ILL-TIMED ENTANGLEMENTS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #2) (26 page)

Betty grinned back at her. “All it needs,” she said, pulling a fistful of colored markers out of a pocket in the side of her A-line skirt, “…are these. May I color code it for you, my dear?”

“That would help tremendously. The lines are kind of blurring together.”

As Betty began to turn the chart into a work of art, Kate’s stomach growled, reminding them that they never had actually eaten lunch while they were in the cafeteria.

“Elizabeth, would you mind making some sandwiches?” Betty asked.

“Glad to, Aunt Betty.” Liz headed for the kitchen.

Meanwhile Kate was continuing to write summaries for each suspect. She tore the first page off of her notepad and looked around for a place to put it. Skip plucked it out of her fingers. She leaned over to study the chart again.

Kate had just finished summarizing the information on the Berkeleys and was leaning over to decide who to list next when Skip burst out laughing beside her. “Kate, do you realize you’ve listed these people in the order in which you
dislike
them?” he said teasingly.

Kate glanced over at the first page of her suspect list. “Not true. I put Mr. Forsythe before
El-leeen
,” she said, derisively dragging out the woman’s name. They made eye contact and Kate giggled.

“Kate, have you finished whatever the hell you’re doing over there?” Rob said in a gruff voice from the armchair across the room.

“Robert, watch your language.”

“Sorry, Aunt Betty.”

Skip shot Kate a look that eloquently said,
You haven’t talked to him yet, have you?

Kate shook her head slightly.

Watching the exchange, Rob felt the gulf between himself and Kate widening. His chest hurt.

“Be done in a minute,” Kate said, and bent again to her task.

She paused to grab half a sandwich from the plate that was circulating the room. After a couple bites, she said, “Liz, how do you manage to make even sandwiches into a gourmet treat?” Having never mastered the skill of making palatable food herself, Kate was always amazed by her friend’s talent in that area.

Liz thanked her for the compliment.

Kate added the last suspect to her list of summaries. She handed the sheet to Skip and said, “Double check for me that I haven’t forgotten anything, would you?” Kate nabbed another half sandwich from the plate.

Betty pointed one of her markers at each name on the chart while Skip looked for it on the list. When he nodded, she moved on to the next name.

Skip gave a final nod, and Kate asked Betty for a pair of scissors. After swallowing her last bite of sandwich, she started cutting the summaries apart, so that one suspect was on each slip of paper.

“Joe’s more likely to agree to another interview if the interviewer is female, but the guy’s a real creepo.” Kate turned to Rose and Mac. “You guys willing to take a crack at him?”

Mac nodded and Kate handed the Joe slip down to them.

“The Forsythes…”

“Tried to talk to her this morning,” Mac interrupted. “The bit….ouch!” Rose had elbowed him in the side. “The
lady
wouldn’t give me the time of day.”

“Well,
Skippy
here has developed a certain rapport with
Ellen
…” It was Kate’s turn to say “Ouch,” when Skip lightly punched her shoulder.

“I’m bigger’n you, remember?” he drawled.

She snickered. “I’d better go with him, though, as his protection.”

“I’ll go with him,” Rob said.

Yeah, not gonna happen, buddy,
Kate thought. Out loud she said, “Actually, I was suggesting I go with him so he can concentrate on charming her while I observe. It’s a combination that’s worked well with her before.”

“I can observe her as well as you can,” Rob said.

“Well, yes, but she’s less likely to flirt with Skip, and let her guard down in the process, in the presence of another man.”

“But she will in front of a woman?” Rob asked skeptically.

Liz intervened. “She most certainly will. Sounds like the kind of woman who might
like
to show off her power over men in front of other women.”

Kate flashed Liz a grateful smile. “That’s my take on her.”

“I want to do some more research on the other two couples,” Liz said. “Hopefully they won’t turn out to be wanted by the FBI.”

“Okay, we’ll put off talking to them for now…”

“Kate, I don’t think we should wait to talk to the Murphys.” Skip pointed to the chart on the coffee table. “They’re the ones with the most solid lines. We can go back to them again later if Liz digs up something new.”

“Okay. You want them, Rob?” Kate asked. He held out his hand and she passed their slip over to him.

“I’ll take Morris,” Skip said. “I’m bound and determined to get that man to talk to me.”

Rob glanced down at the chart. “Why’s Paul Johnson on the suspect list?”

“Who’s
Paul Johnson?” Liz asked.

“He approached Rob and me and said he was a friend of Jeff’s,” Kate said. “But he didn’t seem to know Jeff as well as he claimed to. Skip’s suspicious that he could be the killer, or at least Jeff’s killer, and he’s inserted himself into the investigation to find out what’s going on.”

“He did ask a lot of questions,” Rob said. “Do you know whether this Johnson guy was a friend of Jeff’s, Aunt Betty?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them together.”

Liz grimaced. “He’s gonna be hard to research. That’s such a common name.”

“I’ll call on him to offer my condolences,” Betty said. “I think I can draw him out.”

“That’s too dang…,” Rob started to protest but Kate intentionally interrupted him. Betty was rallying, and the best antidote for depression was action.

“I think that’s a great idea, Betty,” she said. “But it’s not safe for you to go by yourself.”

“Mac or Skip could go, as her bodyguard. Stand by the door,” Rose suggested.

“Hmm.” Betty tapped her index finger against her upper lip. “I think Mac. Skip would be far too distracting for the poor man.” And she actually winked at Skip.

Skip squirmed a little as the others stared at Betty for a beat, then Kate and Liz burst out laughing.

“I’ve got Carroll,” Skip said, to bring them back to task. “What about Carla Baxter?”

“I’ll try her again,” Rob said.

“That just leaves Jennings,” Skip said.

“I’ll take Jennings, while Mac goes with Betty to Johnson’s apartment,” Rose said, standing up and offering a hand up to Mac.

Kate passed out the appropriate slips of paper and Rose headed for the door. Kate stood up and followed her, with Skip trailing behind.

Once outside the building, Kate turned in the direction of the Forsythes’ building. “This late in the day, Ellen’s probably not at the gym.”

From beside her, Skip’s voice was low and serious. “I thought you were going to talk to him, Kate. How’re you supposed to do that if you’re not with him?”

Kate came to a halt and Skip was a long stride past her before he realized she had stopped walking. He turned back and stepped in close to her.

She looked up into his face. This time she didn’t stop her hand when it moved of its own volition to brush back the hair from his forehead.

He closed his eyes and groaned softly at her touch.

The sound sent a warm tingle down the core of Kate’s body. She started to take a step back but Skip captured her hand in his and held it against his chest. She could feel his heart beating rapidly.

She gently tugged her hand loose. “Tired of my company,
Skippy
?” she said to lighten the mood, smiling up at him.

After a beat he managed to return her smile. “I’m bigger’n you, remember.”

His good sense did battle with the desire to crush her against him and kiss her. The former finally won and he forced himself to take a step backward. They turned and walked side by side in silence.

As they neared the Forsythes’ building, good sense lost the second skirmish. Skip suddenly grabbed Kate’s hand and dragged her around the corner, away from prying eyes. He did manage to resist the urge to trap her against the side of the building and kiss her. Holding her hand in both of his, he started to blurt out, “Kate, I…”

The fingers of her other hand were on his mouth in an instant, stopping the flow of words. “No, Skip, don’t take us to a place that we can’t back up from.” Hastily dropping her tingling fingers from his lips, she tugged her other hand loose.

Reluctantly stepping away from him, she said, “Let’s just get through this. We need to catch this killer… so life can go back to normal. And then we’ll see.”

For the first time since his father had died, Skip wanted to cry. He blinked and could feel wetness on his eyelashes. He also took a step back. Sucking in air, he let it out in a long shuddering exhale.

Trying to grin but not quite pulling it off, he said, “I was just going to tell you that I really want to kiss you.” He was lying. What had been about to come out of his mouth was “Kate, I love you.” And, damn it, she was right. It was way too soon for that. Despite the difference in the length of their strides, she would run away so fast he would never be able to catch her.

“Skip, that is a very tempting proposition. But I’m pretty darn sure that if we did that, there would be no turning back.”

“And that would be a bad thing, why?”

She smiled at him. “It wouldn’t be if… It won’t be
when
the time is right.” She looked around. Sure enough, there was a shade tree with a bench under it about twenty feet away. “Let’s sit down for a minute.”

They walked to the bench and Kate settled at one end of it. Skip sat down, trying to leave some room between them. But he was a big man. There were only a couple inches of the bench seat showing.

They both knew it probably wasn’t enough.

“Look, Skip, I’m not trying to tease you…”

“More like torture, Kate,” he said mournfully.

“I know, and to be truthful, it is for me too. But if and when we… get together, I want it to work. I think there’s a lot more potential here than just a nice little romance that will fizzle out after awhile.” She paused to think through what she wanted to say.

Skip smiled, encouraged by her words.

Kate was encouraged by the smile. He also wanted more than just a nice little romance. “I’m not making any promises,” she continued. “But I have every intention of going out with you at some point, and I hope that point is not too far off in the future.”

“And once we get there, can I kiss you?” He tried to keep his voice light and teasing.

“When we get to that point, Skip, I will be
extremely disappointed
if you don’t kiss me.” She returned his smile. “But I’m afraid if we gave in now… to the desire… to kiss… I’m afraid once we…” Her voice trailed off on a croak as a blush crept up her cheeks and she looked away from him.

He decided to let her off the hook. “We should probably stop talking about it.”

Kate looked up at him again. “Skip, I know this isn’t fair to you, to ask you to wait. But if we go there too soon, before I’m ready… It would break my heart to hurt you. And I would be very disappointed that things between us didn’t work out.”

“How can a man argue with that?”

She gave him a small smile. “Oh, I knew plenty of them in high school and college who would be arguing right now.”

“That’s because getting what they wanted right then was more important to them than the long-term benefits. As badly as I want… what I want right now, I’m going to have to concede the debate to you.” His smile did not quite make it to his eyes this time. They were filled with disappointment.

Abruptly, he stood up and took a long stride away from the bench, then turned back toward her. “I want it to work, too, Kate. But honestly, I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you if… Look, I have an idea. Suddenly I’m reminded of those damn dance lessons my mother decided I needed when I was twelve. Guess she thought it would help me get over my awkward phase, as she called it.” He gave an exaggerated eye roll.

“The teacher was a real throwback to the past, a total prude. She would run around with a ruler, sticking it between the boys and girls to make sure we weren’t dancing too close to each other.” He mimicked holding a girl at arm’s length. Then he pursed his lips in a prim expression and pretended to hold the end of an imaginary ruler against his chest. “If we hadn’t all been so totally self-conscious, we probably would have laughed at her. Most of us were still in the ‘the other gender has cooties’ stage.”

Kate had been snickering at his antics for the last few seconds. Now she laughed out loud. “I think I know what you’re leading up to here. What does the rule need to be, three feet?”

“Naw, my arms are almost that long, and if I lean over a bit.” Skip leaned toward her to demonstrate. “No, I think it needs to be more like four feet.”

Kate nodded her head but now her smile was a bit forced. She was surprised by the ache in her chest at the thought of not being able to at least stand close to him.
Cut it out! You’re the one who started this conversation.

“Uh, Skip, I know it’s supposed to be ladies first, but could you do me a favor and walk away now. Before I jump up off this bench and do something I’ve just spent the last ten minutes convincing you we shouldn’t do yet.”

Skip grinned at her, almost giddy with relief. She truly did want him, maybe even as much as he wanted her. The timing just wasn’t right… yet. He could wait. He was a patient man.

“Happy to oblige. Well, not exactly happy, but I’ll do it.” He gave her end of the bench an exaggerated wide berth as he walked back toward the front of the building.

She followed at a healthy distance behind him. He grabbed the door handle and stepped back, holding the door open for her. She stopped in her tracks and cocked her head at him.

“Okay, okay,” he said. Taking two long backward strides, he clasped his hands behind his back, looked up at the sky and whistled tunelessly under his breath, while she opened the door and entered the building.

E
llen
informed them in a whisper that her husband was taking a nap. She tiptoed over and pulled the bedroom door closed. Kate noted that the low cut, red silk top and snug black pants were a bit dressy for lounging at home.