Debra Cowan – Burning Love (страница 11)

Just then the door opened and Darla stuck her head in. “Sorry to interrupt, but I think you should see this, Terra.”

“What’s going on?”

“I found a card with those flowers.”

“The ones delivered yesterday?” Terra frowned. “I didn’t see a card. There’s never been one before.”

“It was stuck down inside the stems and greenery. If I hadn’t started to water it, I wouldn’t have seen it either.”

“Is it signed?”

“No.”

Jack’s lips twisted. “Guess your secret admirer still isn’t ready to ’fess up.”

Terra sighed. “Just throw it away.”

“I really think you should take a look,” Darla insisted.

Jack noted the strain around the secretary’s mouth, the worry in her eyes. And the fact that Darla had on a pair of latex gloves. Evidently, Terra noticed that, too, because she rose quickly from her chair beside him.

He stood as well, his shoulder grazing hers. From the corner of her desk behind him, she plucked up a pair of gloves and pulled them on before handing him a pair to don, as well.

Darla reached across and handed the card to Terra, who took it carefully. She glanced down at it and Jack saw her lips tighten.

Were the flowers from Dane Reynolds? Jack recalled the homicide scene last night when the pretty-boy reporter, his faithful cameraman on his heels, had headed straight for Terra. At Jack’s flat look, Reynolds had possessed the good sense to steer a course away from the willowy fire investigator, but Jack had seen the glint of emotion in his eyes. Avid interest. Or was it obsession?

Just thinking about the hungry look the reporter had aimed at Terra and the lush roses she’d removed from her desk put a hard knot in Jack’s chest. The same knot he’d felt the night before when he’d draped his jacket around her slender shoulders.

Something in him had responded to the vulnerability in her face, a vulnerability she hid pretty well. That’s what it was about Terra August which drew him to her. That, plus he’d been in a similar situation once—called on to do a job after losing a loved one. Called on to be a cop while the man, the husband in him, nearly shattered.

He suspected Terra had at least some of those feelings. Torn between trying to do her job and not give in to the grief.

She passed the note to him and Jack noticed that her hands were unsteady. This time it was concern that had him wanting to reassure her.

The words jumped out at him first. “This is between you and me.” But it was the flames drawn around the words that had him narrowing his eyes.

An instinct he’d only ever felt for his mom, his sister and his late wife roared to life—a fierce possessiveness. He told himself to rein it in even as his jaw tightened.

“How did I miss this?” Irritation etched Terra’s voice.

“I didn’t see it either,” Darla said. “Besides, this is the first time there’s been a note. It didn’t occur to me to check for one.”

“Do you have an evidence bag?” Jack asked.

Darla nodded and retrieved a plastic baggie from a shelf behind her desk, then gave it to Jack.

Jack gestured for Terra to carefully slide the card inside. “Before now, there have been no cards with the flower deliveries. There also haven’t been any murders.”

“You think this is related to the arsons?” Shock widened Terra’s eyes.

“Well, the murder shows the arsonist’s acts are escalating. You said so yourself. Why not a note, too? This could definitely be meant as a threat.”

“It sounds like a threat to me,” Darla agreed. The phone rang and she hurried back to her desk.

Terra’s green eyes clouded. “Could all the flowers I’ve received been sent by the arsonist?”

“Good question. Can you remember when the other deliveries were made? We know you received the latest one yesterday.”

“The day following the fire at Harris’s.” A slow horror unfolded across her refined features. “I received the others on the day after each fire set by the serial arsonist.”

“Are you sure?”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “Yes, fairly certain. That’s about the time Dane Reynolds started showing interest. I assumed all the bouquets were from him. I didn’t connect them to the arsons at all!”

“They still might be from him,” Jack pointed out quietly.

Terra froze. “Are you kidding?”

“Isn’t it possible Reynolds could be the arsonist?”

“Anything’s possible, but…yuk.” She shivered. “Why? What would be his motivation?”

“Didn’t you say the desire for attention was a motive?”

She nodded, her fingers stroking down her throat in what Jack was beginning to recognize as a sign of nervousness. Was he the one making her nervous? Or the topic?

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