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“A couple of days? The entire site is being cataloged. It’s slow work. What little I saw of the inside resembles a sixteenth-century English home more than an Algonquian dwelling, which isn’t that surprising given that Manteo had begun dressing and acting like the English.”
The main street of town was bustling with tourists. David pointed to the New Moon when we turned the corner. A giant “Closed” sign hung in the window, and the place was conspicuously devoid of activity. “Isn’t that where you work? Why is it closed?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Two of the employees died.”
“Died?” He sounded alarmed. “How?”
I sludged through my exhausted brain, trying to remember what the official police statement said.
“Don’t do that,” he said, his voice thick with disappointment.
“Do what?”
“Whittle down your answer to some bite-sized nugget you think will appease me. Either tell me the truth or don’t answer.”
I stopped and looked up at him in amazement. “Where the hell were you three weeks ago?” Perhaps if I’d had his intelligence at my disposal, I wouldn’t have gotten myself into this mess.
“I was biding my time in Chapel Hill, waiting to meet you, even if I didn’t know it yet.” The way he looked at me as if I were some kind of treasured prize made me wonder if he meant that I was more than just a giant puzzle for him.
We stood on the street corner, staring at each other longer than was appropriate while the tourists walked around us. I had an entirely new thought: Where was hefourweeks ago when I was dating boring Dwight? Before Collin stole my soul?
Someone bumped into my back, and I stumbled into David’s chest. He grabbed my elbow with one hand and then wrapped his other arm around my back.
“Are you okay?” he asked, still holding me against him.
“Yes.” But I still didn’t break free, my heart aching. This man was just another reminder of everything I’d lost, everything I could never have.
“Why do you suddenly look so sad?”
I forced a smile. “Let’s file that under information youmightlearn down the road.”
His hands dropped slowly, and he took a small step backward. “Okay. I can live with that. For now.”
It was easy to see that David Preston didn’t back down from a challenge, and it was also easy to see he was used to getting his way. It was no wonder. He was a force to be reckoned with. If he didn’t get his way the first time, he could probably wear the opposition down with his endless questions.
“How did the employees die?” he asked again.
I turned away from him and walked across the street, waiting until he was next to me. “They were frozen.”
He stopped in the middle of the street. “What do you meanfrozen?”
I grabbed the crook of his arm and pulled him onto the curb and out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. “Frozen. Solid.”
“How could that happen?”
“The police are still trying to figure that out.”
“That’s bollocks, Ellie.” He sounded irritated.
I stopped and put a hand on my hip, giving him a glare. “I’m guessing ‘bollocks’ is similar to ‘bullshit,’ and I can promise you that it’s not, Dr. Preston. The policearestill looking into it.” I glanced back at the entrance to the restaurant, where their bodies had been found. “I pay attention to what they know.”
“What doyouknow?” His voice softened. “And call me David, please.”
“Well,David,I know more than they do, but I don’t quite feel comfortable telling you yet, especially not out in the open like this.”
“Okay.”
I glanced up at him in surprise.
