“She doesn’t look anything like me.”
He shrugged. “They say everyone has a twin somewhere.”
They did say that. But how weird was it that my doppelg?nger had shown up in my teeny-tiny hometown and walked down a forest path, then stared at the place where I lived right after a masked person had tried to kill me?
Superweird, but today what wasn’t? It also made me wonder if the woman who’d sat on the car and stared at me had been doing so because she’d seen my twin too.
“Did you see a woman who looked like me?” I glanced at Owen.
“There was a pretty big crowd out front but I’d have noticed that. She probably continued down the trail.”
“And straight out of Three Harbors,” I said. “Damn. I would have liked to see how much she looks like me.”
“Probably not that much,” Owen said.
“I’m not blind,” Jeremy snapped.
Owen ignored him.
“I need to get home to your mother.” My dad started for the street.
“What’s the rush?” I asked.
He continued to walk, throwing his answer over his shoulder. “Someone will have called her about this. She’ll be worried.”
“Call and unworry her.”
“Forgot my phone.”
“I can call h—“
“Things to do, Becca.”
He disappeared around the building. An instant later I caught sight of him pulling a U-turn before he gunned it out of town.
“I’ll drive you around on the street to Reitman’s car.” Owen pulled out his keys. “It’s on the way to my house.”
“I’m not getting in an enclosed space with that dog,” Jeremy said.
Woof!
Reggie stared at the trees. Was Pru watching? Or was Edward still chasing her?
Who was Edward? Another wolf? Pru hadn’t sounded glad to see him.
“Becca’s not walking through the woods with you,” Owen said.
“I thought we’d determined I wasn’t the one who tried to kill her.”
Owen crossed his arms. “I’m unconvinced.”
His biceps bulged against the sleeves of his khaki T-shirt. Jeremy seemed almost as entranced by them as I was. I suppose he was the one being threatened by them.
“We’ll take Owen’s truck.” At Jeremy’s flash of annoyance, I lifted a hand. “The sooner we arrive at the crime scene, the sooner we can all go back to our lives. I’m sure you need to get on the road, Jeremy.”
“I made a reservation at a hotel for the night. I hated to drive all this way and not spend some time with you.”
“Fabulous,” Owen muttered.
I cast him a glance. What did he care?
“Let’s get this over with,” Owen continued. “I’ll drive. Don’t worry about Reggie. He won’t hurt you.”
“He won’t, because I’m not going with you.” Jeremy started for the trees.
While I didn’t think Jeremy had tried to smother me, I also wasn’t keen on walking into the forest where whoever had done so had run. Just because George hadn’t found the culprit, didn’t mean he wasn’t still in there. And Jeremy wouldn’t be much protection at all.
He glanced over his shoulder. “You coming, Becca?”
Owen took my arm. “No.”
“Honestly.” I took my arm back. “Put Reggie in the truck bed. I’ll sit between you two so I don’t have to listen to a litany of ‘he’s touching me’!”
Owen’s lips twitched. “You sound like a kindergarten teacher.”
“I had little brothers and a little sister.” Who’d burned me out on little kids long before puberty. Too bad. If I’d gone into teaching I could have saved myself a shit ton of time and money on college.
While it would have taken ten minutes to walk through the woods, it took less than three to drive to Jeremy’s car. Owen didn’t even argue when I got out too, though he did roll his eyes at the bright yellow Jaguar.
“You know a car like that just shouts small penis?”
I slammed the door and walked away.
*
Owen knew he was behaving like the child she’d accused him of being. He couldn’t help it. The guy was annoying.
He became even more so once they got to the house. Owen hadn’t expected anything less. Stupid might be as stupid does, but annoying was the same damn way.
Reitman took one step onto the porch and at the resulting creak stepped off. He eyed the roof, the cracked windows, the rickety railing Deb had kicked into what had once been a flower bed. “This place appears ready to come down on my head.”
“If only,” Owen said.
“How can you live here?” Reitman wrinkled his nose. “I suppose it’s all in what you’re used to.”
“Owen doesn’t live here any more.” Becca took the steps, ignoring the creak and the sway. “If he did, I doubt there’d be animal sacrifices in his living room.” She opened the door and went inside.
“I don’t.” Reitman followed.
Owen glanced at Reggie, who still sat in the bed of the pickup as ordered. “I see why you don’t like him.”
Reggie tilted his head.