Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

“I don’t know. Maybe. How has he managed to stay out there for so long?”

“He claims his family owns some piece of land out there—nothing that’s part of the development. I heard there’s some kind of court case and that’s why he hasn’t been forcibly evicted.” She reached over and picked a clump of cat hair off the front of my shirt. “You could try talking to Oren. I think the guy is related to the Kenyons somehow.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “Thanks.” I studied her face for a moment. “How are you, really? Rebecca told me that Eddie is going to be working with Everett.”

Eddie was Eddie Sweeney, former all-star player for the Minnesota Wild hockey team, now retired, and Roma’s former boyfriend. Their relationship had ended when he proposed and Roma turned him down. She was older than Eddie and that, plus the fact that it was too late for her to have children, was the reason she’d said no. Eddie was crazy about Roma and he wasn’t giving up.

Roma sighed softly and played with the wide silver ring she wore on the index finger of her right hand. I could see part of the chain from her rose gold locket peeking out from the neck edge of her long-sleeved T-shirt. Eddie had given her that locket. “It’s harder than I thought it would be, having him here in town.”

Eddie had retired at the end of the season and moved to Mayville Heights just a couple of weeks earlier.

“You could say yes and put both of you out of your misery,” I said lightly.

She gave me a sad smile. “You know I can’t do that.”

I leaned over and gave her a hug. I knew that she could do it. I just didn’t know how to make her see that.

I called Hope when I got home and told her what I’d learned from both Simon and Roma. “Nice work,” she said. “Marcus said you had a way of getting people to tell you things.”

“I think it’s just because I ask a lot of questions,” I said. “I’ll try to talk to Oren tomorrow. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Sounds good,” she said. “How’s Marcus?”

I was sitting in the big chair in the living room, rubbing a knot in my left calf with one hand. “You know him, Hope. He doesn’t say a lot. He’s been helping Eddie do some work on his new place the past couple of days. I think it’s making him crazy that he can’t investigate.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something and this will all be over.”

“I hope so,” I said. I didn’t add that in my experience things rarely went that easily.

* * *

I woke well before my alarm Wednesday morning and since I was up so early, decided to drive out to Long Lake to see if I could find Ira the squatter and his truck. There was no sign of him or the vehicle. Instead of going back home I stopped at Eric’s for a breakfast sandwich and coffee, which I took to the library and ate at my desk, my chair turned around to the window so I could look out over the water.

I was halfway up a ladder with a set of pumpkin lights when Eddie Sweeney walked into the building after lunch. He was six-four with broad shoulders and muscles in all the right places, the walking definition of tall, dark and handsome.

“Kathleen, what are you doing?” he asked, grinning up at me.

“Getting ready for Spookarama,” I said. I draped the lights over the top step of the ladder and climbed down so I was at Eddie’s level, more or less.

“That has to have something to do with Halloween.”

“It’s a party for the little ones. It’s safer than them being out on the streets on Halloween night.”

“Could I help?” Eddie was good with kids. It was part of the reason Roma insisted he needed to marry someone who could give him more children. Eddie had a daughter, Sydney, who lived with her mother, Eddie’s ex. I knew that part of the reason Eddie had bought the loft that Marcus was helping him work on was so that Syd could spend more time with him now that he wasn’t playing.

I leaned back and studied him, squinting my eyes and trying to see him with green skin and neck bolts. “How would you like to be Frankenstein? I’m thinking more Herman Munster than Mary Shelley.”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Abigail will call you.” I gave him a hug. “Thank you. The kids are going to love this.”

He nodded and his smile faded. “Kathleen, how’s Roma?”

“She misses you.”

He nodded. “I miss her. I went out to see her. She said I was just rubbing salt in the wound. I told her I wanted to be friends.”

“Do you?” I asked even though I knew the answer.

Something flashed in Eddie’s dark eyes. “I want to be her husband.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “You know she’s staying in touch with Syd.”

I smiled. “It doesn’t surprise me. That’s Roma.” I knew that Roma and Sydney had bonded over their shared love of animals. Roma would never cut the child out of her life. I also knew that Sydney was all for her father marrying Roma and was probably pleading his case.

“Syd’s working on her,” Eddie said as if he could read my mind. “She’s crazy about Roma and so am I. And I know she still loves me.”

“She does.” It was written all over her face whenever his name came up.

He jammed his hands in his pockets. “I’m not going to get all weird and follow her around town. I’m just going to camp on the edge of her life until she figures out that we’re better when we’re together.”

“I hope that happens,” I said.

Eddie smiled then. “Don’t tell anyone, because it would blow my tough-guy hockey-player image, but I kinda believe in all that happily-ever-after stuff.”

I thought about Everett and Rebecca, who had spent a big part of their lives apart but who had gotten their happily ever after in the end. I hoped it wouldn’t take Roma and Eddie that long.

* * *

I was crossing the parking lot at the end of the day when my cell phone rang. It was Hope. “We need to talk,” she said.

“All right,” I said. “Where are you?”

“In the parking lot at the marina.”

“Stay there. I’m standing beside my truck. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Hope was parked at the far end of the marina parking lot. I pulled in next to her car. I could see her standing by the rock wall that ran from the wooden dock around to the point. Just from her body language I could tell that she didn’t have good news to share. I walked over to join her.

“Hi,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I talked to Foz—Bryan—a little while ago,” she said. The breeze off the water tousled her dark curls and she pushed them impatiently back from her face. “He was pretty close-mouthed but I did find out that they’ve found more evidence that seems to implicate Marcus.”

My throat tightened. “I don’t understand. He didn’t do this. How can they find evidence of something that didn’t even happen?”

“I don’t know,” Hope said. “This whole thing is off.”

“Did he tell you what this so-called evidence is?” I couldn’t help the sarcastic edge to my voice.

“Someone—I have no idea who—saw Marcus and Dani arguing outside the motel.”

I shook my head. “That’s not new evidence. We already knew they were there. Maggie saw them.”

Hope pushed her hair away from her face again. “Motel, Kathleen,” she said. “Motel. The Bluebird Motel, where all three of them were staying.”

“Whoever saw them is wrong,” I said flatly. “If Marcus had been out there arguing with Dani he would have told us.”

Hope didn’t answer me right away. Her mouth moved as though she was trying out the feel of what she wanted to say before she said it.

“Are you sure?” she finally asked.

“Of course I’m sure,” I retorted. “Why aren’t you?”