She would take a vacation to the Bahamas or Paris.
She would do anything but be here. And yet, everything she’d said about her house was true; she had never felt more…needed.
Had her mind created an illusion to help her figure out a way to escape? Or had she really been helped out of the basement by a ghost? Maybe she had seen that window at some time and not really noticed it. Maybe she had imagined the ghost because she was desperate and afraid. Had it been her way of dealing with panic?
But she had to face it, the entire thing had been…weird. First the noise. Then the basement door closing just as the light went out…
There hadn’t been anyone else in the house—or had there? Tim Jamison had a key. Gary had a key. And Dr. Manning must have been given a key, too.
There were definitely too many keys to her house in other people’s hands.
“Looks like Tim Jamison has gotten smart enough to stop coming here,” Renee said, leaning in close to be heard over the music and surrounding conversations.
“I should hope so,” Barry said indignantly. “He should be spending every second looking for the murderer.”
“No one can work all the time,” Caleb remarked.
True enough, Sarah thought, and yet it often seemed that he was always working. He was watching everything around him all the time.
When he was with her…
No, she wasn’t going there. He sure as hell wasn’t with her because of the case, so she wasn’t even going to think in that direction, wasn’t going to question everything that was going on between them.
“There’s been no word on Winona Hart, right?” Barry asked.
“No, I’m afraid not,” Caleb said.
“What about the woman you found on the beach?” Renee asked, her eyes wide.
“They don’t even know her identity yet,” Caleb says. “It takes time. Forensic science is pretty amazing, but it doesn’t always produce instantaneous results.”
Caroline shivered. “I think it’s scary, so…” She paused and looked around. “How come nobody looks panicked?”
“That’s true,” Will said. “I hope people are being careful, though. Three women missing or dead, all in one year.”
“It’s possible that the woman Caleb is looking for and Winona Hart will still show up,” Renee offered hopefully.
“It’s possible,” Caleb agreed. As he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He glanced at the caller ID and excused himself, saying, “I’m going to take this where I can hear. I’ll be right back.”
When he was gone, Barry said, “Business?”
“I guess,” Sarah said.
Renee looked across the table at her. “We need another round. Poor Sarah! You must have been scared to death in that basement.”
Will, at her side, pulled her close in a hug, then knuckled the top of her head. “My cousin can handle anything.”
“But that house! I’d be terrified if I were locked in a basement. And then to find out the door was really unlocked all the time. Here’s what I think, and I can’t help it. The house locked you in. Then, just to make you look like an idiot, it opened the door again.”
Will burst out laughing. “Oh, Renee! Come on.”
“I’d be creeped out,” she said. “You wouldn’t catch me living there.”
“The house is just a house. Those bones were old, but there’s a real killer out there now,” Will said.
Barry rolled his eyes. “I think we’re obsessing on this more than the cops are. So let’s forget all about it and dance,” he said, nodding toward the dance floor. When no one moved, he said, “Renee?”
“Sure,” she said, and shrugged unenthusiastically.
As she and Barry walked out to the dance floor, Will leaned closer to Sarah and spoke directly to her, his eyes intense. “Sarah, maybe you should come stay with me. Or maybe I should get someone to cover for me at work and take you to…I don’t know. New York City. The Bahamas. Anywhere else, just for a while.”
Ignoring the fact that only a few minutes ago she’d contemplated running away to the Bahamas herself, she said, “I’m okay. Really. Anyway…” She blushed, then went on. “Caleb’s staying with me.”
“And I’m supposed to find that reassuring? We don’t know enough about that guy yet,” Will said.
She smiled. She loved her cousin and was grateful for his protective nature, but she knew in her heart that this time there was no need for it. “I know everything I need to know,” she said. “I met Adam Harrison in Virginia, and anyone working for him is by definition aboveboard. And just so you know, I know everything I need to about Caleb.”