fell open beneath his weight. His gun was drawn as he bulleted through the entrance. He hoped that Gretchen was armed and ready as he got his first glimpse of the big, beefy man whirling toward the front door where she would be waiting.
“Freeze. Police,” David ordered.
The man spun around, hands high, his eyes rolling back in his head.
“Don’t shoot,” the man called as Gretchen came through the front door, holding him in the sights of her 9 mm.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” the elderly woman said. “I didn’t know what to do when I heard someone in the house.”
“Mr. Adkins?” Gretchen asked, slowly lowering her gun to her side.
The man hung his head. David looked at Gretchen. She motioned for him to put his gun away.
“He was stealing cookies I made for the church bake sale,” the woman declared. “I had to slap his hands to make him drop them.”
David looked down at the red prints on the man’s wrists.
“I wasn’t stealing anything,” the old man said.
“You’re in my house, aren’t you?” the woman demanded. “And you’re armed. You’ve got a big rock in your pocket. I saw you studying it like you were going to throw it at me.”
Her words jarred something in David’s memory. “Mr. Adkins? Earnest Adkins?”
When the man didn’t answer, David looked to Gretchen, who nodded.
David let out a sigh. He gazed at the man he’d once known rather well. Time had made changes.
“That rock in your pocket,” David said, moving in closer. “I don’t suppose you had a particularly good reason for carrying it around, did you?”
The man looked up, his eyes not quite recovered from the fear of having two guns trained on him. He nodded slightly. “Of course I did. A man carries rocks for a reason. Good reason, too. Just look at this. Isn’t it a beaut?” he asked, pulling the rock from his pocket.
David gazed down at what really was a fine specimen of milky dolomite. “Mr. Adkins used to teach science at the high school. He studies geology,” David explained.
“He was still stealing my cookies,” the lady mumbled.
“He came into your house?” Gretchen asked gently.
“Yes,” both man and woman said at once.
“The door was open and a cat came in,” Mr. Adkins said. “This lady had left the cookies on the ledge and that big cat was all set to help himself. I was simply moving them,” he said indignantly.
“I don’t see any cat,” the woman whined. David didn’t, either, but the slight itch behind his eyes told him that there was one nearby.
Gretchen must have sensed the cat’s presence, too, because a small smile lifted her lips and she looked around as if she expected to find whatever she was searching for.
“Oscar,” Gretchen suddenly called. A grumbly purr rolled out from behind the kitchen door. Gretchen pulled it back and the biggest, blackest cat David had ever seen strolled out, nose in the air.
“Your buddy?” David asked Gretchen, who was smiling at the cat.
“He gets around the neighborhood. Sometimes he gets into places he shouldn’t be.”
“The man still had a rock in his hand,” the elderly woman stated.
“Always do,” Earnest Adkins said. “Ask him,” he said, motioning to David. “You’re David Hannon, aren’t you? I recognize you now that you’ve put the gun away.”
“I was a member of the science club. I’ve still got a few rocks Mr. Adkins passed on to me when I was there. He’s an expert in local rocks and minerals,” David told the two ladies. “Not that it’s any excuse for trespassing,” he said firmly, frowning at Earnest. “Since you don’t know Earnest, would it be safe to guess that you’re new to the area?” he asked the woman.
The lady let out a sigh and nodded. “Just a couple of months. My husband died last year and I came here to start out fresh, to get away from the city. You—you were just saving my cookies from that cat?” she asked Mr. Adkins.
“Maybe I should have knocked first,” he admitted, “but Oscar was moving pretty fast.”
A slight blush rose on the woman’s still-pretty face. “I suppose I should thank you, then,” she said. “And apologize to the two of you,” she told Gretchen and David. “I’m used to living in the city and that’s made me too cautious, I guess.”
David shook his head. “You were right to call when you felt threatened. It’s always smart to be cautious, especially when there’s an uninvited stranger in your house,” he said, looking pointedly at Mr. Adkins, who mumbled another apology and gripped his rock more tightly.
“But this is embarrassing, now that I know the truth,” the lady said. “What can I do to repay you two for taking the trouble to come over here?”
David knew the woman wouldn’t be happy if he told her that he needed nothing, so he took the easy way out. “I’m sure I should just issue the standard ‘No thanks necessary, ma’am,’ but…what kind of cookies did you say those were?”
The ploy worked. The lady laughed. “Double chocolate chip, and yes, please have some. You, too,” she said to Gretchen and Mr. Adkins. “It’s the least I can do. It won’t hurt me to bake another batch.”
David hazarded a glance at Gretchen then. One brow was raised in a rather superior, knowing smile as if he’d just done something brilliant. And later, when they said their goodbyes and left the cottage headed for the car, she placed her hand on his arm.
“Thank you for being so gracious to her.”
David pulled up short, staring down at the woman—the detective, he corrected himself—standing before him. He could feel the warmth of Gretchen’s slender fingers through the layers of cotton shirt and sports jacket. It was a tantalizing feeling, knowing that only a few bits of cloth lay between his skin and hers. An in appropriate feeling, he reminded himself. They were partners. They needed to work together like a machine, not twine together like man and woman.
“She was uncomfortable. There was no need for that. If something real and dangerous should ever occur, I wouldn’t want her to hesitate about calling the authorities,” he said simply. “And let’s face it, while I’m rather partial to Earnest, he can’t be entering people’s houses even to save their cookies from stray cats.”
Gretchen nodded and they walked on, but once David had climbed back into the car, she didn’t start the engine. Instead she turned to him.
“I appreciate the way you wrapped up this call,” she said, “but I think we have a definite problem here, Hannon.”
He turned and stared into a pair of stubborn green eyes. Her chin was up, her lovely lips were firm, her arms were crossed.
For
