She had only one younger sister who had stayed in the Chicago area near their parents. “I’ve never been part of a big family.”
“You are now,” Serena said. “You’re one of us, and you’ll never be alone again.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise. If you ever need a friend, I’ve got your back.”
“That goes both ways,” Kelly said.
She and Serena had been buddies since freshman year at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Even though they’d lived apart, they were as close as two friends could be. But they weren’t family, not really. Kelly had always wanted children of her own.
Serena adjusted the baby at her breast. “Are you ready to talk about last night?”
She inhaled a deep breath and started talking. “My first reaction was panic. A ringing in my ears. Inability to breathe. Momentary paralysis. It was scary. We had to use a pickax to break the door down.”
“Then the adrenaline kicked in.”
She nodded. When she saw the wounded man, Kelly knew what needed to be done. Her mind was clear, and her hands were steady. She remembered procedures she hadn’t used in years. “It was only after the paramedics took him away that I became aware of what had happened. I had blood all over my clothes. The scarf you gave me was destroyed.”
“The Kelly-green scarf?”
“It’s so corny that you got me a Kelly-green scarf.”
“What happened to it?”
“I used it to stanch the blood flow.” The memory caused her hand to shake, and she set down the coffee mug. “That poor man committed suicide.”
“Are you sure about that? Most suicides don’t shoot themselves in the gut.”
“That was what the police said. They kept asking me if I saw powder burns on his shirt.” She’d torn away his clothing to get to the wound. “I couldn’t tell. There was too much blood.”
“Did the police think it was suicide?”
“There will be an investigation, for sure. But he was in a locked room with the murder weapon in his hand, and he’d left a note that said he was sorry.”
“How did you find out that he’d died?” Serena asked.
“Nick called.”
“Nick Spencer?”
Kelly nodded. “He called me on his cell phone from the hospital. The doctors had gotten his uncle into the operating room when his heart stopped. They couldn’t revive him.”
She didn’t know Nick well, but she’d recognized the pain in his voice. His words were flat and hollow as though he was speaking from the bottom of a deep well.
“What else did he say?” Serena asked.
“The paramedics told him that I did a good job. He thanked me for trying to save his uncle.”
Last night, she’d wanted to comfort him, and she was a little disappointed that he hadn’t called her this morning. Not that she had any right to expect him to contact her; she barely knew the man. Dealing with his uncle’s suicide, Nick probably had his hands full.
“Nick Spencer,” Serena said. “He’s big and tall, am I right? And good-looking?”
“Last night, he was wearing a tux.”
“Yum.” Serena tucked her breast back into her nursing bra. Cradling her infant, she gently rocked. “I think you should call him to offer condolences. Better yet, you should stop by his place and take him a homemade pie.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Well, he just might need a shoulder to cry on. Or a hand to hold. You know, human warmth.”
“Are you suggesting that I take advantage of a tragic situation to make a move on Nick?”
“I’m just saying that you’re both single and there must have been a reason you were alone with him on the ninth floor of the Spencer Building.”
“He showed me the gold.”
“Wow! Nigel is going to be so jealous. He does work for a client in that building, and he’s never seen the gold. Nick must really like you.” Serena was on a roll, talking fast. “This is excellent, really excellent. If you and Nick hit it off, you’ll be motivated to stay in Valiant, and I’ll have a partner. This is so, so, so perfect.”
Kelly chuckled. “So this is about giving me a reason to stay and be your partner. It’s all about you.”
“I’m thinking of you,” she said with a grin. “Honey, you could do a lot worse than Nick Spencer.”
Kelly couldn’t argue that point. Nick was handsome, sexy, funny, capable and rich. “If he’s such a catch, how come some other woman hasn’t snapped him up?”
“He’s only been divorced for a couple of years. From what I hear, he’s a devoted daddy.”
She didn’t know he had children. “How many kids?”
“Two daughters, I think they’re seven and four. Beautiful girls, I’ve seen them in Valiant with Nick but I think they live in Denver with their mom. Both girls have black hair and blue eyes like their father.”
The front doorbell chimed, and Kelly rose from the sofa. “Don’t move. I’ll get it.”
She rushed to the front door. The first ringing of the chimes hadn’t wakened the baby, and she wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be a second bell. She whipped open the door and looked out through the screen.
Standing on the covered porch was a man in a black suit. Though he couldn’t have been more than forty, his close-cropped hair was completely white. With his square jaw and angry eyes, he would have been intimidating if he hadn’t been standing beside a white goat with a black face and black splotches like polka dots decorating her round belly.
The goat, whose name was Fifi, tapped her hooves on the porch, rubbed against his trouser leg and bleated. She liked being around people, especially men.
Stifling a chuckle, Kelly asked, “May I help you?”
“Are you Kelly Evans?”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about last night.” He reached inside his jacket pocket, took out a gold card case, peeled one off and held it toward her. “Y. E. Trask, private investigator.”
As she opened the screen door to take his card, Kelly decided that she didn’t want to invite him into the house. Grabbing her denim jacket from a peg by the door, she stepped outside. There was something about this man that she didn’t trust, and she wanted to keep him away from Serena’s family.
“There
