Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,20
her and grinned. “Tamara, if you were something terrible we’d all know it by now. If you were a criminal, it would have come up in my background search. If you were a mean, hateful woman, your true colors would have bled through by now.”
She climbed into the truck seat and watched as he rounded the front of the vehicle to get to the driver’s side. She didn’t know what kind of evil wind had blown her into the sand dunes and to her near death, but fate was definitely smiling on her when it had been Seth who had found her.
She wasn’t sure where she’d be at this instant in time if not for Seth and his family. The fact that they’d taken a risk allowing her into their lives without knowing anything about her wasn’t lost on her.
“Just relax,” Seth said as he climbed behind the steering wheel and started the engine. “I have a feeling this is something that the harder you work at, the less success you’ll have.” He cast her another one of his killer smiles. “The sun is shining, you’re healthy and safe and best of all, you’re with me.”
A bubble of laughter escaped her at his obvious stab at mock conceit, but the laughter quickly faded. “Samantha told me yesterday while you were on the phone that you’d come here for vacation. I guess I screwed that up for you.”
“Vacations are highly overrated,” he replied easily as he backed out of the driveway. “I like my work and really had only decided to take a vacation because I wanted to spend some time with Linda and Samantha.”
“They’re wonderful. Are your parents alive?”
“No. They died in a car accident eight years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, at the same time wondering when her parents had died. If she’d mourned deeply for them. The fact that after speaking with her neighbors he couldn’t even come up with the name of a friend pierced her with sadness. “Surely I had a cell phone. Can’t it be pinged or whatever to locate it?”
“If you had a cell phone it must have been a pay-as-you-go, and without a phone number we have nothing to ping,” he replied.
As he turned onto what was obviously the main drag of the small town, Tamara focused her attention out the window and tried to relax her mind.
Amber Lake was a quaint small town that displayed touches of community pride here and there. Trees had been planted in the sidewalk at regular intervals, providing shade to the shoppers who found themselves out in the heat of the day.
There were the usual stores—hardware, grocery, a discount apparel shop as well as a dress boutique—some fast-food places, a café and a fancy restaurant called the Golden Daffodil.
Yes, it was a nice, quaint little town, but nothing looked even vaguely familiar, nothing jogged a single piece of her memory.
“Nothing,” she said dispiritedly after several minutes.
“Don’t be so impatient,” he replied easily.
“I’m trying not to be, but I was hoping that something that I saw would at least spark a tiny piece of memory.” She sighed in frustration.
Seth pulled into a parking space at the south end of Main. “Why don’t we get out and take a little stroll. It’s a nice morning and maybe you’ll see something in a shop window or somebody you’ll recognize.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed. Moments later they walked together down one side of Main with the intention of returning to the truck by walking on the opposite side of the street.
They walked at a leisurely pace, small-talking about the weather and Samantha and the newest member of the household as Tamara took in each store window they passed, every person who nodded and smiled as they went by.
“I’m assuming you aren’t married,” she said after they’d walked for a few minutes.
“You’ve got that right,” he replied.
“What about a significant other?”
“Nope, nobody. All I’ve had in my life for the past couple of years is work. Besides, after watching what Linda went through with her divorce from her husband, I decided for sure that I never wanted to get married.”
“Bad divorce?”
“Terrible,” he replied. “I didn’t like her husband, Mark, when they married and I liked him a hell of a lot less by the time the divorce was finalized.”
“Does he live here in town?” she asked.
“Two blocks away from Linda.” He drew a deep sigh. “As much as I find him an arrogant, controlling ass, I have to give him props for