He’d thought she didn’t remember it or that maybe she hadn’t wanted to talk about it. But she was the one who had brought it up.
He’d wanted to hear more about it, but that would only be for his personal enlightenment. It had no bearing on the current investigation. Well, he’d established that the other girl had been Angela. But the rest of it wasn’t important, he told himself.
Chapter 10
A few hours later, the smell of coffee drifted toward Max as he walked slowly down the steps, through the living room and dining room, and into the kitchen. He and Olivia had been in the house together for a few days, and she’d served him breakfast, in case anyone was watching their morning routine.
As on the previous mornings, he was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a light jacket. He followed the tempting aroma of the coffee and found Olivia standing with her back to him at the stove, scrambling eggs. She was also dressed casually in jeans and a knit shirt, but she looked far from relaxed.
Her movements were as jerky as a marionette’s and her shoulders as rigid as a fence rail, and he knew she hated the thought of facing him in the morning. Because of her behavior in bed? Or was she flashing back to the dream and what she hadn’t told him about the evening in question?
You could say this was a very weird morning after, considering all they had done was kiss.
“Coffee is in the pot,” she said, pointing toward the coffee machine on the sideboard.
He’d used the machine before without comment. Now he made an attempt at conversation. “Was this your dad’s?”
Her laugh was brittle. “God forbid that he’d spend money on a fancy coffee setup. He made do with instant. I brought some luxuries from New York. Good coffee is a necessity I can’t live without.”
“It wakes you up?”
“It keeps me going all day.”
He poured some into the mug sitting beside it.
“And you take it black, right?” she said.
“Right.” For the moment, he didn’t ask how she’d slept or get into anything personal. For the past couple of hours, he’d been going over lists of things they should do regarding the case. It was a long list, and he figured it should take their minds off the kiss. If anything could take their minds off the kiss.
“We have a lot more to work with,” he said as he sipped from the coffee mug.
“Uh-huh.”
“I had said we should talk to the guy who’s renting the farmland from your family.”
“Bill Yeager,” she interjected.
“Yes. And I still think that should be first on the list, since somebody was sneaking around here last night.”
Maybe the dream had overshadowed the incident out in the woods. Now she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she nodded.
“I’d also said we should talk to Angela’s mother. But I think we might change the focus and talk to some of the people who were at the party.”
“Uh-huh.”
She turned to face him, and he saw her inspecting the wounds on his face.
“They’re healing,” he said.
“Yes, you were lucky you didn’t damage your eye. But what are you going to tell people who ask what happened?”
He had decided on a strategy for that. “I’m going to tell them what happened last night.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s actually a good idea. I can get their reactions, and I can say that as your new fiancé, I’m worried about your safety, and I want to know about what happened on Cinco de Mayo—since you dreamed about it after the reunion meeting.”
“But they all wanted to forget about that party—the way I did.”
He made a dismissive gesture. “That was before someone started killing members of the class—all three of whom were there, as it turns out.”
“You don’t know the murders are related. You don’t even know that Gary or Patrick was murdered. The police labeled each one an accident. That’s why I hired you. Well, Angela was the primary reason. But I wanted to know if it was connected.”
“It seems to me that you hired me because you thought the deaths were related. Now are you taking the other side of the argument?”
She sighed. “Maybe.”
“Because of the dream?”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it.”
She gave him a long look but said nothing.
“One thing I bet we’ll find out when we start asking questions is who Gary was fighting with.”
“Maybe,” she said again.
When she didn’t elaborate, he asked, “Why not? You might not have seen it clearly, but I’m sure somebody did. Like other guys on the team who were right up there with the would-be victim.”