Stonebrook Cottage by Carla Neggers

He needed rest. "I haven't packed—"
    "I've got a suitcase for you in my car. Jack has the key to your apartment, remember? I took the liberty of packing a few things for you." She smiled, a little nervously, he thought. "I also threw out the chicken you left to thaw on your kitchen counter a million years ago. Jesus, Sam, what a smell."
    Something about her story wasn't adding up, and he wondered if she'd spotted the hole in it herself and was trying to distract him. He was too damn tired to think.
    Susanna started shoving him back out the door, chattering again about flight plans and refueling and his flight north. She threw numbers at him. A defense mechanism. She didn't want him thinking.
    "Why don't you ask Jack to go after Kara?" Sam asked.
    "Because he'd just call the Boston police and have her arrested the minute she lands."
    It seemed like a good idea to Sam. He might yet do it himself.
    They reached the main showroom, where the air was cool and the walls dancing with the bright signature colors of Gordon Temple's work. Susanna smiled coolly, any nervousness gone. "Besides, I don't expect you want Kara explaining to her brother why she's not thinking straight."
    "Think you have me by the short hairs, don't you, Mrs. Galway?"
    "I know I do."
    "If she does have those kids—"
    "Then thank God, because then we know they're safe." Susanna touched his arm, all the coolness going out of her. Her eyes were warm, and she seemed near tears. "Sam, I know you have responsibilities as a Ranger, but this is a personal favor."
    "No kidding," he said dryly.
    "Kara, the kids—losing Mike Parisi was hard on them. You'll go to Boston, won't you?"
    "You knew I would when you dialed my number." He was putting his career on the line—everything. "So, Mrs. Galway, you're so smart. What the hell do I tell your husband?"
    She smiled, her spirits renewed. "Leave that to me."
    Sam found Eva Dunning out back in the sunflowers. She had on a floppy, wide-brimmed cloth hat, not much help against the hot Texas sun, and a shapeless denim jumper and sport sandals, which she somehow managed to wear with a creative flare. Her dark hair hung down her back in a long, graying braid. She was shorter than her daughter, graceful more in manner than build, and she didn't have Susanna's green eyes. Those were pure Dunning. Eva exuded genuine caring and openness, and she was a talented artist, a quilter, a woman of many talents and hobbies. She was no art snob. Her husband was an artist, too, both of them nomads who'd lit in Austin for a time.
    Their Hyde Park gallery and their house weren't far from Kara's bungalow.
    "I'd forgotten how hot it can get down here in the summer," Eva said. "Whew. I'm bushed. Is Susanna still inside?"
    Sam nodded. "Jack's on his way here."
    "Is he?"
    Kevin and Eva Dunning weren't elitists, but they'd probably never get used to having a Texas Ranger for a son-in-law. Sam didn't have Jack's experience with dealing with them—or his patience. No question in his mind that Eva Dunning was up to her eyeballs in whatever Kara had going on. "Have you seen Kara recently?" he asked.
    "How recently?"
    "Last night."
    Eva snipped off a small, dark sunflower and added it to the bouquet she'd collected in a bucket of water. "Why do you ask? Is something wrong?"
    "Possibly. I hope not. Did she come here last night by any chance?"
    "No."
    Sam realized he had to be very precise with her and give her no wiggle room whatsoever. "To your house?"
    "Sergeant Temple, is this an official interrogation?" Color rose in her cheeks, but he knew if he pointed it out to her, she'd only blame the heat. "Should I have my attorney with me?"
    Bingo, he thought. Kara had slipped over to the Dunnings' place to avoid him, probably got some rest, then headed south to San Antonio.
    Sam took no pleasure in Eva's obvious discomfort. His personal and professional lives had collided the minute he'd walked out of the Dunning Gallery two weeks ago with Kara Galway, and now