Free Hold on to Me by Linda Winfree Page B

appearance. He pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and slid them on, smiling at Caitlin’s quizzical look. “You wanted to talk to Laurie Gold, right?”
    She nodded. “Tori, I guess I don’t need that ride after all.”
    “That’s Jeff for you. Always around when he’s needed. Don’t forget, Mr. Schaefer, Saturday night, I’m meeting you for outrageously expensive Japanese food.”
    “I won’t.” He brushed a quick kiss across her cheek.
    “Cait?” Tori called after them as they walked to the car. “I’ll pick you up at your hotel Sunday morning around ten.”

    Trapped at the restaurant entrance by Ray Lewis, the local newspaper editor who was all but demanding inside information on the murder investigation, Tick watched Caitlin walk away with Jeff. Envy twisted in his gut and he jerked a hand through his hair. The jealousy bothered him.
    Her secrecy and the distance between them bothered him more.
    Mentally, he cursed the rural power cooperative. Why today of all days did his power have to go out? If the damn clock had gone off, he’d have spent the morning in Caitlin’s company, using the opportunity to further the murder case and maybe getting answers out of her, rather than closeted in a meeting with Stanton and two testy county commissioners, explaining every freakin’ line item on the proposed investigative budget.
    His day had to get better. It just had to.
    Yanking his cigarettes from his pocket, he glared at the insistent editor, now sputtering something about the first amendment and the public’s right to information. “Ray, give it up. You’ll get the prepared statement from the department this afternoon, just like everyone else.”
    Ray’s thin hair, grown long to cover a spreading bald spot, lifted in the hot breeze. “Just tell me this—is it true that you have no evidence at all?”
    “Of course we have evidence. You can’t have a crime with no evidence. It’s not possible.” They just hadn’t found it yet, but hell if he was letting Ray print that in the paper.
    “Forensic evidence, Tick. I’m talking about DNA and carpet fibers and all that crap they’re always talking about on television.”
    Tick blew out a long stream of smoke, letting the nicotine soothe his jangling nerves. Halfway to Jeff’s unit, Caitlin stopped, smiling an apology as she pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket. Lord, she was gorgeous when she smiled.
    He turned to Ray. “I can’t tell you that. If I told you what we have or don’t have, you’d print it. And then I’d have Tom McMillian on my ass about screwing up his prosecution—”
    “Well, you can’t prosecute a suspect you don’t have!” Ray snarled and stalked off, waving his hands in the air.
    “What is Ray fussing about now?” Tori asked, joining him.
    “You don’t even want to know.” He passed a hand over his nape. “Where are Cait and Jeff off to?”
    “She wants to interview Amy’s roommate.” Tori poked him in the ribs affectionately and he winced, rubbing the spot. She had the sharpest nails known to man and knew right where to jab him. “Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”
    “You think I tell you everything?”
    Mischief crinkled Tori’s nose. “You don’t have to. The local grapevine tells me sooner or later.”
    “We’ve found two bodies in as many days, Tor. I’ve been kind of busy.” He dropped the cigarette to the gravel and ground it out with his heel.
    “Are you happy to see her?”
    “I’m glad to see her,” Tick said, going for professional and noncommittal. Confiding in Del was one thing, Tori quite another. Del would listen, maybe offer advice, back off to let him figure things out. Tori would hound him to death. “She’ll be a big help on this investigation.”
    “That is not what I meant.” She blew out a long-suffering sigh. “Big brother, she is very into you.”
    “What are you, twelve? Into me? She is not into me,” he protested, even though he knew the words to be