"Yeah?"

"He didn't know anything, didn't see anything, and he says he was on his way to pick up the guest of honor. I checked that out with the limo driver, and he verifies the time. I'll be talking to Carl again after the feds and the ATF get finished with him."

"They'll have to find him first," Kate said.

"Find him?" Nate repeated.

"Isabel told me that Carl called earlier today and told her he was going away. He does that," she quickly added so they wouldn't jump to any crazy conclusions. "When life becomes too stressful, he goes into seclusion. When he comes back, he's refreshed."

"I'm not going to wait until he's refreshed, whatever in God's name that means. I'll find him," Nate said.

"How often does life become too stressful for Carl?" Dylan wanted to know.

"Three or four times a year," she said. "You might want to talk to his fiancee," she suggested then. "Carl doesn't go anywhere without telling her. She has a business to run, so she can't take off as often as Carl can."

She gave Nate the name and phone number and added, "She's a lovely woman but a bit… high-strung, I guess you could say, so please try not to scare her."

"She's high-strung, and she's engaged to Bertolli?" Nate shook his head. "Now that's a pair."

"I think you're wasting your time with Carl," she said. "He couldn't have seen anything, and if you knew him as well as I do, you'd realize what a kind, sensitive, decent man he is. He's done so much for this community."

"Tell me about the man who called you to come to the warehouse. Had you ever heard his voice before?"

"No."

"Would you recognize it if you heard it again?"

"There was so much noise in the background I could barely hear him. I don't think I could-"

Isabel interrupted by calling Kate's name from the stairs.

"Uh-oh," Kate said. "Detective, would you like something to drink? A soft drink, iced tea, water…"

"Iced tea would be nice."

"Excuse me for interrupting." Isabel was standing in the foyer smiling at the men. Kate noticed she'd put on lip gloss and had taken the time to brush her hair.

Kate excused herself and went to her sister.

"Did you want something?" Kate asked when Isabel continued to stand there staring. Had Kate been that transparent around a good-looking man when she was seventeen?

Isabel took a step toward the living room. "Detective Hallinger? Everything's all right, isn't it? Kate said that Dylan told her you're here to tie up some loose ends. There isn't anything more, is there?"

"I told you everything was all right," Kate said.

"Kate's helping the detective with his investigation," Dylan said. "Nothing for you to worry about, Isabel."

"That's right," Nate confirmed.

"Now will you stop worrying," Kate ordered.

"Who could blame me for worrying? You're so accident-prone…"

Kate didn't give her time to get worked up. "Detective Hallinger would like a glass of iced tea."

"He would? I'll get it for him."

Kate followed her into the kitchen.

Dylan was making suggestions when she joined them again. She started for the sofa where Dylan was sitting and, deciding it would be better to keep her distance, changed her mind and headed back to the chair.

"You do understand why I'd rather Kiera and Isabel didn't know about this, don't you?" she asked. "They're leaving Silver Springs tomorrow morning."

"Dylan filled me in, and I agree," Nate said. "We'll keep this quiet for now."

Isabel carried the iced tea in, handed it to Nate, and then told him it was a pleasure meeting him, and said good night. She shocked Kate when she kissed Dylan on the cheek. "I hope you'll stay in Silver Springs awhile," she said.

Nate called as she was leaving the room, "Thanks for the tea, Isabel. That was very thoughtful of you."

She turned and beamed with pleasure.

"You don't have to stay upstairs all evening," he told her, thinking she was doing so to give them more privacy.

"Oh, I have a few phone calls to make."

"Let me translate that for you." Kate laughed. "She's going to be on the phone for hours."

Nate waited until Isabel was out of earshot, and said, "She's a sweetheart. She reminds me of my first true love, Mary Beth Durst-weiller." He shook his head and grinned. "She broke my heart."

He became serious again and returned to the business at hand. "Okay, Kate. You said you hadn't been home all that long." He was flipping his notepad to find a clean page.

"That's right."

"So it shouldn't be too difficult to retrace your footsteps and tell me where you went, who you talked to…"

Kate thought it was going to be easy and quick to recount her activities from the time she'd returned to Silver Springs. Why, it wouldn't take more than ten, maybe fifteen, minutes.

Her estimation was off by an hour. Nate kept making her go back and start over. She knew he was hoping she'd remember something that would lead to some answers.

No such luck. The only lead was still the same. Reece Crowell.

Nate then wanted to talk about her company. She hated doing it, but she had to tell him about the financial mess she'd found. He was extremely interested in the terms of the loan.

"You don't seem too upset," Dylan remarked.

"I was very upset at first… I had no idea my mother…"

"Yes?"

She couldn't bring herself to say anything that would give Dylan a negative opinion of her mother.

"… was struggling so. It was very insensitive of me not to notice how difficult it was for her. I also believe that when she took out the loan and used her assets as collateral, she didn't realize that my company was one of those assets."

"What are you planning to do about it?" Dylan asked.

Now that she'd had some time to think about it, she had come up with several options. She didn't discuss them but simply said, "I'll make some changes and work it out. I've got about three weeks, and that's plenty of time."

Nate asked her a couple more questions and then thanked her for her help.

Dylan walked outside with him and stood in the drive talking for another ten minutes. Then he went to his rental car and got his bag out of the trunk. Kate held the door open as he carried it in.

"Where am I sleeping?" he asked. He locked the door behind him and headed to the stairs.

"Alone," she answered.

"Okay, that's it."

He dropped his garment bag, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the living room. He let go of her but was still able to back her into a corner by simply moving closer and closer.

"What's going on with you? And don't even try to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about."

The man could be intimidating when he wanted to be. He got that look in his eyes.

"It's… difficult… after Boston," she stammered.

"Why?"

"Why? Because you're making me crazy."

"Kate, start making sense. How am I making you crazy?"

"You're here," she whispered. "And you shouldn't be. In Boston… the night you showed up to keep me company and I came on to you and pretty much pounced on you…"

One eyebrow shot up. "You pounced?"

"Lower your voice, please," she whispered. "Pounced, seduced," she said. "Call it what you want." She tried to get around him to put some space between them, but he trapped her with his hands on either side of her. The message wasn't subtle. She wasn't going anywhere until she explained.

"You seduced me?"

"Yes, I did," she said. "I deliberately went after you. I shouldn't have, but I did." She brushed her hair away from her face and looked into his eyes. He was so close she could feel his heat. She had the sudden, insane urge to kiss him again. Get over it, she told herself.

"Try to understand," she said. "I had just gotten some awful news, and I felt like my world was crashing in on me. Then there was Jordan's surgery… and I was so scared for her… and after…"