“Ian Walker. You wanted me to check on him.”
“His credentials, which you did.”
“I kept digging.” He shrugged. “Figured it wouldn’t hurt.”
From the expression on his face, he was wrong. This was going to hurt.
“He has a wife.”
“Had. He had a wife. She died.”
The fine lines that had been etched around Cal’s mouth and eyes by the sun and the wind in countries I never wanted to visit, deepened. “She didn’t die, Grace. She disappeared. There one day, gone the next. Not a trace of her anywhere, ever.”
“How long?”
“Five years.”
“He was a suspect?”
Cal tilted his head, his eyes sympathetic. Of course Ian had been a suspect. In cases of spousal death or disappearance, the husband or wife is always a suspect.
“They could never pin anything on him,” Cal continued. “No evidence of foul play.”
“Alibi?”
“Squat.”
“Where’s he been in the five years since?”
“Not in the town where she disappeared. He left as soon as the cops said he could.”
“Odd,” I said.
“Especially since I’ve had a hard time tracing exactly where he went, but I will.”
“What made you suspicious? Why’d you keep checking?”
Cal glanced away, then quickly back. “I saw you go into his store that first day, and I waited until you came out.”
I thought back. I’d gone into what I’d thought was an abandoned building, ended up kissing a stranger. Cal had called my cell phone. He’d been checking up on me.
I could imagine what I’d looked like when I emerged onto the street. I hadn’t been kissed in a very long time, and I hadn’t been kissed like that in... forever.
“You need to stay away from this guy.”
Into the silence dropped the sound of a door closing. The shower had stopped running. I had no idea when.
Cal glanced up, then back at me. Understanding dawned in his eyes even before Ian Walker came down the staircase. His hair was wet; his shirt wasn’t buttoned; his tie was looped around his neck and his jacket over his arm. His feet were bare. From where I stood, I could see his sandals near the back door.
“Jeez, Grace,” Cal muttered.
“I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” Ian paused five steps from the bottom.
Cal opened his mouth, and I elbowed him in the stomach. He didn’t react—his gut was a brick—but he did shut up.
“Thanks for bringing me the new squad,” I said, my eyes on Ian. “I’ll see you at the office.”