back, she’d been more vulnerable than she’d known.
“I can’t be sure. I thought he did,” she said finally.
“This man told you he owned the house?” Amelia demanded. She’d come back into the room with a fresh glass of wine, but she hadn’t taken her seat next to her husband on the couch again.
Had he? “I guess he only let me believe he owned the house.” She realized with a start that the reason Howard’s wife had looked so familiar was because she’d seen her before. There had been a photograph of her on the mantel that night. Just as there was now. The man hadn’t said the photo was of his wife, but he’d let her believe it was. Just as he’d let her believe he’d lent her his wife’s clothes since hers had blood on them from the wound on her temple.
Without thinking, she touched the small scar. Her fingers felt as if she’d burned them as she recalled the gentle way the man had cleaned the wound and put a bandage on it.
“Who was watching your place?” Cooper asked as he got to his feet. “I’m sure you have a caretaker. I think it’s time to talk to him.” The husband still looked confused. “If your caretaker was doing his job, then wouldn’t he have known someone was using the house?”
“My thought exactly since he certainly never mentioned it to me,” Howard said as he rose again from the couch. “This is all so...upsetting.” He started toward the door where some winter coats hung along a wall; the hooks were the hooves of elk. He pulled down a quilted down coat. “My caretaker lives up the road. If you want to stay here—”
“We’ll follow you,” Cooper said, giving none of them a choice.
Howard stopped at the door to look back at his wife for a moment. Then he pushed out the door, pulling his coat around him, and headed for his SUV, Cooper and Livie at his heels.
* * *
COOPER FELT HIMSELF seething as he slid behind the wheel of his pickup. He’d been expecting a fistfight. Never in his life had he dreamed things would go like this.
“So he played you a song on the guitar,” he said without looking at Livie as she buckled up her seat belt.
She said nothing.
“Cozy little cabin, by the way.” When he finally did look over at her, her eyes were filled with tears. He swore under his breath. As Howard’s SUV roared to life and took off down the road, he followed the Suburban a short distance until the brake lights flashed and Howard swung to a stop in front of a modular home tucked back into the pines.
Glancing back the way they’d come as he parked, Cooper noted that he couldn’t see the Wellesley house from here. “Why don’t you stay in the pickup?” he suggested as Livie opened her door.
“I’m the only one who can recognize the man,” she said without looking at him, and climbed out.
“You have a point there,” he said under his breath, and got out, slamming his door.
Howard was already on his way up to the front door by the time they joined him. He banged on the door and, a moment later, a heavyset man wearing gray sweats answered his knock. The man held a fried chicken drumstick in his free hand and was still chewing as if caught in the middle of dinner.
He looked from Howard to Olivia and Cooper, then back to Howard, his expression one of only mild interest.
“Is this the man?” Howard asked Livie.
Cooper tried not to laugh. Clearly he didn’t know Buckmaster Hamilton’s daughter. The man standing in the doorway also didn’t fit the description Livie had given.
She shook her head as if unable to even answer such a ridiculous question.
“I need to talk to you, Bob,” Howard said, and shoved his way into the house. They followed him into the cluttered house. It smelled of wet dogs, grease and stale beer. Cooper felt his stomach turn, thinking of the house he’d grown up in. When he looked at Livie, he saw that she’d grown pale again.
He took her arm. “Wouldn’t you rather wait in the pickup?” he asked, figuring she’d balk again at the suggestion even though she appeared green around the gills.
To his surprise, she merely nodded and practically ran from the house.
“Is she all right?” Howard asked.
“Morning sickness,” Cooper said, then wished he hadn’t when he saw the man’s surprised look. Neither he nor his wife had asked about the blackmail. The night Livie had been in their house was three months ago. It wouldn’t take much to put two and two together now.
“What do you know about someone staying in the cabin last January?” Howard demanded of the caretaker. “Apparently whoever it was had a key, built a fire, drank my wine, slept in my bed...” He stopped, avoiding looking at Cooper. “I would have thought this would have been something you would have noticed.”
He and Howard had followed Bob into the kitchen. A heavyset woman sat at the table. She didn’t get up and the man didn’t introduce her. She merely kept eating as if whatever was going on didn’t hold much interest for her.
Bob put down his half-eaten drumstick on his dirty plate and took his time wiping his hands on his napkin. Finally he said, “That would have been January 27. Of course I noticed. I saw the tracks into the cabin the next day and went inside to investigate.”
“And?” Howard demanded.
“It looked like it always did after you and the missus have been up.” He tilted his head toward the woman at the table. “I told Patsy to go up and clean the place. I would have contacted you, but given the condition of everything, no sign of forced entry and all that, it seemed pretty obvious that you’d used the cabin yourself.”
Howard let out an exasperated sigh. “What do you mean, ‘the condition of everything’?”
“When Patsy checked the closet, she saw that your clothes and your wife’s had been worn and left to be cleaned in the spot where you always leave them.”
“She wore my wife’s clothing?” Howard demanded of Cooper.
He said nothing, but he felt his jaw tighten. Apparently Livie had made herself at home, as well. Then he remembered. “She hit her head when she went off the road. She had a cut over her eye. There was probably blood on her clothing.”
Howard didn’t look appeased by this explanation. “I want to know who the hell used my cabin.”
The caretaker looked at him just as calmly as he had when he’d opened the door, making Cooper wonder if this had happened before. “Then I suggest you ask whoever has a key. Maybe Mrs. Wellesley might be able to shed some light—”
“Mrs. Wellesley has no idea who the man was,” Howard interrupted. Bob looked at the floor and said nothing in the heavy silence that fell between them. “I will get to the bottom of this,” Howard blustered as he turned abruptly and headed for the door.
Outside the caretaker’s house, Howard stopped. He was breathing hard. Cooper hoped the man didn’t have a heart attack. He looked as if he’d aged since he’d opened the door to him and Livie.
