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“You can’t go in my room!” Emma shouted, panicking. “Daddy, tell them.”
Martin’s expression was severe. “Well, we’d better just clear your name, sweetheart. Perhaps we ought to check.”
Astrid watched as Emma stormed out the room and rushed across the hall toward her own bedroom. Martin darted after her and grabbed her waist, preventing her from going inside.
“This is just making you look guilty, Emma!” he said, as she struggled in his arms.
She kicked her dad in the shin, which made him let go, then she lunged forward to run to her bedroom again, but Martin squeezed ahead of her, and rushed to open the door.
“Let us just look,” he said, stopping Emma from entering.
Emma turned and glared viciously into Astrid’s eyes, then she strode off down the hall, leaving them to search inside.
The three of them stepped in. Astrid had always been envious of this room – it was bigger than hers, and it overlooked the gorgeous back field, where all the trees were currently aflame with autumn colors. Astrid glanced at the wall above Emma’s bed and smiled as she saw a huge poster of Joseph Quinlan, smoldering at the camera. Jake saw it too and winked at Astrid, melting her soul to a dreamy mush. She bit her cheeks and looked away, refusing to be nice to him after he’d betrayed her so nastily to his other brothers.
Jake stood in the center of the room, commanding attention with his sizzling presence. “It’s not my place to go searching through a young woman’s things without a warrant.”
“I’ll look,” Astrid said.
She skirted her eyes over the mantel and the dresser, but couldn’t see anything incriminating there. Where would she hide something in here?
Her gaze fell on the double bed, so she crouched down to look beneath. She reached her hand under, and her fingers fell on…
“Four diaries,” she said, pulling them out. “Why would she want these?”
Jake shrugged. “She’s your sister – what do you think?”
“I’m not sure. But there should be five here – last year’s is missing. Was it under the floorboards, Jake?”
“No, it was empty under there.”
Astrid gazed at the diaries in her hand. “Why would she want last year’s diary?”
“There’s only one person who can tell us that,” Jake said.
Martin ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “I can’t understand it. I’d better go after her… check she’s okay.”
Astrid batted away her irritation – no one was checking she was okay, and she was the one who’d been violated by her sister. Again. She threw him a smile. “Okay, daddy.”
Martin strode toward the door, and spoke over his shoulder. “Stay for dinner, Astrid. Your mom’s missed you. And you should stay too, Jake. For helping us.”
Jake smiled politely. “Thank you, sir.”
He left the room, and Astrid felt awkward being here alone with the man who she both hated and lusted after. “I should help dad find Emma.”
He nodded. “Oh sure…”
She gazed at him, not leaving. He was so attractive, and she felt like a stupid child in his presence. “I guess I should thank you for solving all this…”
“It’s what I do.”
“Yeah.” She dropped her diaries onto the bed, then sat down – sinking into the comforter. “You know, your talents of deduction are wasted following people around like you do – you worked this one out fast.”
He shrugged. “It was pretty obvious. And I enjoy solving puzzles – finding clues. That’s why I like you. You’re an enigma.”
She laughed. “No, I’m not. You’re the one who was keeping secrets from me, you asshole.”
“I know, I’m sorry I hurt you.” He sat down next to her on the bed. “I honestly never wanted to. You’re a breath of fresh air, Astrid. In my job you get dragged down to their level – the lowlifes of the city. When I was a cop, I wanted to fight crime, but it meant I had to learn to think like them. To lie… to kill. To switch off from the good things in life. To behave like an animal in order to keep the real animals off the streets. But you… you’re so innocent and sweet. Like the springtime after a long cold winter.”
