Love at First Sight - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,29
side of the tracks. He drove a motorcycle, wore a black leather jacket and slicked back his hair.”
“He told me that he grew up poor and without much parental supervision,” Jack said. “I know he got into some trouble with the law.”
She nodded. “I think that was after he and Liz broke up.”
“Do you think he and Liz were serious about each other?”
She thought about that for a moment, then remembered a time she’d seen them together. “I remember this one day when he came to pick her up at school on his bike. The reason I remember it was because of the way he looked at her.” She sighed. “I wondered at the time what it must be like to have a man look at you like…that.”
“You mean, like he was in love with her?” Jack asked.
Karen glanced over at him, blinded as a memory blazed bright as a camera flashbulb going off, freezing a moment in time as clear as any snapshot. Jack. And the way he’d looked at her earlier that morning. He’d looked at her the same way Denny had looked at Liz!
She blinked.
Jack eyed her strangely. “Like Denny was in love with Liz?” he asked again.
“Exactly. But maybe he didn’t realize it at the time.”
“I suppose that’s possible,” Jack said, not sounding convinced.
Was it possible?
LOST IN HIS OWN thoughts the rest of the ride into Missoula, Jack hadn’t noticed that Karen didn’t seem herself until he opened the door of the newspaper office for her.
“Nervous?” he asked, touching her arm.
She almost jumped out of her skin. “No. I’m fine.”
She didn’t look fine. She looked the way she had the first time he’d seen her. Nervous. Overly anxious. Strangely suspicious. He wondered what had happened to make her that way when she’d seemed fine before they’d left the lodge.
Amend that. Before they’d kissed.
Denny met them the moment they stepped inside the newspaper office and quickly ushered them into a conference room. He closed the door and the blinds without a word.
Jack could feel the anxiety coming off his friend in waves. Were Karen and Denny just beginning to realize how dangerous this was? Jack knew he’d secretly been hoping no one would answer the ad. But at the same time, he wanted this over with and Karen out of danger.
Denny’s anxiety today seemed at odds with his non-chalance about using Karen as bait yesterday. Was it just his need to break this case before Jack managed to get them both fired? Or was it something more? Denny’s love for Liz Jones? Or his need to hide the truth?
Karen pulled up a chair at the table in front of the two white envelopes waiting for her. As Jack took the chair next to her, Denny shot him a questioning look. Jack ignored it.
“Both replies were put in the drop box outside sometime after 3:00 a.m., after the paper hit the streets,” Denny said, taking a chair across from them.
Jack watched Karen pick up the envelopes with obvious reluctance.
“Don’t worry,” Denny said. “They’ve been dusted for evidence.”
“And?” Jack asked.
Denny looked up at him. “You’re still here, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
He shook his head, but answered the question. “No latents on one. The prints on the other didn’t come up in the computer.”
“One of the respondents took the time to use gloves?” Jack asked in disbelief.
“Looks that way,” Denny said.
Karen opened the first envelope, read the contents, then handed the letter to Jack.
He read the words scrawled in blue ink: “Meet me at the El Topo at noon today.”
The second letter was even more to the point and neatly typed. “Tomorrow evening. Five-fifteen p.m. Ride the carousel. Come alone.”
“I’ve already got things ready for your noon meeting,” Denny was saying. “I think what we’ll do is—”
“Why would he want to meet in broad daylight?” Jack asked.
Denny looked up, irritated. “Who knows? Who cares? Maybe because he’s the secret lover but not the killer and he’s ready to come out of hiding.”
“Then why not just go to the police?” Jack persisted. “And why noon today? Why the rush?”
“I guess he’s anxious to get this over with,” Denny said, getting more angry at Jack’s butting in.
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” Jack noted. “That he wants to get it over with. But you have to ask yourself, why would he take the chance of showing up today in broad daylight?”
“Because he thinks she already knows him,” Denny said impatiently. “He needs to find out just what she does know, who she’s