Instead, her attention was fixed on the Tangleheart Gazette, which lay splayed open in front of her. It had to be the paper he’d bought yesterday—before all hell broke loose. He’d been reading an article about that TCU coed they’d seen on the Saturday night news.
Sally McMahon.
That was her name. Somehow knowing her name made her death all the more poignant.
“You reading about Sally?” He inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly. He didn’t know why Anna catching him with that particular edition of the paper in his car should make him uncomfortable. He also didn’t know why Anna had brought the paper inside the cabin…unless the eerie similarities between Megan O’Neal and Sally McMahon made Anna uneasy too.
Two beautiful girls who had the world by the tail.
Two beautiful girls who hanged themselves in their rooms with no warning, no cry for help, no note left behind—and hanging was an unusual choice for female suicides. He’d learned most women opted for less violent methods, such as pills.
But the mode of death wasn’t the similarity that made his skin prickle and his palms sweat.
That visceral response had much more to do with the fact that the two women were look-alikes.
They could’ve been sisters, maybe even passed for twins—the resemblance was that pronounced.
Anna seemed as lost in thought as he was. “Are you reading about Sally?” he tried again.
Her shoulders jumped. “I was just waiting for you. I’m in the planning phase, and here’s what I’m thinking.” She pointed to the warped piece of poster board. “I thought we’d make a murder board.”
Uncomprehending, he turned his palms up.
“You know, like the one Beckett uses on Castle. I mean I know there hasn’t been an actual murder, but it’s good to get organized, and I want to—”
“Get our ducks in a row.” He didn’t have a damn clue what Anna was talking about, but he was in for a penny already. Apparently, he and Anna were going to find Simone and Bobby and stop a killer all on their own, using state-of the-art tools like water-logged poster board and Anna’s knowledge of television crime shows.
He hoped like hell Nate had lit a fire under the police, and they were apprehending the bad guy right this minute. He’d been trying to check in with Nate for a while now. Pulling his cell out of his pocket, he glanced at the bars one more time.
No service. “Sorry. What’d you say?”
“I said I’d like to make a timeline, and then we can see if we can fit any of the pieces of the puzzle together. We’ll add any clippings that stand out to the board, too.” She picked up a handful of clippings and fanned them out on the board. Glancing up, she caught him staring. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
His chin came up. “I was thinking how pretty you look when you worry your bottom lip between your teeth like that.”
Sweet Jesus, Charlie. Never say anything like that out loud again.
A happy smile stretched across her face.
Maybe just once more…
But she was all business again. “Let’s begin the timeline with your welcome home party on Saturday night.”
“Yep.” His face was still warm from that worrying your lip remark.
“What do you remember happening at the dinner party?”
Anna was serious about this, and he didn’t really have a better idea as to how to proceed. Wanting to do justice to his role in this simulated Castle-Beckett crime-fighting exercise, he conjured an answer by rubbing his forehead. “Nate and Simone were happy as clams. He gave her an emerald necklace, and then that picture of Sally McMahon came on the news. I tossed back a few drinks.”
He looked at her pointedly. He was tired of pretending nothing was going on between them. “And then we went to my place and we kissed. It was a great kiss, Anna. And you still haven’t told me why you called it off that night, or for that matter, why you’re sitting here right now acting like ten minutes ago we weren’t making passionate love to each other.”
“Because right now I’m kind of busy making a murder board.”
“Bullshit. You’re kind of busy avoiding your feelings.”
“We had adrenaline sex, Charlie. That’s all it was.” Her eyes fell away from his and wandered around the room.
His throat was closing up. He’d left her alone too damn long to expect anything from her but exactly what she’d given him. Adrenaline sex. They were both glad to be alive, they were alone together, so they fucked each other. Whatever worked for her was fine by him.
He leaned over the table and jabbed his finger on the poster. From now on, he was sticking to the murder board. “I think you should start the timeline earlier. At dinner, Simone said she’d been to see her doctor last week. So I’d put that doctor visit last week as the start of the timeline.”