The reminder only strengthened when the eyes of the man in front of her darkened to an angry charcoal. “FBI,” he echoed. “Wonderful. So the sheriff is siccing the Feds on me.”
Jamie ignored the rude retort and said, “I’d like to come in and ask you a few questions, if you have some time.”
“I already gave my statement to Finnegan,” Cole said, his perfectly formed jaw tightening. “I have nothing more to add.”
She didn’t feel insulted by the rejection. Finn had warned her that Cole might not be cooperative. Nevertheless, Jamie was determined to win the guy’s trust. When Finn had called her last night and asked if she would be willing to come to Serenade to help him out on a case, she hadn’t hesitated. She had some vacation time coming up anyway—mandatory, since her supervisor believed in what he called “rejuvenating one’s mind.” She’d been dreading the time off, unsure of what she’d do with herself for three whole weeks, so Finn’s phone call had been a godsend.
And even if she had been looking forward to the vacation, she wouldn’t have been able to say no to Finn. They’d been friends for four years, ever since he’d attended a law enforcement conference in Raleigh where Jamie was giving a lecture about the art of profiling. Finn had pulled her aside after she’d left the podium, impressed by her talk and surprised by how young she’d looked. She’d shocked him even more when she’d revealed her age—twenty-eight at the time, and already with the FBI for six years. They’d ended up sharing a cup of coffee in the hotel restaurant, which sparked a friendship that had lasted all this time.
There was nothing romantic between her and Finn, never had been. They were like brother and sister, and she considered him her best friend, which was why she’d offered to help him out. Besides, she couldn’t deny that this case was extremely intriguing. Heck, any case that warranted the headline Real Estate Mogul Implicated in Death of Ex-Wife! in the Raleigh Tribune was bound to be juicy. It had an exclamation mark and everything.
“I wish you’d reconsider, Mr. Donovan.” She gave him a wry look. “I have a feeling you’ll find me a lot easier to talk to than Sheriff Finnegan.”
She could swear the corner of his mouth lifted in a brief half smile. “You’ve got that right.”
“Please,” Jamie added, an imploring note to her voice. “Just give me a half hour. Unlike many of my colleagues, I’m able to keep an open mind. I’m not here to railroad you. I just want to hear your side of the story.”
He shifted, looking hesitant, but she knew she’d reeled him in. And she hadn’t been lying, either. She did have an open mind, unlike Finn, who was pretty much convinced of Donovan’s guilt. But Jamie wasn’t so sure. What she knew of Cole Donovan didn’t point to him being a murderer. He was only thirty-four, and already a multimillionaire. Although he’d been an heir to his father’s very successful software empire, Cole had apparently chosen to donate his entire inheritance to charity and build his own empire from the ground up. Admirable, some might say.
And sure, wealthy and important men committed crimes all the time, but Jamie wasn’t getting the killer vibe from Cole Donovan.
She hid a smile as he finally capitulated. Opening the door wider, he gestured for her to come inside. She took a moment to admire the interior of the house, which was made up of exposed wood and limestone, with natural wood beams and high ceilings that made her feel tiny in comparison. She sneaked a peek into a doorway to the left and saw a massive living area with a huge bay window overlooking the front yard. Oh yeah, this man was definitely wealthy. On Jamie’s salary, it would take several lifetimes to afford a place like this.
“I wasn’t aware the police department is working with the Feds,” Cole said as he led her down a wide, wood-paneled hallway.
Jamie was momentarily startled when they entered a large, country-style kitchen. She took in the cedar counters, mahogany cupboards and sunny yellow walls, then found herself smiling at the green-and-yellow checkered curtains hanging at the window that faced the backyard. Somehow she’d expected a more…sterile environment, seeing as this man was richer than King Midas.
“This is really cozy,” she remarked, not bothering to hide her surprise. “And the appliances actually look like they’ve been used.”
“I like to cook,” he said gruffly. He nodded toward the oval cedar table across the room. “Sit down. Would you like some coffee?”
“Sure,” she said as she made herself comfortable on one of the tall-backed chairs.
“Cream and sugar?”
“Black.” She paused. “And to answer your question, I’m not here in an official capacity.”
She neglected to mention that she wasn’t technically a field agent, either. Her main purpose here was to come up with a profile of the person who’d killed Teresa Donovan, but she got the feeling Cole wouldn’t appreciate having his psyche poked at by a trained psychologist.
As a profiler with the Bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, she spent most of her days examining case files and thinking like a killer. Offender profiling was a lot more difficult than television shows let on. It was slow, methodical work, focusing on the analysis of the offense, mainly the choices a certain perpetrator made before, during and after said offense.
Jamie looked at all aspects of the crime, from what may have triggered it, to the method in which it was carried out, to the disposal of the body. In this case she didn’t have much to go on, save for the bare details Finn had provided her.
She watched as Cole moved around the kitchen, getting two ceramic mugs from the cupboard then starting the coffeemaker. Turning around, he met her eyes warily. “Then why are you here?”
“Finn asked me to come. Unofficially,” she added. “He’s not making much headway in the case, I’m afraid.”
The coffeemaker clicked, and Cole lifted the pot and poured the scalding coffee into both mugs. Heading to the table, he handed her a mug, then sat down across from her. “Maybe if he stopped looking at me as his number-one suspect, he’d get somewhere,” Cole said in irritation.
Jamie shrugged. “Maybe.” She rested her forearms on the table and clasped her hands together. “Tell me, how did you meet your ex-wife?”
The question seemed to throw him. He’d probably expected her to open with ‘Did you kill your ex-wife?’ But that kind of aggressive approach was more Finn’s style than hers.
“I was in town on business, two and a half years ago,” he answered. “I ended up at the bar Teresa worked at, and we started talking. I…”
“You fell in love with her,” she filled in. “And married her six months later.”
He nodded.
Jamie took a long sip of coffee. “So why did it lead to divorce?”
“I mistook her for someone else,” he said dourly.
Jamie didn’t respond. She just maintained the eye contact, her expression relaxed. She’d found that in most interrogations, silence was often the best strategy. Stay quiet long enough, and the person on the other side of that table got antsy. Started spilling their guts just to fill the void. Though she hadn’t expected the trick to work on a businessman as shrewd as this one, she was surprised when he continued to talk, his voice taking a faraway tone.
“What drew me to her at first,” he said, rapping the fingers of one hand on the tabletop, “was her fire. Her spontaneity. She didn’t care what anyone thought of her, didn’t live to please anyone. She did her own thing, and to hell with anyone else. I liked that. I even admired it.”
He halted, bringing his mug to his lips. “I was wrong. All those things I initially loved about her, they weren’t what they seemed. It wasn’t spontaneity or a lust for life—it was selfishness and greed.”
“Did she marry you for your money?” Jamie asked frankly.
“I think so.” He let out a ragged breath. “She loved being a millionaire’s wife. And she hated that I wanted to live in Serenade, instead of taking her to Chicago or New York where she could live like a queen.”
“Why did you stay he
re?”
“Because I like this town.” He gave a faint smile. “I’m sure you noticed how beautiful Serenade is. But more than that, it’s…a home, you know? It’s a place where you raise your kids, where everyone knows your name and says hi to you when they pass you on the street. I grew up in a city of strangers. I wanted something different, once I married Teresa.”
Jamie found herself getting caught up in his words. She understood exactly where he was coming from. The oppressive trailer park she’d grown up in hadn’t been a home. More like a prison, if anything. She’d spent the better part of her adult life trying to find her place in the world, somewhere she felt like she belonged. Hadn’t found it yet, either, unless you counted the Charlotte Field Office.
Realizing she’d gotten lost in thought, she gulped down some more caffeine to kick-start her focus and said, “But your ex-wife didn’t want to stay in Serenade.”
“No, she wanted to travel with me, even though I told her she’d only end up sitting in hotel rooms while I did business. After the first business trip—I was only gone for two days—she became petty, childish. She began making ridiculous demands, and eventually, the affairs started.”
“Affairs?”
Bitterness dripped from his tone. “Parker Smith was the only one I knew about for sure—she let his name slip during an argument. But there were others. She taunted me about them.”
“But didn’t reveal any names,” Jamie said, leaning back in her chair with a thoughtful look.
“At that point, I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to get the hell out of that marriage. So I did. I filed for divorce and moved into this house.”
“Why did you stay in town? With your marriage over, it couldn’t have felt like home anymore.”
“Like I said, I like it here,” he answered with a shrug. “Not really sure why though, seeing as everyone in town views me as the big-city troublemaker.”
Jamie ran a hand through her hair. “I like it here too,” she confessed. “Weird, huh? I’ve only been in Serenade for an hour, but I had the same feeling when I drove in. Home.”
Reluctant curiosity flitted across his face. “You’re a city girl then?”
“Charlotte, born and raised.” She smiled. “Small towns are usually my idea of hell. Boring, quiet, judgmental.”
“Right about the last one,” he grumbled.
She noticed that his shoulders were more relaxed, his deep voice lacking the bite it contained before. Which meant it was time to go in for the kill.
Meeting his dark eyes, she leaned forward in her chair and said, “What happened the night Teresa died, Cole?”
Chapter 2
Cole wasn’t caught off guard often, but Jamie Crawford’s question succeeded in making him flustered. The sudden determination in those gorgeous violet eyes threw him for a loop, and he realized she’d played him like a fiddle. He’d let her in because, as he’d told Ian, he wanted to take care of this mess. So if this FBI agent was willing to hear what he had to say, and hear it with an open mind, then what did he have to lose?
But she’d lured him into a false sense of security. Used her easygoing smiles and the complete lack of reproach in her voice to get him to open up, and then bam! Threw out a curveball before he saw it coming.
He drew in a breath, swallowing the animosity rising up his throat. Fine, so he’d let down his guard and had actually been enjoying the conversation with this intelligent redhead. He quickly raised that guard back up, knowing that everything he said from this point on had to be treated with caution.
“I’m sure the sheriff filled you in on what I told him,” he said, eyeing her with newfound suspicion.
“He did.” She paused. “He said you admitted to getting into an argument with Teresa the night she died.”
“We did.”
She sighed. “You can tell me what happened, you know. I’m not going to arrest you.”
He arched one dubious brow. “No?”
“I didn’t even bring my handcuffs, I swear.”
Cole fought a grin. The idea that she even owned handcuffs didn’t surprise him. Jamie Crawford had tough girl written all over her. He got the feeling she was very good at her job, that she wouldn’t bat an eyelash if she had to take down a suspect. Yet there was also a sense of harmony that radiated from her slender body, as if she knew exactly who she was and was completely at home in her own skin. Not even an iota of insecurity emanated from her. He found that oddly refreshing.
“I went to see her at Sully’s Bar that night,” he admitted. “We were due in court in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to convince her to stop contesting the prenuptial agreement. She didn’t have a leg to stand on, and to be honest, the thought of going to court was a huge headache.”
“I take it she didn’t agree with your point of view.”
“Greed always trumped common sense when it came to Teresa. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. She yelled at me, said some things that were intended to hurt me, and when I tried to get into my truck to leave, she slapped me, then grabbed my arm.”
He left out a few important details. Like the sheer rage he’d felt when Teresa yet again taunted him about her infidelities. The disgust that clamped around his throat at the mere sight of the vile woman he’d once loved.
“And then?” Jamie prompted.
“I went home.” His tone was hard and even. “And I have an alibi.”
“I only briefly glanced at the statement Finn faxed me this morning. It said something about running into a neighbor?”
“Joe Gideon,” Cole confirmed. “He lives about half a mile east of here, in an old fishing cabin.”
“Okay. So you saw Joe.”
He gave another nod. “I couldn’t sleep—I was still riled up over the argument with Teresa—so I went for a walk. It was around two o’clock in the morning, which is when the medical examiner claims Teresa died. I ran into Joe near the creek, we exchanged some heated words—”
“Heated?” Jamie interrupted.
“Joe Gideon isn’t exactly my biggest fan.” Cole sighed. “He blames me for losing his job and wife.”
Jamie’s tone remained utterly neutral. “Now why does he think that?”
Cole curled his fingers over the ceramic mug as he leaned back in his chair. “Did you notice the hotel at the edge of town when you were driving in?”
“Yeah…”
“That used to be Serenade’s paper mill. Two years ago I bought the property, shut down the mill and built the hotel in its place. All the workers lost their jobs, including Gideon. He blames me for that.”
“Do you believe it’s your fault?” Jamie asked.
He shook his head. “Real estate development isn’t a crime. The hotel has brought some much-needed revenue to this town and created even more jobs than the mill. But Gideon doesn’t see it as a plus. He lost his job, started drinking heavily, and then his wife divorced him.”
Frustration bubbled in Cole’s gut. “Look, I might be to blame for Gideon losing his position at the mill, but I’m not responsible for his drinking. Apparently he was hitting the bottle long before I showed up.”
“Gideon claims he never saw you that night,” Jamie said bluntly.
Cole was equally blunt. “He’s lying. Like I said, I ran into him by the creek. We exchanged words, and then he stalked off.”
“So you maintain that he’s lying to the police.”
“Yes, the son of a bitch is lying.” His voice came out harsher than he intended. He turned his head, willing his body to relax, the muscles in his face to loosen. Just thinking about Joe Gideon made his blood boil. He wouldn’t even be in this mess if that old bastard would just tell the truth.
When Cole turned back, he saw Jamie rising from her chair. She got to her feet and said, “Okay. Well, thanks for your time.”
Surprise jolted through him. “That’s it?”
“For now,” she replied, yet there was nothing ominous about her tone. “Let me fol
low up on some things, and if I need to speak to you again, I’ll call ahead next time.”
Cole resisted the urge to shake his head in bafflement as they left the kitchen and headed back to the front door. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that the top of Jamie’s head came a couple of inches above his chin. She was a tall woman, unlike Teresa, who had to fully tilt her head to meet his eyes.
He opened the door for her, but she didn’t make a move to step outside. “Thank you for speaking to me,” she said.
“Will you be in town for a while?” he asked gruffly. “Helping the sheriff with the case?”
“I’ve got three weeks of vacation time, so yeah, I’ll stick around.”
He opened his mouth to say something in return, but nothing came out. For some reason, he didn’t want her to leave just yet. She was the first person since Teresa’s death who’d spoken to him like he was a human being instead of a cold-blooded monster.
She was also the first woman since Teresa to evoke this strange sense of longing inside of him, but he decided not to dwell on that disturbing notion. Instead, he stuck out his hand and said, “Thanks for the visit.”
After a beat of hesitation, she shook his hand. Almost immediately, a current of electricity sizzled from her palm to his, making them both jump.
Well, that was strange. Though she’d taken her hand back, his fingers continued to tingle, a rush of heat moving from his palm, up his arm and circling his chest. He was just wondering if she’d felt that odd spark too, when she pinned him down with an eerily insightful look and said, “Did you kill her, Cole?”
This time he was prepared for the sneak attack. “No, I did not.” He spoke slowly and evenly, hoping she could pick up on the sincerity of his words.
“Okay then” was all she said. She stepped onto the porch, gave him a careless wave and walked toward her car.
Cole stared at her retreating back, dumbfounded. Hard as it was to admit it, he’d been enjoying her company. She might be a Fed, but she had the most endearing way about her. An unnamable quality that made him feel both comfortable and comforted by her presence.