They shared a lengthy stare. His face looked as rugged and craggy as a mountain range, but it was one of the most appealing she’d ever encountered.
Whenever they were together, she was involuntarily aware of him, of his body, of the way she was drawn to him. She knew her attraction was unethical and reckless, from a professional standpoint, and compromising, from a personal one. He’d belonged to her mother first.
Yet, too often she wanted to touch him or to be touched by him. Last night she’d wanted him to hold her longer while she cried. Thankfully, he’d had better sense and had left.
Who had he gone to? Alex wondered. Where and when had the unsatisfactory lovemaking taken place? Had it been before or after he’d come to her motel room? Why hadn’t it been any good?
Several moments elapsed before she lowered her head and resumed sorting through the files.
Not one to be ignored, he reached across the table and placed his hand beneath her chin, jerking it toward him. “I told you that Celina was cremated.”
She jumped to her feet. “After you and Judge Wallace put your heads together and discussed it. That seems a little convenie
nt to me.”
“You enjoy imagining things.”
“Why didn’t Junior mention that Celina had been cremated when he saw me in the cemetery? I’m thinking that maybe she is buried there. That’s why I’m going through all these files.”
“Why would I lie about it?”
“To keep me from having the body exhumed.”
“Again, why? What difference would that make to me?”
“Life imprisonment,” she said tightly, “if the forensic report implicated you as her murderer.”
“Ah…” At a loss for a word foul enough, he slammed his fist into his opposite palm and ground it against the tough flesh. “Is this what they teach you in law school—to start grasping at straws when all else fails?”
“Exactly.”
He planted his hands firmly on the desk and leaned far across it. “You’re not a lawyer, you’re a witch hunter.”
That stung because Alex did feel like one. This search had a vigilante desperation to it that left a bad taste in her mouth. She sat back down and laid her hands on top of the open files.
Turning her head away, she stared out at the winter landscape. The naked branches of the sycamore trees on the lawn were encased in tubes of ice. Sleet pellets made tiny pinging sounds against the windowpanes. The sky and everything below it were a dead, dismal gray. Lines of distinction were imprecise. The world was monochromatic—without light and shadows.
Some things, however, were black and white. Chief among them was the law.
“That might be true if there hadn’t been a crime, Reede,” she said, bringing her head back around. “But there was. Somebody went into that stable and stabbed my mother.”
“With a scalpel. Right,” he said scoffingly. “Can you envision Angus, Junior, or me wielding a surgical instrument? Why not kill her with our bare hands? Strangle her?”
“Because you’re all too clever. One of you made it to look like a mentally unbalanced man had done it.” She splayed her hand upon her chest and asked earnestly, “In my place, wouldn’t you want to know who that someone was and why he did it? You loved Celina. If you didn’t kill her—”
“I didn’t.”
“Then, don’t you want to know who did? Or are you afraid that her killer will turn out to be somebody else you love?”
“No, I don’t want to know,” he said emphatically. “And until you obtain a search warrant—”
“Miss Gaither?” Mr. Davis interrupted, entering the room. “Is this what you’re looking for? I found it in a file cabinet in my storeroom.” He handed her a folder, then scuttled out under Reede’s baleful stare.
Alex read the name typed across the top of the file. She glanced at Reede, then eagerly opened the cover. After scanning the first of several forms, she sank into her chair and reported huskily, “It says here that her body was cremated.” Her heart feeling like lead, she closed the folder and rhetorically asked, “Why didn’t my grandmother ever mention that?”
“She probably didn’t think it was significant.”
“She saved everything, Celina’s clothes, her things. Why wouldn’t she have taken the ashes?”