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He wanted to get into the barn, and Ford figured if he tried it, it would add a fewfor him

He was a suspect It was actually kind of cool

God, once a nerd always a nerd, he thought as he went through a series of lats and flys

Once he’d worked up a sweat and an appetite, he checked in with the hospital, downed some cereal Showered, shaved, dressed, he stepped into his office, up to his workstation

He closed his eyes, held up his hands and said, "Draco brazoutside the work, and Ford into it He sat, picked up his tools and began to draw the first panel for Brid

CILLA HAD her chair angled toward the bed so she could look directly into Steve’s face as she spoke And she spoke, keeping up a constant one-sided conversation, as if any appreciable stretch of silence could be deadly

"So it’sbetter than I anticipated, even with the changes and additions I inal plans The attic space shows real pro for up there, and the fixtures and tiles for that bath, and the master We’ll be able to have a beer out on the patio, soon as you’re ready What I need is pots A couple of big-ass pots Monsters Oh, and I’ht time to do that And, like, peppers, maybe carrots and beans I should wait until next year when the house is done, but I think I could scratch out a square for a little garden now Then-"

"Miss McGowan"

Cilla took a breath When it hurt her chest to draw it in, it told her she’d been pushing too hard "Yes" What was the nurse’s name, the nurse with the curly blond hair and warm brown eyes? "Dee It’s Cilla"

"Cilla The police are out there A couple of detectives They asked to speak to you"

"Oh Sure Just a sec I’ve got to do this thing," she told Steve "I’ll be back"

Spotting the cops was the easiest thing she’d done all day, Cilla thought She stepped up to them "I’m Cilla McGowan"

"Detective Wilson My partner, Detective Urick Is there so roo they call coffee You’re looking into what happened to Steve now," she said as she led the way

"Yes, ma’am"

"Then you know he didn’t trip over his own feet, bash himself in the head and fall under his own bike" She hit the coffeepot, added powdered crea into it," Urick said "Do you know anyone who’d wish Mr Chensky harm?"

"No He’s only been here a few days Steve makes friends, not eneht"

"No hard feelings?" Wilson prootwith you"

"No, he’s visitingme a hand for a couple of weeks on the house I’ the house He’s in the business"

"Rock the House," Urick coht the show"

"Best there is You want to knoe’re sleeping together No We have, but we’re not"

Wilson pursed his lips, nodded "Your neighbor, Mr Sawyer, states that he saw a prowler on your property a few nights ago"

"Yeah, the night Steve got in Steve heard so outside"

"You didn’t"

"No, I sleep like a rock But Steve woke uilt worht he’d seen I was supposed to get a padlock for the barn, and I let it slip by"

"We noticed you sees Boxes, furniture"

"Junk," Cilla finished, and nodded at Urick "I brought it down fro the attic finished off and needed to clear it out I’ve been sorting, but it’s a big job I thought I’d separated what struck me as potentially valuable, but it’s hard to tell on a couple of passes"

"You didn’t notice anything ?"

"Not at this point"

"Some of the boxes were crushed, the furniture knocked over" Wilson gestured "It looked, possibly, as if Mr Chensky drove his bike into the barn, lost control, went down"

"That’s not what happened You knoasn’t drunk or stoned"

"His alcohol level ell under the legal lis in his syste beat "A sober man, and one who’s straddled a Harley for about a dozen years, doesn’t get off the bike, open the door, get back on the bike and yee-haw drive in over a bunch of boxes and furniture"

"The X-rays indicate Mr Chensky was struck at the base of the skull Probably a crowbar or tire iron"

Cilla pressed her hand to her heart as it tightened to a fist "Oh, God"

"The force of the blow pitched him forward, dropped him so that he hit the concrete floor, which caused the second fracture Our reconstruction indicates the Harley was rolled to where Mr Chensky lay, then pushed over on top of hi his kidney"

Urick waited, watched as Cilla set her coffee down, as her hand trehostly "Now, let ain Do you know anyone who’d wish Mr Chensky harm?"

"No No, I don’t know anyone who’d want to hurt hi like that to hi with him?"

"Ford?" For a -tiot Oh, for God’s sake"

Understanding, Cilla pressed her fingers to her eyes, then dragged theh her hair "Okay, follow the dots, please I a with Steve I ah that is on the table Ford did not attack Steve in a jealous rage as I don’t think he has a lot of rage in the first place and,to be jealous about I was up front with hi my relationship with Steve, and in fact was out with Ford the night Steve got hurt The night both one out to sniff around Shanna Stiles There’s no role here This isn’t about sex"

"Miss McGowan, it looks as though so in wait You and Sawyer knew Mr Chensky had gone out for the evening, and that he stored his ht, that’s absolutely right, Detective Wilson Just like we both knew he’d gone out to try to score with a very attractive brunette Neither of us could know if he’d get lucky or bo the evening with me, Ford snuck back, hid out in my barn, just in case Steve cauilt, annoyance all drained into sheer misery "None of this h the ite’s been disturbed or taken"

"All right"

"Your granduessof hers in that house was taken away a long tiets out, as ill, there’s still soh to break into a barn"

"And fracture ais? Most of what’s in the barn is from the McGowans The ordinary side of the family"

She went back to Steve, but this time sat in silence

When she left, walked to the elevator, she saw her father get off the car "Dad"

"Cilla" He strode quickly toward her, took her shoulders "How is he?"

"The saery, and that’s a plus, butA lot of buts and ifs and ht for a moment "I know I only met him a couple of times, but I liked him What can I do?"

"I just don’t know"

"Let et so for a while I have so for just a couple of hours "Maybe Do you think you could go in and sit with him for a little bit? Talk to him? He liked you, too"

"Sure, I will"

"And when you leave? Remind hiht"

Nodding, she pressed for the elevator, hitched her bag on her shoulder "I appreciate I really appreciate you co You barely know him Hell, you barely know me"

"Cilla-"

"But you came" She stepped into the elevator, turned, met her father’seyes "You came It means a lot," she said as the doors closed between them

WORK WORK GOT HER THROUGH the dayAnd the next day She was better at work, she thought, than at senti emotions- unless they were scripted She made her schedule, and stuck to it So , so many at the hospital, so many in the barn

That left her so many hours to fall on her air ood

Except Steve’s mother had jumped down off her broomstick and thrown the schedule into the Dumpster So, s done

She picked up a pole la down the spotted brass rod "What were they sht this?"

On i steps and launched it at the open barn doors like a javelin Then yipped when Ford stepped into view He jumped back so the lamp whizzed by his face with a few layers of dust to spare

"Jesus Christ!"

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t see you"

"Shouldn’t you yell ’fore,’ or so?" he demanded "How the hell would I have explained that one? Yes, Doctor, I’ve been iliest pole lamp in the history of pole lamps"

"I don’t think it would’ve impaled More dented Anyway, it offended my eye"

"Yeah,back here? It’s early for you," he added when she frowned at hi new Except Steve’sfor a minute" He dipped his hands into his pockets, hunched a little "She’s scary"

"She hateshim She doesn’t actually like Steve all that much, but me? She hates So I cleared the field Deserted, actually I don’t do ith mothers"

"You do okay with your stepht"

"Tuna noodle I’n of affection"

"It is, take et to her, to touch her cheek "You’re working too hard, beautiful blond girl"

"I’m not" She pulled away, kicked at one of the boxes "The cops want "

"Yeah I think I’ve been bu Tall White Guy asked randson"

"Tall oh, Urick I told them it wasn’t about you or Steve or me But what the hell is here? What’s here somebody would want so damn bad? It’s junk It’s trash It should be tossed, all of it I’ it," she decided in an instant "Help rabbed her, pulled her back up as she started to drag up a box "No You don’t toss when you’re churned up And you know that what soht have wanted isn’t here Because you already found it and put it soht Did you tell the cops about the letters?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"I don’t know, exactly Partly because all I could really think about at first was Steve And ould they do with the letters? Thirty-five-year-old letters, unsigned, no return address"

"Fingerprints, DNA Don’t you watch CSI?"

"Fact, fantasy And it’ll leak It always leaks, that is a fact Letters from a lover, days before her death Was it suicide? Was ita love child? All the speculation, the print, the airtime, the reporters, the obsessed fans, it all pumps up Any chance I had here, at peace, at a life, pretty oes up in flames"

"Why?"

"I don’t want to live like that, in the crosshairs of the cae of desperation in her own voice but couldn’t dull it "I wanted to bring so back from her, and for her But I wanted it to be mine at the end of the day"

"You don’t want to knorote those letters?"

"Yes, I do I do But I don’t want to ruin his life, Ford, or his children’s lives because he had an affair, because he broke off the affair Even if he was cruel about it There has to be a statute of lireed"

He said nothing more, just watched her, looked into her eyes until she closed them

"How could anyone prove it?" she demanded "If, if, if she didn’t kill herself If, if, if some of the conspiracy theories have been close to true and someone-this someone-made her take the pills, or slipped them to her How could we prove it?"

"I don’t know, but the first step would be asking the right people the right questions"

"I don’t know the people or the questions, and I can’t think about this Not now I need to get through today, then get through to her arms around his neck while her mouth latched on to his He wasn’t prepared for the eruption, the bursts of desperation and appetite Who could have been? With quick, catchy gasps, low, sexy s around hied And he went instantly, helplessly, hard as stone

She rubbed her body against his until he could literally feel the blood draining out of his head and heading south "Lock the door" Her lips moved to his ear, parted on a breathless whisper "Lock the door"

He quivered, felt the shock of need ram into him-head, belly, loins- like fists "Wait" Even as he said it his ulp But he et his hands on her shoulders to peel her away, a couple of inches

"Wait," he repeated, and ht as those brilliant blue eyes burned into his

"No Now"

"Cilla Whoa Jeez I can prettybreasts as I say this"

She took his hands, pulled them down, pressed "Those are mine"