Page 24

24

L ulu was sweaty, grimy, and all she wanted was a shower and fresh clothes. When she stopped by the house, she stripped off and hopped under the steamy spray, washing the day away.

She would have luxuriated in it much longer, but she had to be mindful of Kai and Henry. She didn’t want to keep them waiting. Plus, she was starving. Because she’d been so busy, she hadn’t eaten much during the day.

Wrapping a robe around her, she padded into the kitchen in bare feet to grab a glass of water. From the front windows, she could see a familiar sedan pulling up in front of her house.

Ray Ramsey. What on earth was he doing here? She didn’t have any memories of members of the town council stopping by the house when she’d been a child.

There wasn’t time to duck behind the couch and pretend she wasn’t home, however. Ramsey had bounded up her front steps and looked through her living room window. He could see that she was there, albeit in her bathrobe. She wasn’t going to be able to get out of speaking with him. But she’d keep it brief.

“Hi,” she said when she opened the door. “This isn’t a good time right now. I need to finish getting ready. I have people waiting for me.”

“I’ll only be a few minutes,” Ray said. “We need to discuss the investigation.”

He didn’t specify what investigation he was talking about, but she assumed it was Dana Cartwright since nothing else of note was going on in Harper.

“This isn’t the best time,” she repeated. “We can talk tomorrow at the station. Whatever time you like.”

“We need to talk now. Your boyfriend stopped by my office to ask for the names of the people who had access to Allie Baker’s apartment. He says he’s writing an article, and he’s just looking into questions a defense attorney might ask.”

Kai was a smart man, and he hadn’t thrown her bodily under the bus, either. She made a note to thank him later.

“I don’t control the content of Kai’s newspaper,” Lulu replied. “That’s his business. He can ask, and you are free to answer as you wish. But why is it a big deal? Is it some sort of secret?”

“He’s wasting his time,” Ray said, his voice louder than before. “The case is closed. Done. Allie Baker did it, and she’s going to go to prison.”

“She hasn’t even had a trial yet,” Lulu pointed out. “We don’t know how that will go. There are some unanswered questions, and those could sway a jury on reasonable doubt.”

Her calm tone didn’t seem to help the situation in the least. If anything, Ramsey appeared more agitated than before. His usually smiling face was now contorted in an angry frown, his forehead wrinkled into a scowl.

“You have to stop your boyfriend now. I won’t allow it.”

Lulu had been working on acting more adult and mature for years. She’d left her wild child days long behind her. She was a professional working an important job. She didn’t take double-dog dares or impulsively drive her mother’s minivan to Canada on a whim for poutine. Without telling her parents.

Okay, that was a teenage escapade that I shouldn’t have done. But it was delicious.

She did, however, still have one flaw. She didn’t like other people telling her what to do. Especially, when they assumed they had the right to do it. It was a Reilly family trait. They had issues with authority. Her dad had managed fine in the Army, but he’d been happier as his own boss. Her mom and brothers were the same.

“I am the sheriff, and I don’t think what he’s doing is wrong,” she said, her teeth gritted with every word. “It’s a harmless request. If you don’t want to answer, then don’t.”

There was a whole lot she hadn’t said.

Ray wasn’t reacting well to her response. His hands were furled into fists, and his face red as he berated her under his breath. She could only catch about every third word, but it was something about not respecting his authority and thinking she could make her own decisions. She was just a dumb girl who had delusions of her own grandeur.

Or something in that vein, but with more cuss words.

He used his larger frame to push past her despite her protests, planting himself in the middle of the living room. In her current state of dress, she couldn’t manhandle him and yeet him out of the front door.

“We’re going to talk about this, and I’m not going to leave until we do,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

She’d been firm. Patient. She’d even muffled her instinct to be sarcastic. But Ray Ramsey was the pushy type. Maybe that was how he bought and sold real estate. She didn’t know, and frankly, she didn’t care. Her patience with this man-child was at an end. He needed to leave, preferably in the next thirty seconds.

“Ray,” she said sharply, getting his attention. Her patience was at an end, and her anger was beginning to boil. “You need to leave my home right now. You were not invited in and are presently trespassing. We are not going to discuss this. We can talk about it tomorrow. I’ve had a long day at work, and I am in no mood for this. Please leave.”

“Or what?”

His soft-spoken question belied the anger she could see in his eyes. He was furious with her.

Good. She wasn’t so damn happy either. She hadn’t had “Ray Ramsey being an asshole” on her bingo card for the day, but here they were.

“Staying here when I’m asking you to leave is a good way to end up in jail.”

“You work for the town council.”

“I work for the citizens of Harper. You only represent them, and that doesn’t give you the right to break any laws. I’ll arrest you. If the town council wants to scream about it, they can.”

Chuckling, Ramsey shook his head and took a few steps closer so she could more clearly see his angry but amused expression.

“Lulu, the only reason you even got this job was because I pressed for them to hire you. If it weren’t for me, you never would be sheriff. You should be grateful to me.”

Her heart bumped slightly at his words. Was it true? She didn’t have a clue, and at this moment, she didn’t care. It didn’t matter how it happened.

I’m the damn sheriff now. How I got here is irrelevant. And I’m doing a good job.

“It doesn’t matter how. What’s important is that I am the sheriff, and I will arrest you.”

The happy, genial real estate agent was completely gone. Ray Ramsey had turned into a ravenous predator, his eyes gleaming with want as his gaze roamed her from head to toe. She wanted to vomit just watching him.

“In your bathrobe?” he scoffed. “You’re not so scary out of uniform, Lulu. I think we’ll have that talk right now. If you want to keep your job, that is. Are you going to call your boyfriend and tell him to back off or not?”

She didn’t bother asking if he was threatening her because he clearly was.

Sadly, he had a point. She was standing barefoot, wearing a robe and not a uniform. She wasn’t exactly intimidating people left and right in her pink terrycloth robe with a kitten on it. She was, however, pissed off. If he thought he could shake her up with his behavior, he was barking up the wrong tree.

Her gaze landed on the calendar he’d given her when she’d moved into the house. It was on the refrigerator, just in her line of sight and right behind his head. The picture showed a happy, smiling man, telling potential clients without a word that they could trust him with the largest purchase or sale of their lives.

“You haven’t answered me,” Ray said, his tone sharp. “What’s your problem?”

No, she hadn’t replied to his barely veiled threat. He was not happy at the moment, angry and frustrated that he couldn’t browbeat her into doing what he wanted. He’d threatened her job, and she hadn’t folded either.

Her gaze was still on the calendar, trying to figure out why in the hell she couldn’t stop looking at it. What was it? She should have been figuring out how to throw Ray Ramsey out of her house, but instead, she was mesmerized by an advertising photo.

It was such a shitty, smug grin in the picture, too. Like Ramsey knew the secrets of the universe, and he’d tell you about them if you’d just hire him to help buy or sell your home. And you could trust him because he was wearing a blue suit with a fun, brightly colored handkerchief in the pocket.

His clothes said that he was a good businessman, but he didn’t take himself too seriously. He was fun and professional, all at the same time. He’d be awesome to work with because he wasn’t a stick in the mud, but he knew his way around a sales contract, too.

That stupid handkerchief…

Lulu kept staring at it, not able to pull her gaze from it. Something in the back of her mind was bugging her, not letting it go but not revealing as to why. It was just a handkerchief. Ugly and loud. The blue-on-blue checked pattern looked like it belonged with a picnic basket, not with a professional business suit.

Blue-on-blue.

Yes. Right. That was it. She’d seen that pattern before. It had been wrapped around the pipe the forensic team had found in Allie Baker’s apartment.

If it was the same - and how many people wore pocket squares in Harper that looked like that - there was only one way it could have got there.

Ray Ramsey had wrapped his handkerchief around the murder weapon when he hid it in Allie’s closet. He would have had a key to her apartment because he owned the building . He was also married with kids, and he would have had a hell of a lot to lose if he’d been seeing Dana on the sly and she got pregnant. And he was strong enough to have moved the body from the house to the lake.

It all made sense now.

His preoccupation with the investigation, wanting to know how it was going all the time. He’d never cared about any of that before. Sure, it could be because she wasn’t her father, or it could be because he wanted to make sure that no one pointed to him. Guilty parties often inserted themselves into a law enforcement investigation. Sometimes to try and control, and sometimes because they simply got off on it.

If Ray and Dana had been lovers and the baby was his, then he had motive. He wouldn’t want anyone, including his wife and family, to figure out he wasn’t the pillar of the community that he pretended to be.

Whether he had means and opportunity, as well, she couldn’t say. But then he hadn’t been a suspect until this moment.

Did you kill her? Did you? Did you murder Dana in cold blood?

Lulu quickly schooled her features, hoping her thoughts weren’t written on her too-expressive face. She’d always admired those poker-faced people in her life, but she wasn’t one of them. She’d never get rich in Vegas, but she just might be able to pretend that she didn’t think the man standing only a few feet from her was a killer.

Her phone on the counter rang, but she ignored it. She didn’t want to turn her back on Ramsey.

“Maybe we could talk about this over a beer?” Lulu offered. “I’m supposed to meet Kai at the sports bar in town. How about you come with me, and we can chat about this? You can talk to him yourself, and we can figure something out.”

Friendly. Open. Pals. Keep it light.

She wasn’t afraid of Ray Ramsey, but she probably should be. He wasn’t a small man, and he might not make it easy if it came down to it. He could fight or run.

She’d studied self-defense, but he had a good six inches and about fifty pounds on her. Her class instructor had told her that with a strength deficit like that, she should think about outrunning them if possible. She wasn’t exactly in the perfect outfit for that.

Lulu couldn’t yet say for sure he was a murderer, but he needed to be questioned and investigated. She had the law on her side and pretty much nothing else. The odds were not in her favor. If she had to fight him to get him out of her house, things might not go well. It would be better to finesse him out of the door.

Later, she could officially bring him in for questioning.

Lulu had been trying to keep her face bland and her tone normal and even. She didn’t want Ramsey to pick up on any weird vibes that might be out there between them.

She must not have done so well, however, because his gaze was sharp and skeptical when he heard her request.

“You want me to have a drink with you?”

“Sure, why not? You can talk to Henry about maybe buying a house.”

“According to your friend, he doesn’t want a house.”

“I’m supposed to meet them in a few minutes,” she reminded him. “Let’s go join them. Otherwise, they’ll worry and come looking for me.”

“I think you’re lying,” he replied softly. “I don’t think anyone is waiting for you.”

The Ray Ramsey standing in front of her bore no resemblance to the smooth-talking realtor this town knew well. Any scrap of charm and friendliness was gone, leaving him cold and remote. There was a darkness in his eyes that she’d never seen before, but she’d heard it described. Brianna had talked about Jake Bryson’s dark, empty eyes when he’d been about to kill her. She’d said there was nothing behind those eyes except evil.

Now Lulu knew what she’d been talking about.

This man. This man right here…he could kill someone. He’d gone from becoming a suspect to being a murderer within minutes of her arrival here.

Her gut was screaming at her. Screaming that this man was Dana’s killer.

Her dad had told her to trust her gut. Her brain was saying that she didn’t have enough evidence yet. That she didn’t know for sure that Ray Ramsey was Dana’s killer.

But she did. She knew. She didn’t know how she knew, but something deep inside of her was yelling in her ear that Ramsey was the guy. She could see it in his eyes, his demeanor, his entire body language. She’d been sure of many things in her life, and she was sure of this, too.

No doubts.

Lulu didn’t have time to ponder her discovery, however. Like a predator stalking its prey, Ray was watching her closely, clearly studying every facial expression or slight body movement. She could physically feel the deadly tension that had built around the two of them. Her heart raced, beating against her ribs like a drum in a marching band. Blood roared in her ears as she faced Ramsey down, determined not to cower or appear weak in any way.

People like him only understand power.

Should she initiate a confrontation? Grab the nearest heavy object and swing it at him? Should she continue to try and talk him out of her house? Pretend that everything was normal?

The thing was…she was pretty damn sure that the talking portion of the evening was over. Ramsey was staring at her with those empty eyes, his expression icy cold and calculating. She might not have any choices if he suspected that she’d figured it out.

“I need to call Kai and let him know that I’m running late,” she finally said, breaking the long silence. She moved toward the kitchen counter where she’d left her phone. “I’ll tell him that you’re going to join us.”

She wasn’t, however, reaching for her cell. Instead, she planned to grab the heavy glass bowl that was meant to hold fresh fruit, but she hadn’t had a chance to go to the grocery store and fill it yet.

Just as her fingers touched the cool glass edge, Ray’s hand clamped down painfully on her wrist. She’d made a rookie mistake…she’d turned away from him, if only for a moment.

“Dana never saw it coming,” Lulu heard Ray say into her ear. He was far too close, and she could smell his sweat mixing with some revolting cologne. It turned her stomach and made her physically ill. “But you will. This time, I want to watch your face.”

It all happened fast. She tried to push away from him and run, knowing that she was at a disadvantage in a fight, but he blocked her in with his larger frame. His hands had wound around her neck, and he was bearing down with all his strength, bending her back over the granite countertop. His face contorted, his teeth bared like an animal.

The world was beginning to get dark as black spots appeared in front of her eyes as she struggled for oxygen. She clawed frantically at his fingers, but they were clamped tightly. In the distance, she could hear ringing, but she wasn’t sure if it was her phone or her ears playing tricks on her.

The world had gone fuzzy, and her life began to play in her head, shaky images of her childhood almost in fast forward. Her parents were there, and Bennett and Chase, too. Their family and friends. At one point, her dad was teaching her to fish, and Ben was being a pest. The usual sibling stuff. She’d hauled off and kicked him in the shin to make him stop his teasing. He’d howled in protest but then laughed and said that she fought dirty. He’d been strangely proud of her that day.

I fight dirty.

The room was already spinning, and her vision was narrowing dangerously. She didn’t have any time or oxygen to make any sort of plan. She simply trusted her gut to tell her what to do.

Lulu reared back her leg, and then with the scraps of energy that she had left, she drove her knee directly into his groin, his most vulnerable spot. She heard his howl of pain, and then his grip around her neck immediately loosened.

Ramsey cursed and stumbled back, falling into a heap on the floor. His face was twisted and ugly in anger, his cheeks bright red as four-lettered word after four-lettered word spilled from his lips.

She fell to her knees, gulping in air as quickly as she could to her starved lungs. At some point, tears had leaked down her cheeks, and she could taste the tang of salt on her tongue.

The entire episode from his grabbing her until now could have taken five minutes or five seconds. Lulu had no idea. Time had ceased to have any meaning. She only heard the one word that was screaming inside of her head, over and over.

Run.