Кей Хупер - Whisper of Evil

He'd forgotten how those green eyes of hers had the trick of stealing his breath — and of making him feel it was somehow very important that he help her.

"Hello, Ethan." She glanced past him at the deputy leaning against the hood of a sheriffs department cruiser, and added, "Want to come in? Or should we foil all the gossips and talk out there on the porch?"

"Goddammit, Nell," he muttered.

Smiling slightly, she stepped out onto the porch and led the way to the sitting area to the left of the front door — which was in full view of the deputy. There were several pieces of black wrought-iron patio furniture, including a couple of chairs and a small table.

Nell sat down in one of the chairs. "I suppose Hailey must have gotten these. It was wicker in my day."

"There've been a lot of changes since your day," Ethan replied as he sat down.

"Yeah, I've noticed. How've you been, Ethan?"

"I've been all right, Nell. How about you?"

"Can't complain. I hear you got married."

"And divorced. You?"

"Neither. But you knew that."

"Yeah, I ran the plates on your Jeep. Checked you out as far as I could without making it an official request."

"And?"

"And nothing. No police record, not even a traffic ticket, and you pay your bills and taxes on time."

"Nice to know my public record is clean."

"And your private record?"

"Oh, that one's a little more complicated." Nell shrugged. "But isn't that true of us all?"

"I guess so." He nodded, then sighed. "Okay, now that we've got that bullshit out of the way, what say we talk to each other like it matters?"

She was still smiling faintly, but those green eyes were guarded. "Suits me."

"I hear you've been seeing Max again since you came back."

"Some, yeah." She didn't explain or elaborate.

"He tell you about these murders?"

"Several people have told me about them, Ethan. Nobody's talking about much of anything else right now."

"And so?"

"And so… that's really lousy for Silence."

He eyed her grimly. "You're going to make me ask, aren't you?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I am." But before he could do more than mutter a curse under his breath, Nell was shaking her head, and said much more seriously, "No, I owe you more than that."

"You don't owe me anything, Nell."

"Don't I? You never told Max, did you? About the night I left."

"You asked me not to. I promised I wouldn't. So I didn't."

"And my father?"

"1 did what you wanted me to do with him too. Went to him and told him I'd seen you getting on a bus out of town, that I'd found your car parked at the station." Ethan paused briefly. "He thought you left with Max or planned to meet him somewhere, just like you figured he would. Took some time, but I managed to convince him Max was at the ranch and not planning to go anywhere."

Gazing off at nothing, Nell said absently, "I knew he'd be more likely to believe that coming from a cop, even if you were Max's stepbrother."

Ethan said, "Like everybody else, Adam knew there was bad blood between Max and me. He knew I wouldn't lie for Max. Never occurred to him that I might be lying for you."

"Why did you do that, by the way? I've always wondered if it had more to do with hurting Max than helping me."

"If I'd wanted to use it to hurt Max, I would have told him about it a long time ago."

"Maybe. Or maybe just knowing you'd helped his girl to run away was enough. You had to know it would hurt him."

"So did you. I mean, you had to know that turning to me for help in getting away would make running out on him even worse, at least in his eyes."

"Yeah. I knew. So I'm glad you never told him that. And I'm still wondering why you helped me."

He hesitated, waited until she met his gaze, and then said slowly, "The look in your eyes that night. I'd never seen anybody look so… desperate. So afraid. I had no business helping you, of course, especially as young as you were. But I was young enough myself that I wasn't thinking in practical terms. Besides, I didn't doubt you were going to leave no matter what I said or did, and it seemed wisest to help you… minimize the fallout."

"You did do that. And I'm grateful."

"Not grateful enough to send me a postcard somewhere along the way and let me know how you were doing."

"Sorry about that. It seemed best to… cut all my ties to Silence."

"And did you?"

Her smile twisted. "I tried, God knows."

He nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on her. "You must have known you'd have to come back here one day."

"Yeah. I just didn't think it would be so hard."

"Hard because of the dead? Or the living?"

"Both."

"Running away never really solves anything, does it?"

A breath of a laugh escaped Nell. "That depends on what you're trying to solve."

"What were you trying to solve, Nell?"

"It hardly matters now."

"Doesn't it?"

She drew a breath and let it out slowly. "Girls run away, Ethan. Especially from domineering fathers."

"And boyfriends?"

"He was never domineering. And I told you then it had nothing to do with Max."

"Nothing — except that you were frantic to make sure he was protected from Adam's anger."

"I just didn't want him to blame Max. Or anybody else. My leaving was my decision."

Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Except that you were scared out of your mind that night, Nell. And I've always wondered why. After all those years with Adam, what was the final straw? What happened to make you believe running away was your only option?"

"It's a long story," Nell said after a moment. "Maybe we'll have time for it later. For now, I think we should concentrate on trying to find this murderer. That is why you came out here today, isn't it?"

Ethan accepted the change of subject, though not without a faint grimace. "Just so you know, I don't believe in this psychic bullshit."

"In that case," Nell said deliberately, "there's obviously nothing I can do to help you."

"Look, don't give me a hard time about this, okay? We've hit one wall after another in this investigation, and I'm getting desperate. Hell, at this point I'd be willing to look at chicken entrails. Maybe you can look into your crystal ball instead and tell me something helpful."

"I don't have a crystal ball, Ethan. As for the chicken entrails, I doubt they'd be helpful. And — yuck."

His mouth twitched, but he didn't actually smile. "Well, do whatever the hell it is you're supposed to do. Can you help me, or can't you?"

Nell didn't push it. "I don't know. But I'm willing to try."

He felt a jab of relief and tried to cover it up by not dwelling on the moment. "Great. So what's the first step?"

"I'd like to see where Peter Lynch and George Caldwell died."

"The first victim and the most recent. Why them?"

Nell had a ready answer. "Lynch because I want to see if I can pick up something after all this time; Caldwell because so far no deep, dark secrets have come to light — have they?"

"No."

"Which makes his murder different from the rest, at least according to everything I've read and heard."

"Okay." Ethan looked at his watch. "We can check out George's apartment anytime, but since Terrie Lynch is away for the afternoon and I have the key to the house, we should probably go there first."

Nell stood up, trying not to betray a few twinges from protesting muscles since she didn't want to have to explain why she was so stiff and sore.

Ethan rose as well but eyed her in sudden concern. "You sure you're up to this? If you don't mind me saying so, you're looking a little fragile."

So much for her ability to hide some things.

Nell smiled. "I've started going through the house, sorting and cleaning, and it's something a lot like work. But I'm okay. Let me lock up the house, and then we can go."