Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon by Carla Cassidy Read Free Book Online Page A

him at all. She’d told him that a hundred different ways over the past month or so, but he was still a frequent visitor and a man who obviously didn’t take no easily. He seemed to think that, if she just spent enough time with him, he could change her mind about their relationship.
    He couldn’t. She’d rather be alone than be in a relationship without real passion, without true mutual love. Been there, done that, and the results had nearly destroyed her.
    As he rambled on, Marlena realized it was the first time that he sat in the house with her. Normally Sam made it uncomfortable for the man to be anywhere but on the porch when he came to visit Marlena.
    Thomas was a big man, with wide shoulders and thighs the size of tree trunks. Physical labor had given him the muscles of a bodybuilder, but he had always been gentle and soft-spoken when around her.
    He had to have known that Sam and Daniella didn’t approve of him. They hadn’t hidden the fact that they thought he was all wrong for her.
    Her heart began a slightly faster unsteady beat as she stared at the man on the sofa. Was he so obsessed with her that he had removed the people who disapproved of him? Left her alone in the house and frightened, hoping he could step in and be her support, the man she turned to in her need?
    Ridiculous, a tiny voice whispered inside her. You’re looking for a bad guy in a friend who has never shown any violent tendencies, a man who has never pushed you to accept any unwanted advances.
    Still, she was grateful an hour later when he finally left with the promise to check in with her soon.
    Maybe it was time she moved up her schedule for leaving Bachelor Moon.
    And maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to mention Thomas’s name to Gabriel.

Chapter Four
    Sheriff Jim Thompson was a font of information about the history of Sam and Daniella’s relationship, which had formed when Sam had come to the bed-and-breakfast for a vacation.
    During that two-week stay, it had become apparent that Daniella was in danger—the first indication the murder of Samantha Walker, the daughter of Mayor Brian Walker.
    It had later been determined that the bed-and-breakfast gardener, Frank Mathis, had been obsessed with Daniella and little Macy. He’d killed Samantha Walker as a gift to Daniella, because Samantha had planned on opening a bed-and-breakfast that would directly compete with Daniella’s business.
    Armed with this little bit of history, the three agents were now on their way to see Brian Walker. “Maybe the old man blamed Daniella for his daughter’s murder and exacted some kind of revenge against the family,” Jackson said as Gabriel drove down the tree-lined street that would take him to the ex-mayor’s house.
    “More than two years is a long time to let rage fester,” Gabriel replied. “If he does have something to do with the Connellys’ disappearance, then there had to have been some sort of trigger.”
    “A week ago was Samantha Walker’s birthday,” Andrew said from the backseat where he had a laptop open, checking facts.
    “That could definitely be a trigger,” Gabriel replied.
    “There...on the left,” Jackson said, pointing to the house where Brian Walker had lived for the past two years. Gabriel pulled into the driveway of the small, ill-kept house.
    Weeds had long ago choked out any semblance of yard and an air of desolation hung upon the faded forest-green ranch house. Gabriel turned off the car engine and the three agents got out.
    The heat was nearly overwhelming, pressing against Gabriel’s chest and making it difficult to draw a deep breath. He unfastened the safety snap over his gun and knew the two agents behind him had done the same thing. They had no idea what they might be walking into. Brian Walker could be a dangerous man.
    Gabriel knocked on the door, his emotions cold as he went into the survival mode that had kept him alive through many heinous cases.
    It helped that he knew Jackson and Andrew had his