos—and she was only half kidding about that, too.
As he opened the door for her, she slid a glance at his hand and the wrist revealed when his sleeve rode up. No tattoos there and she hadn’t noticed any on his neck.
He opened his umbrella. “Here, get under. I’m just one door down.”
A small sedan flashed its lights and beeped once, and Cole held the umbrella over her head while she climbed into the car. When he slammed the door, she did a quick survey of the console and the backseat.
No weapons and no dead bodies. Things were looking up.
He opened the driver’s side door and collapsed his umbrella. As he slid onto the seat, he tossed the soggy umbrella in the rear. “Whew. This is a deluge. Even with your umbrella, you would’ve been soaked to the bone.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
He started the car and then turned to look at her, studying her profile. “Glad to do it.”
“Straight ahead.” She pinned her hands between her bouncing knees.
“All the way at the end where the businesses stop?”
“Yes.”
The car crawled through the flooded streets, and Cole hunched forward. “You’d think a town in Washington would do a better job of drainage.”
“Timberline’s old.”
“The influx of money from Evergreen Software should start going toward the town’s infrastructure.”
“Linda says it’s helped a lot.” Caroline tapped on the window. “Up ahead on the right where the two yellow lights are.”
Cole pulled into the driveway she didn’t use. “I’ll get the door for you.”
He pulled his umbrella from the backseat and unfurled it before getting out of the car. Two seconds later, he was opening her door, holding the umbrella over her head at great expense to his own well-being.
As she groped for the keys in her purse, he stayed right by her side, keeping her dry. When she made it to the covered porch, she pulled him up next to her. “You’re drenched.”
“You’re not.”
She released his sleeve. Was this his strategy? Cozy up to her so she’d spill her guts?
“Well, now it’s all yours.” She inserted her key into the lock and turned. “Thanks again and good luck with your book.”
“Good luck to you, too, Caroline Johnson.”
His voice trailed to a whisper as he melted back into the rain.
She blew out a breath and pushed open her door. That sounded like a goodbye. Linda must’ve been convincing.
She stepped into the small living room and the hair on the back of her neck quivered. Her gaze darted from the bookshelves to the pillows on the couch to the magazines stacked on the coffee table.
Someone had been in her house. A primal fear seized her and she turned and fled back into the driving rain.
Cole dumped his umbrella in the backseat and slicked back his wet hair. He’d have to look elsewhere for Johnny Diamond’s killer. One of the Realtors in town had mentioned a new single female renter at one of the cabins.
He took one last look at Caroline’s door. He was relieved she wasn’t connected to Diamond, but disappointed that he didn’t need to spend any more time with her.
She sure as hell didn’t want to spend any more time with him. After her experience with her husband, she must hate all men. He could understand that, but hell, he didn’t hate all women after his own experience. But then his wife had just cheated on him, not given him a shiner.
A yellow oblong appeared on the porch and it took him a minute to realize that Caroline had opened the door. Had she changed her mind about him and wanted to invite him in for a drink? A guy could hope for the best.
As he squinted into the darkness, she flew off the porch and disappeared. Had she fallen?
He opened his door and peered through the sheets of rain at Caroline scrambling in the mud on the side of the short walkway to the porch, which she’d obviously missed.
“Caroline?” He slammed the car door and jogged toward her, leaving the umbrella behind in the car.
She looked up at him, her face pale, her eyes huge.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” He crouched beside her and hooked his hands beneath her arms, pulling her up.
She stuttered through chattering teeth. “Someone...s-someone was in my h-house.”
A shot of adrenaline coursed through Cole’s body. “Someone’s there now?”
“I—I don’t know.”
He pulled her onto the porch. “Stay here.”
His hand hovering over the gun in his jacket pocket, he crept into the house. He blinked. It didn’t look like there was a thing out of place. He’d expected chaos.
He moved silently across the wood floor, leaving a trail of puddles in his wake. He poked his head into the kitchen in case someone was crouched behind the counter that separated kitchen from living room. He couldn’t detect any disturbance in this room, either.
He edged down the hallway and checked both bedrooms, including beneath the beds and in the closets, and even swept aside the shower curtain.
What had given Caroline the idea that someone had broken into her place? All the doors and windows were intact.
He zipped his pocket over his gun and returned to the porch, where Caroline was hugging the wall. “It’s okay. There’s nobody here.”
He put his arm across her shoulders and felt the vibrations from her trembling body. He nudged her into the house and shut the door behind them.
“Can I get you something? Hot tea? A shot of whiskey? Both? You’re wet and muddy.”
She stared at him with wide eyes, her arms folded across her stomach. Her voice came out as a harsh whisper. “Was it you?”
Her soft words punched him in the gut. “Me? What?”
“Did you break in here to search through my things? To frighten me? To...to—” she waved her arm up and down his body “—to do this?”
“I don’t understand.” He stepped back. “Do you think I’m working for your husband or something?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not. I’m...not.” He couldn’t tell her about his mission here. He was doing this investigation on his own dime,