When she reached the front door, a glance through the peek hole confirmed that it was Caleb. He was standing on the stoop, crisp and ready for the day.
Suddenly aware that she had nothing on beneath her robe, she tightened the belt and ran a self-conscious hand through her hair, trying to get it to lie down. "I'm talking to my mother," she explained as she let him in. "I'll be off the phone in a second, okay?"
"Who's that?" her mother asked.
"It's Caleb."
"The man who's living in the cottage?"
"Yes."
"How old is he?"
"He's..." Madison was about to hazard a guess--she knew Caleb wasn't far from her own twenty-eight--but he answered for her.
"Thirty-four."
It was then that Madison realized he could hear her mother, so she was a little embarrassed when Annette asked, "Is he single?" Especially because Caleb seemed different today than he had last night--more aloof, reserved, preoccupied. And he kept his distance. That was good, right? Her goals for today were to pull herself together, control her rampant emotions, get on track with her life. She was a responsible single mother, not a woman who had wild affairs with her tenant.
"He's divorced," she told her mother, because Annette would just ask again if she didn't answer. "These are for the truck," she said to Caleb, handing him the keys.
"Thanks." He moved to the counter. "I'll leave you my Mustang, in case you need to go anywhere while I'm gone."
"How long has he been divorced?" her mother asked.
Madison pressed the phone closer to her ear, wishing her mother would shut up. "I don't know."
"Two years," he said.
"Is he handsome?" Annette wanted to know.
God, was he, Madison thought. Handsome everywhere. After last night, she could definitely state that with authority. Not that she'd ever admit she possessed such intimate knowledge--not to her mother. "He's, um, never mind," she said. "I'll be over in a little bit. There's something I need to talk to you about."
"What's that?" her mother asked.
She'd assumed Caleb would leave, but he didn't. He was waiting for her to get off the phone. "We'll talk about it later."
"Tell me now."
Madison chose her words carefully. "I was wondering if...if you happened to find anything...strange under the house."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
She would if she'd found the contents of that box. "Has Toby started to help you pack?"
"Not yet."
"Has he been over at all?"
"No, why?"
"Never mind." It had to be Tye who'd taken that stuff, then. Madison felt her blood run cold as she remembered the scurrying under the house last night. What would Tye have done if she'd bumped into him in the dark?
Caleb was watching her closely, but Madison couldn't help murmuring a warning to her mother. "Mom, I think it might be time to get the locks changed on the house."
"Why?"
"Just get the locks changed. Right away, okay?"
"But--"
"Caleb's here," she interrupted. "I can't talk about this now." She covered the phone. "How long will you need the truck?"
"Just a couple of hours."
"I'll see you about one o'clock," she told her mother, and hung up before Annette could respond.
"Madison, are you okay?" Caleb asked, breaking into her thoughts. "You look...worried."
She let her eyes settle on him and, for once, decided to trust someone. "I'm afraid Tye might have had something to do with that woman who was murdered," she said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CALEB GAPED IN SURPRISE at what Madison had just said. He knew he was getting close to her. In fact, after last night, they were considerably closer than his conscience could bear. He had to do something about that--apologize, move out, put some distance between them. But this took precedence. "What makes you think Tye might be involved?" he asked.
"I found something in the crawl space of my mother's house a couple of weeks ago."
Caleb's heart began to pound. This was exactly what he'd been hoping to learn from the beginning--inside information. He pictured Susan's pale face as he'd seen her lying in the morgue, and imagined he might be one step closer to avenging her murder. At the same time, he felt lousy about the means he was using to accomplish that goal. He seriously doubted Madison would have trusted him this much if they hadn't just slept together. "What was it?" he asked, angry that he'd put himself in such a situation.
"A box filled with women's shoes and underwear."
"Whose?"
"I think they belonged to those women who were murdered."
Caleb let his breath go in a rush. "What makes you think so?"
"There was a locket, too." Madison nibbled her lip and, even as he waited with baited breath to hear what she was about to say, he couldn't help thinking about the way she'd kissed him last night, with such complete abandon. Neither could he forget her body moving beneath his, accepting him, exciting him, fulfilling him as she entwined her arms and legs with his and let him know she was enjoying their lovemaking as much as he was.
Willing his gaze away from her mouth, he looked into her eyes. He had to forget about last night, keep his distance before he made things any worse. "You say that as though it wasn't just any locket."
"It wasn't. It had Lisa and Joe McDonna's picture inside. Lisa was the Sandpoint Strangler's second victim."
She didn't have to tell him that. He knew exactly who Lisa McDonna was. He'd interviewed her husband and many of her friends. "Do you know where the locket and the other stuff came from? How it got under your mother's house?"
She suddenly looked alone and miserable, and he hated himself for betraying her. "Tye put it there the day my father...died. He said he found it in the workshop."
"What did you do with it?"
"Nothing. I was going to turn it over to the police, but when I went back to get it last night, everything inside the box was gone."
No! Caleb felt his muscles tense with frustration. "Where did it go?"
"Tye must've gotten to it before me. It had to be him. He's the only other person who knows about it."
"But how's he getting in and out of your mother's house? Does he have a key?"
"He could have one easily enough."
"Have you asked him?"
"I called him on his cell when I was driving home, but he didn't pick up."