Murder Deja Vu

for a long time before he spoke. “I lied. I’m glad you’re here.” His gaze stayed on her. “You’re beautiful. Do you know that?”
    Dana’s heart rate soared into the stratosphere. Why did this man turn her to mush? “No. I always thought I was just cute.”
    He smiled. “You’re that too.”
    His smile made her feel better, and she relaxed. “What’s with the beer for breakfast?”
    He looked as if he’d forgotten it was there. “I thought of it more as a continuation of last night than as the first drink of the day.” He put it down on the dock. “The sun’s going to break over the horizon in a few minutes. It’s a sight to see, that big orange ball hovering over the water. The color’s something only Nature could create.”
    She got up and straddled him, kissing him on the lips. “My ass is wet.”
    He put his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t mind.”
    “Don’t leave me any more at night.”
    “I’m okay, Dana.” He met her gaze. “I am.”
    “I know.”
    “No, you don’t. You had dinner with Jeraldine and she told you things to make you worry. I know her. How much did she tell you?”
    “Not much.”
    “Bullshit.” He didn’t say the word with malice, only as a matter-of-fact, normal, everyday word that happened to be bullshit. “Jeraldine’s as close to me as any family, but she has a hard time separating her maternal feelings from her professional ones. That’s okay, and I appreciate her more than I could ever express. I’d still be rotting in prison if it weren’t for her. But I don’t want you to be like her. I’m too old for one mothering hen and sure as hell don’t need another one. I called her to get me out of a jam, and it’s a bad one.”
    “She didn’t want me to come here last night.”
    “She was right. I haven’t been able to get a handle on these moods. I wasn’t like this before, but times have made me this way. I get over them, but while I’m in their thrall, I feel like an emotional cripple. No one wants to be described that way. At best, I sound weak. At worst, like someone who needs a long time with a shrink, and I’ve already gone that route. I’m being honest.”
    She started to say something, and he put his finger across her mouth. “The other night, I was humiliated that you saw the cops drag me half-dressed from your house. I would never want any man or woman to see a lover, spouse, or child taken like that. It was degrading and brought back feelings I’d rather not remember. I couldn’t imagine what you thought.” He shook his head. “No, don’t tell me.”
    “I will tell you. It pissed me off. I was furious at the system, at Mickey for waving the warrant in my face, at the injustice of it all, and pissed at whoever killed that girl and made it look like you did it.”
    “I’ve been thinking about that, and so has Clarence. You met Clarence, didn’t you?”
    Dana nodded.
    “I wish he’d been working for Jeraldine the first time, but as a public defender she didn’t have the luxury of a top-notch investigator. I’ve been thinking about the first time too. About who knew Karen and who might have wanted her dead. I thought about it a lot in prison, but I couldn’t process anything clearly then. I think most of that time I was shell-shocked.”
    “Were you?”
    “Yeah. It got better as time went on, but it also got worse, because I knew I’d never get out. Now, there are two murders pointing to me. Maybe two different murderers. Doesn’t matter that the Cambridge case has been dropped. Pinning it on me would justify they were right in the first place.”
    Dana had thought the same thing ever since the murder. Would it be the court of public opinion all over again? “This one seems like a copycat. But Jeraldine said Clarence has been poking around in Boston. Maybe he rattled someone’s cage. If it’s a copycat, it comes down to who around here knew about you.”
    “When I moved down here, I’d hoped my past life would be that—past. But when your ex-husband made a big deal about my buying this property, word got out who I was and what I’d supposedly done. I didn’t care anymore. I was tired of running and fought him.”
    “It doesn’t matter who Robert hurts, as long as he makes headlines.”
    Reece brushed a curl off her forehead. “Why did you stay with him so long? I suspect you did it for your sons, but there must have been more to it.”
    Dana swiveled around, her back to Reece’s chest. She