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"We should go," I blurted.
Grace glanced at me. "Sure. Cartwright. " She nodded and disappeared into the darkness.
I flipped my hand like a three-year-old waving bye-bye and followed.
I was both surprised and disheartened when he let me go. I couldn't say I blamed him. He probably thought I was crazy. However, I didn't keep wild animals within yards of where I slept.
To be fair, he didn't kiss someone as if he wanted to give her everything, then panic and run away. But I doubted Malachi Cartwright had been betrayed by someone he trusted.
"Did you find anything?" I asked as soon as we pulled onto the highway that led back to town.
"I found you with your tongue down the guy's throat. "
"Did not," I returned. When she gave me a bland look, I muttered, "You came too late to see that. "
"Who says I wasn't watching for a while before I intervened?"
I narrowed my eyes and she laughed. "Relax, Claire, I wasn't, but it doesn't take a detective to figure out what you'd been up to. "
I guess Cartwright's erection gave us away. Or maybe it had been my swollen lips, my tousled hair, even my crumpled top.
"You told me to stall him. "
Grace snorted. "I meant talk to him about his work. "
"He wasn't inclined to chat. "
"I bet. " Grace slid a glance at me, then returned it to the dark highway. "I found something. "
"Tracks?"
"None that I could see. "
Which meant there weren't any.
"If not tracks, then what?"
"I'll show you inside. "
I hadn't even noticed she'd used side roads to skirt downtown and approach my house from the opposite direction. I needed to be more aware of my surroundings. That had been the principal rule of the self-defense class I'd taken. . . after.
I hadn't finished the class - receiving the call about my father before I was through. If I had, then maybe I'd have known what to do when Cartwright manhandled me. Anything but freezing like a rabbit in the sights of a wolf would have been good.
Grace followed me to the front porch and waited patiently while I dug out my keys, then opened the door. I flicked every switch as I moved through the house, lighting the place up like Christmas.
The brrr a cat makes when surprised sounded from the staircase; then Oprah rocketed down faster than I'd seen her move in years. She twined around Grace's ankles and began to purr.
"Hey, you still alive?" Grace murmured, bending to pick up Oprah.
The two of them had always been pals. Whenever Grace had stayed over, Oprah had slept curled on her chest. I would have been jealous, except I had loved Grace, too.
Her father had refused to
let her have a pet of any kind. He didn't like animals. Sometimes I'd wondered if he much liked Grace, which was why she'd spent a lot of time over here.
As each one of the McDaniel brothers had left Lake Bluff and never come back, Sheriff McDaniel, the former, had gotten crankier and crankier. By the time he'd died, everyone in town had been on their best behavior for fear they'd have to deal with him.
I tossed my keys on the hall table. The clatter made Oprah start. Two sets of green eyes - one more yellow, the other more blue - turned toward me.
