about her sister—he’d found that out on his own. And although he knew her physically—how her body responded to his, how soft her skin was, how tight she fit around him, how heavenly her arms and scent were when they wrapped around him—he’d discovered all those things on his own, too, by touching her, tasting her, exploring her. Sure, she’d let him, of course, and she’d explored his body, too, to amazing result. But even in his arms, she’d kept herself apart from him.
Funny. Until now, he’d felt like he knew everything there was to know about her. But, man, he’d been wrong.
He didn’t know the most basic things about her as a woman—her favorite color, what she liked to eat, what kind of music or movies she liked... They’d jumped right past the getting to know you stage and straight into bed, and while that was great in many ways, it also made him feel a deep sense of loss at the thought that he wouldn’t be given the time to explore all of Nina’s small intricacies in great detail.
He couldn’t help wondering if her decision to work with geriatric patients was a result of what had happened to her sister. And to Beth. Had she decided not to work with teenagers or young people anymore because doing so brought back bad memories? It made sense.
It also made him wonder if she was truly fulfilled with her work or if playing it safe made her feel less passionate about what she did for a living.
In the end, he could wonder all he wanted. She obviously wasn’t going to volunteer the information and, really, he had no right to push her for it. Not if he wasn’t planning on sticking around.
With a sigh, Simon started work by checking up on Davenport’s recent credit card charges. Over the course of several days, he’d left a trail of credit card transactions for gas and food across the country. As such, the records supported his claim that he’d only recently arrived in California. “He must have hired someone to do the other things,” Simon murmured to himself. “It’s the only explanation.” And that seemed especially true after he got a preliminary report from forensics.
The muddy footprints found in Nina’s home weren’t a match for Davenport, who had smaller feet and had been wearing shoes with a different tread.
Again, that didn’t prove Davenport was innocent of any of the crimes Simon suspected he’d committed. After all, Simon had caught him fleeing from Nina’s vandalized home and he didn’t need Davenport’s footprints to verify that. To the contrary, a prosecutor could easily argue the muddy footprints belonged to Davenport’s accomplice, who’d left before Simon had gotten there. The presence of an accomplice would explain how someone could have left Nina a threatening letter or killed her cat even before Davenport had arrived in California.
But Simon needed additional proof of an accomplice’s existence before Davenport could be convicted. He doubted Davenport would be any help on that matter. No matter how hard Simon had pushed him, Davenport hadn’t been swayed from his fervent denials of working with an accomplice. According to him, he’d been alone when he’d entered Nina’s home, and the house had already been unlocked. He also claimed the house had already been open and trashed by someone else. And when Simon had told him about the bear left in Nina’s room, Davenport had looked genuinely shocked. Horrified. Even scared.
As Simon had already told Nina, part of him had believed Davenport’s denials. Now, the credit card records and the shoe prints seemed to support them, at least in part. Simon had to consider two possibilities: Davenport was either the best actor Simon had ever met, or he was telling the truth about working alone and being lured to California by someone pretending to be a reporter. If he was telling the truth, then a murderer was still on the loose. And that murderer was someone who had targeted Nina.
At that point, however, the question would be why? And what significance the initials BD would have for anyone other than Davenport. Was it possible someone else—someone other than her father—might want revenge against Nina because of what had happened to Beth Davenport?
She’d had a boyfriend, Nina said. One who had given her that bear with the ribbon in the first place. He rose, intending to go to Nina and get the name of Beth’s boyfriend, but just as he did so, DeMarco walked up to