Everywhere She Goes

* * *

NOAH WAS AS good as his word, which didn’t surprise her. At four-thirty, he appeared in her office doorway.

“We should be going.”

Cait shut down her computer, collected her bag and let him escort her to her car. She was very conscious of the interest they were garnering by leaving together, but Noah seemed oblivious. He once again minutely inspected her car before letting her get in and promising to follow her.

She’d liked the town house right away. It seemed to be well built and had luxurious touches she appreciated. The entry and living room boasted gleaming wood floors, the bathrooms Corian countertops and molded sinks and the kitchen a granite-topped island and a copper backsplash behind the stove. Kitchen appliances, including refrigerator, were included, to her relief. She’d never owned a washer or dryer and would have to buy those, but otherwise she was set.

Noah had followed her into the alley, where she felt lucky to have a single-car detached garage. Cait took pleasure in using the remote control and watching the door rise. She’d never had her own garage before, either.

He pulled into the single parking space beside it and was waiting inside the fenced yard when she came out the garage’s side door with one of her big suitcases. “Do you have more?”

He ended up pulling the other large one and carrying the small case. As they crossed the yard, his gaze took in the deck with built-in benches and landscaping.

“I wish you didn’t have the distance to get in the house.”

Colin cloned. The thought of her brother hurt. It took an effort to make a clownish face at Noah. “Don’t rain on my parade. This is a nice place.”

A grunt was her only answer.

He did concede after a brief tour that, as rentals went, this one seemed fine. She teased him that he just didn’t want to admit how nice it was because Earl had built it.

The glint of humor in his eyes was the closest she got to an admission from him.

The front doorbell rang, and she stood back as two hefty men carried in the new sofa. When they asked where she wanted it, she made a hasty decision and they set it down, then went out for first the bar stools, then the mattress and springs. They put together the simple metal frame way faster than she could have, heaved the springs and mattress into place and departed as briskly as they’d come.

Aware of Noah watching from the bedroom doorway, Cait said, “There. Halfway to furnished.”

“Do you have a pillow? Linens? Towels?”

“I plan to go out this evening for the basics.”

He frowned. “I thought I was going to leave you safely tucked away for the night.”

The idea of going out again held no appeal, but sheets weren’t the only necessity she lacked. “I suppose I should have taken another hour this morning.”

“You don’t have groceries.”

“I’ll do that tomorrow. I can pick up a couple of cheap bowls, paper plates…” She shrugged. “I’ll survive until my stuff gets here.”

“You could have borrowed from your brother.”

“I…didn’t think to.”

Colin had clearly been stunned when he’d seen her suitcase that morning. His gaze had traveled slowly from it up to her face.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I told you. I can’t stay,” she had repeated. She’d known she was hurting him again but was unable to imagine what it would be like if she did stay.

His face had closed—bang—until it was hard and almost unrecognizable. She supposed it was his cop face, one she’d never seen. He didn’t say another word, only followed her back in, grabbed the larger of the two remaining suitcases and hoisted all of them into the back of her small car.

“Where are you going?” he’d asked.

“I’ll let you know.”

He nodded and went back in the house, leaving her to depart unescorted for the first time since Tuesday night.

Thinking about Colin now made her chest constrict painfully. She couldn’t imagine anything she could say that would undo the damage. The awful thing was, a small part of her still wondered. Hadn’t she read that no one in law enforcement believed in coincidences? In the moment when she’d told him about Hegland and their mother, she’d seen hate in his eyes for a man who, barely a week later, was murdered.