Неизвестный - 2. Beyond The Breakwater

Breathing rapidly herself, Reese shook her head regretfully. “I shouldn’t. Bri will be expecting me.”

Tory tightened her hold and rested her face against Reese’s shoulder. “I suppose this is good practice.”

Aware that her thighs were trembling faintly, Reese laughed hollowly. “Practice for what?”

“Coitus interruptus.” Tory leaned back, her eyes dancing. “I have a feeling that we’re going to be experiencing that a little more often once we have a third person in the house.”

Reese quirked a brow. “You know, maybe there are a few things about this baby thing we should have discussed in a little more detail.”

“Regrets, Sheriff?” Tory kissed Reese’s chin.

Smiling softly, Reese ran one finger along the edge of Tory’s jaw, ending with a light caress along her lower lip. “Not a one, Dr. King.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

When Bri walked into the station house thirty minutes before her split shift was due to begin, her father and Gladys were the only two people present.

“Hi, sweet cakes,” Gladys called. She’d called Bri that all Bri’s life and apparently wasn’t about to stop now.

Bri grinned and sketched a small wave in the air. “Yo, Gladys.”

“What say we take a ride,” Nelson suggested mildly before Bri had a chance to sit down.

“Yes, sir,” she responded, trying to hide her surprise as she followed him out to the cruiser.

“Caroline called me this morning,” Nelson announced without preamble. He spun the wheel and turned into the lane that led to the ranger’s kiosk at the entrance to the parking lot at Herring Cove.

“Is she okay? Has something happened?” Bri exclaimed, unable to keep the alarm from her voice.

“She’s okay, as near as I can tell.” He fixed his attention straight ahead, his hands curled around the steering wheel. “She sounded pretty upset.”

“Dad—”

“I didn’t get you out here to lecture, Bri,” Nelson said gruffly. “God knows, I’m no expert at this kind of thing. She asked me if she could live with me this summer.”

“What?” Bri shot up straight in the seat, staring at him in amazement. “She has a job in Manhattan this summer! She’s not coming home. That’s how this whole thing got started.”

“What whole thing?”

Bri blushed. “This whole…mess…between Carre and me. I thought she was coming home for the summer before she went to Europe, and then she told me that she was going to stay in Manhattan. When I heard that, I…I got a little crazy.”

“A little crazy?”

“I…we had a fight. It was my fault. It was stupid.”

“Well,” Nelson said, finally turning to watch her, “she wants to come home now. She said she got a job with one of the artists in town…something about a special deal she arranged with the chairman down there.”

“She’s coming home,” Bri whispered, her heart sinking as she tried to understand what that meant. And she didn’t call me.

“You know, Bri, I think a lot of her. Hell, I love her.” He cleared his throat again and searched his shirt pocket for his Tums. When he found one, he pulled it out, tore off the wrapper, and chewed it vigorously. “I know she doesn’t have anywhere else to stay here, not with the way her old man always treated her. But…you’re my daughter. If it’s going to be a problem—“

“No!” Bri shook her head. “No, it’s no problem. It’s fine.”

“I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, Bri. But if you…if you love her, you should try to make it right.”

Bri was momentarily speechless. It was the most he’d ever said about her and Caroline’s relationship. He’d given them a home and given them his protection when they’d needed it, but he’d never really said very much about their being together. Him saying it now brought unexpected tears to her eyes, and she had to look out the window and blink.

“I love her,” she whispered, watching a gull bank steeply toward the ocean’s surface and disappear under the crest of a wave.

“That’s good then,” he said as he started the engine and backed out of the parking place. “Good she’s coming home.”

When Bri and Nelson returned to the office, Reese was there at her desk leafing through a stack of papers. She motioned to Bri to join her and said, “We’re getting some feedback from the feelers you sent out.”

“Oh yeah?” Bri pulled over a chair and raised a questioning eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“There have been three suspicious fires on the Cape in as many months.” Reese pulled out several sheets of paper and passed them to Bri. “In addition, there were four in lower Massachusetts, all in clusters around Providence in the last six.”

“So,” Bri muttered as she rapidly scanned the pages, “do you think we have a serial arsonist?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should pay a visit to Ashley Walker. Would you happen to know where she’s staying in town?”

Bri blushed. “Yes.”

Reese stood and settled her cap down over her brow. “Then let’s go, Officer Parker.”

Ten minutes later, Reese knocked at the address Bri had given her. Ashley, barefoot in a sleeveless red T-shirt and grey gym shorts, opened the door after the second knock. She had obviously just gotten up. Her hair had been hastily finger-combed, and her eyes were still hazy with sleep. Looking from Reese to Bri, she grinned lazily and said, “Come on in.”

Reese removed her cap and tucked it under one arm. Bri did the same.

“Sorry I can’t offer you coffee,” the redhead remarked, “but this place doesn’t have a kitchen.”

“No problem,” Reese replied. “Sorry to disturb you so early, but there were a couple of things I wanted to check with you.”

Ashley carried her coffee to a worn overstuffed chair and regarded her visitors, who were both still standing. “Somehow I don’t think you came here to fill me in on the investigation.”

“Actually, Ms. Walker,” Reese said seriously, “we were hoping that you could provide us with some assistance.”

“Now, how could I do that when I don’t know anything about this occurrence?”

Reese smiled. “Were you a lawyer in a previous life, Ms. Walker?”

“No,” Ashley replied carefully, “as a matter of fact, Sheriff, I was a cop.”

“Then you appreciate our situation,” Reese said without missing a beat. “It would help us if you’d share whatever pertinent information you might have.”

Ashley blew out a breath. “I don’t know that I have any. I called the fire captain first thing this morning, and he promised me a look at the fire marshal’s report tomorrow. If I learn anything that has any bearing on your case, I’ll let you know.”

Reese raised an eyebrow. “That easy?”

Ashley’s gaze flickered to Bri and slowly traveled the length of her body. “Let’s just say it’s a favor.”

As they walked down the street toward the patrol car, Reese asked, “Is there anything you want to tell me about you and Ashley Walker?”

“No, ma’am,” Bri replied stiffly.

“This isn’t personal, Bri,” Reese said softly. “This is business.”

Meeting her eyes, Bri said steadily. “There’s nothing going on of a personal nature. I told you everything that happened the other night.”

Except what you were doing out until quarter to four in the morning. Reese drew a long breath and let it out slowly. “Good enough.”

Once they were settled in the car, Bri said quietly, “Caroline is coming back for the summer after all.”

Reese looked to her quickly in surprise. “When did this happen?”

“She called my dad this morning. She’s going to stay with him.”

“How do you feel about that arrangement?”

“I’m okay with it.”

“And how do you feel about her coming back here for the summer?”

Bri turned her cap aimlessly in her hands. “I wanted her to come before, but she said she couldn’t. Now she’s coming, and we’re not even speaking.”

“There’s a fairly simple way to change that.”

Bri cast Reese a questioning glance.

Reese shook her head with a small smile. “Call her on the phone, Bri.”

Bri hooked a boot heel over the bottom rail of the split log fence that ran between the Meeting House and the building next door. Leaning a shoulder against the side of the payphone kiosk, she listened to the repetitive ringing in her ear. Her heart pounded and her palms were damp. She could’ve called from Reese and Tory’s, but she wanted to be alone. In the middle of Commercial Street at 8:00 at night, she was hardly alone, but somehow the anonymous faces passing by made her feel invisible.

“Hello?”

For a second, Bri couldn’t speak.

“Hello?”

“Carre?” Her throat was so dry it came out barely a whisper.

“Bri?” Uncertain, hopeful.

“Hey, babe.”

“Hi, baby.”

There was silence again, and Bri thought she could hear Carre breathing. Finally, she forced herself to speak. “My dad told me that you’re going to stay with him this summer.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I thought…I thought you had a job in the city?” Bri cradled the phone between her head and shoulder and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her leather motorcycle pants.

“I did. I mean, I was going to have one.”

“So, what happened?”

Caroline laughed shakily. “You happened, Bri.”

“Huh?”

“You happened to me—about four years ago. I took one look at you, and I thought you were the hottest girl I’d ever seen in my life.”

“Jesus, Carre,” Bri murmured, barely breathing. From two hundred miles away, the sound of Caroline’s voice made her skin flush.

“And then these last few months, you’ve been different. Gone, sort of. And I didn’t even realize that I’d let you go.”

“No, you didn’t…I…”

“But you’re there, and I’m here. Isn’t that what you said would happen when I went to France?” Caroline’s voice was stronger now. “That I’d be there and you’d be here, and everything would change? Well, it already has changed, Bri.”

“I don’t know how it happened,” Bri said desperately.

“Neither do I. But it’s not going to get any better unless we do something to change it.”

“But what about school? Your job?”

“I talked to my adviser and the chairman. I told them that I had a family emergency and that I needed to be home for the summer. They found me someone to work with…a preceptor kind of thing.”

Bri blinked, her eyes suddenly burning. Unconsciously, she brushed moisture from her cheeks with the back of one hand, reaching for the phone with the other and gripping it tightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to have to do that.”

“What did you mean, Bri? For me just to go away and that would be the end of it?”

“I thought…” She ran a shaking hand through her hair and tried to ignore the queasy roiling of her stomach. “I thought you would go away and when you came back, if you still wanted me, then it would be like it was before.”

“If I still wanted you.” Caroline’s voice was cold. “You didn’t think I would?”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

“It hurts to know you didn’t believe in me, Bri. That you didn’t have any faith in what we have together.”

“That’s not it,” Bri protested sharply.

“Isn’t it? Think about it, Bri.”

Bri was silent. Eventually, she said in a low, broken voice, “Can I see you when you come home?”

“Not if you’re seeing anyone else.”