Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek

He reached across the table and his big hand engulfed hers, warming some of the cold spots she’d had inside. “There’s no way I’d leave you alone, Lexie. I know what it’s like to be alone with grief and I don’t want that for you.”

As she looked into his soft gray eyes, she wanted him. She wanted the warmth of his body wrapped around hers. She needed him to keep the horror at bay.

“Come to bed with me, Nick. Come to bed and make love to me.”

His eyes flared wide at her words. “Lexie, that’s probably not a good idea tonight. You’re grieving and you aren’t thinking straight and the last thing I’d want to do is take advantage of you.”

“You wouldn’t be. I know you’ve already had your Cupid arrow, Nick. This isn’t about love, it’s about need.” She got up from the table. “I need to be held. I need to feel alive. I need you, Nick.”

Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek

Carla Cassidy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Valerie Francis

For Sundays and girl talk and all your support! For laughter and jewelry and a little touch of sanity in my life. All I can say is thanks!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carla Cassidy is an award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels for Harlequin Books. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews.

Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Lexie Forbes —She’d come to Widow Creek seeking her missing twin sister but instead had found danger…and more.

Nick Walker —Was he friend or foe to Lexie?

Lana Forbes —Lexie’s missing twin. Had she walked away from her life or stumbled onto something malevolent in the small town?

Gary Wendell —Was the chief of police a good guy or somebody who would do anything to protect the secrets of his town?

Bo Richards —A handsome rancher who dated Lana. Was he the last person to see her alive? And was he responsible for her death?

Clay Cole —A tough guy with an attitude. What did he know, if anything, about what had happened to Lana?

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter One

Lexie Forbes rarely left her job at the Kansas City FBI field office early, but on this Friday afternoon she knocked off work at three and headed toward her car in the parking lot. There was nothing pressing on her desk, just the usual cons and perverts for her to chase down. But she’d awakened that morning with a vague sense of anxiety that she hadn’t quite been able to shake off.

She knew the source of the anxiety—her twin sister, Lauren. They were extremely close and spoke on the phone to each other at least once or twice a day, but for the past two days Lexie had been unable to get hold of her sister.

As she walked through the parking lot, the first fallen autumn leaves swirled around her feet and a cool breeze danced unexpected goose bumps along her arms.

She reached her car, unlocked it and then slid in behind the wheel. She’d just put the key in and started the engine when it struck, an excruciating pain that slammed into the back of her head with such force it momentarily stole her breath away.

It was there only a moment and then gone, leaving her gasping for air and holding on to the steering wheel with clenched fingers.

“Whoa,” she finally breathed. What was that all about? It had felt like a bomb had detonated in the base of her brain. With a shaky hand she reached up and adjusted the rearview mirror so she could look at her reflection.

She wasn’t sure what she expected to see, but the woman who stared back at her looked the same as always. Short, light brown, spiked hair with a vivid pink streak, black-rimmed glasses nearly hiding green eyes and no blood or missing skull from that sharp pain.

Adjusting the mirror back where it belonged, her thoughts once again shot to her sister and the anxiety swelled bigger and tighter in her chest. There had been a time several years ago when Lexie had suffered from inexplicable arm pain for a couple of hours. Later she’d discovered that Lauren had broken her arm. It had been one of those crazy twin things that nobody understood and that only happened occasionally.

Had Lauren hit her head? Had Lexie just experienced her twin’s pain? She dismissed the idea. Each and every pain Lexie suffered wasn’t tied to her twin sister.

As she pulled out of the parking lot she decided that if she didn’t get hold of Lauren when she got to her apartment, then a road trip was definitely in order.

Four months ago Lauren had realized her dream and bought six acres of land in a small town about an hour and a half from the Kansas City area. Over the last couple of years she’d become an established dog breeder and trainer and had wanted enough property to expand her business.

Lexie had helped her move but hadn’t been back to visit since that time. It was definitely past time for a trip to see her sister. She had the weekend open and this was a perfect opportunity for a surprise visit.

Once Lexie got home to her small apartment she tried her sister again, both on her landline and on her cell phone. When she still didn’t get an answer she packed a bag, locked the apartment door and headed toward the small Kansas town of Widow Creek.

It was a pleasant drive. Traffic was light, and once she left the city she enjoyed the country scenery. Her favorite oldies played on the radio and she sang along until she reached the city limits of the small town.

It was just after five when she pulled up in front of her sister’s place. The ranch-style farmhouse looked warm and inviting with pots of colorful flowers and a wicker rocking chair on the porch.

She got out of the car and gazed around. She’d forgotten that the place was a bit isolated, with only one other house visible in the distance. Aware of the sound of barking dogs, she walked to the side of the house where a large fenced area contained four young German shepherds.

They all raced to the fence with youthful pup eagerness, stepping on each other in an effort to get closer to her. She might have laughed at their antics if she didn’t see that their food and water bowls were empty.

Lauren would never allow any of her dogs to go without food and water. The disquiet that had simmered inside her for the past two days now roared into full-bloom alarm.

She left the dog pen and hurried to the front door where she knocked. “Lauren? Lauren, are you in there? It’s me.” She waited only a moment and when no answer came she pulled out her keys and used the one that Lauren had given her on moving day.

Visions of her sister filled her head. Maybe she’d slipped in the shower and hurt herself to the point she couldn’t get to a phone. Or maybe she was in bed, deathly ill, and couldn’t rouse herself enough to make a call for help.

She unlocked the door and then pulled her gun and held it steady in her hand as she shoved the door open with her foot. Even though Lexie’s job with the FBI consisted of her sitting in a small cubicle in front of a computer, she’d been trained to be proficient with her weapon.

As she entered the small foyer the first thing she noticed was that the house smelled slightly musty, as if it had been closed up for too long.

There was a low woof and Zeus greeted her. The old German shepherd ran to her like she was his new best friend. He sat on the floor at her feet and released a low, mournful whine.

Lexie dropped her gun back into her purse. There was no way anybody threatening could be in the house without Zeus letting her know.

“Hey, boy.” She crouched down and scrubbed the dog behind his ears. “Hey, buddy, where’s your mama?”

Zeus closed his eyes and released what sounded like a contented sigh as she continued to scratch behind his ears. She finally stood up and walked into the kitchen, then worried all over again when she saw that Zeus’s food and water bowls were also empty.

She checked the rest of the house and confirmed that nobody was home, then returned to the kitchen and got food and water for Zeus. He attacked the food as if he were starving.

As Lexie watched him eat, her heart beat a rhythm of dread. What was going on here? Where was Lauren? Her dogs were her family and there was no way she’d leave them like this.

When she’d walked through the house she’d seen nothing amiss, no sign of trouble. The rooms were all neat and tidy, just the way Lauren always kept them.

The last time she’d talked to her sister had been Tuesday evening and Lauren hadn’t mentioned going anywhere. Lauren almost never traveled because she didn’t like leaving the care of the dogs to anyone else.

As Zeus finished his meal, Lexie stared out the back window where there were several outbuildings and beyond them an expanse of thick woods.

Was Lauren out there somewhere? Had she taken a walk, somehow fallen and hurt herself and been unable to summon help? She grabbed the leash that hung on a hook by the back door and then called to Zeus.

If Lauren was out there somewhere surely Zeus would find her. Lauren had gotten the dog when he was eight weeks old and he was now nine. No matter how many other dogs passed through Lauren’s life, she and Zeus had always had a special bond.

Moments later, with Zeus on the leash, Lexie stepped out the back door and headed toward the outbuildings. Zeus bounded ahead on the length of leash she gave him as she tried to tamp down the overwhelming sense of dread that grew stronger with each minute that passed.

Her dread increased as she opened the door of the detached garage and found Lauren’s truck inside. Where could she be without her vehicle?

Next she checked the first large shed, which held a variety of items Lauren used for her various training sessions. There were poles and jumps, risers and items used for agility training. Unfortunately, there was no Lauren.

She moved to the second, smaller shed and discovered it held only gardening tools. She told herself not to jump to any conclusions, but it was hard not to with the knot of fear that pressed tight in her chest.

The woods. It was the only place she had left to check. She looked at her watch. Almost six. She’d maybe get two good hours in before darkness began to fall and made a search impossible.

She took off with Zeus in tow and within minutes was surrounded by tall trees and thick brush. “Lauren!” she called every few steps and then stopped and listened for any kind of answering reply. But there was nothing except the sound of Zeus crunching leaves beneath his big paws.

“Zeus, find your mommy,” she commanded the dog.

He barked and danced in place, as if unsure what she wanted from him. They walked for what seemed like an eternity until she finally reached a rocky creek bed with just a trickle of water running in it. She sank down on the edge, Zeus at her side and looked around with a sense of failure as she rested.

Darkness was slamming down with a swiftness that was disheartening. She’d done a cursory check of all the property and Zeus had never given an indication that his master might be near.

“Where are you, Lauren?” She had a bad feeling. None of this was right and she couldn’t imagine any scenario that would allow any of this to make sense.

Lauren was definitely not the type to just take off somewhere with no thought to her dogs, no thought for Lexie. Something was terribly wrong.

She pulled herself up from the creek bank and headed back to the house. Maybe by now Lauren had returned. Or perhaps a friend had picked her up for shopping or dinner out and they hadn’t returned yet. Of course that wouldn’t explain why she hadn’t answered Lexie’s phone calls since Tuesday night.

The shadows of night had begun to cling to the house as Lexie reentered through the back door. For the first time in her life she hated to see nightfall. She removed Zeus from the leash and then went into Lauren’s bedroom and stood staring at the neatly made bed.

The room breathed the essence of Lauren. It was infused with warmth from the peach and navy ruffled bedspread to the photo of the two sisters hugging on the nightstand. A faint scent of the orange blossom lotion that Lauren loved lingered in the air, intensifying Lexie’s overwhelming sense of confusion and worry.

She thought back to the last phone conversation she’d had with her sister but couldn’t think of anything Lauren had said that might explain her absence here. Lauren had talked about the dogs, about how excited she was about the growth of her business, but she hadn’t mentioned going anywhere for any extended period of time.

There was absolutely no reason to believe that she’d been missing since that phone conversation, Lexie told herself. She might have left the house that morning for some sort of day trip and hadn’t realized the dogs were out of water.

The fact that the house smelled like it had been closed up for a couple of days didn’t mean anything either. Maybe she was only thinking bad thoughts because of her job. As an FBI agent she was trained to look at the worst-case scenario.

An unmistakable sound came from behind her—the slide and click of a bullet being chambered in a shotgun. She froze as her heart nearly stopped beating.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in Lauren’s bedroom?” The deep male voice was calm but held a steely edge.

She raised her hands above her head and slowly turned. He stood in the threshold of the bedroom. With his dark hair and gunmetal gray eyes, he was a hot hunk in a pair of tight jeans and a navy pullover. And he had the business end of a shotgun pointed directly at her heart.

NICK WALKER SLOWLY LOWERED the shotgun as he recognized the woman standing before him as the same one in the picture with Lauren on the nightstand.

“You’re Lexie,” he said as some of the tension ebbed from him.

Even though she and Lauren were identical twins it was obvious Lexie had gone to some extremes to find her own identity. Lauren wore contacts while the woman standing before him wore oversized black-rimmed glasses that almost hid the beauty of her bright green eyes. Lauren’s hair was shoulder-length and Lexie’s was short and spiked and sporting an unexpected pink streak.

Nick was surprised to feel a small kick of attraction in the pit of his stomach, something he’d never felt for his friend and neighbor, Lauren.

“The real question is who in the hell are you and what are you doing in Lauren’s bedroom?” she asked, her chin lifted and eyes narrowed.

“I’m Nick Walker and I live next door. Why don’t we both get out of Lauren’s bedroom and go into the kitchen where we can talk.”

He didn’t wait for her response but rather turned and left the bedroom. During the past four months he and Lauren had become good friends and in that time she’d spoken often of her twin sister.

He knew that Lexie worked for the cybercrime unit with the FBI in Kansas City, that Lauren worried that Lexie had a better relationship with her computer than with any real people and that the twins had been raised by their father who had passed away five years ago.

He leaned his shotgun against the kitchen wall and then sat at the round oak table. She came into the kitchen holding a handgun and wearing a scowl.

“Now you can answer some more of my questions,” she said as she eased down into the chair opposite him.

“There’s no need for your gun,” he replied easily. “I’m on your side.”

“I don’t know that yet,” she countered. “What are you doing here and how did you get inside?”

“Lauren and I exchanged keys to our homes about a month after she moved in here. Since neither of us have family here, we thought it would be a good idea in case of emergency. I let myself in when I saw the unfamiliar car out front and I knew that Lauren wasn’t home.”

Lexie stared at him unblinking. Under normal circumstances the length of time of the eye contact would have bordered on inappropriate, but he told himself these weren’t normal circumstances. “Where is she?” There was a faint whisper of fear in her voice.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since Tuesday. She’s been working with my dog and I came here late afternoon on Wednesday for my usual session and she wasn’t here.”

He tried not to notice the scent of her, a clean fresh smell coupled with a hint of sweet, blooming flowers. God, he didn’t remember the last time he’d noticed the scent of a woman.

He consciously focused back on the issue at hand. “I realized that it didn’t look like the dogs in the yard had been fed and watered, so I took care of them and then left. Same thing happened yesterday. I was worried that maybe she was sick, so I used my key to come inside. I fed and watered Zeus and the dogs outside and then went back home.”

He frowned thoughtfully. “I haven’t known your sister for very long, but this felt out of character for her. I was worried, and then tonight when I realized somebody was in the house, I decided to come in and investigate.”

He didn’t feel it was necessary to tell her that when he’d seen that pink streak in her hair before she’d completely turned around to face him, he’d thought she was one of the teenagers of the town taking advantage of Lauren’s absence for an opportunity for a little party or a bit of theft.

“This is definitely out of character for Lauren,” she said and finally laid her gun down on the table next to her. “What’s your relationship with her? Romantic?”

“Not at all,” he replied. “Over the last couple of months Lauren and I have become good friends, but nothing more than that.”

“Her truck is in the garage.”

It took him a second to adjust to the leap in topic and her words sent a vague sense of uneasiness through him. “I didn’t know that.”

She nodded. “I checked out the property. Zeus and I walked it looking for her, but needless to say we didn’t find her.” She stood abruptly. “Thank you for looking out for things here.”

It was an obvious dismissal and Nick stood and grabbed his shotgun as she started out of the kitchen. He followed just behind her and tried not to notice the cute shape of her butt in her tight jeans.

What was wrong with him? He was far too conscious of Lexie Forbes’s attractiveness and it made him more than a little bit uncomfortable.

Maybe part of the problem was even though he knew Lauren and Lexie were identical twins, the woman in front of him seemed more vibrant and much prettier than her sister.

“So, what’s your next move?” he asked as they reached the front door.

She frowned. “First thing in the morning if she doesn’t come home or I don’t hear from her, I’ll head into town and file a missing persons report at the police station.”

“Don’t expect much from the local authorities,” he replied, remembering a time when he’d filed his own missing person’s report and nothing had been done until it was too late.

She looked at him sharply. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“I went to high school with Gary Wendall, the chief of police. He tends toward big talk and little action.” Nick’s stomach knotted at thoughts of Wendall, who had been damned little help when Nick had needed him most.

“I’ll file the report and then I’m going to ask questions and see if I can find out who might have last seen Lauren and when. I spoke to her Tuesday night so I know she was here and fine then.”

She looked up at him and in the depths of her pretty green eyes he saw fear. “She’s all I have. I have to find her,” she said, her voice husky with emotion.

He had a crazy sudden impulse to pull her into his arms, to assure her that everything was going to be just fine. Instead he opened up the door, flipped on the outside porch light and then stepped out.

She followed him, her gaze automatically scanning the area as if hoping her sister would suddenly appear in the illuminated spill of the high-powered beam of light.

“I’d like it if you’d keep me informed,” he said and then frowned. “I should have given you my cell phone number.”

“Give it to me now,” she replied.

“You don’t have any place to write it down,” he protested.

“I’ll remember it.”

Although dubious, he rattled off the number. When he was finished she nodded. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything or if she turns up here.”

“I’d appreciate it. I guess I’ll talk to you soon.” He stepped off the porch, and as she murmured a goodbye he headed for his pickup in the driveway.

When he got into the truck, he gazed at her once again. Lexie Forbes affected him like no other woman had in a very long time.

Despite the circumstances of their meeting he was surprised to realize what he’d felt for her was a momentary flare of desire.

He shook his head and started his truck, focusing his thoughts back on the missing Lauren. There was no question that mutual loneliness had forged their friendship over the last couple of months. She’d been new in town, hadn’t known anyone, and he’d been mired in grief for so long he’d become isolated from everyone else.

Lauren had been easy to talk to, pleasant to be around, but he’d told Lexie the truth when he’d said there had been nothing romantic between them.

There would never be romance in Nick’s life again. He’d had his one great love with tragic results. His heart would forever remain unavailable to any other woman on the face of the earth.

He headed down the road to the farmhouse that no longer felt like home, but was rather just a place to sleep and eat, a place to exist.

That’s all he’d been doing for a long time—existing and marking time. Lauren had definitely helped pass the time, especially the evening hours after dinner and before bedtime.

Still, as he thought of Lauren he was filled with a sense of dread, that somehow history was repeating itself. He couldn’t stop thinking that the last time a woman had disappeared for a couple of days she’d wound up dead in a motel room.

Chapter Two

The night had been endless.

Before going to bed Lexie had found a local phone book and called the hospital and the clinics in the area, but none of them would admit to having Lauren as a patient. Surely if she was in the hospital somebody would have called Lexie by now. Lexie was listed as Lauren’s emergency contact.

The only thing that made Lexie feel a little bit better was that she couldn’t find Lauren’s purse or her cell phone in the house. She could only assume Lauren had those items with her wherever she was.

Still, by the time morning had come Lexie’s eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep. She had tried to rest in the guest room, but had finally ended up on the sofa with Zeus on the floor next to her.

Every sound the house had made through the night, every creak and whisper shot her up with the hope that it might be Lauren returning home. At 5:00 a.m. she finally gave up any pretense of sleep and went into the spare bedroom that Lauren used as an office.