Pine Lake

“He took classes at the community college where I sometimes teach at night. He was one of my favorite students.”

Jack stared at her in astonishment. “Leon went to night school? I never knew him to be interested in anything but fishing.”

“Then it may surprise you to learn that your uncle was a very gifted writer.”

He cast her a doubtful glance. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same Leon King?”

She smiled. “Yes, same man. He always spoke highly of you. He was very proud of the way you’d turned things around after everything you went through.” She paused thoughtfully. “For the record, I never believed you did it.”

“Why?”

His blunt challenge seemed to catch her off guard, but she recovered quickly. “Because of the way you would look at Anna. Anyone could see you were crazy about her. And why wouldn’t you be? She was a beautiful girl, inside and out.”

“She was,” he said quietly.

“And because it wasn’t in you. You weren’t capable of hurting anyone. I doubt you are now unless someone backs you into a corner.”

“You deduced all that in the space of one car ride?”

“I deduced all that a long time ago. You’re a good guy. Just like your uncle. Why else would you have climbed to the top of that bridge to rescue me?”

Her conviction caught him off guard. When Jack had decided to come back to Pine Lake, he’d braced himself for the whispers and gossip. The lingering suspicions. But he hadn’t prepared himself for Olive Belmont.

“I’ve been away from here for a long time,” he said. “I may not be the man you think I am.”

“I may not be the woman you think I am,” she countered. “If you think about me at all,” she added sheepishly.

“Hard to forget someone you meet on top of a bridge.”

He saw a shiver go through her as she turned to stare out the windshield. She looked very enticing with her hair all mussed and her lips slightly parted. Another time, another place and Jack might have responded to the subtle invitation in her smile. But a hookup was the last thing he needed, particularly with Nathan Bolt’s cousin. He’d come to town to poke a hornet’s nest. Depending on what he found, things could get ugly. Sides might have to be chosen. After all was said and done, he’d return to Houston while Olive would still have to live here. Jack knew only too well what it was like to be a pariah in Pine Lake.

She gave him another tentative smile and he tamped down the urge to tuck back her hair as he studied her face in the dim light.

“I know now why you told the sheriff I had just arrived at the lake,” she said. “I figured it out in the boat. You think I was on top of the bridge when the killer dumped Jamie’s body in the water.”

“Seems a safe bet. It couldn’t have taken more than five minutes for me to get to the bridge after I first heard a splash and you were already up there.”

“So you wanted to place me on the road rather than the bridge.”

He shifted his position, turning toward her as he relaxed his arm across the back of her seat. “I heard that splash and then a few minutes later, a car engine. The vehicle drove away on the other side of the lake. Even if you really had been on the road at the same time the body was dumped from the bridge, you wouldn’t have seen anything.”

She gave him an anxious look. “That explains why you asked if I’d heard a car engine. But I told you before—I never remember anything when I sleepwalk.”

“Jamie’s killer wouldn’t know that, though. He or she might not want to take the chance that something would eventually come back to you.”

That gave her pause. She cast an uneasy glance over her shoulder. “Do you really think I could be in danger?”

He wanted to reassure her that all would be well, but a false sense of security was never a good idea. She needed to watch her back. They weren’t out of the woods yet. The story they’d concocted for Tommy Driscoll was only a little more plausible than the actual truth. “As long as we don’t give the killer a reason to feel threatened, he’ll lay low. As far as anyone knows, I was the first to arrive on the scene. If he gets skittish, he’ll come after me.”

“That doesn’t give me much comfort,” she said with a frown.

“It should. I know how to handle myself.”

“Leon told me that you’d been a cop. And now you’re some sort of security consultant. With all your experience, you must have some idea of how Jamie died.”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

She swallowed. “I wasn’t. But now I think you have to tell me.”

“She has what appears to be a large exit wound between her eyes. I’m guessing she was shot at close range in the back of the head.”

“In the back of the head...” Olive repeated numbly.

“Without a closer examination of the body or a look at the autopsy report, I can only speculate. But I’ve seen the pattern of the wound before in execution-style murders.”

“Execution?” She stared at him in shock. “Who would do such a thing to poor Jamie?”

“You never heard talk about her involvement in any illegal activities?”

“She got into some trouble when she was younger. Drugs. Possession, I think. Her mother asked Nathan to represent her, but the family didn’t have any money. He agreed to take the case pro bono if Jamie agreed to go to night school and get her GED.”

“What about her boyfriend?”

“I don’t know him personally, but Tommy was right. Marc Waller is bad news. He was also arrested for possession but with the intent to sell. If convicted, he could have gone to prison for a very long time. But Nathan got the case dismissed because of an unlawful search. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with local law enforcement.”

“Nathan Bolt seems to be the go-to attorney for drug charges,” Jack observed.

“Well, there aren’t a lot of choices in the area and my cousin is very good at what he does.” She sighed. “The news about Jamie will devastate him. If it turns out that Marc Waller had anything to do with her death, Nathan will never forgive himself.”

These revelations were all very interesting to Jack. On the night of his return, he’d stumbled across a murder victim who happened to be a young woman that Nathan Bolt had taken under his wing. The timing was a little more than Jack could swallow as happenstance.

“It’s late,” Olive said. “And we’re both expected at the police station first thing in the morning so...”

“Right. I’ll walk you to the door.”

“You don’t need to do that. I’m fine.”

Jack reached for the door handle. “For my own peace of mind, I’d like to have a look around before I go.”

“To be honest, it’s probably best for my peace of mind, too.”

They got out of the car and walked up the porch steps together. The front door stood ajar and Olive turned to him with a worried frown.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I probably failed to close it earlier.”

Jack brushed past her, glancing over his shoulder to scan the street and all the shadowy corners of the yard before toeing open the door. “Where’s the light switch?”

“To your left.”