Part 88 (1/2)
”Yeah. Two.”
”Even more difficult.” She hesitated, shook her head. ”And so I don't repeat a mistake, I need to tell you Vinnie got in touch a couple hours ago. The bullets they recovered from Duncan's body were fired by the gun I found in my cottage.”
He put a hand over hers. ”I would've been surprised if they didn't match.”
”I know. The fact that I called Vinnie when I found it weighs on my side. And the anonymous tip to Wolfe from a disposable cell phone-that seems sticky. But he wanted me to know that Wolfe's digging into my background, my movements, trying to put you and me together before Lindsay's murder.”
”We weren't, so he can't.”
”No, he can't.”
”Relay all this to your lawyer.”
”I did. He's on it. There's nothing, Eli, and I think Wolfe only cares about me as a conduit to you. If he somehow links us to Duncan's death, it's more feasible you were involved in Lindsay's.”
”It goes both ways,” he reminded her. ”Since we're clear on Duncan, it adds weight to me being clear on Lindsay's.”
”Then you agree with him on the basics. The two murders are connected somehow.”
”I can't believe I'm this close to two murders, a near fatal accident, a series of break-ins and an a.s.sault without there being connections.”
”I'm with you on that, but then everything's connected under it all.” She rose again. ”I'm going back to it so maybe we can figure out a way to be the hero and heroine of our own novel and help catch a bad guy.”
”We should go out to dinner tonight.”
Her eyebrows quirked. ”We should?”
”Yeah. Barbie can guard the house. We should go out, have a nice dinner somewhere. You can wear something s.e.xy.”
”Are we having a date, Eli?”
”I've let that slide. Pick a place,” he told her. ”We'll go on a date.”
”All right, I will.” She came back to lean down, kiss him. ”You'll have to wear one of your many ties.”
”I can do that.”
Good news, uneasy news, he thought when she left him. Questions to be asked and answered. But tonight, he was going out with a fascinating woman who made him think, who made him feel.
”I'm going back to work for a bit,” he told Barbie. ”Then you can help me pick out a tie.”
He couldn't watch the house every hour of every day. But he continued to spot-check. He knew he could get back inside again, even if Landon had changed the code again. He'd prefer to continue his search with the house empty, but the way Landon stuck to the place, he might have to risk going in when Landon was sleeping.
He'd begun to believe he'd gone in the wrong direction with the bas.e.m.e.nt, at least that section of the mammoth s.p.a.ce. But he had to finish to be sure. He'd spent so much time, so much sweat, so much money that he had to see it through.
He needed to get up to the third floor again. Somewhere in one of the trunks, under some cus.h.i.+on, behind some picture, he'd find a clue. A diary, a map, coordinates.
He'd been through the library in Bluff House while the old lady slept, but he'd found nothing of importance. He'd found nothing to match his own knowledge, his own meticulous and detailed research into Esmeralda's Dowry.