Love at First Sight - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,36

do something like that to me? What the hell did you think was going to happen when I found out? I could kill you with my bare hands for doing this to me.’”

Jack felt sick. He left a large tip and stumbled out into the spring afternoon, afraid Denny wouldn’t show back at Al and Vic’s, let alone bring him Karen’s location. And it was less than twenty minutes until the second meeting.

Jack tried to put the picture together. Liz and Denny. The married woman Denny had been seeing on the sly? Didn’t seem likely since Liz supposedly had only been in town a week. But Columbia Falls wasn’t that far away. They could have been meeting for some time.

Add to that, the fight at the bar. Over another man? Liz’s secret lover? The woman had more secrets than the CIA. Then Denny gets wind of it and blows. The next thing you know Liz is dead. Jack didn’t like the way it all fell into chronological order.

The question was how long did the secret lover stay in Liz’s room? What if he’d left quickly and Denny had been waiting in the wings? There were thirty-five minutes between the moment when Karen had seen Liz open the hotel-room door to the mystery man until the time when Liz was murdered. A lot could happen in thirty-five minutes.

Too much. Had Denny been the one who called Karen after Liz was dead? Had he been the one to find Liz’s latte-shop napkin with Karen’s number on it? It had been Denny’s idea for Karen to put the newspaper ad in the personals column, knowing Karen would be risking her life.

With a terrible sense of foreboding, Jack went back to the first bar to wait for Denny, praying his friend would show. Praying he was wrong and that there was another explanation.

DENNY DIDN’T SHOW when he was supposed to. Jack was sipping a beer, growing more anxious, when a news special flashed on the television.

“Could you turn that up?” he asked the bartender.

“Dr. Carl Vandermullen had been picked up for questioning by police and released, following the murder of his ex-wife Liz Jones,” the newsman said. “Their divorce was finalized just twenty-four hours before Jones was found murdered at the Hotel Carlton. Dr. Vandermullen refused to comment except to say his ex-wife’s death was a great loss and he hopes the police apprehend the killer soon.”

Baxter had obviously used kid gloves on the doctor.

Regular programming resumed and Jack looked again at his watch, growing more anxious as the clock ticked away each minute. The second meeting was to go off in less than ten minutes. But Denny had no reason to be there. He’d been taken off the case. And he knew Karen wasn’t going to be there.

So where was Denny? Had he found Karen’s hiding place and gone there instead? Had Jack just enlisted the killer to find Karen?

Denny walked in just as Jack was getting ready to leave.

“Baxter’s got her locked up tighter than hell and no one is talking, and I mean no—” Denny stopped in midstep, midsentence. “What is it?”

“Dammit, Denny,” Jack cursed. “I know about the fight you had with Liz the night you met her for a drink, just two days before she was killed.”

“Don’t do this, old buddy.”

“Where’s Karen?” he demanded.

“I don’t know.” Denny glared at him, anger in his dark eyes. “I told you. I couldn’t get squat.”

Jack shook his head. “I need to know the truth, Denny. Now. No more bull.”

“I already told you I didn’t have anything to do with Liz’s death. I want her killer caught as much as you do. More.” He looked away, then motioned to the bartender that he was going in the back and didn’t want to be bothered.

“Get a clue,” Denny said the moment they were seated at the farthest table in the back. “Why do you think I called you Saturday morning and told you it was urgent that you come to the Carlton?”

“A stupid practical joke.” Except it seemed all wrong considering what he now knew about Denny and Liz.

“Would I have wanted you on this case if I’d killed Liz?” Denny demanded. “Look, Jack, you’re the best cop I know. That’s why I need you.”

“Need me?”

“To help find this guy.”

“Then why have you been trying so hard to get rid of me?”

“Because I know you. You do just the opposite of what anyone tells you to. If I’d have acted like I wanted you