Get a Clue

Chapter 13

Breanne pushed up on her elbows and stared at the body. "Oh, my God! Are you okay?"

It was a man. He lay flat on his back, arms and legs sprawled, not moving. There was a gash on his forehead, the blood dried.

Surging up to her knees, she put her hands on his shoulder. "Can you hear me?"

When he didn't budge, a very bad feeling snaked through her. The thick, icky air seemed to close in around her as she stared at him, heart pounding in her throat. Who was he? Nicely dressed, he wore dark trousers and a dark, long-sleeved shirt. He was missing a shoe, she thought inanely. "Can you hear me?" she repeated.

Nothing. Less than nothing. "I was really hoping you'd blink," she whispered. "Or moan. Anything."

He didn't blink or moan.

Or anything.

Oh, God. She got down low and tried to peer into his face. Please be okay, please be okay… Could she see a pulse in the base of his neck? As she leaned in, her hand slipped from his shoulder to his chest, which felt… stiff.

She pulled her hand back and stared at him in horror. "Oh, my God. You're not unconscious. You're…"

Dead.

Her entire body went as stiff as his. Her stomach sank, everything sank, weighing her down so she couldn't seem to move.

Dead.

The knowledge sort of seeped into her brain in slow motion, and when it finally landed and was processed, she did what any sensible city girl stuck in the mountains in a snowstorm without luggage, who'd found a naked guy and a dead guy within a few hours of each other, would do.

She scrunched up her eyes and screamed.

In what might have been an eternity or only a moment later, footsteps sounded above her. Cooper appeared. "Breanne?" He took the stairs two at a time, those always-aware eyes narrowing in on the body at her feet.

While Breanne's eyes narrowed in on the object in Cooper's hand.

A gun.

A gun.

It was hard to wrap her mind around much in the condition she was in, but facts were facts. She'd screamed and he'd come running, ready to slay a dragon for her.

"What the hell happened?" Cooper demanded.

"I don't know."

He hunkered down and put his fingers to the man's neck, then looked up at her, slowly shaking his head.

Breanne slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in another scream.

Rising, Cooper stuffed his gun in the waistband of his jeans low at his back and took her arms in his hands. "You okay?"

A few moments ago, he'd had her up against a wall, skirt shoved up to her belly button, hands in her panties, his fingers driving her straight to oblivion, and now… now he was this intense, cool, calm, and collected man.

With a gun.

"Breanne. Are you okay?"

She stared at him. He had his shirt loose and draped over the bulge of his gun. He looked rough-and-tumble. Badass.

Damn it, she had a serious weakness for badass.

"Breanne?"

"P-pretty sure I'm n-not okay." Her teeth were chattering again, though she wasn't cold. Or maybe she was and she couldn't tell because she'd gone numb.

With a low sound of empathy, he pulled her close, a protective gesture that felt amazingly seductive for its sweetness, so much so that she felt herself want to cling. Just for a moment, she told herself, and did just that: wrapped her arms around his neck and absorbed his strength, his heat.

How was she going to resist this? Him?

Didn't matter, she'd find a way. She'd promised herself a break from bad decisions, and anything she did here, while out of her element and scared and hurt, would be bad. Very bad.

Probably she should stay out of cellars, too.

Cooper pulled back, leaving his hands on her arms, and looked into her eyes. "Tell me why you're standing over a dead body."

"I got lost. I tripped over him."

"He was here when you got here? Like this?"

"Well, I didn't put him here!"

"Okay." He stroked his hands up and down her arms. "Damn. A dead body. I hate it when that happens."

She let out a hysterical laugh. "He's dead. Omigod, when did he get that way? Last night? When I saw a face over me? What if I was almost the dead body? What if-"

"Shh." He waited until she'd gulped in a breath and nodded.

She was okay. She was going to hold it together. She was. You've got a gun."

"Yeah."

Was that his voice, all tight and grim, and so unlike the sexy, low, rough one he'd used only a few moments ago to murmur naughty nothings in her ear? "Cooper, why do you have a gun?"

"How about first we figure out why you have a corpse at your feet?"

She hugged herself and carefully didn't look down. "That's easy. Because I'm in the twilight zone. Or having a dream. Any minute now, I'm going to wake up."

"Sit," he said gently, and backed her to the bottom stair and pushed her down. "Hang tight."

Hang tight. Sure. She'd just do that while Cooper squatted next to the body about fifteen feet away, his eyes scanning the layout, taking it all in as he pulled out a cell phone. He looked at the display and swore at his lack of reception.

"Please tell me why you have a gun," she said as he shoved the cell back into his pocket. "And why you were holding it like a cop."

"I am a cop." He glanced up at her. "Or I was until last week when I quit."

More running footsteps sounded above them, then suddenly Shelly and Dante were crowding for space in the doorway above, peering down.

Shelly gasped, Dante swore, and they both came tearing down the steps.

From some dim corner of her mind Breanne realized that if Shelly had come with Dante from somewhere in the house, she couldn't have been in that next room humming, but then Shelly let out a shocked cry and lifted her apron to cover her mouth, her eyes wide and wild. "Oh, my God!"

Dante didn't say a word, just put a hand on Shelly's shoulder.

"Who is he?" Cooper asked them.

Shelly just stared at the body, her mouth still covered.

Dante lifted his gaze, hooded and inscrutable.

"Do you know him?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah." Dante's voice was like granite. "We know him."

"Who is he?" Cooper asked again, in an indisputable cop voice, one that demanded an answer.

"It's Edward," Dante said. "Our boss."

"Not missing," Shelly said into the apron. "But… dead."

Another gasp from the top of the stairs, and then Lariana practically flew down to them. "Dios mio. Dead?"

Cooper shot Breanne an inexplicable look, then gave a curt nod. "Yes."

"How? Did he fall?"

"Don't know," Cooper said.

"Hey, what's that?" Dante asked, reaching in to touch Edward's chest, but Cooper stopped him.

"It's a crime scene. Don't touch anything."

Dante gave him a long, measuring look. "There's a hole in his shirt."

Breanne hadn't seen it and though she didn't want to, she crowded closer to look. There did seem to be a hole in the material of Edward's shirt, a very small one, near his right pec.

"A bullet hole." Lariana's lips went thin as a line.

"A murder!" Shelly lost all the color in her face.

Cooper shook his head. "We know nothing without foren-sics, okay? Let's not jump to conclusions-"

"Oh, my God, we're stuck in the house with a murderer!" Shelly's eyes were huge, glassy with shock. "We have to get "out, we have to-" She dissolved into tears.

Lariana wrapped her arms around her. "Shh." She looked up at Cooper and spoke calmly enough, though her hands were shaking. "What do we do?"

"Call it in," Cooper said.

Dante shook his head. "Phones are still down, roads still closed. No one's coming in or getting out."

Shelly sobbed against Lariana. "I can't be stuck in the house with a dead body. I can't."

More footsteps above them, and then Patrick stuck his head in the door. When he saw the crowd, he stayed at the top of the stairs. "No need to be hiding yourselves in the cellar for a snowstorm-that's for tornados."

"Patrick." Lariana's voice shook slightly. "We found Edward."

"Dead," Shelly wailed.

At that, Patrick moved down the stairs, his lean body in coveralls, his tool belt low on his hips. He inspected the body himself, then whistled low in his throat. "Well, fuck me. He is dead. Mean old bastard."

"What are we going to do now?" Shelly asked tearfully. "We can't all just stay here-we have to get out."

"We can't just leave him here like this-"

"Yes, we can," Cooper said. When all the faces turned in his direction, he added, "Nothing gets moved."

Everyone started talking at once but he lifted a hand. "Look, I’m a cop. Or I used to be. Either way, I’m aware I’m out of jurisdiction, but no one is moving the body or any possible evidence until the proper authorities come."

"No one's coming," Dante said. "No one can come."

Patrick agreed with that. "We haven't seen this much snow in all the years Eve been here, and it's still coming down. I'm telling you meself it's going to be a while. Days."

"Breanne was able to get a signal on her cell outside the library a little while ago," Cooper said. "Someone needs to go there and try again."

"I will," Patrick said, rocking back on his heels. "But don't be holding your breath."

Shelly sniffed quietly.

Lariana stood still, pale.

Breanne's heart was still thumping.

"Everyone needs to get out of the cellar," Cooper said, rising, standing in front of Edward, standing for the dead. "And stay out."

"But-"

"No one comes in here," he said firmly. "No further contamination of the scene, period."

Dante turned to Patrick. "Let's get the ladies out of here."

"Will do." Patrick slipped an arm around Lariana, and Dante did the same for Shelly. With his free hand, he reached back for Breanne.

She allowed herself to be led up the stairs. At the top, she took a last look over her shoulder at Cooper.

Once again he was crouched by the body, expression grim, his big body gripped with a tension she hadn't seen in him before as he looked Edward over with careful precision.

He was a cop. Had been a cop. And though she had no idea why he wasn't one right now, she would bet it hadn't had anything to do with competence, because just watching him kneel on the floor and deal with a dead body-good God, a dead body!-with cool efficiency told her everything she needed to know.

He'd done this before. A lot.

It made her ache for him, not physically as she had in the library, but deeper. Odd how it felt as if she'd known him for more than just the one night. Odd how it felt as if maybe they'd known each other forever.

In that moment, he lifted his head. For a beat in time, his eyes warmed, and he gave her a small nod. It’ll be okay.

She only wished she believed it.

Breanne sat in the great room, trying not to think about Edward. About her life being in the toilet. About Cooper. About anything.

Dante had stoked the fire, then left without a word. Equally silent, Lariana brought a tray with bagels, cream cheese, and lush fruit, and after setting the food down in front of Breanne, moved to the door.

"Wait." She couldn't stand the thought of being alone. "Where's Shelly?"

"In the kitchen."

"Is she all right?"

"She will be."

"What does that mean?"

Lariana let out a breath but none of her tension. "Patrick couldn't get a signal on his cell phone. Shelly's upset at having to be here with… the situation."

No one wanted to say it. Dead body. There was a dead body in the house. Breanne's heart clutched as she remembered how Shelly had sobbed in the cellar. "I didn't get the feeling that she was close to Edward."

"Oh, no. We all hated him," Lariana said forcibly. "But because of the way she is-too sweet for her own good-she hated him less than the rest of us."

"I see." But she didn't. She didn't "see" anything about this crazy past two days. "What are those rooms on either side of the wine cellar?"

"Servants' quarters."

"Do any of you actually live here?"

"Honey, we're all living here. At least until Mother Nature decides to give us a break. Could you excuse me? I've got a long list of stuff I have to get to."

"Oh. Sure."

"Stay by the fire. No use getting cold if you don't have to," Lariana said, and left.

Breanne kept her eyes on the flames rather than look around her at all the shadows and corners. She really hated shadows and corners. She'd been afraid of them before Edward had been discovered. Now she was terrified. It was only midmorning, but with the snow still coming down, the light in the windows and skylights was muted at best. It fell like perpetual gloom.

In contrast, the fire radiated a nice, warm glow. She had nothing but those crackling flames for company as she contemplated the fact that she was entirely alone and a possible murderer walked around unencumbered.

A murderer. Her heart started pounding, and then a sound scraped behind her and the poor organ practically stopped.