Eyewitness. Carol Ericson

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      Chapter Three

      Hot anger raced across her skin and she clenched her hands. “Are you kidding me?”

      “Your back window is broken, too.” Shifting Michael in his arms, Kieran crouched in the broken glass as he peered into the gaping window. “Did they take anything?”

      With shaking hands, Devon beeped her remote and yanked open the passenger-side door. Bending over, she felt under the seat for her small handbag. “My purse is gone.”

      “Did you lose much?”

      “Besides my faith in the sanctity of small towns?” She kicked at the pebbles of glass on the ground. “I lost my driver’s license and a little cash. Luckily I didn’t have my whole wallet in there with all my credit cards and other ID.”

      “You shouldn’t leave your purse in the car like that.”

      She stamped her foot, scattering bits of her car window. “I hid it under the seat. And why did he have to add insult to injury and slash two of my tires?”

      “Maybe to slow your pursuit.”

      “Yeah, like I’m going to pursue some thief.”

      “You have to call the cops.” He pointed to the floor of her car. “Or was your cell phone in your purse?”

      She patted the pocket of her shorts. “Right here. If I call the cops and they find you here, you’re going to cause a sensation. Are you ready for that?”

      He shrugged. “Where would I go?”

      “Go to your folks’ house, and take Michael with you.” She brushed a strand of brown hair from Michael’s forehead. “I don’t want him waking up and finding the cops. I don’t want him to see my car.”

      “And I don’t want to leave you here on your own, especially after this.” He jerked his head toward the mess of her car.

      “I’ll be fine.” She’d tried but couldn’t quash the tremor in her voice. She didn’t want to stand out on the road waiting for the cops, either. “But if you insist, you can watch me from the corner of Columbella House until the cops come and then I’ll have them drop me off at your parents’ house.”

      “Uh, where is my parents’ house, and what if Michael wakes up while you’re gone?”

      “I’d rather Michael be a little frightened by someone he’s already talked to than have him see the police again and the condition of this car.”

      She told Kieran how to get to his own house and told him where his parents kept the key. Then she called the cops.

      Kieran retreated to the edge of Columbella House with Michael secure in his arms. The two of them looked so natural together she almost smiled, even though neither knew the other’s identity.

      She’d have to remedy that…and soon.

      When one Coral Cove police unit pulled up to the lookout, lights flashing, Devon knew she’d made the right decision to send Michael off with his father. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the two of them slip into the shadows.

      A young officer swung out of the patrol car, hand on his holster as if he expected to find the suspect, knife in hand. Of course, the police were probably still on edge after the murders last month, even though the perpetrator had died in that fire at Columbella.

      “Devon Reese, is that you?”

      “Clark?” She recognized the officer now. He’d been a few years behind her in school. “Wow, you’re a cop now.”

      “Yeah, too bad your dad’s not chief anymore.” His cheeks reddened. “Not that I don’t like Chief Evans.”

      “I heard Chief Evans might be leaving. That’s what my brother told me anyway, and he’s interested in the job.”

      “That’d be great to have another Chief Reese in town.” He aimed his finger at her car. “What happened? I can’t believe any kids are responsible for this. Do you think it could’ve been a tourist? A stranger passing through?”

      Her mind flitted to the white van. Is that why the man had been watching Michael? To make sure he had time to steal her purse?

      “I don’t know. I saw a silver sedan and a white van parked next to my car when Mi… I went down to the beach.”

      “Did you get a plate?”

      “No.”

      Clark tried to lift some prints from the car, but it didn’t look like he was having much luck. He took down a description of her purse and the cars and told her to get a car alarm installed.

      “Do you need a tow?”

      “I already called Gary’s shop in town. He’s going to come out and get it. In the meantime, can you drop me off at the Roarkes’ house up the street?”

      “Sure. You shouldn’t be hanging around Columbella House, anyway. My girlfriend said she saw lights in the house the other night.”

      Kieran’s lights?

      “I’m glad that fire didn’t destroy the whole house.”

      Clark shook his head. “Maybe it should have. Some around here, including the mayor, want to preserve the house, but I wish the St. Regis twins would just tear it down.”

      “It’s not the house’s fault.” She slid into the front seat of the patrol car and snapped her seat belt. “I can’t believe Larry Brunswick, the algebra teacher, turned out to be the killer of all those women.

      “It was crazy, and then he tried to marry Michelle Girard in that house until Colin Roarke saved her.”

      Clark cruised down Coral Cove Drive and made a

      U-turn in front of the Roarkes’ house. “Is that why you’re here?”

      “Huh?”

      “At the Roarkes’.” He jerked his thumb at the window. “Did Colin forget something?”

      “Yeah. Yeah, he forgot something.” His brother.

      She thanked Clark and scrambled from the car. She hadn’t wanted Michael to wake up to her damaged car and a policeman in uniform, but she didn’t want him waking up with a stranger, either…even if that stranger was his father.

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