He stroked my head again, then sank his fingers into my hair. “Tell me about it in the morning, okay?”
“Okay,” I murmured, feeling drowsy.
“We have to get up early. How long do you need to get ready?”
That got my attention. “What?”
“I’ll tell you what we’re doin’ in the morning. Presumin’ you want to fix your hair and do your makeup, how long would you need to get ready?”
“Thirty minutes without distractions.” I kissed him, sucking his bottom lip between mine and biting lightly. “Longer with.”
He groaned, pushing me onto my back. “How about we take care of the distraction now?”
“Glad you can pick up on my clues, Detective Roland,” I said, grinning.
He laughed. “I’m not detective yet, so maybe I need some practice. Are you offering yourself up as my tutor?”
“I’ll even give you a special rate.”
The alarm went off at five thirty, much earlier than either one of us usually got up. I struggled to wake up, closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep only to wake up to the smell of coffee next to me. I cracked open an eye to see a bare-chested Marco sitting next to me on the bed, holding a steaming cup of coffee.
“There’s my girl,” he teased, getting up and taking a step backward. “You’re goin’ to like my surprise, but we need to keep on schedule.”
I sat up, more interested in the surprise than the coffee he’d just pulled away from me. “Where are we going?”
He grew serious. “Atlanta.”
I shook my head. “We have more important things to deal with than a wild-goose chase to Atlanta. I need to stay in Drum and do more digging.”
“We’re not goin’ on a goose chase, Care. We have an appointment at eleven to talk to Tiffany Olson at her office. But we need to get moving so we’re not late.”
“What? How?”
“I called her company yesterday afternoon and told them I was a deputy from Tennessee and needed to talk to her about a case from Texas. They were reluctant at first, but said she’d give me fifteen minutes at eleven.”
My stomach cramped. “Does she know it’s about me?”
“No. I said it was about your mother.”
“Can you do that?” I asked, sounding more terrified than I’d intended.
He sat back down on the bed. “I already did.”
“But will you get in trouble?”
“No. It’s a legit case. I’m protecting you.”
I wasn’t so certain, but I decided not to press it. He wasn’t going to change his mind, and selfishly, I didn’t want him to. “Don’t you have to work?”
“I traded days with someone, although I’ll need to go in to wrap up some paperwork when we get back. I told Max you might be late.”
“Sounds like you thought of everything.” I slid out of bed and headed into the bathroom. Marco followed and set the mug on the counter. “I figured you’d want some time to yourself to think, so I already showered.” He gave me a kiss. “No distractions.”
I reached for him as he turned to leave. “Thank you.”
He gave me an ornery grin. “I know how much you like your caffeine in the morning.”
“I wasn’t talking about the coffee.”
“I know. I love you. Now get ready so we’re not late.
A half hour later, I stared at my reflection in the mirror, wondering if Tiffany would see past my disguise and believe it was really me. I was wearing a pink sundress and white sandals, and I’d put on makeup, although I’d gone for the natural look. My blond hair was still dyed auburn, cut into an inexpert bob. I tugged at a strand, as though that would make it longer.
“Do you miss your blond hair?” Marco asked quietly from behind me. He was wearing gray dress pants, a light-blue long-sleeve button-down shirt, and a blue tie.
“You look stunning,” I said to him in the mirror. He was a handsome man, and while it was his heart that had won me over, I wasn’t complaining that he came in a very nice package.
He grinned. “I clean up pretty nice.” He took a step into the bathroom, then repeated in a serious tone, “Do you miss being blonde?”
“I think I miss it being long more.”
“Then grow it out.”
I gave him an exasperated look in the mirror.
“The color is the more distinguishable aspect, not the length. Soon you’ll be safe to wear your hair however you chose. We’re gonna make sure of that.”
I was trying not to let myself think that far ahead. “Do you think you’d prefer my hair blond?”
He stood behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist, lowering his mouth to my neck. “I prefer you alive. Your hair color is merely icing on the cake.”
“But you wouldn’t prefer a different icing?”
He laughed, setting me loose. “For some reason you seem to find this hard to believe, but no. I’ll take whatever icing I can get.” He paused and turned serious. “Max said his mother came to see you yesterday. He says she brought you a box with Jerry’s personal belongings?”
Crap. I’d forgotten the box in Max’s apartment. I could retrieve it later. I wasn’t worried about Max looking inside. “Yes, if you can believe it. She said Bart wanted to throw it all out, but she didn’t think it was right.”
“Max said something about that. What kind of stuff did she bring you?”
“It was just some photos and newspaper clippings about Carson Purdy, Seth, and Barb, plus a bunch of papers. I was running late, so I left it in Max’s apartment, figuring I could go through everything later. Then I forgot it at his place.”
Marco looked alarmed.
He studied my reflection for several seconds before nodding. “You’re right.”
“Emily told me something else. Louise came to see Bart last week while Emily was out of the house. She doesn’t know why, but her housekeeper told her Louise was there for about ten minutes. No notion of how Louise got there. I asked Emily if she could find out, but even if she does, I’m not sure she’ll actually tell me.”
“I wonder what that meetin’ was about?” Marco asked with a worried look.
“You and me both. One more mystery to pile onto the heap.”
“One we’re not gonna solve right now. Come on. I made breakfast sandwiches for the road.”
Sure enough, he’d baked canned biscuits and made us sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches for the road. We prepared two travel mugs of coffee and headed out in his Explorer.
It was a four-hour drive to Atlanta, which gave me plenty of time to tell Marco about everything I’d learned the day before. I started off by telling him what Georgia had said about the beginning of Hank and Mary’s relationship and the drug business.
“So Mary played a big part in the business,” he said after I told him about my conversation with Georgia. “I’m not sure why I find that surprising.”
“I was surprised too, but I’m not sure how involved she was by the end.”
Then I told him about my conversation with Michelle Abernathy. “She obviously doesn’t trust me,” I said. “But she did tell me a few interesting things. First of all, her husband worked for Hank too. She also told me Louise had worked for Mary, not Hank, and Walter worked for the drug business. She told me that Hank hired him partially for Lula and maybe a little bit to spite Bart, who’d fired him from the lumber mill.”