LITMIR.BIZ

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your impression of Maura?”

      Embarrassment heated Quint’s neck but luckily burned inward instead of out. From the moment the dispatcher had passed on the call to check the stranger on Maura’s street, he’d known in the back of his mind that this had to do with Maura. Who else on that street was interesting enough for surveillance? The young couple with four kids in the house fifty feet behind where she’d parked? The elderly sisters? The two college girls down the street or Jamey Moran, the deputy fire marshal who was so clean he squeaked?

      But the front part of his brain hadn’t wanted to give it any thought. Now he had no choice, so he gave the most superficial answer that came to mind. “She’s a bad driver with too much time and money on her hands.”

      JJ tilted her head to one side. “That’s it?”

      Acknowledging that he seemed to be getting further away from returning to his vehicle instead of closer, he swallowed a sigh and took a chair near her end of the table, leaving an empty space between them. “I don’t know her. My interaction with her has been less than thirty minutes, all calls combined.”

      That was true. But he was leaving out the fact that the last time he’d stopped her, Maura had offered to remedy the not-knowing-each-other thing if he wouldn’t write the ticket. He’d stood there in her driveway—she’d refused to stop until she reached the house—and smelled the sweet scent of her perfume, watched the breeze mold her already-tight dress even closer to her body, and sweet hell, he’d been tempted. He’d been alone so long. So damn alone. Sometimes he’d missed human contact so much that he’d physically hurt with it, and he’d thought…

      It had shamed him then, and it did now. He’d thought Maura was no one special. She would never mean anything to him. He could use her to ease his pain and never have to bother with her again. He’d never treated women as disposable, but it had held a strong appeal that day.

      Then she’d touched him, and it had had the effect of a gut punch, slamming home one important truth: he didn’t want human contact. He wanted Linny. No one could ever replace her, not for a night, for an hour or a minute, and certainly not some rich girl who thought avoiding a hundred-dollar ticket was worth trading sex for.

      Disgusted with himself, he’d removed her hand, a bit of a struggle when she’d already insinuated her fingers inside his belt and didn’t want to let go. She’d pouted, called him a few names, torn up the ticket and let the wind scatter the pieces. And after that, he’d turned a blind eye to her driving infractions, just like those South Carolina cops did. Don’t poke the bear, his father used to say. The next time he might not walk away with his dignity intact.

      “She was self-centered. Used to getting her way. She fluttered her lashes and smiled real pretty and expected problems to go away. I have no idea why she settled here. There aren’t a lot of restaurants, no clubs that would appeal to someone like that, no shopping besides Walmart, a couple of small clothing stores and the antique stores downtown, and name-dropping wouldn’t get her anywhere this far from home. Cedar Creek doesn’t have anything to offer her.”

      That was the most he’d said at one time in months. His chest was tight, his lungs empty from putting together so many words. It was an odd feeling, hearing so much of his own voice when he generally got through the day with minimal talking.

      He drew a breath and turned the question around. “What is your impression of her?”

      Her smile was easy. “She was self-centered and used to getting her way. But I don’t think she could really help it, given who she was and where and how she was raised. I don’t think she was strong enough to develop any independence or real sense of character when every soul in her life expected her to be a princess.

      “I babysat her one summer. I had graduated from college, and her mother was busy, and I had some time on my hands before the academy started. She was spoiled, of course, but not rotten. She just expected things to go her way because they always had. It never really occurred to her that they wouldn’t until her parents…”

      Quint watched as JJ’s mouth thinned, her affect darkened. “How did they die?”

      She bit her lower lip, full and soft peach in color, then blew out her breath. “They were murdered five years ago. Home invasion. I had stopped by my parents’ house a few blocks away, so I was the first officer on the scene. Their bodies were found by the housekeeper, but Maura came in a few minutes after I got there and saw…everything.”

      The twinge of sympathy Quint felt surprised him. He’d always been empathetic—most cops were—but the only person he’d felt sorry for in the last year and a half had been himself. Maura had been twenty at the time. How deeply had that sight scarred her? If she hadn’t been strong before, that experience certainly wouldn’t make her any stronger. So she’d coped by running away, by living fast and partying hard and trying her damnedest to forget the memories. By drinking and using drugs and having meaningless sex.

      But sympathy didn’t mean he wanted any contact with her again. It didn’t mean he particularly cared what state her life was in. He just didn’t have it in him to care right now.

      He shoved back the discomfort that admission caused and refocused his attention on JJ. “So, you’re going to go talk to her, make sure she’s okay and go home.” He said it as a statement because that was what he wanted to happen. Like he’d thought earlier, he didn’t want upset in his life. It was routine that got him through the days—and quiet desperation that carried him through the nights—and like a cranky old dog, he needed to stick to that routine as much as possible.

      “Actually, I’m going to look around first. Talk to your dispatcher and your officer, maybe visit her neighbors, her landlord.” Her lips thinned again, but thoughtfully this time. “As I said, she’s very wealthy. Her godfather is executor of her parents’ estate. About ten million went to their favorite charities, but Maura got the rest. I don’t know how many zeroes are tacked onto her net worth, but she gets an allowance of $100,000 a month, which she never completely spent until she came here. She’s young, rich, grieving, vulnerable.”

      Quint ignored the statement that she was going to stay around longer than necessary—he wouldn’t have to deal with her—and laced his fingers together. “So her godfather is concerned because this spoiled rich kid is spending more money than usual?”

      “No, not just that. For all her flaws, Maura was very close to her parents. She left town after they died and traveled constantly until she came here, but no matter where she was, she remembered every holiday—their birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day—with deliveries of extravagant flowers. Even when she was trekking in Nepal and on a tourist expedition to the South Pole, she sent the flowers. But she missed both their birthdays last month.”

      “Maybe she’s coping better now. Maybe she realizes flowers don’t change anything.” They made the grave site prettier, let people know that the person who occupied that grave had someone who loved them in death as much as they had in life. But they didn’t ease the pain. They didn’t make life any easier. They didn’t help you survive another day or another week. They were a gesture, but a pretty meaningless one from his experience.

      “It was important to her,” JJ disagreed. “Also, in the last three months, she’s only gotten in touch with Mr. Winchester, her godfather, twice by text. The first time, she demanded more cash, and the second, she threatened to sue him for control of the money. Mr. Winchester and his wife are also important to her. They’re her second parents. It’s out of character for her.”

      Quint wasn’t convinced anything was out of character for someone like Maura. Pretty, entitled, spent her money freely, shared herself freely… Unpredictable seemed the best word to describe her. Hell, she’d gone from South Carolina to the South Pole to Small Town, Oklahoma, where her name meant nothing. Out of character seemed to be the only constant in her character.

      But it wasn’t his problem.

      That was the best part of the situation. Once he left the station, he was out of it.

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