That was the problem. I never did.
Even then, I wanted to find a way to keep her out of this mess and protect her good name. Hundreds of women would love to be found in the closet with me. I could have any woman in this town, married or single, but the one who always held my interest saw me as a curse, not a gift.
She didn’t want my money, the houses or boats, expensive gifts, or even my good looks or family name. The only thing I had which interested her was love, but she didn’t ask that of me either. Katy Kadish didn’t want anything from me.
Well, maybe my immediate demise. I’m sure she wouldn’t turn away from the idea if someone offered it.
“You weren’t here.” It’s the only consolation I had to give her.
She tore her body away from me then and stared up into my eyes. “What?”
“Only a few people are in the hallway now, but the crowd will grow. Go. If anyone asks, you were only walking by here. You weren’t with me when I entered the closet.”
Her mouth opened and then closed resembling the most beautiful fish I’d ever seen before she nodded, turned herself on a heel, and walked away.
I watched her form retreat as she ducked into the first hallway she passed. With reluctance I hadn’t experienced in years, I reopened the closet door and stared at the dead body.
Definitely dead.
Pelican Bay wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Detective Anderson arrived right on schedule and took my statement—my bland, unemotional statement. That’s what living in Pelican Bay did to a person. Even a dead body at the high school didn’t cause a panic.
Later that evening, a fresh breeze blew in off the ocean and rustled a few papers from the top of my desk.
“I’m disappointed you called the cops,” Ridge said, leaning too far over my desk for comfort. He was probably trying to read the information contained on the loose paperwork, but after the incident with the housekeeper last month and the ongoing investigation, I kept important paperwork away from visitors in my locked office.
The major players in Pelican Bay may have agreed to come together and form a coalition, but that didn’t mean we got along all the time. Everyone suspected everyone else of everything.
“I have to pretend to have confidence in our police force. I am a major contributor each year. We each have a part to play, Ridge. You get to run around saving women and I have to be Doctor Evil, waiting on the fringes to destroy the town.”
Ridge laughed. “Yes, your modernization and bringing buildings up to code are truly destructive forces. If you’re not careful, you’ll have to shave your head and learn an evil laugh.”
“Didn’t you hear? I signed up for an online class at the local community college?”
Ridge rolled his eyes and tapped his foot on the floor twice, signaling his agitation. He probably wanted to get home to his fiancée. “The cops here are corrupt. None of them can be trusted.”
“Anderson isn’t so bad.” Ridge and Anderson had been arguing almost as long as Katy and me. The two were working on the same team and for the same end result, but they argued on the method to get there.
“I imagine there’s a reason you called me here at 10:30 at night,” Ridge said.
Yeah, he was ready to get home to his fiancée.
“I wanted you to know that tonight Katy was with me.”
Ridge raised an eyebrow higher than the other and one side of his lips worked up into a knowing smirk, which if I had feathers would’ve ruffled them. “You left that detail out of your police report.”
I left a few things out of my police report. Including the fact I stood in the same janitorial closet thirty minutes earlier and there hadn’t been a dead body. How did someone end up there during a crowded high school reunion? I filled Ridge in on the rest of the story, including the bits I left out of the official paperwork.
With a new dead body found in town, there was no way Ridge would refuse to pick up the case. Even if it meant working side-by-side or on top of the Pelican Bay police department. It’s the way Ridge had always been. He wanted to get the job finished first.
“Katy and I were arguing in the hallway when I spotted the body.”
“So the closet door was open allowing you to see inside and find the body?” Ridge asked. The man was too astute for his own good.
No way did I plan to tell him what we were doing in the closet. “No, I opened the closet door planning to push Katy in and shut her up for a bit. I worried her arguing would draw a crowd.”
Ridge’s knowing smirk grew. “And you didn’t include Katy in the police report because?”
