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firmly closed, not wanting to know what he wondered. “Let’s head on back to Kansas City,” he said. “We can drive back out here and start with this Natalie Redwing first thing in the morning.”
    “Why not do it now?” Marjorie asked.
    Jackson looked at his watch. “It’s going to be close to six by the time we make it back to Kansas City. I say we order a pizza and sit down and go through what we know, figure out who needs to be interviewed next and get a general idea of where we are.”
    “Right now it feels like we’re nowhere,” she replied.
    “Exactly. It might surprise you to know that I can be a by-the-book kind of guy despite my huge ego.”
    She glanced over to catch him smiling that sexy grin of his. “So, what does that mean?”
    “It means I’d like to feed my notes into my laptop and see if we really have nothing or if we’ve already made any connections that might lead somewhere. I also want to utilize some resources I have with the agency to double-check bank records, travel and anything else that might pop up with Amberly or Cole’s names.”
    “But you just assigned that task for Deputy Black to take care of,” she replied.
    “You know our resources are better than theirs.”
    “Okay, sounds like a plan,” she replied somewhat reluctantly. She had a feeling being in a motel room with Jackson Revannaugh for any reason probably wasn’t the best idea.

Chapter Four
    He couldn’t get the vision of her smile, the sound of her laughter, out of his head. Something about Marjorie Clinton was getting under his skin, Jackson thought as he paid the pizza delivery boy an hour later.
    He carried the box to the table and chairs that sat in front of the windows in the motel room. His laptop was open to a file labeled Mystic Lake/Kansas City.
    While they had awaited the food delivery, the two of them had sat side by side as he fed into the file the bits and pieces of information they had attained so far in the case.
    He’d tried not to notice how shiny her hair was beneath the lamp that hung from the ceiling over the center of the table. He’d tried not to draw in the sweet scent of her that made him think of tangled sheets and slick bodies.
    The pizza was a compromise. His half was spicy pepperoni and sausage, and hers was mushroom and green pepper. It was just an indication to him that they were complete opposites and he had no business thinking about what she would look like naked, how her lips would taste or if he could evoke any passion that might be hidden beneath her emotional walls.
    Surely these thoughts were only because they were in a relatively intimate setting and there was no question that he was physically attracted to her.
    She looked relaxed for the first time since they’d met. Her blouse was unbuttoned at the top, revealing her delicate collarbone, and her body appeared to hold none of the tension of the day.
    “So, tomorrow we check out the names we have of people from Mystic Lake,” she said as he opened the box and handed her several napkins. She leaned closer to him to look at his computer screen. “Jimmy Tanner, Raymond Chandler and Natalie Redwing—we should be able to have those interviews finished by noon, and maybe one of them will give us more information.”
    “We also need to check back in with Deputy Black and maybe interview some of the other deputies who worked with Cole.” He waited until she took a piece of the pie and then he grabbed a piece for himself. “It’s possible that somebody who worked for Cole didn’t have his back.”
    Marjorie frowned thoughtfully. “We might reinterview John Merriweather again to see if he’s thought of anything new.”
    “He’s still at the top of my suspect list,” Jackson replied and then bit into the slice he had folded in half.
    “I’m anxious to talk to Jimmy Tanner and Raymond Chandler to see how well they can corroborate Jeff’s poker game alibi for Friday night,” she replied.
    “He seems so obvious as