“What makes you say that?” Julie asked.

  Sarah solemnly looked at Julie. “The scrunchy way Mr. Carlson looked at the other man, kinda like when I hafta eat broccoli.”

  Ash swallowed a smile. “That bad.”

  She nodded.

  “Did you see that man any other time, Sarah?”

  “No.”

  “Did you ever hear the man’s name?”

  “No.”

  “Thank you, Sarah. You have been very helpful.” He reached into his sport coat and pulled out a Three Musketeers bar. He held it toward her. “I’d like you to have this.”

  Delight filled her eyes. “Okay.” She grabbed the candy bar and scampered off.

  As Ash watched Sarah disappear, he was struck again by the realization that his daughter would have been about her age. He pushed away the painful thought.

  “Well, we know that Carlson’s killer had been here before the night of the murder.” They walked out of the apartment. “I wonder why no one else around there saw him?”

  “Or why they don’t want to ID the killer,” Julie supplied.

  “That’s what worries me. These folks are afraid of this killer. The question is why.” He surveyed the complex, noticing a couple of curtains moving.

  The hair on the back of his neck told him he wasn’t going to like the answer to his question.

  Chapter 8

  T he smell of burgers from the outside office announced Ash’s arrival. Kelly’s stomach growled. She glanced down at her watch. Ten minutes to one. He was late and she had to be in court at one-thirty.

  “Hey, Ashcroft, you get a second job as a delivery boy?” Curt Richards’s voice floated into her office. “If you are, I’m willing to buy one of those burgers.”

  “Stuff it, Richards,” Ash good-naturedly replied.

  Laughter filled the air.

  “What are you doing here?” Curt asked. “I thought you were finished with the investigation.”

  “We need to tie up ends. And…” He shaded his reply with innuendo. Although she couldn’t see him, Kelly didn’t doubt the look of man-to-man conquest exchanged between the males in the other room.

  Suddenly Ash filled the doorway, and his size and sexual energy sizzled over her skin. She gritted her teeth against her reaction.

  He strolled into her office as if he were on time. “You’re lucky I made it through the outer office,” he joked. “There were at least three other A.D.A.’s who wanted to buy what I had in the bag.” He set the burgers on the edge of her desk. He studied the clutter. “You want to eat in here?”

  Thinking about how messy those wonderful burgers were, she shook her head. “Let’s go into the conference room.” She snatched up the Reed file.

  As they walked back across the office, Kelly felt like a suspect in a lineup.

  “You sure you don’t want to sell those burgers?” Curt Richards questioned again.

  Kelly’s stomach protested. She stopped and turned to her colleague. “You mess with my lunch, Curt, and I’ll charge you with obstructing a law officer in the performance of his duty. If you’re hungry, you know where to get a burger.”

  Curt grinned. “Whoa, you’re mean, lady.”

  “I’ve got less than forty minutes before I need to be in court.”

  Ash shrugged. “You know how she is when she’s hungry…” He shook his head.

  “Tell me about it.”

  Kelly didn’t know who she wanted to smack, Ash or Curt. She settled for glaring at them both, then marched into the conference room.

  The instant Ash put the bag on the table, Kelly ripped into it. “Why are you so late?” She hoped he remembered that she had to be in court. Her stomach ached with hunger. It was also a sign of the pressure she felt, her need to eat.

  The first bite tasted of heaven. She moaned, enjoying the taste. Ash’s choked reaction caused her eyes to flutter open. The heat in his eyes nearly melted her. Suddenly there was a different kind of hunger clawing at her body.

  “You always did enjoy your…burgers.” The tone of his words held a wealth of meaning that had nothing to do with hamburgers.

  She swallowed, tasting nothing.

  “Kelly,” Teresa Myers walked into the room. “Judge Marks had an emergency and has been called away this afternoon. The trial will resume tomorrow at nine.”

  “Thanks, Teresa.” Kelly glanced at Ash. “Now I don’t have to rush back to court and you can explain to me what happened yesterday that caused your boss and mine to go ballistic.”

  He pulled his burger from the sack. “You know Samuel Waters’s wife had an affair with Andrew Reed. Mr. Rich-and-Powerful Waters can wheel and deal land, make bankers jump to his tune, but apparently he doesn’t hold that power at home.” He took a bite of his burger. “The old man’s pride was stepped on by our questioning. He yelled the loudest.” He shook his head. “Some rich, old men have very fragile egos. And bluster the likes of which are something to behold.”

  “Who else did you interview?” she asked around a mouthful of food.

  “We talked to the Ackers who held the party the Reeds attended that last night. Talking to them proved to be a gold mine. Mrs. Ackers told us about Andrew being caught with his mistress in front of several witness.”

  “That wasn’t in the file, was it?” she asked, opening and scanning it again for the twentieth time.

  “No. Mr. Ackers walked in and shut down the interview. We lucked out when Julie got the name of the mistress from the Ackers housekeeper. Joanna Kris—and Joanna was very bitter about being dumped.” He went on to explain all they had learned at the interview. “Joanna was downing tequila as if it was going out of style when we interviewed her. She talked pretty freely.”

  He paused, and Kelly knew something wrong had occurred. When he glanced at her, all her instincts confirmed her fears.

  “Tell me the rest, Ash. What went wrong?”

  He rubbed his chin. “Joanna was very helpful for the first part of the interview.”

  Kelly went still. “The first part. What about the second part?”

  “She suddenly clammed up on us. She was talking, venting about what a miserable money-grubbing bastard Andrew Reed was, then she quit. And neither Julie or I could figure out why.”

  “Run it by me,” Kelly offered.

  “Julie’s going to write up the interview. I’ll get it when I go back to HPD headquarters this afternoon, then we can review it. But Joanna did tell us that Andrew Reed’s new fiancée is loaded.”

  “And Joanna isn’t?”

  “Apparently not. She married and divorced money but didn’t have any of her own and that puts her as a mistress, not a wife.”

  “But I thought Andrew Reed was well off.”

  Ash tapped his fingers on the table. “It adds a whole new dimension to this investigation.”

  “Yes. We’re going to need to do some financial reviews.”

  No wonder all those society folks screamed to high heaven about being interviewed. People in their tax bracket usually didn’t get interviewed by homicide cops about a murder among their own. Or get audited. It made them uncomfortable. It pulled back the veneer of sophistication to reveal the darker side of their existence.

  Kelly popped another French fry into her mouth. “Tonight is the first party we’re scheduled to attend at the Cattleman’s Club.”

  “What time?”

  “Cocktails are at seven. I’ll meet you there.”

  He stilled, his eyes dark, unreadable, and a muscle in his jaw flexed. “I don’t think so.”

  He took her breath away. “What are you talking about?” she asked, ignoring her reaction.

  “We’re an item, remember?”

  “As if I could forget.”

  That earned her a glare. “If we arrive in separate cars, no one is going to buy our cover story. I’ll pick you up.”

  Kelly wanted to avoid that. It would resemble a date, which was something she wanted to avoid. She opened her mouth, then shut it. Common sense told her Ash had a valid point.

  “Good.” Satisfaction settled in his eyes. “I’ll be at your house at six forty-five.”

  There was no way around it. “Fine.”

  “Don’t act like you’re going to your execution. If anyone should act that way, it’s me. You know how I hate fund-raisers.”

  That wasn’t all that bothered him. She didn’t doubt he hated playing the role of her boyfriend. “I’ll see you then.”

  After he left the room, Kelly rested her head on her arms. She didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to pretend to be infatuated with Ash. She didn’t want to play interested girlfriend, because it brought back too many memories that she didn’t want to recall.

  At six forty-five Ash pulled his car into the driveway of his old house. As if this situation wasn’t bizarre enough, he felt as if he were coming home. The honeysuckle bush blooming under the living room window filled the air with its sweet fragrance. He remembered making love to Kelly with that scent filling his nostrils.

  His mind shied from the memory. He was here strictly as a cop, doing undercover, per instructions of his boss. Nothing else.

  Sure, a little voice in his head whispered. And it snows in Houston.

  It did snow in Houston, he assured himself. Maybe only once in fifty years, but it happened.

  He slid out of his car and walked to the door. When he rang the bell, the door instantly opened. Kelly’s shape was silhouetted by the light behind her. The simple black dress she wore faithfully outlined her curves. She was a size ten, liked satin underthings, and didn’t own a single white bra or panties. When he asked about that, she explained that, when she was growing up in Beaumont, her parents didn’t have enough money to buy anything fancy for their daughter. Plain white cotton. After her father died in an accident, there had been even less. Once she had earned enough, she never again bought white or cotton underthings.

  The wind danced around Kelly, moving her shoulder-length hair. This was the first time he’d seen it down. She’d let it grow.

  Desire nearly brought him to his knees.

  He was here for a job and nothing more, dammit.

  Her eyes roamed over him, intimately. “You look very nice.”

  Mercy, Kel.

  He tugged at the neck of his shirt. “I’d rather be in a T-shirt and jeans.”

  “Of that I have no doubt.” She pulled the lacy shawl over her shoulders and stepped out into the night air.

  She wore high heels that showed off her legs to their best advantage.

  Why not just take him out and shoot him and put him out of his misery?

  “I tried to get a list of who was invited to this event. There are going to be several couples who were at the party where Catherine was killed.”

  She walked around the car to the passenger door. Ash followed and opened the door for her. She threw him a questioning look.

  “I thought I’d play this part so no one can claim we’re just going through the motions.”

  She glanced around the yard. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “Better to cover ourselves. We can’t see what neighbors are watching, and you know Mrs. Schattle likes to gossip.”

  Their eighty-year-old neighbor knew all the comings and goings on the street and discussed it with anyone who’d listen to her.

  Kelly nodded and slid into the front seat. As Ash walked around the car, he reminded himself of what the object of this evening was.

  Kelly picked up the file folder on the seat. “What’s this?”

  “A copy of the report Julie wrote of our interview with Joanna Kris.”

  She opened the folder and tried to read it, but with the light quickly disappearing, she closed it. “I’ll read it later.”

  She glanced around the Jeep. “I’m surprised you’re not still driving your truck.”

  He’d been so proud of that Ford. It was the first vehicle he’d bought after he had graduated from high school. He’d been very possessive of his truck and hadn’t even allowed his mother or sister to drive it. When he had tossed the keys to Kelly and told her to take it to run an errand, his sister had announced her brother must be in love.

  “It was stolen by some teens in my apartment complex and totaled.” He had been madder than hell when he’d discovered what had happened. “It was amusing to see their reactions when they realized they’d stolen a cop’s truck.”

  “I bet you gave them a rough time.”

  “You bet I did.”

  She shook her head. “Why don’t we run over the guest list and see who we need to talk to.”

  “Okay,” Ash mumbled.

  And someone better talk, because he was paying a mighty high price for this information.

  Kelly glanced around the crowded room. Diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies sparkled off every female who walked through the door. It seemed to be a contest as to who had the biggest, costliest necklace, bracelet or ring. Or the oldest husband.

  “There’s not a sensible wealthy man in this city, is there?” Ash muttered.

  Kelly stared up at him. He stood next to her, his arm around her waist. It was hard to concentrate on anything besides his heat and the feel of his large hand on her waist. He had been closer that a kick-a-ber on her old hound since they’d walked into this shindig. And they had raised several eyebrows.

  A choked laugh came from her throat.

  Ash threw her a knowing look. “I wasn’t the only one thinking that, was I?”

  “No. But I feel out of place without any high-priced jewelry.”

  His gaze roamed over her neck and upper breasts. “There’s nothing wrong with what you have on.”

  “I feel naked,” she whispered.

  His gaze slid over her body very slowly, telling her that he didn’t take her comment in the same vein she offered it. The corner of his mouth turned up and he leaned down and whispered, “You would definitely stand out.”

  In his eyes, she could see him remembering exactly what she looked like clothed only in skin.

  She swallowed, hard. “Jewelry,” she croaked.

  “Ah.” A wealth of meaning filled that simple sound. He’d nearly knocked her socks off when he had shown up at her door this evening. The tux gave him an air of dangerous male, barely tamed by the constraints of civilization. The way he had looked at her made her mind go blank and her blood heat. She felt like a high-school girl with her first crush. This was no way for an A.D.A. to behave.

  “Relax.” His fingers tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Fire from his touch sizzled along her nerves.

  “Everyone knows that you’re with the D.A.’s office.” His fingers pushed aside her bangs. “If you had on something very expensive, they’d be yelling that their taxes were being spent the wrong way.”

  Her mind groped for a coherent answer. Stop it, she ordered. She was a grown woman. An A.D.A., so she needed to act like it. “Or that I’m on the take,” she grumbled.

  “Or it could be you’ve acquired a wealthy boyfriend,” he added.

  “Nope, Ash, that story won’t work, now. You’re it and you better not be making the kind of money that could provide me with something like that.”

  He shrugged. “One of the disadvantages of dating a cop.” His hand settled on the sensitive skin at the back of her neck, nearly making her jump out of her skin.

  She looked at him. Her skin tingled where his hand rested. “What are you doing?” she hissed.

  He bowed his head, his mouth next to her ear. “I’m playing the part that the D.A. has assigned to me. We’ve rediscovered each other. If I don’t act interested, communicate with body language that you and I are an item, I doubt anyone will buy our story.”

  The look he gave her betrayed his words, nearly melting her knees. He wasn’t as unaffected as he would have her believe.

  “Maybe you could turn the act down a few notches,” she answered.

  “Depends.”

  “On what?”

  “If you want Walter Moen to believe our cover story.”

  “Wal—”

  Ash pulled her close and brushed her lips with a light kiss. “The enemy is twelve o’clock behind you,” he whispered against her mouth.

  Yanking hard on her self-control, she pulled back and stepped to Ash’s side, then scanned the crowd. Walter Moen stood near the bar, glaring at them. He walked toward her. She stiffened.

  “Easy, Counselor,” he breathed. His hand settled on the small of her back.

  Walter stopped in front of them. “I was very glad to learn the investigation into Catherine Reed’s murder has been discontinued.”

  Kelly forced a smile. “I’m sure you were.” Ash’s hand tightened on her waist.

  Walter nodded. “Her parents were very glad to hear that information, too. Nothing would have come of continuing to look into that tragedy.”

  Except the truth. Kelly swallowed her response.

  “The D.A. agreed with my position when I talked to him,” Walter forged on. He was drunk enough not to be reading her signals clearly.

  Kelly remained silent. After an awkward moment, Walter nodded and walked off.

  “Old goat,” she grumbled.

  Ash laughed, a deep, stirring sound. He leaned down and placed his mouth next to ear. “He is a bit prissy.”

  She shook her head. “You’re encouraging me in bad thoughts.”

  “Naw, I’m just confirming that your instincts are right on the mark. And I’m proud that you didn’t let the SOB have it between the eyes.” He hadn’t backed up an inch, his body pressed against hers.

  “You know me too well.”

  Her comment made them both aware how intimately they knew each other, their strengths and weaknesses. Their bodies fit together with remembered ease.

  Kelly squared her shoulders. “We better start working the room to see if we can discover any whispers about the Reed marriage. We probably have a half hour to mingle before dinner.”

  Ash nodded and started through the crowd. He smiled at several couples as he walked to the bar.

  “Give me a whiskey,” he told the bartender. He wouldn’t drink it, but it would be good window dressing.