Chapter Eighteen

The hand clamped down a little harder as I refilled my lungs to scream. Even if it came out muffled, I decided I’d try to let loose a noise that would wake the whole neighborhood and possibly the dead. Then I heard a familiar voice speak in my ear.

“Don’t scream, Ivy. Let’s save that for the bedroom.”

I whirled around and punched Ben in the stomach. A muffled “umph” came from those delicious lips as he doubled over. “You idiot,” I hissed. “You nearly scared the pee out of me. What the hell is your problem?”

But Ben still seemed beyond speech as he looked at me with hurting eyes. I’d give him hurting eyes. He’d better just be happy I didn’t aim lower and with my knee.

He straightened a little and looked like an aerobics instructor trying to work out the kinks. “What was that for?” he said, trying to pull the whole wounded-person thing.

“I told you what it was for. Never, never, creep up on me and scare me like that again. You’re lucky I didn’t aim for your balls.” His eyes widened, and I clamped my hand over my mouth. I had not, in any way, shape, or form, meant to say that out loud.

Maybe the backbone was growing a little faster than I had originally thought. I’d never said balls to an actual man before. Sure, I’d said it in the office restroom after some idiot talked down to me or one of the male assistants decided to make some kind of snide remark about my weight or lack of a boyfriend. But never to someone’s face before. Was I supposed to apologize now? No, I didn’t think I wanted to. What I needed to do was change the subject.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

“Well, I asked you first. And don’t try arguing with me right now. What are you doing here?”

In the same hushed voice that sent shivers up my spine, he said, “Oh, all right. I came over because I heard the police had picked up the client guy on assault charges and I knew he wouldn’t be here for a while. I thought I’d do a little bit of investigating on my own. Now you?”

“What, did you finally finish your online class and decide to break in your new private investigator license?”

The one cloud in the sky shifted and the full round moon shone down on Ben’s face. It looked like he was actually blushing. Blushing? That was too rich. “You did, didn’t you? You got your license and wanted to try it out, so you what? Listened to the police scanner that everyone seems to have in this town and came down here to see what the guy was up to yourself?”

“I don’t hear you answering my question.”

I snickered. “You’re not going to hear me answer your question until you tell me whether or not this foray into investigating was brought on by you receiving your new license.”

“Okay, okay. Yes, I got my new license this afternoon. It’s actually a temporary one for right now. And yes, I did hear the cops saying they’d picked up Mr. Samuel Hedlund, also known as ‘that client guy,’ trying to get into Janice’s house. I heard he threw a punch at Dennis, which is never a good idea. I went to high school with Dennis, and he has a jaw of iron. There was this kid he fought once, and the kid actually broke his hand when it connected with Dennis’s jawbone, and Dennis didn’t even stagger. Of course, I could always take him down when we were in wrestling together. It didn’t take much to get him in a headlock.”

“Oh, now there’s a picture I simply will not be able to get out of my head. You and another guy in those tight leotard-type outfits with your arms around each other. Nice. Did you have the head gear, too?”

“Of course we had the head...ha, ha, ha. You’re a funny one. Fine, go ahead and make fun of me all you want, but I looked good in that outfit. It showed off my ass to perfection.”

I rolled my eyes and finally remembered where we were—in the middle of breaking and entering into a guest’s cabin at the local bed and breakfast. Yet here we were playing getting-to-know-you games. I stuck my elbow out to get his attention and he neatly sidestepped me this time.

“I don’t fall for that twice. Should I be grateful you didn’t go for my balls this time, too?”

I blushed and hoped the cloud cover had moved back across the moon to hide the flaming hot skin from my neck to my forehead.

“Ivy, seriously, you should go home. I can take care of this. There’s no need for both of us to get into trouble for checking this guy out.”

I stared at him in disbelief. I had gotten here first, I was trying to figure out a way in, and now Mr. Wrestler was telling me (me!) to go home like a good little girl and let the big bad man take care of things. How dare he!

“How dare you!” My anger got the best of me and my voice got a little louder than I would have hoped.

“Let’s use our inside voices, Ivy.”

I hit him in the arm this time for his condescending comment. And since when was I so physically violent? What happened to that strong filter I’d boasted about between my head and abuse? Regardless, it got his attention.

“Ow, again. Do you make it a habit to hit people who are trying to look out for your best interests?”

“No, I do not make it a habit to hit people who are looking out for my best interests, but I do hit people who are patronizing me. Why should I go away? Why don’t you go away?”

“You have got to be kidding me. I’m not going away. And if you’re not going away, then at least get behind me while I jimmy this lock.”

“Then we’ll be partners, right? I’ll help you, you’ll help me, and we share all information.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Ben said as he opened this black velvet case-like pouch with a bunch of shiny tools inside. He drew out a long slim tool and examined it.

I was about to let him do his thing when his answer sank into my head. I put out a hand to block the lock and keep him from trying his luck with it until I got some clear, definite promise from him that we were in this together.

“You want to move out of the way so I can get us in before sunrise?”

“No, I do not want to move. I want you to tell me we are going to be partners in this. I’m not going home to twiddle my thumbs like some dumb girl while you go do your manly-man thing and leave me in the dark.”

“I wasn’t planning on leaving you in the dark, as you say. I think it’s too dangerous for you to be sticking your nose in things you don’t know anything about.”

“And you know all about investigating because you got some piece of paper from the Internet.” That was so rude I started apologizing immediately, even before I saw the look of hurt flit across his face. “I’m sorry, Ben. That was wrong of me. I don’t know what’s gotten into me today. First I say ‘balls’ to a man and then I insult you.” Oops, hadn’t meant to say that part about the balls. But without trying, I seemed to have diffused some of the tension.

“You’ve never said balls to a guy before?”

I did not want to continue this conversation, but I felt maybe I owed it to him after the bitchy Internet paper comment. “No, I haven’t.” That was all I would say about it. The end.

“Never? That’s a pretty long time. You didn’t say it to some guy in the eighth grade because he was trying to pinch you or something?”

Apparently not the end. “No, I guess it never came up. Besides, I’m still waiting for you to agree to be partners before I move. Let’s keep focused on the important issues and stop talking about your balls.” God, did it get any worse than this?

He looked me over for a minute and finally nodded. “We’ll let go of the balls conversation and concentrate on the important things. Why do you think I should let a total amateur help me with this when I can do it myself?”

I held my tongue as another snide comment about his dubious (oh, good word, Ivy) use of his qualifications came to mind. “I think you should let me help you because I can be an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands. A lot of customers who come in spend time gossiping. I can pick up any interesting information and pass it on to you. I doubt you have many drop-ins at the newspaper.”

“Like an extra set of hands, huh?”

Trust a man to zero in on that part. “I also found some evidence with a direct bearing on the murder.” Never mind that I wasn’t entirely sure if the blood on the cape had anything to do with Janice, because the police hadn’t seen fit to give me any kind of update. But I didn’t let that little bump in the road stop me.

“What kind of evidence?” He stopped and shook his head. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. If I can’t get through to the lock soon, I’ll lose my chance to see what this guy is hiding. I guess I’ll have to agree to whatever you say.”

“I need to hear the words.” My hands had moved to my hips.

“Fine. I agree to be partners with you. Now please move your cute ass out of my way so I can get at this lock.”

I had a cute ass? I resisted the urge to twist around and check it out for myself as Ben got to work on the door.

He grabbed the knob and moved to put the first tool between the door and the jamb. The door simply creaked open. “Well, shit.”

I laughed and got a narrow-eyed look for my insubordination. “So, master detective, I guess we should have tried the door before breaking out the tools.”

“The tools are fine. I should have tried the door before agreeing to your stupid partner thing.”

Ben was still rubbing his arm where I’d swatted him for a second time when we made our way into the cabin. The floor plan was simple: one big room housed a bed and sitting area, a small kitchenette, and a café style table for two. Nothing looked out of place and the king-sized bed was perfectly made.

I was just happy no one had been here before us. And hopefully no one would come in while we were doing our search.

“You take the bathroom,” Ben said in a whisper. That whisper was doing some serious things to my libido, even when he was cursing at me. Yes, I figured I was perverse.

I didn’t want to argue now that we were actually inside and able to see if there were any clues here. So I took myself to the bathroom and started my search while I heard faint noises coming from the main part of the cabin.

The small bath smelled like Old English but was actually quite neat for a guy. A comb and a bottle of gel were lined up on the white counter. No stubble was lying around the rim of the sink, and the tube of toothpaste actually had the cap on. Plus, no ring of urine around the toilet.

If I hadn’t thought this guy was a murderer, I’d be tempted to see if he was available. I mean, cleanliness was next to sexiness for dating material, as far as I was concerned. I sure hoped Ben wasn’t a slob.

Ten minutes later, we both came back to the center of the main room, shaking our heads. “I didn’t find anything,” I said. “I looked through the bathroom cabinets and found the normal stuff. It looks like he’s settled in here for a little while. He has everything unpacked and his travel bag is stuffed under the sink. He’s neat and not a thing is out of place.” Actually, looking at how neat he was had me rethinking the whole cleanliness thing. Even I wasn’t that organized, and I didn’t think I could be with someone who made sure all the labels on his toiletries faced the same way and were alphabetized. It was a little scary and a lot anal-retentive, now that I’d thought about it.

“I didn’t find anything either,” Ben said. His shirt was coming untucked and his brown hair was mussed, like he’d run his fingers through it several times in the short while we’d been here. His fingers forked through the strands again, confirming my suspicion. “This guy is way too organized and didn’t bring anything with him besides two pairs of pants, two shirts, socks, funky orange-striped underwear, and his bathroom stuff. No books, no files, no incriminating evidence. Crap.” Ben shook his head and jammed his hands in his pockets. “Dammit,” he said. “I was so sure he’d have some kind of secret stash of things hidden in his clothes or in a drawer that would link him to Janice’s death.”

“I know. I’ve looked in every nook and cranny.”

His head snapped up. “But I haven’t.” He stalked over to the small kitchenette and opened the cupboards under the sink. Wedging himself into the tiny space, only his stomach, waist and legs were visible as he wiggled around looking for something, anything.