“I know that too. I know you, Natalie.”
“Yes, you do. Now come on. You’ve got twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes before we eat. There’s no clock after dinner.” He hauled her up against him until her feet were off the ground.
“Oh. Okay.” She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her toward the bedroom. “We’d probably better hydrate too, as well as eat.”
As he tossed her onto the mattress, he said, “Definitely.”
Chapter Fourteen
There was one thing about Liam that Natalie both respected and hated. He always did what he said he would do.
No procrastination. No excuses. No I can do that tomorrow, which happened to be her personal favorite phrase and procrastination technique.
Liam operated in the polar opposite way compared to Natalie. And as Liam strode out of the apartment and toward the front door of the shop to greet Mudville’s deputy sheriff, his unwavering responsibility was the most annoying trait about the man she loved.
She looked longingly at the cup of coffee she had only gotten to take a sip from before the law would invade her sanctuary. She’d had to abandon the coffee on the counter when she realized Liam had already called the sheriff’s department. She’s had to rush to put on some real clothes or risk being caught in pajamas when they arrived.
Grr. Darn Liam. Being all responsible and all.
Yes, they had agreed last night to call about Lionel’s body’s head injury in the morning. What Natalie hadn’t known at the time, what she never considered, was that he’d meant eight in the morning.
Ten a.m. firmly qualified as morning in her opinion and was a much more civilized hour to greet the local law enforcement.
She took one more sip of the now lukewarm coffee and then decided, screw it, she could greet Deputy Carson Bekker with the mug in her hand. Why not?
Being armed with caffeine didn’t make this meeting any more palatable. She dragged her feet, literally, through the shop, around the front table and stopped next to Liam by the front door.
“Good morning, deputy,” she said with enthusiasm she didn’t even come close to feeling. Working with the public in retail had trained her well.
Ken doll handsome, Carson cut an undeniably attractive but hella intimidating figure in his neatly pressed, khaki-colored Mudville Sheriff’s Department official uniform.
He dipped his head in a single nod. “Natalie.”
Even his voice sounded official…and scary.
Natalie lifted the mug to have something to do besides quake in his presence. She hadn’t even done anything wrong. So why did she have that twist of panic inside her?
It was the same feeling she got when driving well above the posted speed limit only to suddenly spot that patrol vehicle parked on the side of the highway, radar gun pointed straight at her car.
Tiny notebook in hand, just like they showed on television, Carson turned his attention back to Liam, who didn’t look at all scared or intimidated.
“So I know we talked on the phone this morning, but I think I’m going to need more…” Carson began.
“More what?” Liam asked.
Carson let out a short laugh. “Everything. I’ve been called to the scene for a dead body before, but never in a situation quite like this. I guess I should start with the identity of the possible victim.”
“Yeah. So about that. I’m not supplied with the cadaver’s name through the anatomical donor program. However, we knew his identity in this case because Natalie, um, knows him.” Liam angled his body to include Natalie in the conversation.
That tidbit of information brought the deputy’s head up from his little notebook.
At least Liam hadn’t revealed the rest. That she knew Lionel because they’d fought, in person and online. Or the other delicate part of the truth—that she’d been badgered into looking into his cause of death by his ghost, who’d arrived with the delivery of the cadaver.
She could read the thoughts running through Carson’s head as clearly as if they were written across his chest, like closed captioning on a video. He was no doubt tallying up how many times he’d visited this train depot to discuss bodies or bones in the short time since Natalie had purchased the building.
He’d likely never forgive her, or at least never forget that she’d called the sheriff’s department to report Liam as a serial killer. In her defense, he had been a stranger then, new in town, and what other assumption could she make given the number of bodies he had stashed in the warehouse?
