On Thin Ice

“You think I killed him?”

“Didn’t you?”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re joking, right?”

“Am I?” Now he was getting somewhere. He’d push her right to edge and see exactly what she was made of.

“You’re insane. Get out.” She turned away and gripped the edge of the counter. He could tell by the way she wavered on her feet that she was exhausted.

Sheer instinct drove him closer. Perhaps she was more of a mystery than he’d first suspected. He’d thought he had her figured out, but he wasn’t always good at reading people on first impressions.

“What did you and Paddy talk about?”

“Nothing. I left the camp to come out here and—” She spun toward him and shot him exactly the kind of condescending look his ex-wife had been famous for. “What business is it of yours?”

“I’m a witness. I saw Paddy come out here to your trailer, myself.”

“He did no such thing. After I left the camp I didn’t see him again until…” She looked away, her cheeks flushed.

“I saw you with his body. You were—”

“Trying to save him.”

“That’s not what it looked like.”

She pursed her lips and glared at him, deadly silent, her small hands fisted at her sides. He could tell from the fire in her eye that she was mentally counting to ten. He used the time to consider the facts.

Paddy O’Connor had been in damned good shape for a man pushing up against the far side of sixty. Someone as petite as Lauren could never have muscled him into that reserve pit against his will.

Seth hadn’t had the chance to check Paddy’s body for marks. He’d been too busy trying to revive him. Now it would be nearly impossible to confirm his suspicions. Wrapped in plastic sheeting, the body was sequestered away in the big freezer in the camp’s kitchen, which was open around the clock.

Lauren could have hit him with something, right here in the privacy of her trailer. Could have knocked him out cold, dragged him to the pit, shielded by the weather, then drowned him.

He glanced around the trailer at the neat stacks of papers, rock samples and supplies. Everything in order, neat as a pin. No blood. No signs of struggle, or obvious weapons in sight. Not even any mud on the floor, except for his own footprints. Lauren Fotheringay was either innocent, or very very good. Seth suspected the latter.

“I think you’d better leave.” She turned her back on him and shut down the microscope she’d been using when he’d arrived.

He wasn’t giving up that easily. He decided to try a different approach. “You knew Paddy pretty well, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. He was…” She paused, and for a moment he thought she might not continue. “He was my father’s best friend.” She swept some glass slides into a drawer and slammed it shut, her back rigid.

Four feet away he could feel her anger, and something more. A carefully shielded vulnerability evidenced by the way her hand shook as she again gripped the counter for support.

Seth knew all about her father. Everyone here did. But he hadn’t known Paddy O’Connor had been Hatch Parker’s friend. The dossier Bledsoe had given him hadn’t included that fact.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and on impulse stepped toward her.

“That’s okay. I’m just…”

He looked down at her from behind as her knuckles turned white clutching the counter. Her shoulders shook almost imperceptibly, then her ragged breathing seemed to stop altogether. With a shock he realized she was crying.

“Hey, don’t.” Without thinking, he gripped her shoulders to steady her. By accident he grazed his lips across her hair, catching a whiff of herbal shampoo as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “It’s okay.”

A fierce sort of compassion welled inside him. That wasn’t good. He was a federal agent, for Christ’s sake. Well, an ex-federal agent. Still, he was a cop, and he had a job to do. He was supposed to be questioning a suspect, not comforting a weeping woman.

She turned in his arms. As her feet twisted between his, she faltered and reached for him. He caught her up, and her arms snaked around his neck. A second later her face was buried in his chest. She worked to get a grip on herself, but gave up the fight as he gently massaged the tight muscles of her back.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, again, and stroked her soft auburn hair. “It’s good to cry. Get it all out.”

What the hell was he doing? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that she was warm and soft, and she needed him. Her father had been killed on this very rig, and now another man she’d been close to was dead, too.

He’d been too hasty, perhaps, in thinking her capable of murder. Selling proprietary corporate data was one thing. A nice, clean, white-collar crime. Lots of money involved, but no dirty work. And no one ended up dead. Lauren Fotheringay might be a criminal, but he sensed she wasn’t a murderer. Her anguish over Paddy O’Connor’s death was real.

Holding her close, feeling the soft weight of her breasts crushed against his chest, he thought about how long it had been since he’d really wanted a woman. Sure, he’d done his share of dating since he and his ex had split, but he hadn’t let himself get close to anyone again. Had never let his guard down.

As he stroked Lauren’s hair and soothed her with comforting words, he realized he was in danger of doing exactly that. His lips grazed her ear, her cheek. One more move and he’d be kissing her.

“Uh, sorry,” she said, and pushed against his chest.

He instantly backed off.

“I—I don’t know what came over me. I was just…” Her eyes darted away. She wouldn’t look at him. Her face flushed with embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about it.” He was embarrassed, too. As he turned to leave, she touched his arm.

“I stepped out of the trailer to grab some rock samples from the crate outside. That’s when I saw his hard hat.”

“Paddy’s?”

“Yes.” She gripped his arm tighter, her eyes locked on his. “I looked around but didn’t see him. That’s when I heard it.”

“Heard what?”

“I wasn’t sure. I thought it was shouting, but the wind was so deafening, I couldn’t tell.”

“So you…” He nodded, urging her to continue.

“I picked up his hard hat and walked toward the sound. Over by the reserve pit.”

“Without a jacket, in this weather.”

She shrugged. “I know. Stupid. But that’s what I did.”

“And then?”

“As I got close, I saw something in the mud. When I realized it was Paddy…” She looked away again, struggling to keep her composure.

“You tried to save him.”