“What’s this about?” Max repeated.

But at the same time I said quickly, “Yes, I can.”

“You sure?” Mick asked me.

“Of course I’m sure,” I said firmly.

“Were you asleep too?” Mick pressed and my back straightened.

“Mick,” Max was obviously losing patience, “what the fuck’s this about?”

But again I spoke quickly. “No, I wasn’t asleep.” Mick opened his mouth to speak but I kept talking. “I’m here from England, I’ve got jetlag. I woke up around two in the morning, nine o’clock my time, and stayed awake until dawn. Max was with me the whole time.”

Mick’s face and body visibly relaxed, relief washing through him and he nodded.

“Now you wanna tell me what this is about?” Max’s patience was gone, he sounded angry.

Mick’s eyes moved to him. “Curtis Dodd was killed early this mornin’.”

I heard Max pull in breath and even though I didn’t know who Curtis Dodd was, I felt my eyes get wide.

“You’re shittin’ me,” Max said quietly.

“Wish I was,” Mick replied.

Then Max asked, “Murdered?”

“Yep,” Mick answered.

“And you come to visit me?” Max didn’t sound angry anymore, he just was. I heard it and felt it.

“Now Max, just procedure. Everyone knows you don’t get along with Dodd.” Mick’s tone was placating.

“Yeah, neither does most of the town,” Max returned.

“Yeah, that’s why I got deputies visiting a lotta folk. You’re my third this mornin’,” Mick explained.

Well, at least that was something.

“What happened?” I asked in order to turn the conversation and hopefully diffuse the situation.

“Dodd was shot,” Mick answered.

“Where?” Max asked.

“His house, guy broke in,” Mick answered.

Max came closer, his body touching my back and I could feel something strange coming from him.

“Where was Bitsy?” Max went on, his voice cautious or maybe concerned.

“Visitin’ her sister, she don’t like the spring break tourist season. Too many kids, teenagers gettin’ sloshed.” I felt something coming from Max, I didn’t know what it was but it was also coming from Mick. He was uncomfortable again for some reason that was different than before and he hurried on. “You know she goes down to Arizona for a coupla months every March and April.”

I felt Max relax before he asked, “Who found him then?”

Mick shifted on his feet and I knew he would have adjusted his collar if he didn’t think it would give him away.

“Dodd wasn’t exactly alone,” Mick muttered.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Max muttered back but his mutter was clipped and annoyed. “Shauna.”

Surprise hit me and I looked at Mick nodding then over my shoulder at Max’s hard, angry face.

“Shauna said he heard the break in and went to investigate then she heard the shots. Lucky for her, seems the killer didn’t know she was there, just did Dodd and then took off. Hearin’ the shots, she was scared shitless. Took her awhile to get her shit together to leave the bedroom, find Dodd then call it in. She was pretty shaken up. Still is.”

“Bet she is,” Max muttered like he did indeed bet she was and he didn’t give a damn.

“What about Harry? I thought she was with Harry,” I asked stupidly, looking over my shoulder at Max and his eyes came to me then his hand came to my waist and he gave me a squeeze. He didn’t have to answer, that was answer enough. Shauna was stepping out on goofy, sweet Harry. Then I whispered, “Poor Harry.”

“Yeah, poor Harry,” Max replied, his voice quiet.

I looked back at Mick and added, “And poor um… Curtis Dodd.”

Mick examined me a second then his face split in a genuine, amused grin before his gaze shifted up to Max.

“Nina’s new around here, I’m guessin’,” he noted.

“Yeah,” Max answered.

“I’m sorry?” I asked and Mick looked at me.

“There’s about two people in a four county area that’d say, at learnin’ the news that Curtis Dodd was murdered, ‘Poor Curtis Dodd’. You and Shauna. You because you don’t know him, Shauna because she was sleepin’ with him.”

“Oh,” I mumbled and wondered about Curtis Dodd.

“You want coffee?” Max asked and Mick shook his head.

“Gonna be a busy day, gotta get on my way.”

“You have a travel mug in your truck?” I asked and Mick looked at me.

“Yeah,” he said.

“If you’ll go get it, we’ll give you a warm up.”

Mick’s face changed, his eyes cut to Max then back to me. He smiled and said softly, “Be kind of you.”

“Well, not really. Max made the coffee though I think he used coffee from my grocery stash. I’m finding Max isn’t good with grocery boundaries.”

A short, surprised laugh escaped Mick as his eyes shot to Max.

Max moved to my side and slung an arm around my shoulders, noting, “You’ll find, Mick, that Nina’s somethin’ else.”

My head tipped back and I looked at Max. “What does that mean?”

“Relax, Duchess,” Max grinned at me, “it was a compliment.”

“It didn’t sound like one,” I retorted.

He bent at the waist and his face got close. “Well, it was.”

Mick cleared his throat and I decided to let it go. It was rude, arguing in front of other people, especially people you didn’t know.

I looked at Mick and prompted, “Your travel mug, officer?”

“Call me Mick.”

I doubted I’d ever see him again but on a smile I said courteously, “All right, Mick.”

Mick went to get his mug, I went to the coffeepot, Max stood behind my stool and watched Mick.

“You okay?” I called.

“Shauna’s a fuckin’ bitch,” Max replied.

This was true therefore I had no comment.

Max turned to me. “Bitsy, Dodd’s wife, she’s disabled.”

I blinked then I asked, “What?”

“Disabled, car wreck, ten years ago. Paralyzed from the waist down.”

“Oh my,” I whispered and Mick came in, interrupting our conversation.

“Thanks for this, been up since way before dawn. Figure coffee’ll be my saving grace the next few days,” he remarked, coming to me.

I poured him coffee, trying to ignore the fact that I still hadn’t put on any clothes and was in a short, cotton nightgown.

Mick didn’t act like he noticed it and I guessed since he was a cop he pretty much saw it all. He told me he took two sugars and a “slug” of milk. I gave it to him then gave him my farewell. Max walked him to the door, said his good-byes, stood in it as Mick jogged to his SUV and only closed it when Mick started up the truck, gave a wave and started to reverse.

Max joined me in the kitchen, reached around me and grabbed his mug. Then he leaned a hip against the counter and looking up at him I did the same.

“Bitsy?” I prompted, curious. “And Shauna?”

“Bitsy’s sweet, I’ve known her since we were kids, she’s lived in town her whole life, everyone loves her. Shauna…” He didn’t finish, I nodded that I understood and Max went on. “Dodd’s loaded. Shauna likes that. Harry’s pretty loaded too but not like Dodd.”

“You’re loaded too,” I said to him and he looked down at me.

“That I ain’t, Duchess,” he said honestly.

“According to Shauna, you’re sitting on millions of dollars worth of land.”

I watched his face close down and he said, “Yeah, if I sell it.”

“And Shauna wanted you to do that,” I guessed.

“Yeah.”

“To Dodd,” I guessed again.

“Yeah.”

I was right, Shauna was a bitch. She might be more than a bitch but I wasn’t sure what that was.

“Tangled web,” I whispered.

“It was then I scraped her off, got myself untangled.”

I looked beyond him out the windows to the view.

There was nothing between him and that glorious view and I figured, for thirty acres all around, nothing beside him or behind him.

Like Harry said, God’s country, unspoiled.

I looked back at Max. “What did Dodd want to do with your land?”

“He had a coupla schemes he was considering. Hotel and guest villas or a small, exclusive housing development.”

I felt my lip curl. Max’s eyes dropped to my mouth and he did two things. He burst out laughing and wound an arm around my waist again bringing our lower bodies close together but this time not in closer proximity, now actually touching.

“Max –” I whispered, my hands going to his arms.

He stopped laughing but smiled down at me. “That’s what I thought, Duchess.”

“What?” I asked, losing track of the conversation what with his biceps under my fingers and his hips fitted to mine.

“Your face, Dodd’s plans, that’s what I thought.”

“Oh.”

He let me go, turned to the coffeepot and ordered, “Finish your toast, get ready, forget this shit, we’re goin’ to the bluff.”

It took me a second before I could get my feet to move but I finally did, went to my stool, finished my toast and then I went to the coffeepot, reaching around Max to give myself a warm up as Max finished his own toast, his eyes pointed out the window, his mind on other things.

Then I took my coffee, walked upstairs, made the bed, grabbed my stuff from the suitcase and locked myself in the bathroom, getting ready to be an idiot and go with Max to the bluff.

***

“I’m sorry?” I shouted over the noise from the snowmobile Max was sitting astride.

“Climb on!” he shouted back and I stared at the snowmobile.

“Can’t we walk?” I asked loudly.

“No.”

“Drive?”

“No.”

I took a step back. “Maybe –”

“Duchess, get… the fuck… on.”

My eyes went to his face and I snapped, “You’re very impatient!”