Obsession & Eyewitness: Obsession / Eyewitness

“Huh?”

The waitress interrupted to take their orders, and as she scribbled her shorthand on her pad, she glanced up at Michelle. “I’m really sorry about Amanda. I know you two were friends and you were right there when it happened.”

“Thanks.”

“You take care of yourself.”

“See?” Colin touched the rim of his water glass to hers. “Nobody is blaming you or thinking you’re weird because you’re eating lunch.”

She blew out a breath and took a sip of water. “Who’s Chris?”

“Chief Evans didn’t tell you?” The cops who’d questioned him hadn’t exactly told him to keep mum about anything. He didn’t owe them, anyway. He owed Michelle. “Chris Jeffers is the name of the transient. He had a smear of blood on his sleeve.”

“Amanda’s?” Her eyes widened.

“They don’t know yet. They sent it out for testing and depending on how backed up the lab is, it could take a while for them to get the results.”

“But it’s something. Maybe you’re wrong, Colin.” She shot him an apologetic look from beneath her lashes. “Maybe Amanda’s murder was just a random act. I’m not saying the other two murders, Tiffany’s and Belinda’s, are random, but maybe Amanda’s death has nothing to do with those other women.”

His gut rebelled against her reasoning. Three women from the same high school class? Two with slit throats and all with rose petals? But his heart softened when he saw the hope shining in Michelle’s eyes.

She wanted to believe Amanda’s murder was a random act of violence. She wanted to believe she had nothing to fear from the same killer. And he didn’t want to dash that belief. Not now.

“Maybe.” He shoved their water glasses aside as the waitress brought their plates. “Now let me see if they snuck any alfalfa sprouts on my burger.”

Pointing to her salad, she said, “You can toss them on here if you find any.”

They ate in silence for several minutes, and then Michelle started shoving lettuce leaves around her plate.

“What’s wrong? Tired of rabbit food?”

“How’s the burger? Not too healthy for you?”

Chewing, he raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Just the right amount of grease. And these sweet potato fries are great. Have one.”

She picked a fry from his plate and twirled it around. “Colin. What happened to your brother in Afghanistan?”

He nearly choked on his water. Damn. He thought he’d escaped the inquisition. He blotted his mouth with a napkin, stalling for time. Of course he could take his usual route—stare down the questioner and grunt. But Michelle wasn’t some random nosy person on the street. She’d opened up to him about her past hurts and now she’d volleyed the ball into his court.

Isn’t that how relationships worked? Give and take. Not that he and Michelle had a relationship. They had more like a partnership. He’d keep her safe and she’d feed him information about her graduating class at CCHS.

Did he have to open up to a partner?

“Of course, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” She dropped the sweet potato fry onto her half-eaten salad and brushed her fingers together.

His eyes met hers. Tiny creases marred the smooth skin between her dark, sculpted eyebrows. She looked worried…worried about him.

He scooped in a breath and twisted the napkin in his lap. “My brother and I were both on the same intelligence-gathering team. We’d been watching a particular bunch outside of Kandahar. We made our move, but someone had betrayed us. They were ready for us.”

“What happened?”

“The Taliban killed a few of the team members and captured the rest of us, including me and Kieran.”

“I—I had heard something about that, later when you escaped.”

Colin’s heart hammered in his chest. He could never get past this part of the story with anyone, not even in his own mind. “I escaped. But Kieran didn’t. We’d planned our escape, but our captors chose that night to take Kieran away for questioning. I wanted to stay, but they had talked about moving us to a different location. The others convinced me, but I should’ve held out. I should’ve stayed with my brother.”

“Of course you couldn’t have stayed.” Her hand inched closer to his and then froze as his fingers curled into a fist.

“Is he dead?”

“No.” Colin smacked his clenched hand on to the table. “After we escaped, we went back for him, but, of course, the Taliban had pulled up stakes and moved on.”

“And you never…” Her fingers nervously pleated the tablecloth.

“We never found Kieran’s body. That’s why I still hold out hope that he’s alive somewhere.”

“You blame yourself.”

That about summed it up. His lips twisted into a grimace. “Kieran never would’ve left me behind, Michelle.”

“You don’t know that.” She skimmed her fingers along the scars on his wrists. “He would’ve done what was best for the whole team, right? Just as you did.”

Her light touch calmed the blood thrumming through his veins. He felt…unburdened. And that wasn’t fair. Michelle had her own turmoil to deal with right now.

“I’m sorry.” Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Don’t be. I asked. I wanted to know. If we’re going to work together on this thing, I want you to trust me.”

He opened one eye. “We’re working together in the loosest sense of that term. I ask you questions about your classmates and you provide the answers. No more traipsing around haunted houses.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a sassy move that made his stomach flip with it. “That haunted house may have given up Amanda’s killer. I’m not giving up hope that Chris is our guy. I guess we’ll know when the blood test comes back.”

“Maybe our partnership will come to an end sooner rather than later, which would be a good thing.” Good for Michelle’s safety, anyway.

She nodded. “Absolutely. Of course, if this guy Chris is arrested for Amanda’s murder, it doesn’t solve the other two murders.”

“We’ll let the FBI agents assigned to those cases worry about that.” He signaled to the waitress. “You probably have to get home and grade those quizzes.”

“Yeah, just another exciting Saturday night.”

She made a grab for the check, but he beat her to it. “Are you looking for excitement? I would’ve thought you’d had your fill.”

Her cheeks burned red. “I didn’t mean that. Amanda’s been dead for less than twenty-four hours. The last thing I need is excitement.”

Colin grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t feel guilty for surviving.”

“Like you do?”