Ewan waited, praying she would let him inside her invisible fortress, but instead, she continued making the tea and remained standing with her back toward him.
Ewan softened his tone.
"I know you didn't kill Myles, Jorgie. You couldn't have. He was killed somewhere else and his body was moved here. There's no way you could have picked him up and carried him into that forest, and we know he was carried in because there are no drag marks or tire tracks in the ground anywhere around him."
Again, he waited for her to respond. The new information had brought her some relief. Enough to instantly decide that there was no reason for her to run, at least not yet. She would be on her guard, be careful, wait a little while longer, make sure it was just a random murder that had nothing to do with her past.
She turned to face him.
"So, you believe me now?"
"I never said I didn't believe you, Jorgie. I know you didn't kill him. I just needed your statement, to line it up so no one can point a finger at you."
He moved closer to her, placed his hands on her elbows, and forced her to make eye contact with him.
"Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me, Jorgie? I know you know more than you are telling me. Let me in. I'm on your side, heck I have always been on your side. Whatever battle you're fighting in that pretty head of yours, you don't have to fight alone." He could have continued to tell her God was there too and that the battle was His, but he didn't. He held back.
Ewan's eyes held hers captive, the jade color suddenly looking as alluring as an island ocean. Ewan Reid was a handsome man, and she had never denied that there was a spark between them. She wanted to surrender. Show him who she really was, tell him everything, and accept his help. But she couldn't. Ewan Reid was a man of principle and he wouldn't look at her the same way ever again if he knew who she really was and what she had done before she came to St. Ives. Besides, she had learned a long time ago that no one could be trusted, ever. No one but herself. Letting her guard down now would be a mistake. A mistake their friendship might never recover from not to mention that his life would be at risk, possibly now more than ever.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Ewan. I'm fine, honestly. I shouldn't have looked at the photos. It isn't exactly something I see every day and just caught me off guard, that's all."
She turned to finish making the tea.
"If you ever need to get something off your chest I'm here for you. God is too."
She laughed as she handed him his cup of tea.
"Oh, I very much doubt God would want to help me, trust me. He will take one look at me and walk on by. Not everyone is as holy as you, Ewan."
"Holy? I am far from it, Jorgie. The only things in my life that are holy are my socks."
He waited for his quip to soften her edges. She smiled over the brim of her cup and rolled her eyes at his cheesy humor.
"Great, I have a smile. Now, can I please ask you to pop by the station later to give us that formal statement? I cannot put a foot wrong on this investigation, Jorgie, so I need your cooperation, okay? I'm asking as a friend." His warm friendly eyes pinned hers down again.
"Fine, I'll pop by after I get cleaned up. Speaking of which, how long is he going to lie there?"
"Who?"
"Myles, who else? I can see him from my bedroom window and it's disturbing."
Her words held Ewan's attention as he digested her revelation.
"You can see him from your bedroom window," he repeated.
"Yes, I just said that."
Ewan set his cup down on the nearby counter, turned, and charged upstairs to her window.
"What are you doing? You can't just run into my bedroom."
She had not said that out of modesty, rather concern for him discovering her gun under her pillow. She followed him into her bedroom and found him already standing in front of her window.
She was right, he thought. She could see everything from up there, in great detail.
He turned to face her again, his eyebrows drawn into a frown.
"You didn't hear anything last night? Nothing at all?"
"No, I was sound asleep."
She decided to tell him about Vincent.
"Except—“
"Except what, Jorgie?"
"Well, Vincent seemed to have been disturbed by something in the house."
"What time was that?"
"Around four thirty, I think."
"And you're only telling me this now."
"Yes, I didn't make anything of it at the time, he's a cat. I thought he was just full of beans. But thinking about it now he did seem frightened. He crawled under the spare bed and bolted for the bushes when I left to go on my run."
Ewan was deep in thought as he took it all in.
"Do you think Vincent heard the murderer?"
Ewan turned to look at her, ignoring her question, his eyes suddenly serious.
"How certain are you that there was no one else inside your house when you got up this morning?"
The weight of his question hit her square in the thorax, her face declaring the angst that suddenly engulfed her.
"I-no-I don't know. Why?"
"You said Vincent got scared and ran to hide in the bushes the moment you opened the door. He would not have bolted from the house to hide outside if the danger was out there waiting for him. He would have done the exact opposite if something, or someone, spooked him and the threat was outside. He would have stayed indoors, under the bed, where he was safe."
"You think the guy who murdered Myles was inside my house. While I was asleep? While I got ready for my run?"
"It certainly is possible, and it won't hurt to be sure. I'm going to get a few lads to dust for fingerprints." He was already on his cell phone.
"When, now?" Her eyes darted to her pillow, then her cupboard, noting her door that had sprung open and stood slightly ajar. She had packed her bag in such a hurry that she was now not sure the set of drawers lined up properly with where its weight had left indentations in the carpet and fully concealed the sliced flap.
"Yes, now. Every minute that goes by is one minute closer to the killer disappearing. If my hunch is correct, he was inside your house, Jorgie. Why, I don't know yet, but I can't ignore the notion."
She watched as he peered through the curtain while talking on his cell to his team outside. If they find the duffle bag, or worse, the gun, she would have a lot more to explain.
"Okay, well could I have a few minutes just to freshen up before they come in, please? I'm still a bit sweaty from my run this morning."
Ewan's eyes swept across the room and settled on her en suite bathroom.
"Sure, just make it quick, and try not to touch or disrupt anything too much. I'll have the men start on the doors and windows downstairs."
He turned and left the room, shutting her bedroom door behind him.
When she was alone in her room she leaped to her closet and checked that she had placed the drawer unit back in position, she hadn’t—they would have certainly noticed the deep lines in the carpet that revealed where it had been cut. At first, she thought she would just move it back, but then decided it was best she hide the gun back under the floor too. She heard Ewan's voice downstairs as he let his men in. She would have to hurry. Abandoning the closet, she ran to turn on the shower and then moved to retrieve the gun from beneath her pillow. Ewan's voice trailed his footsteps on the stairs. Her heart pounded in her chest, yet she remained in control of her body. She skittered across to the bed, retrieved her pistol, then glided toward her closet.
A knock sounded on her bedroom door and Ewan's voice announced he was on the other side of it.
Her hands paused over the loose floorboards, careful not to make a sound.
"Jorgie, I've got the lads at it downstairs. I'll catch up with you later, forensics have finally arrived."
"Sure, thanks," she yelled back and waited until she heard the wooden stairs groan under his feet as he went downstairs. Her hands moved quickly, lifting the floorboards then hiding her gun in the leather duffle bag. Once she’d moved the drawer unit back into place, she pulled her clothes over the rail, closing the gaps around the unit so everything appeared undisturbed.
Everything but the dark secrets of her past that now threatened to bubble up to the surface and disrupt everything she had worked so hard to keep hidden.