Hot on the Trail. Vicki Tharp

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t look as if she noticed, or cared about, the mess.

      He was too sore and tired to give two damns. “Is there a problem?”

      “I want to help.”

      The sincerity in her eyes had him biting back the automatic “no.” When she looked at him like that, he could almost believe that on some level she still cared, but that ship had sailed a long time ago.

      Sailed and sunk and now little fishies made houses out of the rotting hull of their relationship.

      “Don’t make me beg.” Her voice cracked as she came around the table and stood in front of him.

      She removed her cowboy hat and fiddled with a black feather tucked into the band at the crown, her eyes glued to it. “Look, I know you don’t want anything to do with me. I get that. I got that when you refused to take my calls or let me visit you at the hospital after your crash. We’re done. Message received, no stutter, no static.”

      “Jenn—”

      “Let me finish.” She looked up at him with the greenest, most earnest eyes. “This isn’t about us. This is about finding the truth, about breaking out the shock paddles to try to save a program that’s in its death throes. Kurt, and the veterans lined up to join the program, deserve that.”

      When he didn’t say anything, she added, “We don’t have to be friends or even like each other. We just need to work together.”

      If the Marines had taught him anything, it was teamwork. If you didn’t like someone in your squadron, you dealt with it. “I’m probably jumping to conclusions by thinking there’s something sinister behind his death. I just can’t stand the idea that he survived the crash only to take his own life.”

      “If you’re going to jump, let me jump with you.”

      Hank had been right all along. He didn’t deserve her. Not six years ago, not four years ago. Certainly not now.

      “Okay.” He knew it was a mistake as the word came out of his mouth. But the worry lines on her forehead smoothed and her shoulders relaxed, and somehow that made him feel better.

      “So, what do we do first?” she asked.

      “First, I’m going to get dressed. Second, I’m going to have some of that grilled cheese.”

      “And third?”

      “We’ll have to figure that out as we go along.”

      * * * *

      Light rain pattered against the cabin’s roof, drowning out Dink’s snores. While Quinn got dressed, Jenna sat on Kurt’s bed with Dink curled up beside her and rummaged through Quinn’s rucksack.

      He came out of the bathroom and snatched the bag from her hands. “What are you doing?”

      Her hand fell free of one of the pockets, and a four-piece strip of condoms dangled from her fingers.

      She raised a brow at him. “Magnum, huh?”

      “I didn’t bring… Those were…”

      He didn’t bother trying to finish his explanation. He tossed the condoms in the garbage can, the tips of his ears turning a fascinating shade of red.

      “You don’t have to throw them away.”

      “I’m sure they’re expired.”

      Jenna didn’t know why that made her happy. Um, yeah, you do.

      “Ever heard of asking for permission before pawing through someone else’s things?”

      “I wasn’t pawing. I was looking for a charger that might fit Kurt’s cell phone.”

      He reached into a side pocket and came out with a Micro USB cord. She grabbed the phone from the table and plugged it into a socket near the refrigerator.

      While it charged, he sat down at the table to eat. She turned the other chair around and sat in it backward, her hands resting on the back of the chair, her chin on her fingers.

      He took a bite of the grilled cheese. The bread had gone limp, and the cheese had recongealed, but that didn’t slow him down. He pushed the plate toward her. She plucked a couple of grapes free.

      “So,” she said. “We have a cell phone, a business card with a phone number on the back, and a book of matches from”—she picked up the matches and got a closer look at the cover—“Cruisers. I think it’s a biker bar on the outskirts of Murdock.”

      “So much for him not drinking,” Quinn said around a bite of sandwich, sounding as dejected as a kid who’d found out the tooth fairy wasn’t real.

      “Matches from a bar doesn’t prove he was drinking. He could have borrowed them from someone to light a cigarette.”

      “Kurt dipped.”

      “Still not a smoking gun.”

      Behind them, the phone beeped as it powered back on. The cord was too short to reach the table, so Quinn took his plate, balanced it on the center divider of the sink, and boosted himself onto the counter.

      The phone beeped a few times as he thumbed through various menus. “Got a piece of paper?”

      Jenna opened a drawer above the cutlery with pens and pencils and rubber bands. In the back of the drawer, she found a partially crumpled envelope. “Go.”

      Quinn gave Jenna three numbers. “Those were the only numbers he called. That last one he called multiple times a day.”

      “When was the last time he called it?”

      Quinn scrolled back through the call list. “Six minutes after seven. Friday night.”

      “That’s the night he died. What about the other numbers?”

      Quinn held half the sandwich between his teeth as he switched the phone from his right hand to his left, then took a bite, hampstering the morsel in his cheek pouch. “The first number he called a couple times, two and three weeks ago. The second, he only called once. A week ago, today.”

      “What about texts?”

      He thumbed to another menu. “All to the most frequently called number.”

      “What do they say?”

      “This is weird. All outgoing. No return texts. Starts out with I’m sorry… please pick up the phone… are you mad… you can’t ignore me… answer me… this isn’t funny… call me… I need to talk to you… I’m getting really worried… and the last one says, I’m coming over.”

      “Wow. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.” How could Jenna have missed that? She started in on the other half of the grilled cheese, since Quinn seemed to have forgotten about it.

      “We don’t know if it’s his girlfriend. Hell, we don’t even know if it’s a girl.”

      “Still, СКАЧАТЬ