Cold Case, Hot Accomplice. Carla Cassidy

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СКАЧАТЬ and shimmered with a hint of unshed tears. “Things will get back to normal, won’t they, Roxy?”

      Roxy grabbed her sister into a tight embrace. “I’ll find her, Marlene. One way or another, I’ll see that she gets home. Don’t I always fix everything? I swear I’m going to fix this, and everything will be back to normal,” Roxy exclaimed fervently.

      She released her hold on her sister. “Now go home and try to get some sleep. I’ll check in at the store later this evening, and if I find out something before then, I’ll call either you or Sheri.”

      She and Marlene shared a final hug, and then Marlene left through the back door. Roxy forced a smile at Josie. “I’m going to take off, too.”

      It was close to seven, and she wanted to be sitting in the police station waiting room when Steve decided to show up for work. There was no way she intended for him to take this slow and easy. She wanted action, and sooner rather than later.

      * * *

      Steve had awakened long before dawn with thoughts of Liz Marcoli racing through his brain. Thank God it wasn’t winter. The weather in Wolf Creek could be brutal in those months, and she wouldn’t have lasted a night out on the streets or wandering in the woods.

      Maybe she had haunted his dreams because she was the same age as Steve’s mother, and he was very close to his mom. Most Sundays he ate lunch at the condo she’d moved into a couple of months before. There had been so much grief in the past two years that he knew his mother worried about him as he did her.

      The unexpected death of his father eight months ago from a heart attack had hopefully been the last in a string of tragedies for what was left of the Kincaid family.

      At six he rolled out of bed, downed two cups of coffee and then showered and dressed for the day. First thing this morning he intended to talk to Chief Krause and get the okay to pursue the Marcoli case.

      He had nothing pressing on his desk, and once he had the chief’s okay, the day would be spent interviewing anyone and everyone who knew Liz Marcoli. What he hoped was that somebody he spoke to today might know something that the three sisters Liz had raised didn’t know about her.

      Normally he wasn’t due into his office until eight, but it was just after seven when he pulled up and parked, eager to get the day started.

      As he walked in the front door, a rivulet of dismayed shock rode up his back at the sight of Roxy seated in one of the plastic chairs in the outer area.

      She jumped to her feet, looking as surprised to see him as he was to see her. “You’re early,” she said.

      “And you’re earlier,” he replied with an inward sigh. He’d hoped to get some plan in place, some action taken before he saw her or spoke to her again.

      She followed him through the door that led to the inner sanctum and planted herself in the chair in front of his desk. “So the night has passed, and we still don’t have any answers. What’s your plan?”

      “The first thing on my agenda is to get a cup of coffee. Would you like one?”

      He was unsurprised by the slight flare of irritation that sparked in her eyes, and he wondered if she had any idea how sexy she looked with her T-shirt stretched across her full breasts, a faint pink flush filling her cheeks and her dark hair a curly halo around her head.

      She sat back in the chair, and the hint of irritation disappeared. “Sure. A cup of coffee sounds fine. It will help to fortify us as we organize the search party.”

      He nodded and got up from his chair to go into the small break room where the coffeepot was located. He hated to give her the news, but he knew there would be no search party. The woods around the small town were too thick and massive and the resources of the department far too small to warrant an official search party in a case where they couldn’t even be sure at this point that any foul play had actually occurred.

      He hadn’t asked her how she drank her coffee, so he grabbed the two foam cups, a packet of fake sugar and another of powdered creamer and then returned to the desk. The day had only just begun, and already he knew it was going to be a long one.

      “I didn’t know how you drank it, so I brought some cream and sugar,” he said as he placed a cup in front of her.

      “Thanks,” she said grudgingly. “Black is fine.”

      “Just give me a minute to check in with my chief, and I’ll be right back.”

      She half rose from the chair, as if expecting that he intended to pull a disappearing act on her. “I’ll be right back,” he repeated and then headed for the chief’s office.

      It took him only a few minutes of conversation with his boss to get the okay to conduct an investigation into Liz Marcoli’s disappearance.

      He returned to his chair and Roxy looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to wave a magic wand and fix her world.

      It was only on closer examination of her lovely features that he saw the shadows beneath her eyes and the overall exhaustion that had her shoulders slumped slightly forward. Despite the obvious weariness, a white-hot energy emanated from her, an energy that warned him to tread carefully.

      At least she appeared relatively calm at the moment, but Roxy’s temper was legendary and he didn’t want to be the one who stirred it up. It would do neither of them any good for her to get angry.

      “Did you sleep last night?” he asked.

      Her dark, well-shaped eyebrows lifted as if she was surprised by his question. “I fell asleep for about two hours sometime during the early morning.” She spoke the words as if disgusted with herself, as though maybe if she hadn’t slept, Liz Marcoli would be where she belonged this morning.

      “You need to sleep and you need to eat during this ordeal. No matter how hard it is, you need to try to keep to your normal routine as much as possible. You won’t be any help to me or anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself.”

      She eyed him as if expecting a trick and then leaned forward, bringing with her the scent he always noticed around her—a whisper of spring flowers topped with a dash of exotic spices. “Speaking of being helpful, I think maybe we gave you the impression yesterday that our mother is dead.”

      “She’s not?”

      Roxy shook her head. “She’s very much alive, and probably the only person on the face of the earth who might call and have Aunt Liz running off someplace to her rescue.”

      This time it was Steve who looked at her in surprise. “I just assumed by what you told me about your aunt raising you all that your mother was dead.” He pulled out a notepad. “What’s her name?”

      “Ramona Marcoli, although who knows at this time what her last name might be.”

      “Marcoli? I thought your aunt had been married.”

      “She was, but when her husband died she took back her maiden name.” Softness swept into her eyes. It was there only a moment and then gone. “Her husband’s name was Joe Arnoni, and he was the love of her life. When he died she couldn’t stand to hear his name. It hurt too badly, so she went back to being Liz Marcoli.”

      “Do СКАЧАТЬ