“I understand if a personal issue has come up that has to be dealt with.”
“No. It’s not that urgent. And it may be much ado about nothing anyway. Now, where did we leave off?”
Since it was obvious Natalie wasn’t going to offer any more information about her problem with Steven, Cara transferred her attention to the screen and read the last sentence in the translation.
For the rest of their two-hour session, Natalie worked without a break, faltering only once when noise sounded from the hall around ten, indicating that Steven was up.
But she kept going until eleven o’clock sharp. Then she closed the journal, removed her glasses, and massaged the bridge of her nose.
“Another productive session.” Cara shut down her laptop. “At this rate, we’ll finish by Thanksgiving.”
“I’d say that’s a reasonable estimate. Not that I’m in a hurry to see you go, you know. I’ve enjoyed our collaboration.”
“I have too, although the term collaboration may be generous. I’ve been more like a scribe.”
“No, your knowledge of the culture has been very beneficial in helping me interpret fuzzy passages. I’ll stick with collaboration.” She rose and picked up the journal. Crossed the room toward the desk to deposit it. “I’ll see you at dinner, my dear. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Cara stood, gathered up her laptop and tablet, and headed for the hall—but with worry about Natalie front and center in her mind, enjoying the rest of her day would be difficult.
Whatever was troubling the woman was serious.
But what could be wrong between her and Steven? As far as she’d been able to discern, the two of them had an excellent relationship. And they couldn’t have had a falling-out. He wouldn’t have come down here to recuperate from his injury if any rancor had developed between them.
She continued down the hall and into the kitchen, stopping as she passed the table to glance at the note on top, addressed to Natalie.
Hmm.
Steven must be feeling better if he’d been up to a walk to the lake.
As she stepped onto the galérie, she scanned the cloudless blue sky. Inhaled the crisp fall air.
What a glorious day for a hike around the property. The perfect way to clear her head after two hours of intense work with Natalie as they’d struggled to decipher several difficult passages.
And it should be safe to wander around with an able-bodied man in the vicinity.
In fact, perhaps she ought to seek Steven out. Alert him to Natalie’s distress and see if he offered any clues about its source.
At the very least, she could help set the stage for whatever discussion Natalie wanted to have with him. Encourage him to put her mind at ease. It would be such a shame if anything interfered with their relationship. Family was everything, after all, and they only had each other.
She picked up her pace toward the cottage.
Butting into other people’s business wasn’t her usual style, but surely Natalie and Steven wouldn’t mind if she was able to help them smooth out whatever turbulence had disrupted their placid relationship.
Besides, given all the stressful incidents she’d endured over the past few weeks, Natalie didn’t deserve any more turmoil.
TWENTY-SEVEN
THE DNA MATCHED.
His crazy hunch hadn’t been so crazy after all.
Pulse picking up, Brad used his thumbs to type in a return thank-you email to the lab for their expedited turnaround and saved the attached report. It would contain details that could be necessary in court, but for now he had all he needed.
Namely, confirmation that Steven Boyer had thrown up in very close proximity to Micah’s body.
That didn’t make the man a killer, but it did leave him with a boatload of explaining to do. Face-to-face explaining. Body language and visual cues would be critical as the man told his story.
Their conversation might even merit a trip to St. Louis—unless Steven was coming down tomorrow for the weekend, as seemed to be his pattern.
