Yeah? mocked a voice in his head. Why not? Her brother’s a cop. He’s more qualified than you are to protect her. She doesn’t need you.
He ignored the voice.
He also ignored the one pointing out that, if he got in a whole lot deeper, he might as well let her start dragging home wallpaper books.
Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.
Jesus, he thought incredulously, it’s already too late.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CAIT POURED DETERGENT into the dishwasher and then straightened. She’d hold off starting it since she could hear Nell still in the shower. Colin was grabbing the dish towel and reaching for a saucepan in the drainer when Cait shut the dishwasher.
“I’m going to call Mom tonight,” she said. “She still doesn’t know I’ve moved back here.”
Her brother hung up the dish towel, his eyes on her. He was good at giving nothing away. “All right,” he said slowly. “Probably past time. Can you ask her some questions about Hegland while you’re at it? I doubt she had any idea what he was into, but you never know.”
“I wonder.” And had all too many times as she lay awake thinking about why someone wanted to kill her. “Remember, in one of the notes Mom had kept, he said something about how she was wrong, whatever she thought, and why wouldn’t she call him. What if she heard or saw something that made her suspect he was into bad stuff? Maybe she was thinking about marrying him until then.”
“Which would explain why she ran instead of just asking Dad for a divorce and staying in town.” He frowned. “I always assumed it was because she was scared of him.”
“Me, too.”
“Will she tell you if you ask?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “After our huge blowup, we’ve never talked about Jerry again.”
“Try,” he said, and, after a moment, she nodded.
Instead of retreating to her bedroom, she took her phone to the living room. If Colin overheard from the kitchen, that was fine with her.
She kicked off her shoes, curled up on one end of the sofa and punched in her mom’s number.
Her mother answered on the third ring. “Cait? It’s been months! Why haven’t you returned any of my calls?”
“It’s been maybe two months,” she retorted, recalling all too well their last conversation. She’d been hiding so much. Mom did know she’d broken up with Blake, but not why, of course. She made light of the fact that she was staying with a friend rather than renting a place of her own. No mention of her stalker, or that she was hunting desperately for a job so she could get out of Seattle. She hadn’t exactly lied, but she wasn’t exactly honest about her life, either. “And, well, I’ve kind of been in transition,” she continued.
“In transition?”
Cait had no trouble picturing the expression on her mother’s face.
“I’ve taken a job in Angel Butte.”
The silence was so complete, she wasn’t sure her mother was still breathing.
“There was a perfect opening for me. And…I wanted to get to know Colin again. I’m actually staying with him and his wife right now.”
“What about your PhD?” Mom asked after a minute. “And…what kind of job?”
She did have good reasons for putting off working on her dissertation, but the mention still made her wince. Cait was embarrassed at how little thought she’d given to it.
“I’m the director of community development. The area is booming economically, and I’ll have the chance to really help shape the city to improve livability.” She was starting to sound like a press release. “I like the job,” she finished more weakly.
“I don’t understand.” Mom’s voice wavered, as if she’d aged twenty years in the past minute. “What would make you go back? You know what we escaped.”
“And you know Dad has been dead a long time.” It came out more sharply than she’d intended.
“Your brother—”
“Turned into a good, strong man.” She turned her head to see that Colin, while still in the kitchen, was watching her. “Did you know he’s planning to run for sheriff of Butte County?”