Copper Lake Secrets (24 page)
Emotion shuddered through him. “I knew when I came here he was dead. I felt it. At least now we
know.
”
She understood the difference between knowing and
knowing.
She’d known something bad had happened that summer. Now she
knew
exactly what.
Would it make a difference to him—that his brother had died because of her? Would it change the way he felt about her? She was trying to find the courage to ask when he sighed heavily, his arms tightening.
“Fate,” he murmured. “Everything happens for a reason.”
Her father’s death, Jones’s and Glen’s desire for new lives, that horrible summer, her return at the same time as Jones’s, Mark’s secrets, Grandfather finally, for the first time, doing something to protect his granddaughter.
Fate.
She breathed deeply of rain-washed air, the damp of the river, the scents of sweat and soap and Jones and herself, then gently pulled from his embrace. “We’d better call Detective Maricci.”
Hand in hand, they skirted Mark’s body, circled around the house and headed to the cottage. As soon as the authorities arrived, she figured, the entire property would be declared a crime scene and she and Jones would have to leave. He might return here someday to work, but she never would. The past was over, and Fair Winds had no place in her future.
Even if it had brought her Jones.
She loved fate.
And she was pretty sure she loved
him.
It had been a week since their discovery of the first body. The excavation had been slow going, but so far, more than forty bodies had been found buried in the front lawn. The authorities assumed the victims were mostly hitchhikers, runaways and homeless people—the kind of people who could go missing without anyone noticing. They estimated the older graves at forty to fifty years old. Arthur Howard had started his hobby young, about the time he destroyed the gardens.
The thought repulsed Jones: What kind of man preferred moldering bodies in his yard over color, fragrance and well-maintained flower beds?
Glen’s body hadn’t been identified yet. DNA and dental matches could take a while with so many victims.
So many victims.
Thank God he and Reece hadn’t become two more in the Howards’ lifelong killing spree.
Mark’s funeral had been private, and Miss Willa had sent a message that Reece wasn’t welcome. After the service, she and Mark’s family had left Copper Lake for Raleigh, where his mother lived. No one knew whether she would return to the home that had meant so much to her or if the revelations would keep her away. Jones was betting she would be back.
But he wouldn’t. There were too many other things he wanted to do. Get on with his work. Live his life. Spend every moment possible with Reece.
They were standing in the nearly deserted parking lot of the motel where he and Mick had first stayed in town. She lifted her suitcase into the SUV, then turned to catch him watching her. The smile that spread across her entire face warmed him from the inside out. She was beautiful. She was everything he could ever want in a woman. She was his fate.
“Are you ready?” she asked, reaching through the open pickup window to scratch between Mick’s ears.
“I am.” In less than forty-eight hours, they would be in New Orleans, where he would meet her friends, whose approval he wanted, and her dogs, whose approval he needed. He trusted his obvious love for her would be all Evie and Martine would have to know, and dogs always liked him. If Bubba, Louie and Eddie were a little hesitant, he could count on Mick—and plenty of treats—to smooth the way.
He kissed her, and the hunger that was always right there simmering beneath the surface flared. Reluctantly he stepped away, opened the door for her and waited until she was buckled in before he closed it again. After climbing into the truck, he leaned forward to see past Mick’s wagging tail. “Hey, you said last week that you didn’t want the Howard name anymore. You want to consider mine?”
For a moment, she gazed at him, expression blank. They’d done a lot in the past week: dealt with the cops, made love, discussed their pasts, their present, their future. He’d said
I love you,
and she’d said it, too, but neither of them had gotten around to bringing up marriage.
Then came that sweet, warm smile that danced along his spine and made him want to lose himself with her, and she responded with words he knew he’d hear from her again. “I do.”
He grinned foolishly as she shifted into Reverse and backed in a big U around the truck, until they were facing each other again with only a few feet of pavement between them. “Tell me again…is Jones your first name or last?”
Without waiting for an answer, she blew him a kiss and drove away. He laughed as he shifted into gear to follow her. “Settle in, Mick. We’re going home.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8224-7
COPPER LAKE SECRETS
Copyright © 2011 by Marilyn Pappano
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