Once Craved (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #3) (2 page)

Riley felt a twinge
of dread as she felt the buzzing in her handbag. She stopped outside the front
door of her new townhouse and pulled out her phone. Her heart skipped a beat.

It was a message
from Brent Meredith.

Call me.

Riley worried. Her
boss might merely be checking in to see how she was doing. He did that a lot
these days. On the other hand, he might want her to return to work. What would
she do then?

I’ll say no, of
course,
Riley
told herself.

That might not be
easy, though. She liked her boss, and she knew he could be very persuasive. It
was a decision she didn’t want to have to make, so she put the phone away.

When she opened her
front door and stepped into the bright, clean space of her new home, Riley’s
momentary anxiety vanished. Everything seemed so right since she’d moved here.

A pleasant voice
called out.

“¿Quién
es?”

“Soy yo,”
Riley called back. “I’m home, Gabriela.”

The stout,
middle-aged Guatemalan woman stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands with
a towel. It was good to see Gabriela’s smiling face. She’d been the family
housekeeper for years, long before Riley had gotten divorced from Ryan. Riley
was grateful that Gabriela had agreed to move in with her and her daughter.

“How was your day?”
Gabriela asked.

“It was great,”
Riley
said.

“¡Qué bueno!”

Gabriela disappeared
back into the kitchen. The smell of a wonderful dinner wafted through the
house. She heard Gabriela start to sing in Spanish.

Riley stood in her
living room, relishing her surroundings. She and her daughter had moved here
only recently. The little ranch-style house they had lived in when her marriage
dissolved had been too isolated for safety. Besides, Riley had felt an urgent
need for a change, both for herself and April. Now that her divorce was final
and Ryan was being generous with child support, it was time to make a whole new
life.

There were still a
few finishing touches to take care of. Some of the furniture was rather old and
out of place in such a pristine environment. She’d have to find replacements.
One of the walls looked rather empty, and Riley had run out of pictures to hang
there. She made a mental note to go shopping with April this coming weekend.
That idea made Riley feel comfortably normal, a woman with a nice family life
rather than an agent tracking down some deviant murderer.

Now she
wondered—where
was
April?

She stopped to
listen. No music was emanating from April’s room upstairs. Then she heard her
daughter scream.

April’s voice was
coming from the backyard. Riley gasped and rushed through her dining area and
out onto the large back deck. When she saw April’s face and torso pop into view
above the fence between yards, it took Riley a moment to realize what was
happening. Then she relaxed and laughed at herself. Her automatic panic had
been an overreaction. But it had been instinctive. All too recently, Riley had
rescued April from the clutches of a madman who had targeted her for revenge on
her mother.

April disappeared
from view and then popped up again squealing with pleasure. She was jumping on
the neighbor’s trampoline. She’d made friends with the girl who lived there, a
teenager who was about April’s age and even went to the same high school.

“Be careful!” Riley
called out to April.

“I’m fine, Mom!”
April called back breathlessly.

Riley laughed again.
It was an unfamiliar sound, springing from feelings she had almost forgotten.
She wanted to get used to laughing again.

She also wanted to
get used to the joyful expression on her daughter’s face. It seemed like only
yesterday when April had been terribly rebellious and sullen, even for a
teenager. Riley could hardly blame April. Riley knew that she had left a lot to
be desired as a mother. She was doing everything she could to change that.

That was one thing
she especially liked about being on leave from field work, with its long,
unpredictable hours often in faraway locations. Now her schedule meshed with
April’s, and Riley dreaded the likelihood that this would someday have to
change.

Best to enjoy it
while I can,
she
thought.

Riley went back into
the house just in time to hear the front doorbell ring.

She called out, “I’ll
get it, Gabriela.”

She opened the door
and was surprised to find herself facing a smiling man she hadn’t seen before.

“Hi,” he said, a bit
shyly. “I’m Blaine Hildreth, from next door. Your daughter is over there now
with my daughter, Crystal.” He held out a box to Riley and added, “Welcome to
the neighborhood. I’ve brought you a small housewarming gift.”

“Oh,” Riley said.
She was startled at the unaccustomed cordiality. It took her a moment to say, “Please,
come on in.”

She accepted the box
awkwardly and offered him a seat in a living room chair. Riley sat down on the
sofa, holding the gift box in her lap. Blaine Hildreth was looking at her
expectantly.

“This is so kind of
you,” she said, opening up the package. It held a mixed set of colorful coffee
mugs, two of them decorated with butterflies and the other two with flowers.

“They’re lovely,”
Riley said. “Would you like some coffee?”

“I’d love some,”
Blaine said.

Riley called out to
Gabriela, who came in from the kitchen.

“Gabriela, could you
bring us some coffee in these?” she said, handing her two of the mugs. “Blaine,
how do you like yours?”

“Black will be fine.”

Gabriela took the
mugs into the kitchen.

“My name is Riley
Paige,” she said to Blaine. “Thanks for stopping by. And thank you for the
gift.”

“You’re welcome,”
Blaine said.

Gabriela returned
with two mugs of delicious hot coffee, then went back to work in the kitchen.
Somewhat to her embarrassment, Riley found herself sizing up her male neighbor.
Now that she was single, she couldn’t resist. She hoped he didn’t notice.

Oh, well,
she thought.
Maybe he’s doing
the same with me.

First, she observed
that he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Widowed or divorced, she figured.

Second, she
estimated that he was about her age, maybe a little younger, perhaps in his
late thirties.

Finally, he was good-looking—or
at least reasonably so. His hairline was receding, which wasn’t a strike
against him. And he seemed to be lean and fit.

“So, what do you do?”
Riley asked.

Blaine shrugged. “I
own a restaurant. Do you know Blaine’s Grill downtown?”

Riley was pleasantly
impressed. Blaine’s Grill was one of the nicest casual lunch places here in
Fredericksburg. She’d heard that it was terrific for dinner, but hadn’t had a
chance to try it.

“I’ve been there,”
she said.

“Well, that’s mine,”
Blaine said. “And you?”

Riley took a long
breath. It was never easy to tell a total stranger what she did for a living.
Men especially were sometimes intimidated.

“I’m with the FBI,”
she said. “I’m—a field agent.”

Blaine’s eyes
widened.

“Really?” he said.

“Well, on leave at
the moment. I’m teaching at the academy.”

Blaine leaned toward
her with growing interest.

“Wow. I’m sure you’ve
got some real stories. I’d love to hear one.”

Riley laughed a bit
nervously. She wondered if she’d ever be able to tell anybody outside of the Bureau
about some of the things she had seen. It would be even harder to talk about
some of things she had done.

“I don’t think so,”
she said a bit sharply. Riley could see Blaine stiffen, and she realized that
her tone was rather rude.

He ducked his head and
said, “I apologize. I certainly didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

They chatted for a
few moments after that, but Riley was aware that her new neighbor was being
more reserved. After he politely said goodbye and left, Riley closed the door behind
him and sighed. She was not making herself approachable, she realized. The
woman starting a new life was still the same old Riley.

But she told herself
that it hardly mattered at the moment. A rebound relationship was the very last
thing she needed right now. Her life required some serious sorting out, and she
was just beginning to make progress in that direction.

Still, it had been
nice to spend a few minutes talking to an attractive man, and a relief to
finally have neighbors—and pleasant ones at that.

*

When Riley and April
sat down at the table for dinner, April couldn’t keep her hands off her
smartphone.

“Please stop
texting,” Riley said. “It’s supper time.”

“In a minute, Mom,”
April said. She kept right on texting.

Riley was only
mildly irritated by April’s display of teen behavior. The truth was, it
definitely had an upside. Riley was doing great at school this year and making
new friends. As far as Riley was concerned, they were a much better bunch of
kids than April had hung out with before. Riley guessed that April was now
texting with a boy she was interested in. So far, though, April hadn’t
mentioned him.

April did stop
texting when Gabriela came in from the kitchen with a tray of chiles rellenos.
As she set the steaming, lusciously stuffed bell peppers on the kitchen table,
April giggled mischievously.

“Picante enough,
Gabriela?” she asked.

“Sí,”
Gabriela said, also giggling.

It was a running
joke among the three of them. Ryan had disliked foods that were too spicy.
Actually, he couldn’t eat them at all. As far as April and Riley were
concerned, hotter was better. Gabriela no longer had to hold back—or at least
not as much as she used to. Riley doubted whether even she or April could
handle Gabriela’s original Guatemalan recipes.

When Gabriela
finished setting out the food for all three of them, she said to Riley, “The
gentleman is
guapo,
no?”

Riley felt herself
blush. “Handsome? I hadn’t noticed, Gabriela.”

Gabriela let out a
burst of laughter.
She sat down to eat with them and started to hum a
little tune. Riley guessed that it was a Guatemalan love song. April stared at
her mother.

“What gentleman,
Mom?” she asked.

“Oh, our neighbor
came by a little while ago—”

April interrupted
excitedly. “Omigod! Was it Crystal’s dad? It was, wasn’t it! Isn’t he gorgeous?”

“And I think he is
single.”
Gabriela said.

“OK, back off,”
Riley said with a laugh. “Give me some room to live. I don’t need the two of
you trying to fix me up with the guy next door.”

They all dug into
the stuffed peppers, and dinner was almost finished when Riley felt her phone
buzz in her pocket.

Damn it,
she thought.
I shouldn’t have
brought it to the table.

The buzzing
continued. She couldn’t very well not answer it. Since she’d gotten home, Brent
Meredith had left two more text messages, and she’d kept telling herself that
she’d call him later. She couldn’t put it off anymore. She excused herself from
the table and answered the phone.

“Riley, I’m sorry to
bother you like this,” her boss said. “But I really need your help.”

Riley was startled
to hear Meredith call her by her first name. That was rare. Although she felt
quite close to him, he usually addressed her as Agent Paige. He was normally
businesslike, sometimes to the point of being brusque.

“What is it, sir?”
Riley asked.

Meredith fell silent
for a moment. Riley wondered why he was being reticent. Her spirits sank. She
felt sure that this was precisely the news she’d been dreading.

“Riley, I’m asking a
personal favor,” he said, sounding much less commanding than usual. “I’ve been
asked to look into a murder in Phoenix.”

Riley was surprised.
“A single murder?” she asked. “Why would that require the FBI?”

 “I’ve got an old
friend at the field office in Phoenix,” Meredith said. “Garrett Holbrook. We
went to the academy together. His sister Nancy was the victim.”

“I’m so sorry,”
Riley said. “But the local police …”

There was a rare
note of entreaty in Meredith’s voice.

“Garrett really
wants our help. She was a prostitute. She just disappeared and then her body
turned up in a lake. He wants us to look into it as the work of a serial
killer.”