“I didn’t come here meaning to do that,” he said hoarsely.
Her eyes met his again. “Didn’t you?”
Zach couldn’t swear, even to himself, that it hadn’t been in the back of his mind. All he’d known was that he’d needed to see her.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“I think you should go.”
“You wanted this, too.”
“Of course I did!” Tess cried. “But...you’re the one who impressed on me how important it is that we keep our distance. What if somebody is watching my house right now and sees you leave? Can you imagine the way we’d be grilled? Suddenly everything we say would be suspect. You know that’s true.”
He knew.
Zach shook his head and backed up a couple more steps.
“Why are you shaking your head? You’ve changed your mind?”
“No.” He ran a hand over his face, which felt weirdly numb. “It’s you. There’s something about you.”
“You’re blaming me?” She sounded outraged.
“No. Yes.” He was blowing this big time. It was like being stuck on a railroad bridge with nowhere to go and seeing a freight train barreling toward him. The wail of the horn came too late.
“You need to leave.” She slipped around him and wrenched open the door. “Please.”
“Tess.” He could salvage this much. “I’ll go if you promise to contact me if they threaten you again. If anything happens at all.”
Her chin lowered. “I’ll promise, if you promise to stay away from me unless something bad enough happens I need you.”
“I missed you today,” he heard himself say, shocking himself. He hadn’t missed anyone since he was a kid. After he and Mom had moved away, there’d been no Sheila, no Bran. No Dad. That first year or so had echoed with emptiness. Loneliness. He hadn’t let anyone that close since.
Maybe because of his job, he was usually good at reading people, but Tess was sometimes an exception. This was one of those times. He had the uncomfortable feeling she was looking deep into him. He was uncomfortably aware of how much he didn’t want her to see.
But then she said, “I wanted to be there. I thought about you all day. But you know the right thing to do, Zach.”
“Yeah.” It came out rough. “I know.”
Without looking at her again, he walked past her, out the door. Stopping with his back to her he said, “Promise.”
“I promise,” she whispered.
He nodded and kept going, glad when he left the pool of porch light for the safety of the darkness. He heard the sound of the door closing and he kept going.
* * *
ZACH SAT IN his recliner, the only furniture in his battered living room except for his TV on a stand. Oh, yeah, and the folding wooden TV tray he was currently using as an end table and dining table.
After leaving Tess last night, he’d been in a shitty mood. He’d made the decision to move out of his apartment the next day. At least in the house he’d have ways to vent his restlessness.
Not wanting to test the commitment of any of his new friends, he’d lined up a couple of community college students to help him once he was off work. It hadn’t taken them all that long to move his limited belongings.
On the way out, one of them had taken a last, dubious look behind him and said, “You’re really going to live here, dude?”
Pretty sad when a broke college student thought your digs were substandard. Although Zach supposed it was possible that particular kid actually drove a BMW and still lived at home with Mom and Dad.
Moving wasn’t the only vow he’d made last night. What he needed to do was to refocus. Think about something besides Tess. To channel this prowling sense of urgency, he’d begin the investigation into his sister’s murder. That was why he’d moved back here, wasn’t it?
So now he dialed the number he’d extracted from another old-timer at the Clear Creek Police Department. A man answered. “Nolte here.”
“Sergeant Nolte, my name is Zach Carter.”
“Wife said you called. What do you want? I can tell you we’re not buying.”
“I’m not selling.” Zach would have smiled if he hadn’t been so tense. “I’m hoping you’ll talk to me about a murder you investigated almost twenty-five years ago.”