A few hours later, Linda was found inside an abandoned grocery store. Although malnourished and smelling like she’d been on an extensive camping trip in the woods, she was alive. Brennan swore he would have never done anything to harm her, and even though Maisie saw him as a sick, twisted individual, she actually believed his feelings for Linda were real.
With her neighborhood safe again, Maisie took a drive to the local cemetery, where she now visited not one, but two of the important men in her life. First a visit to Lee to update him on all the recent events, and then a visit to Stuart, to tell him she wished he hadn’t had to go when he did. In the distance, she spotted someone familiar and walked over to him.
“I didn’t expect to see you here today,” Maisie said.
MacDougal placed the flowers in his hands on his wife’s grave and stood. “I took the day off. I might take the week off, actually.”
“You deserve it after all that’s happened.”
Maisie glanced at MacDougal’s wife’s grave. “How long has she been gone now?”
“It’ll be four years in a few weeks. Can you believe it?”
If anyone knew the true meaning of the word suffer, MacDougal did, after losing both his wife and his only child in the same year. First his daughter, who was the unfortunate victim of a tired driver who’d fallen asleep at the wheel, and then his wife a few months later, who’d ingested so many pills to numb the pain of her loss that she overdosed one evening, killing herself. Whether it was an accident, or whether she simply couldn’t bear another day without her child, would remain unknown.
“It’s a shame. I always liked Beth. She was a good woman.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
“Well, I have to be going.”
“Mind if I walk you to your car?”
“Suit yourself.”
He held an arm out, and even though it seemed odd, she took it.
“You really should think about coming back to work.”
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re good at what you do.”
“I’m not needed anymore, and I don’t want to be stuck in the forensics lab again. I like my life now. I’m free to do whatever I like whenever I like.”
“You’re bored.”
He was right. She was bored.
“Perhaps.”
“What about a consulting position?”
She raised a brow. “I’m confused. Why are you of all people pushing so hard to work with me again?”
“You’re the nosiest, most arrogant woman I’ve ever known.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“You’re also addicting.”
Addicting—a word no man had ever called her before.
Unsure how to reply to what she perceived to be his mild attempt at flirtation, she said nothing in return, and they walked the rest of the way to her car in silence.
She reached her car and said, “It was good to see you today. Enjoy your time off.”
He stood still for a moment, then leaned in, planting a kiss on her lips.
She jerked back. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Something I should have done a long time ago.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea, the two of us. I mean, I don’t know what I think of it.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it because we used to work together? Because we’re not the same age? Because you had feelings for Stuart?”
“No, it’s not any of those things,” she said. “Well ... maybe. I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Why don’t you see me now?”
“I am seeing you now.”
“I mean, have lunch with me, Maisie.”
“I can’t. Not today.”
“Why not?”
“I’m meeting Maude in a few minutes.”
He nodded. “I understand. See you around then.”
Maisie watched him walk away, playing out what had just happened in her mind, thinking, then overthinking, until the time she had to act on her thoughts was almost up. “Colin?”
MacDougal turned. “Yes, Maisie.”
“I’ll be with Maude for a few hours, but I’m free for dinner later.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned. “Dinner it is then. Pick you up at eight.”
***
Thank you for reading A VIEW TO A KILL. If you enjoyed these stand-alone novels, there’s another stand-alone I’ve written that you will also like called ROADILL, which was a 2019 USA Today bestselling novel.
In ROADKILL, suburban housewife Juliette Granger has been living a secret life ... a life that's about to turn deadly for everyone she loves. Download ROADKILL by clicking HERE.
Fearing for her life after witnessing a gruesome murder, Juliette Granger whisks her two-year-old daughter Nora away in the dead of night and flees, planning to start a new life in a small, forgettable town under an alias. An hour into the escape, headlights flash behind her. A vehicle pulls alongside, and a masked man demands she stop the car. She refuses him, and a deadly game of cat and mouse begins.
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