SEAL Wolf In Too Deep(29)

Well, maybe they wouldn’t really go out to dinner.

“I’ll call you about tomorrow night,” he said.

Allan and Debbie had continued to arrive separately at the pizzeria. He thought she was trying to flirt with other dive team members who were single, but he could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. He felt like a real heel, but what could he do about it? Nothing.

Rowdy shook his head. “See you all next week, if we’re still on.”

“Sure,” Debbie said, smiling.

“Right. Next week,” Allan agreed.

Then he left and headed home. When he arrived at his cabin, he got a call from Debbie. “Listen, about tomorrow night—”

“When did you want me to pick you up?”

“I…don’t want you to feel obligated.”

“I’d like to go out, if you’d like to.”

“Sure. Thanks for rescuing me from Rowdy. I don’t think he believes you’ve had a change of heart about us, but I appreciate that you made the offer.”

Allan couldn’t share how he really felt. How much he wanted to take her out. How much he wanted to stay with her afterward. She was like a drug to him, an addiction he couldn’t give up.

“Would six be good?”

“Okay, see you then.”

Allan knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He knew it, but he told himself there would be no harm in a little dinner date.

*

Late the next afternoon, Allan got a call from Rose. Every time he did, he worried she was going into labor. “I was looking over the applications—”

“You’re not going into labor,” he blurted out.

Pause. Then Rose chuckled. “No. I guess every time I call, I need to preface the conversation with, ‘I’m not going into labor yet.’ Every time I call anyone, I get the same panicked comment.”

Allan breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, you were going over applications from potential new members who want to join our pack and…?”

“I found one from around the time Lori and I discovered the dead woman. We’ve either met and accepted or rejected everyone else who sent one. Or they rejected us. I didn’t think she could be the woman because she said she would check us out in a few weeks. But we found the dead woman only a few days after this was sent. So I didn’t make the connection, thinking this Sarah Engle was still coming to see us in a few weeks. A few weeks have passed. Allan, I think…I think she might have been part of that LARP group in southern Montana that I went to check out.”

He sure hoped this was the break in the case that they so desperately needed. “Is that where she was from?”

“On her application, she said she was. I didn’t see her with the group when I went down there, but under hobbies she said that she loves theater production and mentions LARP—not that particular group, just listed the acronym. So I’m thinking she could have been with Zeta’s group. I told Paul and Lori, but he wanted me to call you and tell you everything I knew. He wants you to speak with Zeta Johansson, the woman who runs the group. I’d go because I’ve already met her before and she seemed to like me but—”

“You’re due any day now. I’ll go.”

Rose gave him the address. “Let us know what you find, all right?”

“I will.” Then he ended the call and looked at the clock. It was three already and it would take three hours in good weather to reach Helena. He’d have to see if he could schedule a meeting with Zeta for Sunday because of the lateness of the hour, the worsening weather, and his date with Debbie.

But then the name of the place jogged a memory. The dead man in the car submerged in the lake had stolen the car in Helena, Montana. What were the odds that two people from there weren’t related somehow? Both murdered near Bigfork. Both from Helena. And murdered only a day apart. What if the murdered man had also been a member of the LARP group?

“Paul,” Allan said, giving him a call right away. “You’re not going to believe this, but…”





Chapter 10


This was it! Allan was finally taking the bull by the horns and asking her out. This would be their first real date, and Debbie couldn’t have been happier and more excited about it. She spent the day doing laundry and cleaning the duplex, just in case Allan stayed the night. Not that she thought he would. But then again, she wanted to be prepared.

During the day, she’d gone over her wardrobe a million times. Nothing suited the occasion. Too flashy, like she was ready for a New Year’s Eve party, or too dark and businesslike, as if she were a female detective on a TV series. Or too casual—soft, million times washed jeans. One dress looked too frumpy. Another like she was going to a church social. Maybe slacks. One pair was too baggy. Another too short-legged and tight. When had they shrunk?

She eyed her black jeans and a jade sweater that was so soft and cuddly. That would do. She threw them on and then considered her hair. Up and sexy, or was that too much like the way she wore it all day on the job?

Down and soft and curling about her shoulders? Despite how tipsy she had been the night she’d had the beer at the pizzeria, she had seen the look on Allan’s face when she’d let her hair down—admiration. But was it sexier if he removed the barrette? That if they started kissing, she would go from polished to ready for some fun loving?