Dead Giveaway (Stillwater Trilogy #2)(60)
Author: Brenda Novak

"Great. Tell her I’m looking forward to seeing her next week."

As Grace hung up, Clay wondered what it must be like for Kennedy–to know he was about to be a father again. Was it as satisfying as Clay imagined it would be?

"Clay?" Molly said.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Clay hurried to his room. "Yeah, I’m back."

"Who was it?"

"Grace. She’s having the baby."

"You’re kidding me! Right this minute?"

He started running the water in the shower. "Sometime tonight."

"How exciting! Did you think she’d ever be this happy? That she’d ever recover from…what happened?"

"No." He peeled off his shorts and kicked them aside.

"You’re part of the reason she’s recovered so well. You know that, don’t you?"

No. He only knew he was part of the reason she’d been hurt in the first place. Although Clay understood that it was Barker’s fault, not his, he couldn’t get past the fact that he’d left his sisters vulnerable the night it all went wrong. "Gotta go, Molly," he said, pausing at the shower door.

"Call me later?"

"I will," he replied.

And he did, at midnight, when he was staring into the small, red face of his newborn niece.

Allie sat at her kitchen table, glaring at the red ball cap she’d found near the cabin. She knew it belonged to Jed Fowler. For one thing, it had the logo of his auto shop stitched on the front.

For another, she’d seen him wearing it at least a dozen times.

But why would Jed shoot Clay? It didn’t make sense. If he wanted to hurt Clay, all he had to do was implicate him in Barker’s disappearance. Public opinion being what it was, his word would probably be enough to put Clay away for a very long time. After all, Jed was there that night.

Instead, Fowler was the only person in town to stand by the Montgomerys.

Allie rubbed her lip, trying to piece it all together. Logic told her he wouldn’t shoot Clay, but she couldn’t think of any reason for him to be near the cabin. And she’d seen him at Grace’s fruit-and-vegetable stand right before she drove to the cabin. Had he followed her there, as she suspected he’d followed her a few days earlier?

She wanted to discuss it with Clay. But he hadn’t responded to the message she’d left him last Tuesday, and she was reluctant to call him again. She didn’t want to pester him like some lovesick fool. She understood now that last weekend had meant much more to her than it did to him.

Or maybe their relationship was just more complicated than he was willing to tolerate. If that was the case, she could sympathize with his concerns.

She stared at the phone, tapping her fingers on the table. Currently employed or not, she was a cop. She needed to take charge of the situation despite her feelings. Maybe Clay knew something about Jed that would help her sort this out.

Finally overcoming her pride, she picked up the phone.

It rang five times before his answering machine came on.

This is Clay Montgomery. Leave your name and number at the beep.

She noticed he didn’t promise to return his calls. "Clay, it’s me. I’d like to talk to you, if you’ve got a minute. It’s about the shooting," she said. Then she left her number, again, and disconnected.

What now? she wondered. She was tempted to get a flashlight and poke around inside her neighbor’s truck and garage, looking for her gun. But did she really want to break the law?

With a sigh, she went back to the phone. She hated to turn Jed’s hat over to the police department that had so recently fired her. But she needed a search warrant to go any further with what she had, and she certainly wasn’t going to get one by approaching the judge as a civilian.

Hendricks answered, as she’d expected him to. "’Lo?"

"Hendricks? It’s Allie."

"Did you get my message?"

"I did, thanks. Listen, I have something you might be interested in."

"What’s that?"

"Jed Fowler’s baseball cap."

"What would I want with that?"

She toyed nervously with the drawstring of her pajama bottoms. "I found it at the cabin today."

There was a long pause. "I didn’t see it when I was there, Allie."

She hesitated, surprised by his response. "It was up on the hill."

"You’re sure?"

"What’s that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Nothing. I just can’t imagine why Jed’s cap would be at the cabin. That’s all."

Allie stood and began to wipe off the counters. She’d done most of the dishes earlier but had been too preoccupied with Jed’s cap to finish the job. "Maybe we should find out why," she suggested.

"How do you propose to do that?"

"Have the sheriff’s department get a search warrant for Jed’s house and vehicle. See if he has my gun."

"They’re not gonna go after a search warrant."

"Why not?"

"Because now that they’ve taken all the statements and collected the evidence, they’re relying on us to finish up. And your father knows Jed would never shoot Clay."

She turned off the water she’d been running in the sink. "Do you have any other suspects?"

"Not yet, but that won’t make any difference."

"Why not?"

"Your father has more important things to do."

Allie dropped the wet rag she’d been using to clean the kitchen table. "What’s more important than attempted murder?"

"Murder one."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"The D.A.’s finally agreed to prosecute. Your father’s planning to charge Clay with Barker’s murder."

Allie’s stomach knotted painfully. "When?"

"First thing tomorrow morning."

Holding the new baby was a bittersweet experience. The complete innocence, even the scent of the child evoked a mixture of tenderness and hope that warred with the darker feelings that were far more familiar to Clay. He was unaccustomed to these emotions but still didn’t want to go home to the secrets that haunted him. He longed to feel as normal men did–to feel as he had when he was holding Allie naked against him. Alive. On fire. Crazy with the desire to possess more of her than her body and to let her possess more of him. He wanted to let himself care, to grab hold of someone and hang on. At last.

Unfortunately, that was the one thing he couldn’t do. He’d promised Allie’s father he wouldn’t contact her, and he planned to keep that promise. Everyone knew she was better off without him. He knew it, too. And yet, when he returned to Stillwater, he went out of his way to drive by her parents’ house. He even considered calling her cell phone. If she picked up, maybe he’d ask her to come outside so he could tell her about the baby.