A Wish For Love (Gates-Cameron 2)

ike you’re asking if there’s any evidence that he ran into you on purpose.”

Cara gasped, then looked quickly down at her clenched hands. Sitting beside her on the small sofa, Mark slid an arm around her shoulders. She didn’t relax into the comforting embrace, but she didn’t pull away, either, Bailey noted.

“You have reason to think someone’s out to hurt you, Ms. Gates?” Peavy demanded.

“I was just asking about the details of your investigation.”

“You aren’t thinking the Peavy family has anything to do with this, are you? Because if you are—”

“Chief Peavy, I have no reason to accuse your family of anything,” Bailey assured him flatly. “Why would I?”

He searched her face for a moment, looking torn between answering her question and ignoring it. Bailey knew what was agitating him, of course. She’d been told that Peavys’ overbearing aunt, Margaret Peavy Vandover, had hired someone to intimidate Dean into keeping quiet about her late father’s involvement in the murders of the Cameron twins.

Dean had been brutally attacked and injured. It was fortunate that he hadn’t been killed. Due to Margaret’s age and precarious emotional state, he hadn’t pressed charges, but he’d made it clear that he would tolerate no further harassment from the Peavy family. They hadn’t bothered him since.

“My family had nothing to do with this,” Peavy said after a moment. “We don’t like what your brother did to our family’s reputation, and I can’t say any of us like him all that much—”

Peavy gave Mark a glance that included him in his family’s list of least favorite people.

“But,” he added firmly, “my generation is respectable and law-abiding. I’ve sworn to serve and protect the citizens of this area, Ms. Gates. If anyone out there is trying to harm you, or any member of your family, you can bet I’ll do my job to the best of my ability.”

He had defirutely memorized the cop phrase book, Bailey decided. But she couldn’t doubt the man’s sullen sincerity.

She met his eyes squarely. “I believe that you and your family mean us no harm, Chief Peavy. And I can assure you that I can think of no one who would have deliberately staged that accident last night. If I had any knowledge of who was behind it or why, I would have already told you. I just wanted to make sure that every possibility is being considered in your investigation.”

He nodded, looking only partially mollified. “We’ll be thorough, Ms. Gates. We’ll catch the guy.”

“Whew,” Mark said a few minutes later, when the prickly officer had made his exit. “You and your brother are determined to stay off the Peavy family’s Christmascard list, aren’t you?”

Mae didn’t smile. She was looking at Bailey in concern. “Bailey, why did you ask Chief Peavy those questions? You don’t really think the accident was intentional, do you? Is there any chance this has anything to do with that man in Chicago?”

“Larry?” He’d crossed her mind a few times, but she’d come to the conclusion that she was just being paranoid. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “He was a real nuisance to me there, but he wouldn’t go to the trouble of following me all the way here. I made it clear to him before I left that I wanted him to leave me alone. I’m sure he got the message. And besides, he has a business to run.”

Bailey turned her attention to Cara. The housekeeper was still pale, sitting stiffly beside Mark, her eyes locked on her hands.

Bailey didn’t want to badger Cara about her past, but if any of them were in danger because of it, she thought they had a right to know. She couldn’t forget that moment when those lights had borne down on them, so steadily, so inexorably.

“Cara?” she asked gently. “What about you Can you think of anyone who wants to harm you? Someone ruthless enough to have caused that accident last evening?”

What little color was left in Cara’s face drained. “Why do you ask that?” she asked hoarsely. “Why would you think this had anything to do with me?”

“Cara, as far as I know, it really was just a truckload of stoned teenagers,” Bailey answered frankly. “But until we know for sure, I think we should look at all the possibilities, don’t you?”

Cara bit her lip, her gaze locked with Bailey’s. She looked scared, uncertain, on the verge of tears. She drew a deep breath, and Bailey held hers, hopeful that Cara was finally going to level with them.

And then Mark inadvertently ruined the moment. “We want to help you, Cara,” he said, leaning closer to her. “Tell us what happened to you before you came here.”

It was as though she suddenly slammed a mental door between her and the rest of them.

She rose abruptly, putting physical, as well as emotional, distance between herself and Mark. “I’d better go check on Casey,” she said. “It’s time for her medication.”

“Cara, please,” Mark said, his hand rising as though to reach for her. “Talk to us.”

Cara raked him with eyes so cold that Bailey shivered in reaction. She could only imagine how Mark must have felt, being on the receiving end of that stare.

“If you’re angling for a juicy story for your newspaper, I’m afraid you’ll have to look elsewhere,” Cara said, her tone uncharacteristically hard. “I really have nothing to say to the press.”

Bailey was stunned by the unfairness of the attack. Mae murmured an incoherent protest.