do with her or her...friends. Now get out before I call the police.”
“Not a problem,” Shep said calmly as he started for the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the daughter, Cara. She’d come to the top of the stairs. “Now I have a pretty good idea what the problem was in that house.”
Breathing as if she’d run a marathon, Kat seemed to have difficulty speaking. “People wanted to blame me. That old bag down the block saying I was never home, that I let the girls run wild, that I was a bad mother.” She choked on the spilled words for a moment before she got control again. “As if they knew anything about what went on in that house.”
“Did you?” He couldn’t help himself. He opened the door to leave but turned back to Kat, feeling his own anger bubble over. “Did Charlie’s father really know what was going on? Charlie was fourteen. She’d just lost her mother. And all the while, your daughter was tormenting her, making her life miserable to get back at you, I suspect. And you want to blame Charlie? Is that why you’re stalking her now?”
“What? I’m not stalking anyone, certainly not Charlie. I haven’t given that girl a thought in fifteen years. How dare you come to my house and accuse me.” Kat jabbed a shaking finger at the door as she pulled out her phone. “I’m calling the police. If you ever come back here...” Her voice broke. “Or if Charlie ever comes here...”
“Why would she?” With that, he turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him. He heard her rush to the door and lock it.
* * *
CHARLIE COULDN’T BELIEVE how well her design presentation had gone. She had breathed a huge sigh of relief when Greg had given her a thumbs-up at her conclusion. The client had loved it. She’d left Greg to finish the deal and had gone back to her cubicle, feeling as if her feet weren’t touching the ground.
“How did it go?” Tara asked and then grinned. “Never mind, you look like the cat who ate the canary. You wowed them, didn’t you?”
“I think it went well.”
Her friend laughed. “Play it down, like you always do. What are you going to do to celebrate?”
Charlie hadn’t even considered celebrating. Shep was staying in her house. Daniel was barely talking to her. Her dead stepsister was haunting her.
Before she could answer, Greg appeared next to her desk. “I’m taking you to lunch,” he announced. “You knocked that one out of the park, Charlie. Come on, it’s a little early but we’ll avoid the rush.”
Charlie hadn’t realized that Amanda was right behind him until the woman said, “We need to take her somewhere special.” Greg even seemed surprised that Amanda was tagging along.
Lunch with Greg and Amanda. Charlie couldn’t imagine anything worse, but she also didn’t know how to get out of it without being rude.
“Didn’t you have a lunch date with your boyfriend?” Tara spoke up and gave her an I’m-doing-my-best-to-save-you look.
“She can go out with her boyfriend anytime,” Amanda said to Greg before turning to Charlie. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to celebrate with him at dinner tonight? Much more romantic, too. Let us treat you. You deserve it.”
“Charlie?” Greg asked. “I understand if you have plans that you can’t change. I just thought since your presentation went so well...”
She could see how disappointed he was. “No, it’s a great idea.” She looked to Tara, gave her a grateful smile, but couldn’t bring herself to tell a bald-faced lie. It would be too easy to get caught up in it since Daniel wasn’t taking her to lunch. “Daniel will understand.” That, too, felt like a lie though. He didn’t understand what was going on with her at all. Not that she could blame him. He didn’t have all the facts. “I’d love to go to lunch with you to celebrate. Let me text him.”
As she texted a thank-you to Tara instead of texting Daniel, Charlie desperately wished her friend could come along, but Greg didn’t invite her. Finished, she followed Greg and Amanda toward the exit.
“Won’t this be fun, just the three of us?” Amanda was saying as she hooked her arm in Greg’s.
* * *
SHEP LEFT THE Ramsey property and drove back to Bozeman half expecting to run into the police on his way. But Kat hadn’t called the cops. She’d lied about that. Just as he suspected she’d lied about