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"Maybe not, Penny We don’t know that"

Darcy felt her breath catch That was it, of course She’d assuhost had to have been there for years She had never really thought that Matt ht have killed his ex-wife, and yet…

The suspicion had been there

She stared at Adam He stared back at her, and she knew that they were both hoping that they hadn’t found Lavinia Harper Stone

Matt was still staring at Darcy She felt his eyes and looked back at hi about this skeleton--yet," he said "But ill"

With that, he walked on by

And all eyes turned on Darcy

Chapter 17

17

I t was approxi out the bones

It was four by the ti dirt along with the skeleton and sealed off the s the reue at the Mahoney Funeral Home by four-thirty, and Matt was back at the house by five and finally showered and in bed at five-thirty

He was exhausted, and should have slept easily, but he lay awake staring up at the ceiling How the hell had she done it?

He was teo to her Knock on her door, the hell hoever reater need than ever to be with her He tried to tell hiht be capable of ht, once again, seeing the look in her eyes, the set of her jaw It was creepy, and if he was failing to realize it, it was all because he was blinded by e his dick, rather than his

Didn’t matter, he realized He felt the sanant He looked at his watch Six He groaned, then rose, went out to his desk, and began shuffling through his papers Somewhere, he had the cell number he wanted Not in his phone, it was too new

At last, in the bottom draith a stash of old pictures, he found the nu machine

She didn’t ansith a sinized the house nu!" Lavinia cooed over the wires "Darling, do you knohat time it is?"

"Six-o-five, I believe," Matt said dryly "Sorry, I thought your ive h really, you should know better than to call me at this hour, unless, of course, you have some kind of incredibly hot proposal to make?" she teased

"No Actually, I just called to see how you were doing"

"At six in the ?"

"Like I said, I didn’t expect you to answer"

He heard Lavinia’s low, husky, ruh Once, the sound of it had been sheer aphrodisiac Now…

"Things are going wickedly down there, so I hear," she told hi to call to see if you were all right"

"Oh?"

"An article -stick you’ve got down there All about the occult You’ll just have to see it, darling All about the world’scast into a grave"

"That just happened yesterday!" Matt said

"Darling, it’s only ‘news’ because they get it out quickly"

"Good point, Lavinia"

"Is she that beautiful?" Lavinia inquired

Matt wondered if there was a touch of jealousy in her voice, and even, a touch of pathos

The past was long gone And Lavinia was alive and well and in New York He was suddenly feeling very generous

"Lavinia, she looks a great deal like you A tall redhead with all the elegance in the world"

"Should I come down and meet her?" Lavinia asked Matt wasn’t sure if she did so with mischief, or the best of intentions "I mean, it sounds as if you could use a little help You know…actually, I wasn’t all that fond of the Lee Room myself, but…the article this fellorote tells about all these weird events at the house, how a ghost has pulled hair and slapped people, and all that kind of stuff If you need help…?"

"That’s sweet, Lavinia I think we’re fine" He hesitated "Miss Treht Once the remains are identified, I think we’ll be fine"