Thick as Thieves(28)

“For all the good it did me. Are you sure it was your regular?”

“Yes, I recognize the sound of the motor.”

“What’s it sound like?”

She gave a shrug of confusion. “A car. But it does have a distinctive sound.”

He tried to make sense of that, but it escaped him.

“Where’s your truck?”

“Parked in the cypress grove.” He thumbed in the general direction. “I used a road that brought me in from the west to the back of your property. I walked from there.”

“So I wouldn’t know you were here.”

“So he wouldn’t know.”

“I doubt he would have spotted you. Out there in the dark, you would have been well concealed.”

Had she put on that ungodly outfit to conceal herself from him? If so, she’d been too late. He’d gotten a tantalizing eyeful while she was waggling that nine-millimeter at him. Underneath her short nightgown, the dips and distentions had been impossible not to notice, and even more impossible to ignore. As was the disturbance they’d created below his belt.

“Well?”

He realized she had continued talking while his mind had drifted to shapely bare legs and a slipping shoulder strap. “I’m sorry, what?”

Exasperated, she said, “Did you come here tonight to see if the bogeyman was real or a figment of my imagination?”

“I believe he’s real.”

“Thank you for taking my word for it.”

“I didn’t. Animal instinct.”

“Oh, really? Is your animal instinct so reliable that you always act on it?”

He waited a beat. “Not always.” Another beat. “Bad as I want to.”

His suggestiveness wasn’t intentional. Or maybe it was. But in any case, the words caused a subtle but definite shift, not only a straying from the topic of discussion, but a change in the current between them, a thickening of the room’s atmosphere. He felt the increase of air pressure in every cell of his body. The ticking of the wall clock seemed to be keeping beat with something other than passing seconds.

She must have sensed it, too, because she didn’t say anything, or move, and her eyes stayed locked with his, as though any reaction might trigger something uncertain and unsafe.

Then her cell phone jangled, and she jumped like she’d been scalded.

She shuffled backward away from him and glanced down at the phone where it lay on the table. “My sister. I’d better get it.” She picked up the phone and clicked in. “Hi.”

“Were you asleep?”

Still looking directly at him, Arden said, “No, I’m wide awake.”

The voice coming through the phone was as clear as a bell to him, but Arden didn’t retreat to conduct the conversation in private, so he didn’t retreat to grant her privacy. He propped himself against the counter and watched Arden closely, hoping to gain a clue as to why she seemed to have such a complex relationship with her sister.

Lisa said, “Well, what I have to tell you certainly won’t help your insomnia.”

“Then can it keep until morning?”

“You need to hear this now.” Arden looked ready to protest, but Lisa didn’t give her a chance. “After we talked today, I had one of our people who runs background checks on potential employees do one on Ledge Burnet. She discovered something startling.”

Arden blinked several times, but otherwise remained as she was.

Lisa took a deep breath. For effect, he thought. Then she said, “This guy is bad news. He was arrested on a drug charge—”

“I already know that.”

“But did you know that his second offense occurred on the same night that Dad disappeared?”

Arden’s lips parted in shock. By an act of will, Ledge kept his expression impassive.

“The same night, Arden,” Lisa repeated with emphasis.

Arden swallowed. “Are you sure?”

“It’s a matter of record. I had one of our legal team double-check.”

Her lips remained open. She was breathing through them. “I fail to see—”

“Think about it.” Lisa sounded as though she wanted to shake her. “In Dullsville, USA, where big news is who catches the largest bass of the month, in a single night a major burglary and a likely murder took place, both of which our father was alleged to have committed. That same night, this prior offender was out and about dealing drugs. Only marijuana, but still.”

Arden continued to stare straight into his eyes as she pieced together the components. “But what…what possible connection could there be?”

“I have no idea,” Lisa said. “But at the very least it’s a bizarre coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”

Arden didn’t say anything, only continued to search his eyes.

Lisa pressed on. “Furthermore, when he came clean with you about his criminal record, he didn’t say, ‘Oh, and by the way, get this. This is a weird coincidence.’ Wouldn’t that have been the time to mention it?”

Arden gave it thought, then said, “We didn’t learn about the burglary and the allegations against Dad until the following Monday. If Ledge was in custody over the weekend, maybe he never knew about the coincidental timing, either.”