Hold on to Me (7 page)

The heat washed over Caitlin in waves when they stepped from the car.

Tori dropped her keys in her purse. “We may have to wait, but it’ll be worth it. The food is great.”

Her prediction proved true, as the line at the ordering counter stretched to the entrance. Caitlin glanced around at the country décor—hokey hand-painted signs, ceramic animals, lots of sunflowers. The spicy scent of smoked meat and barbeque sauce hung in the air, and her stomach grumbled.

Tori turned her back on the farmers in front of them and fixed Caitlin with a steady gaze. “I am so glad to see you. By the way, did I mention that my brother, the one I think you’re perfect for, is still single?”

Perfect? Far from it. “So, tell me, are you and Schaefer serious?”

“Me, serious? Hardly ever. Jeff, always.” She laughed at Caitlin’s huff of exasperation. “No, we’re not dating seriously. Not yet anyway. We’ve been to dinner a couple of times. He’s a nice guy. I haven’t had a chance to find out if there are any sparks.” Tori’s wicked grin, so like Tick’s, lit her whole face. “Those sparks are a necessity, you know. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Tick would have a fit if he heard you say that.”

“Screw Tick.” Affection tempered Tori’s frustrated statement. “He plays big brother a little too heavily, and I’ve told him so on several occasions. Sooner or later, he’s got to realize I’m not ten, and now is as good a time as any. And stop changing the subject. What did you think when you saw him again?”

“You really want to know?” Caitlin asked, and Tori nodded, leaning forward. Caitlin lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “That he needed a shower. He’d been involved in farm work.”

“You have a serious case of denial.” Tori turned around as the line moved forward.

“Don’t try to analyze me,” Caitlin warned, a note of real tension entering her voice. After the attack, she’d gone through the motions with a bureau counselor, and that had been painful enough. She didn’t want Tori picking at her scars, too. “I have more training than you do, remember?”

“More classroom training,” Tori conceded, her gaze fixed on the menu over the counter. “But I’ve had tons of experience with the real thing.”

Darkness colored Tori’s tone. Caitlin brushed her hair back, looking at the confident tilt of Tori’s chin. The other woman was right. She was mature beyond her twenty-four years, a maturity brought on by the horror of her rape. Tori, with typical Calvert courage and Tick’s unwavering support, had faced the aftermath dead on.

Caitlin shivered. Tori was right about the experience, too. Training and lectures had nothing on the real thing, the real horror. Caitlin had once thought she’d learned everything she needed to know between her doctoral degree in psychology and her FBI training.

Benjamin Fuller had taught her differently.

You know Tick would support you the same way, hold on to you, hold you up.

She tightened her arms over her stomach, the hollow ache there now having nothing to do with hunger. She was over it. She’d confronted the reality of what had happened to her, the way it affected her future, what it had taken from her. So she still had nightmares, the occasional panic attack. That was normal. It didn’t mean she wasn’t handling the aftermath, wasn’t recovering.

And why even bring Tick into this? She’d made her choice about him. Best not to even go there.

“Cait?”

Startled from her reverie, Caitlin glanced up. “Sorry. I was thinking.”

Tori continued to watch her carefully. “I didn’t mean to bring up something that’s hurting you.”

Caitlin shrugged. Her weak smile hurt her face. “You didn’t. I’m just trying to get my mind wrapped around this case.”

“Sure.” With seeming reluctance, Tori let the topic pass, and Caitlin’s next breath became a relieved sigh. They ordered and made their way to a corner table. Within a few minutes, their food arrived, hot, fresh and delicious. Caitlin’s usual hunger had fled, and she managed only a few bites, moving food around her plate with aimless movements.

Tori laid down her fork, her face brightening. “Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Why don’t you come to church with me Sunday? And then you can come to Mama’s for Sunday dinner. I’m telling you, that’s an experience not to be missed.”

Caitlin balked. She was here to work, not get further entangled in the Calvert family. “I don’t—”

“You’ll love it. Come on. Say yes. Besides, a little church never hurt anyone. Not that I know of, anyway.”

Caitlin stared at her a moment. If she didn’t give in, Tori wouldn’t allow her a moment’s peace. Besides, if she was lucky, she’d be back in Virginia by Sunday. “Okay, fine. I’ll go. Now, tell me about Amy Gillabeaux.”

Tori rested her chin on her hand, sadness invading her eyes. “The gossips like to paint her as a wild child, but she wasn’t, not really. She liked to party and she liked attention, but she was a good person. She was doing well in school after the fiasco of her first semester, majoring in social work, and I think she genuinely enjoyed her volunteer duties at the center.”

“What did she do there?”

“We have support groups for young women who’ve experienced domestic violence in dating situations, who’ve suffered date rape, any number of things. Amy organized and worked with several of those, and she helped coordinate our self-defense courses.”

“Did she have a boyfriend?”

Tori sipped her tea. “Amy had lots of boyfriends. She liked uniforms, and she liked older men.”

“You’re the second person to tell me she liked older men. What kind of uniforms?”

“Cops. Marines—Albany has a major supply of those. Air Force boys from Valdosta.”

“But you don’t know of any guy in particular she was interested in? Someone who visited her at the center?”

“She was interested in lots of guys, Cait. Lord, she even made a play for Tick. She was very miffed that he wasn’t interested.”

Caitlin speared a cucumber slice with her fork. “So I’ve heard.”

“I think Amy saw him as a challenge.” Tori waved her fork toward the door. “Speak of the devil. I forgot it was the civic club’s monthly lunch meeting.”

Anticipation slid over Caitlin even before she cast a casual glance over her shoulder. Tick stood by the door to the meeting room, talking to a group of men, including Mark Cook, Stanton Reed and Jeff Schaefer. He grimaced and punctuated his words with his hands. Caitlin watched his mouth move and turned away before he caught her ogling him.

“Oh my Lord.” Her voice gleeful, Tori stared at Caitlin. “I knew it! You’ve got the hots for him.”

“I do not have the hots for your brother.” Caitlin creased her napkin into a neat rectangle and laid it beside her plate. For telling that whopper, she would need to be in church Sunday.

“Sure. And Chandler County is a cultural Mecca. This is wonderful! I wish you could see the way you just looked at him.”

“Tori. Stop.” She wasn’t letting this go further. “I’m not saying he’s not an attractive man. We’re old friends and we’re working together. But that’s all.”

“Sure. Deny it all you want.” Tori nodded, a knowing smile curving her mouth. “You’d be perfect for each other. He needs someone who won’t let him be in charge all the time, someone a little strong willed. And I think you need someone to take care of you, even if it’s only every once in a while.”

“You’re deluded.” Caitlin’s laugh sounded shaky to her own ears. She picked up her notebook from the table and dropped a tip beside her nearly full plate. “Thank you for the information on Amy.”

Tori’s wave was dismissive. “Anything I can do to help. Just be forewarned—Tick’s my mother’s favorite, and she likes big weddings.”

“Would you stop?” Caitlin pushed a hefty dose of irritation into her voice, and after a long searching look, Tori shrugged.

They walked out, squinting at the bright sunlight. Wishing for her sunglasses, Caitlin shielded her eyes from the glare. “Could you drop me by the sheriff’s office? I need to interview Amy’s roommate and my car is there—”

“Ready to go, Agent Falconetti?” Schaefer asked as he joined them. Even in the wilting heat, he maintained a crisp professional appearance. He pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and slid them on, smiling at Caitlin’s quizzical look. “You wanted to talk to Laurie Gold, right?”

She nodded. “Tori, I guess I don’t need that ride after all.”

“That’s Jeff for you. Always around when he’s needed. Don’t forget, Mr. Schaefer, Saturday night, I’m meeting you for outrageously expensive Japanese food.”

“I won’t.” He brushed a quick kiss across her cheek.

“Cait?” Tori called after them as they walked to the car. “I’ll pick you up at your hotel Sunday morning around ten.”

Trapped at the restaurant entrance by Ray Lewis, the local newspaper editor who was all but demanding inside information on the murder investigation, Tick watched Caitlin walk away with Jeff. Envy twisted in his gut and he jerked a hand through his hair. The jealousy bothered him.

Her secrecy and the distance between them bothered him more.

Mentally, he cursed the rural power cooperative. Why today of all days did his power have to go out? If the damn clock had gone off, he’d have spent the morning in Caitlin’s company, using the opportunity to further the murder case and maybe getting answers out of her, rather than closeted in a meeting with Stanton and two testy county commissioners, explaining every freakin’ line item on the proposed investigative budget.

His day had to get better. It just had to.

Yanking his cigarettes from his pocket, he glared at the insistent editor, now sputtering something about the first amendment and the public’s right to information. “Ray, give it up. You’ll get the prepared statement from the department this afternoon, just like everyone else.”

Ray’s thin hair, grown long to cover a spreading bald spot, lifted in the hot breeze. “Just tell me this—is it true that you have no evidence at all?”

“Of course we have evidence. You can’t have a crime with no evidence. It’s not possible.” They just hadn’t found it yet, but hell if he was letting Ray print that in the paper.

“Forensic evidence, Tick. I’m talking about DNA and carpet fibers and all that crap they’re always talking about on television.”

Tick blew out a long stream of smoke, letting the nicotine soothe his jangling nerves. Halfway to Jeff’s unit, Caitlin stopped, smiling an apology as she pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket. Lord, she was gorgeous when she smiled.

He turned to Ray. “I can’t tell you that. If I told you what we have or don’t have, you’d print it. And then I’d have Tom McMillian on my ass about screwing up his prosecution—”

“Well, you can’t prosecute a suspect you don’t have!” Ray snarled and stalked off, waving his hands in the air.

“What is Ray fussing about now?” Tori asked, joining him.

“You don’t even want to know.” He passed a hand over his nape. “Where are Cait and Jeff off to?”

“She wants to interview Amy’s roommate.” Tori poked him in the ribs affectionately and he winced, rubbing the spot. She had the sharpest nails known to man and knew right where to jab him. “Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”

“You think I tell you everything?”

Mischief crinkled Tori’s nose. “You don’t have to. The local grapevine tells me sooner or later.”

“We’ve found two bodies in as many days, Tor. I’ve been kind of busy.” He dropped the cigarette to the gravel and ground it out with his heel.

“Are you happy to see her?”

“I’m glad to see her,” Tick said, going for professional and noncommittal. Confiding in Del was one thing, Tori quite another. Del would listen, maybe offer advice, back off to let him figure things out. Tori would hound him to death. “She’ll be a big help on this investigation.”

“That is not what I meant.” She blew out a long-suffering sigh. “Big brother, she is very into you.”

“What are you, twelve? Into me? She is
not
into me,” he protested, even though he knew the words to be false. Caitlin didn’t want him near her right now, but they’d been as into one another as two people could be. That level of physical need didn’t just go away.

He hated the knowing look that crossed his sister’s face. Tori tossed back her hair. “Trust me. She’s very attracted to you.”

Attraction wasn’t the issue. Trust was. He was finally figuring that out, now that the anger and hurt over her rejection was receding a little. The physical tug between them was too strong to ignore, but something kept her from letting it go deeper than that. The puzzle was driving him nuts.

Tori nudged his arm. “C’mon, Lamar Eugene, you’re staring into space. What’s going on? Tell little sister all about it.”

“I’m not discussing this with you. Nothing’s going on.” He shook his head, walking away. Yeah, Caitlin was attracted to him. He’d have to be blind not to see that. During the myriad interviews they’d conducted last night, he’d looked up and caught her watching him more than once, a hunger in her eyes that made him burn.