The Hero's Son. Amanda Stevens

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СКАЧАТЬ When she hesitated, he glanced up. “Is that question too difficult for you?”

      There was enough arrogance in his voice to stir her temper. Yes, and you have no idea why, she thought bitterly. “Is this going to take long?” Maybe if she stalled him, he would give up and go away. What was he going to do, anyway? Go looking for someone who had a reason to push her in front of a bus?

      Well, he didn’t have far to look, did he?

      “That depends on you,” he said.

      She shrugged. “Guess I’m not going anywhere for a while.” That’s it, she thought. Tough it out. Don’t let him get to you.

      After all, she was good at pretending, wasn’t she? She’d learned a long time ago not to let anyone see the real person, the real emotions, behind her hardened veneer.

      “Your name,” he repeated, his pen poised over his notebook. His hands were large and well shaped, Valerie noticed. And ringless. He wasn’t married. She wondered why.

      “Valerie Anne Snow.”

      He started scribbling. “Address?”

      She rattled off her street address and he wrote it down.

      “All right,” he said, glancing up at her. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

      “Just the facts, ma’am. Right?” When he didn’t respond to her sarcasm, Valerie shrugged and said, “Angie and I had just left work—”

      “Angie?”

      “Angela Casey. She writes an advice column for the Journal. That’s where I work,” she added, trying to gauge his reaction.

      There was none. He appeared to be made of ice. “Go on.”

      “She was meeting someone for an early dinner, and so I left her on Front Street and headed for city hall, for Austin Colter’s press conference. I wanted to get there early, before anyone else showed up—” She stopped short, wondering if that was why Sergeant Colter had arrived on the scene so quickly. Had he been headed for his cousin’s press conference, as well?

      Or had his reasons been more sinister than that?

      She suppressed another shiver. “I stopped at the intersection, waiting for a light. There was some kind of commotion in the crowd. Someone dropped something, I think, and while everyone was looking down, someone pushed me into the street. Pushed me hard,” she added. “Hard enough to make me fall down. It wasn’t an accident.”

      “You didn’t see who it was?”

      She shook her head.

      “You didn’t recognize anyone in the crowd?”

      “No.”

      His dark, probing gaze took her measure. “How long have you been in town, Ms. Snow?”

      “How do you know I wasn’t born here?” she challenged, flirting with danger.

      “You may have been born here, but you haven’t lived here in several years. Your accent is, what? Midwestern? Chicago?”

      “All right, you caught me,” she conceded. “I’ve only been in Memphis for six weeks.”

      “What brought you here?”

      “I got a job with the Journal. I’m a reporter.”

      His dark eyes met hers. “Made any enemies since you’ve been here?”

      Besides you and your father, you mean? “Reporters always make enemies,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t.”

      He gave her a disparaging glance. “What about your private life?”

      “Are you asking if I have any jilted lovers lurking about in the bushes?”

      He smiled slightly. “Something like that. Jealousy and rejection are powerful motivations. They rank right up there with revenge.”

      Their gazes collided, and something jolted inside Valerie. Something she wanted to deny, but couldn’t.

      What is going on here? This man is your enemy, remember?

      Or at least, he was the son of her enemy. And if she forgot that fact, all she had to do was look into his eyes.

      The devil’s eyes…

      Must be the painkiller, she decided. The drug had dulled her senses. She’d better get rid of him.

      “Look, why don’t we cut to the chase here, shall we? You asked if I’d made any enemies since I’ve been in town. We both know that I have.” She ran a tired hand through her tangled hair. “You’re Judd Colter’s son, aren’t you?”

      “That’s right.” His eyes still gave away nothing.

      Valerie shrugged. “Then you must know about the article I wrote for the Journal. The one about the Kingsley kidnapping. If you really want to find out who pushed me in front of that bus, maybe you should start with the three people I mentioned in that article. Including your own father, Sergeant Colter.”

      A tiny spark of anger ignited in his eyes, the first emotion he’d shown since he’d walked into her room. “Are you accusing my father of attempted murder, Ms. Snow?”

      When she didn’t reply, he said, “It might interest you to know that he recently suffered a stroke. He’s a very sick man. He’s hardly capable of dressing himself, much less pushing someone in front of a bus.”

      An image flashed in Valerie’s mind of the way Judd Colter had looked that night all those years ago. He’d been a vigorous man, tall and muscular, at the peak of physical conditioning. For a moment she felt… what? Surely not sympathy at the thought of such a man being crippled by a stroke. She remembered her own father and why he had been sent to prison, and she lifted her chin.

      “He wouldn’t have to do it himself, and in any case, there were others mentioned in the article besides Judd Colter. Your uncle, for instance. Raymond Colter was involved in the Kingsley kidnapping investigation, too, as was Captain Rawlins, an old family friend, I believe. Any one of them could have hired someone to follow me.” Her eyes narrowed as she gazed up at him. “As a matter of fact, I can’t help wondering what you were doing on that street corner, Sergeant Colter.”

      He cocked his head slightly. “Is that a question or an accusation?”

      Valerie shrugged.

      “As you said, my cousin is holding a press conference this afternoon. I guess it was just luck that put me at the right place at the right time.”

      Valerie wasn’t sure if there was sarcasm in his voice or not. She gave him a long, hard stare. “Whatever your reason for being there, the fact remains that someone tried to kill me, and I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”

      “I’ll file a report as soon as I get back to headquarters.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ