“You should know I’m a cop. A deputy with the sheriff’s department.” Zach made his voice hard. “If you’ve ever been accused of molesting young girls, or even touching one in a suspicious way, I’ll find out.”
Clearly affronted, Doyle straightened. “Look all you want. I would never do anything like that. It’s disgusting! I have a daughter myself. If some man had ever even looked at her that way—” He broke off, breathing hard.
Zach nodded. “I appreciate you talking to me. You have every reason to be mad I got you here under false pretenses.”
“Why did you?” He seemed honestly puzzled. “Why didn’t you just call to ask me your questions?”
“Most people I want to talk to are dodging me.”
“They might have something to hide, but I don’t.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are we done?”
Some strange impulse seized Zach. “It so happens, I do need a plumber. I understand if you don’t want to give me a bid, under the circumstances.”
Sam Doyle actually chuckled. “I have a boy in college and a girl who is a senior in high school and has already been accepted to Pacific Lutheran University. Do you know what four years of college costs these days? Got to tell you, what I couldn’t turn down at twenty-one and what I can’t turn down now are two different things.”
What could Zach do but laugh and lead the way to the bathroom, bare but for corroded pipes?
* * *
GREG HAD LEFT for a quick lunch and then on to take measurements for carpet and vinyl installations at a couple different houses, leaving Tess alone for what she’d known would be a good part of the afternoon.
She smiled and called, “Thanks for stopping by,” when a couple who’d been studying blinds left at two-thirty. She felt barely a flicker of apprehension at being alone in the store. Except for the creepy photograph left in Zach’s mailbox at work, it had been several weeks since she’d so much as had a phone threat.
Given the down time, she wandered the store to study some of the new carpets and vinyl flooring Greg had added. She had to be familiar with all the stock, just as he did.
The bell tinkled when the front door opened and she turned. The happiness she felt when she glimpsed an olive-green uniform was immediately supplanted by apprehension. Something had to be wrong. Why else would Zach stop by in the middle of the afternoon without calling first?
And then she saw that the deputy who had entered wasn’t Zach. She didn’t recognize this man. He wasn’t any of the cops who’d helped on the roofing party, Tess was sure.
Despite her sudden wariness, she smiled. “May I help you?”
“I’ll just look around for a minute,” he said, and prowled toward the back of the store.
It wasn’t his fault, of course, but he reminded her unpleasantly of Andrew Hayes. He looked as though he spent a lot of time lifting weights to build those muscles and thicken his neck, and his head was nearly shaved. She couldn’t help noticing that he wasn’t really checking out any of the flooring samples and he hadn’t even glanced at the blinds. Most people who came in the store wanted to touch. To feel the nap of carpets or the texture of tiles or vinyl flooring. They smoothed their fingers over planks of hardwood.
Tess grew more and more uneasy as he peered into the nook where tiles were displayed and then the room with wallpaper books. He disappeared briefly from sight and she heard a door opening and closing. Was he using the restroom?
No, because he came into sight again, sauntering toward her. He must have opened the door just to find out whether anyone was in there. He’d quit making any pretense of glancing around.
She moved a few steps closer to the front of the store and the big picture windows. No pedestrians were in sight.
The cop raked her with his gaze as he approached. She fought the instinct to back up even when he stepped a lot closer than she was comfortable with.
“Alone in here, are you, Ms. Granath?”
“Momentarily.” She raised her eyebrows. “I take it you’re not interested in new flooring.”
He sneered. “Just wanted to see what a woman willing to lie to get a good cop in trouble looks like.”