Carol Ericson - Circumstantial Memories

Julia said, “Rosie told me right in front of Charlie that she wanted to get to know you better, Rafe. I think Charlie’s relationship with Rosie is all in his head, wishful thinking.”

Ryder raised one eyebrow. “Have you been hitting on this Rosie chick?”

“I don’t think so.” Rafe’s slow smile claimed his face. “Not that I know of.”

“See what I mean, Julia? My brother’s nothing but trouble.”

“Hold on a minute.” She waved her hands in the air as if to disperse the clouds of confusion. “Do you really think Charlie had anything to do with Zack’s death?”

Rafe shrugged. “I don’t know. Just thought I should stick it to him while the time was right. He was obviously pissed off at me. I wanted to catch him off guard.”

“And did you get the response you wanted?” Julia hugged herself, sucking in her bottom lip.

“It’s a start.” Rafe jerked his head in her direction. “Why, did you catch something?”

“Yeah, a whiff of Charlie’s cologne.”

TWO DAYS LATER, Ryder kicked his heels up on Rod’s desk and placed a call to Black Cobra headquarters in Washington. His supervisor, Jeff Lawrence, had left him a message earlier that morning, and Ryder figured he was calling about the CD. Too early for his next assignment. He had at least another month of leave coming. Maybe he could take Julia and Shelby to his place in South Carolina. And then what?

Ryder left his own message with Jeff’s secretary and then tipped his head back on Rod’s leather chair. He didn’t want to leave until the police caught Julia’s stalker…Zack’s killer. Did he want to leave at all? He knew with bone-chilling certainty that if he left, he’d be walking out of Julia’s and Shelby’s lives forever. Julia would never forgive him. And he’d have a helluva time forgiving himself.

Since he’d graduated from dropping bouquets of flowers on her porch, Julia’s stalker had been leaving a lot more clues. He’d make a mistake one of these days.

Rafe decided to look at Charlie more closely after his jealous outburst the other day and discovered he didn’t have an alibi at the time of Zack’s murder. Ryder could imagine Charlie skulking around Julia’s house and even slashing his tires, but murder?

The phone rang and he grabbed it before anyone else in the household could get to it. Jeff’s voice hissed over the phone. “Are you alone, Ryder?”

“Yep. Did you look at the CD?”

“We got into it. Old news. Of course we don’t want it floating around, but the information on that disc isn’t going to do our enemies any good now.”

Ryder rolled his shoulders, easing the tension out of his muscles. Good news on that front anyway. “That’s good to hear. I take it the CD would’ve caused a lot of damage at the time Jeremy Scott took it.”

“A helluva lot of damage. That’s why we tried to get it back by any means necessary.”

“Any means necessary?” Ryder’s heart thudded in his chest. “What are you telling me, Jeff?”

Jeff paused and then his voice came back, smooth as aged cognac. “I’m not telling you anything. As far as we know, the enemy murdered Jeremy Scott, blew him and his house in Tucson sky-high. He probably wouldn’t give them the CD. Demanded more money or something. Jeremy was a greedy SOB.”

Ryder swallowed and a pain sliced behind his eyes. Did Black Cobra take out one of its agents? He massaged his temples. Ex-agent. Did it really shock him? Black Cobra didn’t operate the same way as the CIA. It followed its own rules, its own code of ethics. But those rules could’ve resulted in Julia’s death, too. Did the agency even care if anyone else was in that house?

“Ryder?” Jeff’s voice sharpened. “Are you still there?”

“Yeah.”

“We won’t discuss Jeremy Scott again. You won’t discuss him with anyone else.”

Did that include Jeremy’s ex-wife? “I hear you.”

Jeff let out a sigh. “You’re leaving for your next assignment in two weeks. Jakarta. You’re an arms dealer.”

Jeff’s words slammed against Ryder’s chest, and he almost tipped over in Rod’s chair. “Two weeks? What happened to my long leave?”

“I thought you wanted to stay out in the field. You transferred right from Somalia to Chechnya without blinking an eye.”

That’s because he couldn’t find Julia after Somalia. He didn’t have any reason to come back to the States and a desk assignment. And now?

“Are you in?” Jeff’s voice pressed like a heavy weight against his heart.

If he left for Jakarta in two weeks, he wouldn’t be able to protect Julia anymore. Had he really been protecting her? What if he stayed and failed…again?

Ryder dragged in a deep breath. “I’ll let you know.”

Promising to discuss the issue later, Ryder ended the call and squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. Could he stay and make a family with Julia and Shelby? That little girl already had him wrapped around her grubby fingers, but the thought of hearth and home scared the hell out of him.

The phone rang again and when nobody else answered it, he scooped it up and pressed the talk button.

“Hello?”

A woman’s husky voice purred over the line. “Can I speak to Ryder McClintock?”

“You’re speaking to him.”

“When you got back to town, I was hoping I’d get a chance to talk to you, but this isn’t what I had in mind.” The woman had a throaty growl that promised long nights of sensual pleasures for some lucky guy.

“Who is this?”

“My name’s Rosie Fletcher. I work at the Mountain View B and B.”

Great. That’s all they needed, to get Charlie riled up at another McClintock. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, it’s not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you.”

He doubted any woman besides Julia Rousseau could do anything for him. He cleared his throat. “Cut to the chase, Rosie.”

“I think I have some information about that accident on Highway 160, the one involving your girlfriend’s shrink.”

Ryder’s pulse quickened. “I’d be interested in hearing about it, but I think you have the wrong McClintock brother. You want my brother, Rafe. He’s the lawman.”

“You’re right. I do want your brother.” She gave a low laugh. “But not right now. The information I have is for sale and the last time I checked, the police weren’t paying.”

“And if I call the sheriff and tell him you have this information?”

“I’ll forget it in a hurry.”

“How much?”

“Two or three grand. Whatever you have lying around that big, sprawling ranch of yours.”

He didn’t bother to correct her. The ranch didn’t belong to him, but he could lay his hands on a few thousand. “Can you tell me what you have over the phone?”

“Can you lay some cold, hard cash on me over the phone?” She paused as his silence gave her the obvious answer. “I didn’t think so. Meet me at guesthouse behind the B and B. You know it? Down by the creek.”

“I know where it is.”

Ryder agreed to meet Rosie forty-five minutes later. After raiding Rod’s safe and stuffing two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight dollars in a manila envelope, Ryder slammed out of the house and hopped in his truck. He’d get the info from Rosie first. If he deemed it of any value, he’d hand over the cash. Then he’d deliver Rosie’s information to Rafe.

The Malones’ B and B had a guesthouse behind the main house that sat at the edge of a creek. Sometimes Gracie rented it out, especially during ski season, and sometimes she used it to house the seasonal help. Maybe Charlie talked his mother into making it available for Rosie, so he could pay her some private visits away from his mother’s watchful gaze.