Secrets Among the Cedars (Intertwined Book 2) (2 page)

The weapon was missing, so that narrowed Kathryn’s chances of nailing Ezzo with these charges. Witnesses had overheard Ezzo in jail talking to someone about Cedar Key and the gun. That's the only lead she had. Her investigators had come up empty-handed when they'd been here. Maybe she’d find a witness somewhere and figure out how Cedar Key factored into these murders. This community wasn't that large. She'd search out the Chief of Police after lunch and see if he could help her make some headway on this case.

The waitress brought a glass of water and silverware to the table, then hovered over the couple, who must have been regulars judging by their conversation with the waitress about their grandchildren. Kathryn sipped her water through a straw and let her gaze follow the pier walkway out to the end where she'd seen the shark and the terrific-looking guy from New York. Phillip, was it?

She pulled out her phone and opened her gallery of photos. She studied the picture of this handsome man with his shark. She sighed. They didn't make them like that back home. Something about him was familiar, but he was no homegrown country boy. Not with that accent. There was no way she'd seen him before.

The patio door opened with a squeak, and Kathryn turned her attention to the intruder of her peace and quiet. A giggle escaped her throat when Phillip shut the door behind him and nodded. She shoved her phone into her purse, heat rushing to her face.

Dressed in blue-and-white plaid shorts, a deep blue graphic T, and sandals, he surveyed the porch through eyes hidden behind
black horn-rimmed frames.
He made his way to her table, and her heart threatened to leap out of her chest, jump through the screened window, and flop into the water below as Phillip's shark had done yesterday.

Chapter Two

Girl, it's been too long since a man smiled at you. Remain in control!
She couldn’t afford a distraction from this case right now no matter how handsome that distraction was.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I see you found the best seat in the house. How ya doin'?"

She wrung her normally composed hands in her lap. "I'm less sticky than I was yesterday."

"And I'm less bloody." He raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "Care if I join ya?"

"Well, I—well, sure." She motioned to the seat across from her.
She let her eyes lock with his, and the familiarity registered with her again. Did she know him?

"Have you ordered yet?"

"I just did. The waitress should be back in a few minutes to get your order."

He tapped his fingers on the table. "Oh, they know what I usually order. But I'll eat whatever they bring me."

"So you're a regular?"

He scratched his beard. "You could say that."

She puckered her lips. "But your accent? You're not from around here."

"No, not originally."

"Let me guess. New York?"

"Upper East Side Manhattan." He shrugged his eyebrows.

"Oh..." What was a guy like that doing here?

He raised his index finger and smiled, dimples in his cheeks peeking out from underneath his beard. "Now before you go thinking I'm something I'm not…" He laughed.

So he had to prove he wasn't a rich kid. Whatever. "I wasn't." She made an X across her heart.

"I grew up in Long Island, then studied law and practiced in New York City for a while. I earned my own way. I didn't have everything handed to me, if you know what I mean."

Like a train slamming into a car across an intersection, her imagination collided with reality. "You're—you're an attorney?"

"Formerly." He cocked his head. "I'm in real estate now, with a side order of P.I. work on occasion. But I guess once you're an attorney, you're always an attorney. Right?"

Kathryn held out her right hand, and he accepted it with a lifted eyebrow. "Nice to meet you officially, Phillip, the attorney from Manhattan. I'm Kathryn, Assistant D.A. from Perkins County, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta."

“Perkins County. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t have. It’s a sleepy county, and my town is even sleepier.”

“Sleepier than Cedar Key?”

She curled her upper lip. “No, not that sleepy.”

“What’s the name of your town?”

“Mitchell’s Crossing.”

“Sounds sleepy for sure.”

“Compared to Manhattan, anything would sound sleepy.”

Phillip chuckled. "True. So you're a lawyer?"

"Yes, when I have to be a grown up."

"Law must be treating you right. You don't look as beat up as I did when I was practicing."

"Is that why you quit?"

Phillip pursed his lips. "Uh, I got sick of having to defend people that I knew were guilty."

"Having to?"

"Yeah, my New York family is a bit unruly. Somebody's always getting into some kind of trouble, and I was obligated to defend every crook and thug they knew." He drummed his fingers on the table.

"Seems like they couldn't force you to defend them."

"Yeah, well, you'd have to meet them to understand. Anyway, I wanted freedom. So I moved to Savannah, but the same thing happened there. When my grandma moved back to New York, Ma recommended that I come take care of her rental properties. That's how I ended up here."

The waitress opened the door to the porch carrying two plates of food, and they pulled back their hands. She placed the plates on the table in front of them, grabbed the ketchup off the table next to them, and pulled two straws out of her apron. The older couple left their tip on the table and exited, waving goodbye.

Was Kathryn in a dream? What were the chances this guy would be an attorney? She never met attorneys outside of court. Of course, she rarely got out socially because her case load demanded too much of her time. What would it be like to walk away and never look back like Phillip?

"Kathryn?" He chomped off the end of one of his fries, revealing straight but not perfect teeth.

So there was something flawed about him after all. What a relief, considering Kathryn was a tangled mess of cobwebs. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I was distracted by the—the food." Yeah, that was it.

"Ms. Susan wanted to know if you needed anything else."

Kathryn scrutinized her plate and smiled at the waitress. "No, ma'am. Everything looks great. Thank you."

After Susan left them alone, Kathryn seasoned her fries with salt and pepper. "What'd you get?"

"Deep-fried Pollock on a hoagie bun. Wanna bite?" He held up half of his sandwich.

She protested with her hand. "Thanks, but no. You order that all the time?"

"Not all the time. A guy's got to think about his figure." He laughed and squirted ketchup on his fries.

"Yeah, right." She exploded with laughter.

After Phillip swallowed a mouthful of his sandwich, he pointed at her with a fry. "So what's your last name and what's your story?"

"Bellamy. And yours?" She'd spare him the details of her story. He'd get up and run if she told him.

"My last name? It's a mouthful. You sure you want to know?"

"Of course."

"Tagliaferro. It means ferocious warrior or something like that." He balled up his fists and shook them in the air. "A good, strong Italian name."

Kathryn's
mouth flew open. Did he say Tagliaferro? Phil Tagliaferro. As in Maria's ex-fiancé? No wonder he seemed familiar. She hadn't recognized him before because of the beard. The last time she'd seen him was at the wedding that didn't take place between him and her college roommate. Her spot as the maid-of-honor had disintegrated as soon as Phil discovered Maria in the groom's dressing room with the best man. She'd never understood why Maria favored what's-his-name over Phil.

"Imagine the teasing—"

Kathryn's face must have turned as pale as her legs in the wintertime because Phil stopped mid-sentence and placed his hand on her wrist. A fry lodged itself in her throat, and no amount of water would wash it down.

"Kathryn?"

She scratched her eyebrow with her thumb and cleared her throat. "Do you not recognize me?"

He knotted his brow. "I'm afraid I don't. Should I?"

She should reroute the conversation before their friendly bantering came to a grinding halt, but something compelled her to confess their connection. "I was…Maria's maid-of-honor." She squeezed her eyes tight then reopened them one at a time.

His face drained of its color. "You were?"

Kathryn eyed him, the table shaking from the tapping of his foot on the floor underneath.

A crease formed between his eyebrows, and with an eagle's stare, he studied her. "Yes, yes, you were."

A nervous giggle flew out of her like a caged bird upon release. Why did she sound like a Billy goat?

He pointed his long, slender finger at her. "Ah, Kathryn—I don't know why I didn't put the name with the face before now. I should've remembered. I'm sorry."

She waved her hands in dismissal. "No problem. How would you have remembered me?"

"How could I have forgotten you?" He winked. His glasses did nothing to disguise the spark in his eyes.

Kathryn took a generous bite of her patty melt and tried to ignore the heat that trembled throughout her. She'd have to dig deep to resist her curiosity about Phil. She needed to get away from her friend's ex-fiancé posthaste.

#

Phil took another bite of his sandwich and wiped his mouth with his fingers. How could he have forgotten Kathryn? Her Southern voice was like sweet tea and a Sunday afternoon on a porch all rolled up into one. She smelled like peaches and cinnamon, and she epitomized the Southern belle. Except for the fact that she was an Assistant D.A. He couldn't imagine this dainty lady, a hair taller than five feet, fighting her way to victory in a courtroom. Instead, he pictured her in a hooped skirt with a parasol tossed over one of her slender shoulders.

Kathryn's cheeks were rosy from his comment, and her eyes glimmered in the early afternoon light. Framed by her silky brunette hair, they looked like onyx stones set into her heart-shaped face, magnificent. Her wispy blouse of coral and green made them glow like a beacon from the lighthouse on Seahorse Key.

He dipped a fry in ketchup and popped it into his mouth. "Now that we know we've met before, you can call me Phil, and you can tell me what brings you to Cedar Key."

Kathryn brushed her hair out of her face. Her pistachio-colored bridesmaid dress from the wedding must have accentuated her glow on that day, especially with those eyes. Too bad he hadn't noticed. Judging by the way things had turned out, it was a shame he hadn't had the opportunity to meet her before she'd become the maid-of-honor and he'd become the groom-to-be.

Get a hold on yourself, man!

She finished her bite of the patty melt and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "I'm working on a case, and there's supposedly evidence down here that'll point us to the murder weapon."

"A murder case? Shouldn't your investigators do that for you?"

"They've already been down here. Everybody has been down here. No luck. I thought I might find a detail they missed or overlooked that would lead me to the weapon. Not because I’m a control freak or anything like that."

“Of course not.” Phil snickered.

“I’m not. I promise. But evidence points to the fact that there’s a connection between Cedar Key and that missing weapon, and I intend to find it.”

"If you need a P.I., let me know."

"I just might do that."

"I'm heading back to Savannah Monday for a week, but I'll be around all weekend."

"I'm going back Monday too."

"Can I have your number? Just in case."

She made a clicking noise with her tongue against her teeth as if she was calling a dog. "How about you give me yours instead?"

Cautious and beautiful. A deadly combination. Phil wiped his hands on his napkin, reached into his shorts pocket, and pulled out his gold-plated business card holder. He opened it and retrieved a pristine card, extending it between his forefinger and middle finger, to the most cautious woman he'd ever met.

She accepted the card. "Sorry if I seem awkward. It takes me a while to unwind. I rarely get out of the office or take a vacation. This isn't even a vacation. I wish I were here for leisure. I—"

Her ponderings didn't distract him from mulling over their former connection. Was this brunette, electric-eyed classy lady still in contact with Maria? Better yet, was she a
Miss
Bellamy or a
Mrs.
Bellamy? Her right hand held no wedding or engagement ring, but Phil had learned that women didn’t always wear their rings when they abandoned home for this Gulf coast escape. He shook his head at his ridiculousness. What did it matter? A friend of Maria's couldn't be a friend of his. Besides, she'd go back to Georgia, and he'd never see her again.

She snickered. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble." Her eyes sparkled like the dark marsh at high tide but were distant. Was the distraction caused by her duty or by her disinterest in him because he was Maria's ex?

"You weren't rambling." A school of dolphins slipped through the water beyond the pier, where black cormorants perched on weather-beaten posts, stretching their wings and puffing out their white chests. He pointed, his mouth full, and Kathryn squealed.

"I love dolphins." She clapped her hands like a young girl and smiled.

A sweet smile from a Southern girl. Enough to buckle his knees if he weren't seated. "I do too. I never tire of watching them."

"How could anyone?" She sipped her water and watched the dolphins go on their way.

Susan brought their tickets and a to-go box for Kathryn. Something dipped inside of Phil. He didn't want to say goodbye to this delightful woman. "I can't get over the fact that we've met before. How crazy is that?"

"Yeah, crazy.” She grabbed her to-go box, reached for her ticket, and stood. “Well, I've got to get back to work. Thanks for the company."

"Here, let me get that for you." He tried to slide the ticket from her fingers. She had a death grip on it.

She tugged it away from his grasp. "No, that's okay. I've got it."

"Please, let me treat you to lunch as a welcome to Cedar Key and an open invitation to come back when you have more time to stay."

"Thanks, really. But I can't."

He could take a hint. He must have
QUARANTINE
or
PLAGUE
written across his forehead because she obviously couldn't wait to get away from him. Had he said something wrong? He shouldn't have brought up Maria again. Or maybe Kathryn was a Mrs. after all.

Then she tossed her sable hair over her shoulder with a swing of her head and pulled the porch door open. She turned to face him with a smirk. "It was really nice seeing you. I hope I run into you again."