Epilogue
A full day later, Liss was still haunted by
Doug’s confession. Filling Sherri in on the details helped.
Repetition dulled the sharp edges and reinforced the most important
facts: She was safe; Yvonne was safe; and Jane and Nola’s killer
would get what was coming to him.
After Sherri left, Liss sat in the
rocker in her bow window, waiting. She’d left a message on Gordon
Tandy’s voice mail, asking him to stop by. She’d not yet had the
chance to clear the air between them on a personal level. She could
not move on until they talked.
Gordon arrived just before five that
afternoon. Liss invited him in, settled him on her sofa with coffee
and coffee cake, and resumed her seat in the Canadian rocker with
her hands primly folded in her lap. Out of the corner of her eye,
she saw Dan crossing the town square. She knew the moment he
spotted the state plates on the unmarked vehicle parked in front of
her house. He stopped dead, right in the middle of the street, then
turned back the way he’d come.
He wasn’t angry, or jealous, either,
only considerate. He would keep watch from his own front window and
when Gordon left, he’d return.
The thought comforted her and gave her
the courage to say what needed to be said to the only other man
she’d ever considered as a potential husband.
“I should have told you myself when I
accepted Dan’s marriage proposal,” she said. “You shouldn’t have
had to hear about it from your brother.”
She’d succeeded in surprising him. He
set his cup aside and left the coffee cake untouched. “That’s what you wanted to talk to me
about?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Liss, I wasn’t around for you to tell.
I was out of state at the time.”
“Right before you left, I wasn’t sure
you wanted to be around me. I caused you a great deal of trouble.
You broke the rules because of me. And I almost got both of us
killed.”
“You have a way of convincing me to let
you in on things you shouldn’t know anything about,” he admitted,
with a rueful smile. “That doesn’t seem to have changed since you
got engaged to Ruskin. What the hell was I thinking yesterday,
letting a civilian conduct an interview with a
suspect?”
“Will Doug’s confession hold up in
court?”
“It should, especially since he broke
down and repeated it a couple of hours later—with his lawyer
present.” He reached for the coffee and sipped.
“Are you in trouble because of my
meddling?”
“I doubt it. It got results.” He
started on the coffee cake.
Liss sighed. “You wouldn’t tell me
anyway, would you?”
“As to that, it’s on a need-to-know
basis and you don’t need to know.”
“Well, at least your sense of humor is
improving.” Liss bent forward, inclining her body a little closer
to him in an attempt to gauge his reaction. “I need you to know
this, Gordon. It wouldn’t have worked—you and me.”
“I know.” He polished off the coffee
cake. “If I’d ever gotten around to proposing, and if you’d been
foolish enough to accept, we’d probably have been divorced within a
year.” His eyes locked on hers. “Still, it would have been one hell
of a year.”
“Be serious!”
“What makes you think I’m
not?”
“I’ve never been able to read you,” she
complained, exasperated. “I’m trying to apologize here, Gordon. I
should have phoned you, or at least written to you.”
“Because a ‘Dear John’ letter would
have made things so much easier on me?” The glint of amusement in
his dark eyes was unmistakable.
“You’re not going to make this easy on
me, are you?”
“In fact, I am. I’d already done a lot
of thinking about us before my brother sent me the news of your
engagement. I’d decided it wouldn’t be smart to continue to see you
after I returned home. I was planning to keep my distance. We
aren’t good for each other, Liss. I don’t know how to explain it
any better than that, but that’s the honest truth.”
“I can’t explain it either,” Liss
admitted as she sat beside him on the sofa, “but I know exactly
what you mean. You tell me things about your cases that you
shouldn’t, even when I don’t ask. And I ... take risks. I still get
the shakes every time I think about what happened just before
Christmas. I should never have—”
He touched a finger to her lips to stop
her words. “It’s over. Done with. And so is this case. You’re going
to marry a good man and try harder to avoid getting tangled up in
unsolved murders.”
“Yes, I am. And you?”
He chuckled. “I’ve been seeing someone
for the last couple of months. It’s getting serious.”
“That’s wonderful, Gordon. I’m happy
for you. Is she anyone I know?”
He rose and she walked him to the door.
“You met her once,” he said, “back when you first got back to
Carrabassett County.” He stepped out onto her front porch, turned,
and grinned at her again. “Her name is Penny
Lassiter.”
Liss was frowning as she watched him
get into his car and drive away. The only Lassister she knew
was—
“Good grief,” she
whispered.
“Good grief, what?” Dan asked,
overhearing. As she’d expected, he’d lost no time trotting across
the square to her house once he saw Gordon leaving.
“Gordon is dating Penny
Lassiter.”
“Who?”
“Penny Lassiter—the sheriff of
Carrabassett County.” Liss could see them together, and the image
made her very happy.
“So, loose ends all tied up?” Dan asked
as they went inside. “Air cleared?”
She slipped her hand into his, savoring
the warmth and firmness of his grip. “Now all I have to worry about
are my lists of things to do before our wedding.”
“Uh, Liss—about the
wedding?”
“You’re not
backing out,” she said, giving him a poke in the arm with her free
hand, “and we’re not eloping.” A laugh caught in her throat when
she looked up and saw the serious expression on his
face.
“I got a phone call a little bit ago,”
Dan said, turning her so that they were standing face-to-face in
the center of her living room. “From your parents. You remember how
they were going to leave ahead of schedule and drive straight here
because Dolores Mayfield told them what was going on?”
“Please tell me they decided against
it. I love them dearly, but there was no reason for them to change
their original plan. They’ll still be here in plenty of time for
the wedding.”
“They certainly will.” He glanced at
his watch. “They decided to fly instead of drive. Their plane
landed at the Jetport in Portland about an hour ago and they rented
a car. In, say, another forty-five minutes, they’ll be on your
doorstep.”
Liss felt her jaw drop.
“Before they show up, there’s something
I need to tell you.”
Watching Dan swallow hard and hesitate
made Liss’s heart stutter. Was Dan going to
call off the wedding? Had her reckless meddling finally pushed him
too far?
“When Tandy came back into your life, I
had to wonder if you were really certain you picked the right man
to marry.”
“I’m sure. I—”
“Let me finish. Please. I figured out
pretty quick that I had nothing to worry about. I know you love me.
And I love you. And because I love you, seeing you with Tandy this
morning made me realize that I want to do more than tell you I love you.”
“You show me how you feel every day,”
Liss assured him.
“Yeah? Well, good. But I wanted you to
have proof of that love. I’m not going to
change my mind about this. I’m resigned to making the ultimate
sacrifice.”
She blinked at him in confusion for a
moment before she saw the twinkle in his molasses-brown eyes. She
started to smile. “You mean—?”
“Yes, Liss,” Dan said. “When we get
married, at the Western Maine Highland Games, I will be wearing a
kilt.”