She managed a nod, reminding herself this could have been a helluva lot worse.
Duke reached for her hand. Bad idea. She turned in time for him to miss the mark.
“My cabin is this way,” she said, heading home. He was right about leaving the scene. She’d seen the footprints. She knew who the perp was. There wasn’t much else that could be done here anyway.
The logical answer was that Jenson had been watching her. He’d visited at least once, staring at her from behind the tree line. An involuntary shiver rocked her body at the thought. He was a senior in high school. Testing the waters? Or had he developed a fixation on her? Talking to his parents and visiting his room, if they would allow it, might produce the answers needed for Audrey to have peace of mind again. For her to sleep at night.
Heat concentrated on the crown of her head as she walked from the lake to her cabin. For October, it was hot. She didn’t need to look at a temperature gauge to realize it was in the high nineties. Unseasonably miserable and dry.
After unlocking the door, she left it open and walked inside without saying a word. At the kitchen, she turned around as he closed the door behind him. “You don’t have to stay and babysit me. I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t mind,” he quickly responded. If not for the twinge of hope in his voice, she would have asked him to leave straight-out.
“Okay,” she conceded.
“I wouldn’t be bothered if you would allow me to heat up my coffee,” he said, following her into the kitchen where he picked up his mug.
The kitchen was small, so he was being polite. All he had to do was look above the stove—she still wondered why anyone thought placing a microwave directly on top of burners was a good idea—to find what he was looking for.
Duke heated his coffee, and she followed suit for lack of anything better to do with her hands. She grabbed a small notepad and a pen from the junk drawer before joining him at the table. Tapping the pad, she collected her thoughts.
Duke retrieved his cell phone before taking a sip. He set the mug down and then sent a text. “Crystal will be interested in today’s development.”
“What about your grandparents, Duke? Has there been any change?”
He shook his head. “Afraid not. Nash has been good about updating the family. He’s there right now, according to his latest texts.”
“How about the others? Are they coming to town?” she continued before making a note about where Jenson was found and his activity before jumping into the lake.
“Yes,” he answered. “I could get time off work first. I’m here for a few days before Crystal arrives. I’ll be back and forth, of course, after that. And the others will pop in as their workload allows.”
“Got it,” she said, her thoughts immediately bouncing back to Jenson. Or maybe he acted out of pure panic rather than logic. Maybe he believed he could dive out far enough to miss the rocks and tree branches that made this area so good for catching fish but terrible for swimming.
Duke had educated her about this area years ago. Didn’t people hand information down anymore? Teenagers spent more time on their phones than in nature, Audrey had noticed since returning. Naively, she’d believed rural areas were immune to big-city trends. Not true. Brutally hot summers kept kids inside, searching for ways to entertain themselves like video games and social media. The pandemic had made it worse, accelerating usage. Parents allowed their kids to use their phones and devices much more during that period, probably expecting life to return to normal when everyone felt safe again. However, kids seemed to have decided cell phones were more fun than playing on a hot metal playground. The glued-to-a-screen trend hadn’t died down.
Was that the reason Jenson didn’t know about the rocks?
“Why me?” she asked.
“Did you ever notice the teen trying to speak to you while you were on duty or in town?” Duke asked.
“No,” she said. A voyeur wouldn’t necessarily stalk her down grocery store aisles. “I never really ran into him, which also strikes me as strange.” His parents would be receiving the news of his death soon. Their lives would be forever changed after the sheriff’s visit.
“I asked Ackerman to shoot a text once he told the family, by the way,” Duke said.
“I was just thinking about them,” she admitted.
“Your forehead wrinkled,” he pointed out. “I guessed you might be considering his parents.”
“I had a sibling once,” she continued. “Losing my sister changed everything.”
The look on Duke’s face said he had no idea she had brothers or sisters. Then again, she’d been told never to mention her sister or anything else about her family. So she didn’t. How her parents had explained the death to social services and managed to keep custody of Audrey was anyone’s guess.
“I’m sorry,” Duke said with the kind of compassion that threatened to break down carefully constructed walls.
“It was a long time ago,” she said, unable and unwilling to go there. If she could reel the revelation back in, she would. What she needed to do now was change the subject. “How soon do you think we can head over to the Napier house?”
“Let’s give the sheriff another hour or two,” Duke suggested.
Audrey had no idea how she was going to survive being in her home with Duke for several hours. Food came to mind. There was no way she could eat, but perhaps he could. “Are you hungry?”
He shook his head.
“We could head over to the hospital to give Nash a break if you want,” she said. Anything would be better than hanging around her cabin where she felt most at home. The lake might be surrounded with memories of a summer with Duke, but her cabin was her own. She liked being close to the lake in her own space. Being here had always comforted her.
Until now. Until Duke Remington sat at her kitchen table. And until her sense of safety started unraveling again.
“We can head out after we finish our coffees,” he said.
When she risked a glance at him, she realized he’d been studying her. “What is it?”
Chapter Six
Duke shook his head. “Nothing.”
Questions brewed but this wasn’t the time. After finishing his coffee, Duke drove to the hospital and parked in the lot. He turned to Audrey, who’d been understandably quiet on the ride over. “Does Jenson’s mother still work at the hospital?”
“As a matter of fact, she does,” Audrey said after a thoughtful pause.
