I heard my dad issue orders to the two other police officers that had shown up, and then heard him ask Mr. Macgregor if he would mind answering a few more questions and handing over the knife at his waist.
I smiled. I had been wondering when he was going to get around to that and felt better about him stopping by later. At least I’d get the low down on my new neighbor from him and probably orders to stay away from the man until he was cleared of being a suspect.
That was fine with me, since my mind started going over what had happened, and it seemed to me that Ian Macgregor was not at all perturbed that there was a dead body on his property. The other guy, Thad, had been shocked, but not Ian. He seemed to have taken it in stride or perhaps he had already been aware that the man was dead.
Thinking on the dead guy, I recalled how agitated Mr. Stevenson had seemed and how anxious he had been to speak with the new owner of Willow Lake Lodge. He had repeated several times how extremely important it was that he did. Yet he never mentioned Ian by name. Come to think of it, the guy had had a Scottish brogue. Could he have found something out about the sale of the property that wasn’t quite right?
My dad might be questioning me more later on, but I had a few questions of my own to ask him. As for hunky G.I. Joe, I’d reserve my opinion until I found out more about him, though I did hope he wasn’t involved. It would be nice to have eye candy as a neighbor, not that I would ever get involved with him. He was way too handsome. It was like he stepped off the covers of one of those hot romance novels that my friend Amy loved to read. And that kind of handsome was too much trouble.
“You’re too quiet. Thinking about your hot hunk of new neighbor?” Josh asked.
I punched him in the arm.
He laughed. “I could arrest you for assaulting an officer for that, but I won’t since you’re already pining away for the new guy next door.”
“Funny, Josh, but I’m not interested.”
“Good, because once the women around here get a look at him, they’re going to be getting in line to jump his bones and no doubt he’ll oblige them.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He’d have to be an idiot to be that good-looking and limit himself to one woman when he could have a smorgasbord of women.”
“Is that why you stay single?”
He grinned. “Think I’m that good-looking, do you?”
I grinned back. “Not nearly as handsome as Ian.”
He laughed again. “Ow, that punch was harder than the one to my arm.”
When he pulled up to my house, he reached over to rest his hand on my arm before I could get out of the car. “All kidding aside, sis, Ian will probably be on the top of our suspect list and, to be honest, guys as handsome as him can prove to be a problem. I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt. You’ve been through enough already.”
Sometimes I forget how caring my brothers can be and though they were pains in the butts while growing up, and still are at times, I love them dearly and I know how much they love me.
“Believe me, Josh, when I tell you I’m not the least bit interested in him.”
“Good to know.” He went to get out of the car.
“Don’t even think about walking me to the door,” I warned. “Mo would be barking up a storm—sick stomach or not—if anyone was near here.”
“Sis,” Josh called out after I got out of the car.
I bent to look through the open window at him.
“I knew you were too smart for the likes of that guy, but just so you know… he is interested in you.”
I stared at the police SUV as it pulled away. Whatever was he talking about? Ian Macgregor had no interest in me at all and I had no interest in him. Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly true since he was one handsome hunk of a man. A woman would have to be dead not to be attracted to his good looks. But men like him went for women who matched their beauty. And I didn’t come anywhere close to that.
Besides, I wasn’t in the market for a relationship. I’d never been good at them, not since I was ten years old, when Donny Douglas told me he loved me, and I punched him in the face. My father was a police officer at the time, and he did not appreciate being called into school to learn I had assaulted a classmate. At least Donny never held it against me and through the years we had become friends. I even entrusted my teeth to him now, since he’d become a dentist and set up practice in Willow Lake. He was happily married with two kids, and I was—a complete failure when it came to relationships, so I avoided them like the plague.