LITMIR.BIZ

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ranch just outside town that had been left to her when her parents had died in a car accident a year before.

      Thoughts of Jenna immediately left his mind when the front door opened and Adrienne walked in. She hesitated just inside the door, gazing around the café. Her lips pressed together tightly and her eyes narrowed when she spied him.

      Even though Nick’s nerves tightened up and he knew this meeting would probably be unpleasant at best, he couldn’t help but notice that Adrienne was a very attractive woman.

      Her reddish-brown hair was in a tidy knot at the nape of her neck, emphasizing her delicate features. Her blue-and-white blouse made her blue-green eyes appear bluer than they had the night before.

      He rose as she reached the booth and slid into the seat across from him with an upthrust of her chin.

      “Just so that you know, I’m not afraid of you, Nick Coleman,” she said firmly.

      Nick lowered himself back down to sit. “There’s no reason for you to be afraid of me. We’re both on the same side.”

      Once again her eyes narrowed, and he noted her thick, long eyelashes. Adrienne was definitely a looker. She picked up the menu, and he noticed that her fingers trembled, belying her announcement that she wasn’t afraid or at least nervous about being in his company.

      “Why don’t we order first, and then you can tell me exactly how and why you killed my sister,” she said.

      So much for being on the same side, Nick thought drily. He didn’t need to look at a menu. The food at the café hadn’t changed much in the past almost fifteen years that he’d been eating here.

      Not wanting to stare at her and make her even more uncomfortable, he gazed around the café and wondered who, like Adrienne, believed he’d murdered Wendy.

      Certainly, he knew he was a person of interest in the case. He and Wendy had spent far too much time together for him not to be on a list of potential suspects.

      It was only when he heard Adrienne’s menu hit the table that he once again looked at her. “Ready to order?” he asked.

      She gave him a curt nod, as if she begrudged him even asking her the simple question.

      He motioned to Jenna, who had just finished serving another table. Jenna gazed at Adrienne and then at Nick with amusement. “She’s a little thing to have managed that colorful shiner you’re sporting.”

      Adrienne’s cheeks immediately turned pink. “I’ve already apologized to him,” she said. It was obvious to Nick that she wasn’t sorry at all.

      “Good, then the two of you should have a nice lunch together,” Jenna said brightly. “Now, what can I get for you?”

      Adrienne ordered a house salad and iced tea, and Nick ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Once Jenna left to fill their orders, an uncomfortable silence settled in and grew to painful proportions.

      “I didn’t kill Wendy.” Nick finally broke the tense silence.

      “She talked about you in every text and phone call I received from her. You were the only man she talked about. You were her lover and something went wrong between the two of you and you killed her,” Adrienne said with finality.

      Nick stared at her in disbelief. “Do you write fiction for a living?”

      “Actually, I work as a publicist for authors, but that has nothing to do with what I think happened between you and Wendy.”

      “You’ve definitely come up with a story that has nothing to do with reality.” Nick stopped talking as Jenna returned with their food.

      After Jenna left the booth once again, he continued, “Let me tell you my story, the reality of my relationship with Wendy.”

      Adrienne jabbed at a piece of carrot, and the force she used made Nick wonder if she were imagining stabbing the fork in his already wounded eye. It didn’t matter. Nick intended to tell the truth, and she could either believe him or not.

      “I met Wendy here at the café when she got a job as a waitress. I’m not sure why, but she attached herself to me like a pesky little sister.”

      He paused a moment to swallow against the lump that rose in the back of his throat as he thought of the vibrant, happy young woman who had been his friend and now was gone forever.

      “She didn’t know anyone in town, and for some reason she decided I needed a friend as badly as she did. We spent a lot of time together, but there was absolutely nothing romantic between us. To me, she was just a kid, and she even tried to matchmake for me, insisting I needed a good woman in my life.”

      A new wave of sorrow swept through Nick.

      Adrienne stared at him. Her fork, sporting a small piece of lettuce, halted halfway between her plate and her mouth. “In every text, in every email I got from Wendy when she arrived here in town, you were the only person she ever talked about.”

      “You already said that, but that doesn’t make me her lover, and it definitely doesn’t make me the man who murdered her,” Nick countered. He picked up a French fry and then dropped it back to his plate, his appetite gone.

      “She was like the little sister I never had. I knew she probably wouldn’t be in town for long. She told me her plan was to eventually visit all fifty states and work all different kinds of jobs. When she disappeared, like everyone else, I just figured she’d gotten a wild hair and had moved on. I was devastated when we found her body.”

      “On the ranch where you work,” Adrienne replied flatly. She placed the piece of lettuce into her mouth and chewed it with the expression of somebody tasting something nasty. She swallowed and then leaned forward slightly. “You had means and the opportunity to kill her and hide her body.”

      “You’re missing one important factor. Aside from the fact that I didn’t do it, what would have been my motive? Why on earth would I want to kill Wendy?”

      “I don’t know, but that’s what I intend to find out. Maybe it was a lover’s quarrel that got out of hand. Maybe you have a bad temper and lost it with her.”

      Nick sighed and thought of all the things Wendy had told him about her older sister. Stubborn and rigid, Wendy had said about Adrienne. Controlling and a right fighter, Wendy had added and explained that she’d needed to get some distance from Adrienne to figure out who she was away from her sister’s firm thumb.

      He knew that this little meeting had done nothing to change Adrienne’s belief that he’d killed her sister. Adrienne had made up her mind and nothing was going to change it.

      “Have you spoken to Chief Bowie yet?” he asked.

      “Not yet. I stopped at the station earlier this morning, but he was out on a call. I expect to meet with him sometime this afternoon,” she replied.

      That would probably only make things worse, Nick thought. He knew he was high on the list of suspects, although they had no evidence tying him to the crime and wouldn’t find any because he was innocent.

      “The investigation into Wendy’s murder has just barely begun,” he said. “It would be nice if you had an open mind.”

      Her shoulders shot back defensively. “I do have an open mind, but I can’t ignore my gut instinct, and all of that instinct is pointing directly to you. I don’t know you, but I do know that I don’t trust you.”

      “Then, maybe the answer to that is that you get to know me,” he replied evenly. “Look, you’ve already made it clear that you believe I’m guilty and that you intend to keep an eye on me so that no other woman gets hurt or maybe you think I’ll somehow give you the evidence you need for me to be arrested. Why not work with me to find the real killer?”

      She stared at him as if he’d grown a steer horn in the middle of his forehead. “Why not leave any investigation to the police instead of working with you?” she countered.

      “Because

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