His New Nanny

He stood and shook his head. “I’d like a check-in from you each evening after Melanie is in bed. I want to know everything that’s going on with her, what happens in the hours while I’m at work.”

“Of course,” she said, standing. She carried her cup to the sink and rinsed it, then started for the doorway.

“I assumed you read the reports about my wife’s murder? Then you must know that she was pregnant at the time of her death.” She stopped walking and nodded, her blue eyes shadowing with a touch of sympathy.

“I read the newspaper accounts this morning,” she said.

“What the newspaper accounts couldn’t tell you was that the baby wasn’t mine.” Her eyes flared slightly with surprise, but he didn’t give her a chance to reply. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Amanda.”

He released a deep sigh as she disappeared out of the kitchen. He took his cup to the sink and added it to hers, then left the kitchen and returned to his study.

Once there he poured himself a glass of Scotch, then walked over to the wall that held all the pictures. His gaze focused on the picture of Erica. She’d been insanely beautiful and selfish and unfaithful.

He wasn’t sure when the affairs had begun. For all he knew she’d started seeing other men soon after their wedding. It didn’t matter now. The only thing that mattered was that Melanie had already lost one parent. He didn’t want her to lose him.

His gaze moved to the picture of the six men. The Brotherhood, that’s what they’d called themselves when they’d arrived at Riverhead College, the prestigious private school in southern Missouri. They had been five young men, best friends, from the wealthiest families in Conja Creek.

In those four years of school, they’d shared kegs of beer, lots of laughs and a solemn promise to have each other’s backs.

He stared at the face of Lucas Jamison, Sheriff of Conja Creek. Good friend, fellow member of the Brotherhood, but despite the promise they had all made to each other so many years ago, how long would Lucas be able to overlook the damning circumstantial evidence and keep him out of jail?

THE BABY WASN’T HIS.

The words played and replayed in her mind the next day as she and Melanie set up for a tea party in Melanie’s room. As Melanie arranged her stuffed teddy bears into chairs at the miniature table, Amanda unboxed a tiny tea set that probably cost as much as a month’s rent on her apartment back home.

The baby wasn’t his. That meant that before her death Erica had been having an affair. That knowledge certainly added a nail into the coffin of suspicion where Sawyer was concerned. Everyone probably believed that he’d found out about the baby and killed her in some kind of jealous rage.

But despite the evidence, there was a big part of Amanda that wanted to believe, needed to believe, that he was innocent.

“I see you have Ms. Panda Bear at the head of the table,” she now said to Melanie. The black and white bear was slightly bedraggled. “She must be a favorite of yours.”

Melanie nodded and smiled at the bear as if it were a beloved sibling, then she gestured Amanda into one of the two empty chairs.

The little teapot was already filled with apple juice, and Helen had promised fresh-baked cookies in fifteen minutes. As Amanda sat at the table, Melanie walked over to the massive wooden toy chest and nearly disappeared into it as she rummaged around. When she stood back up she held two feather boas in her hands.

She walked over to Amanda and placed the bright-pink one around her shoulders, then slung the purple one over her own and giggled with delight.

“I see we’re dressing for tea.”

The voice came from the doorway, and Amanda whirled around to see Lillian standing there. “Lillian!” she exclaimed in surprise, wondering how the woman had not only gotten inside the house but had climbed the stairs without being heard.

“Looks like fun,” she said.

“Would you like to join us?” Amanda asked.

Lillian smiled. “No, but I have a message to deliver from Helen.” She looked at Melanie. “Helen says if you come to the kitchen the cookies are ready and there’s a bowl of frosting that needs to be licked.”

Melanie’s face lit up as she looked at Amanda. Amanda stood and pulled the boa from around her neck. “Go on,” she said. “We can have our tea party later.”

The words were scarcely out of her mouth before Melanie disappeared from the room. Lillian laughed. “She’s a doll, isn’t she?”

“She seems very sweet and easy to get along with,” Amanda agreed.

“But troubled.” Lillian’s smooth smile fell away, and she moved to the window to stare outside. “I wish we all knew what she’d seen the night that Erica was murdered. I wish we could take that vision out of her head and see the guilty person behind bars.”

“Do you know who Erica was having an affair with?” Amanda asked.

Lillian turned from the window to look at her. “So…Sawyer told you she was unfaithful?”

“He told me that the baby she was carrying at the time of her death wasn’t his.”

Moving away from the window, Lillian sighed. “Erica was my best friend, but she loved keeping secrets. She was beautiful and full of life, but she was also the most selfish, indulgent, amoral woman I’ve ever known.” Tears filled her eyes. “She could also be generous and fun loving, and I miss her so much it’s terrible.” She blinked back the tears and drew a deep breath. “And no, I have no idea who Erica might have been sleeping with at the time of her death.”

“Isn’t it possible that it was her lover who killed her?” Amanda asked. She didn’t want to upset Lillian, but it was possible she might unconsciously hold a clue.

“I’m sure Lucas is looking at that angle,” Lillian replied. “So, less than forty-eight hours in the house and Sawyer has already convinced you of his innocence?”

“You don’t think he’s innocent?” Amanda asked.

“I adore Sawyer. I think he’s a good man, but even a good man could have been pushed to extremes by Erica.” She laughed drily. “There were times I wanted to throttle her.” Her laugh strangled in her throat as tears once again filled her eyes.

Amanda wasn’t sure how to respond and thankfully at that time Melanie reappeared in the doorway, a platter of freshly baked cookies in her hands.

“Ah, I see the tea party is about to begin,” Lillian said. “You two go ahead. I just stopped by to see how you were getting along.”

Amanda walked with her to the bedroom door. “We’re doing fine.”

Lillian placed a hand on Amanda’s forearm. “Why don’t we do lunch on Saturday? I’d love to show you around, and I imagine Sawyer is planning on being home for the day.”

“He hasn’t told me his plans for the weekend,” Amanda replied. “He mentioned I should have weekends off. If that’s the case, I’d like to have lunch.” It would be nice to have a woman friend, somebody she could talk to, perhaps confide in. It would also be nice to see a little bit of the town whose name implied bewitchment.

“Great, I’ll call you and we can firm up the plans.” She smiled at Melanie. “Aunt Lilly will see you later, okay, sweetheart?”

Melanie nodded, and with a wave of her fingers, Lillian left the room.

The tea party was a success, but as Amanda played pretend with Melanie she couldn’t help but think about what little Lillian had told her. Erica had been sleeping with somebody at the time of her death, somebody who had gotten her pregnant. Was it possible that that somebody had killed Erica so that the secret affair would never see the light of day?

Sawyer was home in time for dinner, and as they shared the evening meal Amanda mentioned to him Lillian’s visit and the question about the weekend plans.

“I’ll be home all day Saturday so you’re free to take off and have lunch with Lillian or whatever,” he said. He was still dressed in his business clothes and looked unbelievably attractive. He’d shucked his suit jacket and had his white shirtsleeves rolled up to expose his muscled forearms.

He smiled at his daughter. “I’m sure we can find something to occupy ourselves, right, sweetie?” Melanie nodded and gazed at her father with adoring eyes.

Could she have seen her father stab her mother to death, then shove her into the murky swamp water and still look at him as if he hung the moon?

Amanda reminded herself that it wasn’t her place to discern whether Sawyer Bennett was guilty or not. Her job was to take care of Melanie. Nothing more, nothing less.

Melanie had just been excused from the table to go upstairs to her room when a knock sounded at the door. A moment later Helen ushered in a tall, dark-haired man wearing the brown uniform of the local sheriff.

“Lucas,” Sawyer said and stood.

“Evening, Sawyer.” He looked curiously at Amanda.

“This is Amanda Rockport, my new nanny,” Sawyer replied.

“Sorry to intrude,” Lucas said. He directed his focus back to Sawyer. “We need to talk.”

“So talk,” Sawyer replied and sat back down. He gestured to the chair Melanie had vacated.

“You might want to discuss this in private.” Lucas shifted from foot to foot.

“If this has something to do with Erica’s murder investigation, then I have nothing to hide from Amanda. If you don’t need the privacy, then I don’t. Take a load off, Lucas, and tell me why you’re here.”

Amanda watched as Lucas folded his long body into the chair. The tension between the two men was palpable in the air, and Amanda didn’t know whether she should excuse herself or not.

“I’ve got pressure, Sawyer, pressure to make an arrest,” Lucas said.

“Then find the person responsible and do it,” Sawyer replied smoothly.

Lucas rubbed the center of his forehead with two fingers, as if fighting a headache. “I’m doing my best, but I’ve got no other viable suspects, nothing to go on and all fingers pointing at you.”

“Then arrest me.” Sawyer’s voice was deep, filled with suppressed emotion.

A knot of apprehension twisted in Amanda’s stomach, a knot formed by more than a little bit of selfish need. She didn’t want Sawyer arrested. If that happened she’d be out of a job and she didn’t want to go through the process of finding another one. Besides, even though it had only been two days, she’d grown incredibly attached to Melanie.

“Ah, hell, Sawyer, I’ve known you all my life. I know you aren’t a killer.” Lucas dropped his hand from his forehead, his dark eyes pained. “But I just wanted to let you know that the pressure is on and I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to stop the inevitable.”

Sawyer held his friend’s gaze for a long moment. “I don’t want you to jeopardize your position because of friendship.”

“I’ll try to buy you some more time, but I thought you should know that unless we can find a decent lead to follow or a person of interest to investigate, the mayor and the DA are going to push for your arrest.” He stood and Sawyer rose, as well.

“I’ll see you out.”

As Sawyer and the sheriff left the dining room, Amanda tried to still the beating of her heart. So, the noose was tightening around Sawyer.

If he went to jail, she supposed Lillian and James would take Melanie, and Amanda would be forced to return to Kansas City.

And what will you do there? a little voice whispered in her head. Fall back into the dark depression that you suffered before you took this job? She thought of the reason she’d been forced to resign from the job she had loved, remembered all the people who had distanced themselves from her, people she’d thought had been her friends.

She couldn’t go back there. She’d have to start all over someplace else. She was jolted out of her self-absorbed pity party as she thought of Melanie.

She’d lost her mother, and if Sawyer were arrested she would lose her father. No matter how close the child felt to the Cordells, it wouldn’t be the same as having a parent to raise her.

Amanda’s heart ached for her. She knew what it was like to grow up without parents. An aunt and uncle had raised her and Johnny when their parents had died in a car accident. As loving as her aunt and uncle had been, it hadn’t been the same as being raised by loving parents.

Melanie needed her daddy, more than ever now, and Amanda needed this job. She was pulled from her thoughts as Sawyer returned to the living room.

While Lucas had been present, Sawyer had appeared relaxed, but now his lips were nothing more than a thin slash in a face taut with strain.

He sat in his chair and looked at her, his dark green eyes empty and hollow. “Time is running out for me. Eventually Lucas will have to make an arrest, and I’m the only suspect around. I’ve got to find out who Erica was having an affair with before her death, because my gut tells me that’s who murdered her.”

“Can I do anything to help?”

His features relaxed a bit and he looked at her thoughtfully. “Maybe. Tonight after Melanie goes to bed I’m going to search Erica’s room again and see if I can find anything that might give me some answers. Maybe you’ll see something that I missed before, something that the authorities didn’t notice when they searched.”

“Sure, I’ll help you look,” she agreed.

“Come to my office after Melanie is asleep and we’ll get started then.” Some of the stress lines smoothed out as he stood once again. “And now I’m going to find my daughter and play a game with her. I’d better spend every moment possible with her in case…” He frowned and allowed his words to fall away, then left the dining room.

Amanda grabbed her napkin from her lap and placed it on the table next to her plate, her heart throbbing with anxiety. What on earth had she stepped into? And why, despite all the evidence to the contrary did her heart tell her that Sawyer wasn’t guilty?

She could only hope that she and Sawyer found something tonight in the dead woman’s belongings, something that pointed to the real guilty party.

Chapter Four

Melanie was asleep by eight-thirty. By the illumination of the night-light Amanda could see the slight puff of her little lips with each exhale. She fought the impulse to lean over and swipe a strand of the little girl’s hair away from her cheek.

She was falling in love with Melanie. In the two days she’d been with her, the little girl had managed to crawl into Amanda’s heart like no other child had ever done before.

Maybe it was because Melanie was so needy, locked inside herself by a terrible trauma. Or perhaps it was the fact that somehow, deep inside, Amanda thought that if she could help Melanie, if she could save Melanie, it would take away the memory of Bobby Miller.

She shoved the painful thoughts of Bobby aside and left Melanie’s room. As she walked down the massive staircase, she found herself wondering why Sawyer didn’t have more household help. Certainly he could afford it. Helen and George were the only two people she’d seen, but she knew the house and the estate were too large for two people to care for.

And what about Melanie’s friends? Didn’t she have schoolmates who she might like to see? Little friends who not only might manage to make her giggle, but also might prompt her to talk? She made a note to herself to ask Sawyer about Melanie’s friends.

Now that Melanie was asleep, it was time for her to meet Sawyer in his office, time for them to go through a dead woman’s things to try to find some hint of who might be responsible for her murder.

She found Sawyer seated at his desk, the faint scent of good Scotch lingering in the air. He held up a glass. “Would you like one?”

She shook her head. “No, thanks, I’m not much of a drinker.”

He stared at the amber liquid. “I wasn’t until Erica’s death.” He drained the glass, then stood. “I realize I’m asking you to do something that has nothing to do with the duties I hired you for.”

She preceded him out of the office and headed for the stairs. “I don’t mind. I understand how important this is.”

“It’s not just my life we’re talking about, but it’s Melanie’s, as well.” His voice radiated suppressed emotion, and Amanda was grateful he was behind her and she couldn’t see the pain she knew darkened his eyes.

She had absolutely no reason to trust this man, no concrete reason to believe in his innocence, except the fact that she believed, in her heart, in her soul, that he had not committed the crime. Maybe she was crazy to be so sure. She certainly felt no fear of him, nothing to make her wary.

Still, the situation was heartbreaking. A man facing murder charges and a little girl at risk of losing the only parent she had left. Somehow the fact that Amanda would be without a job if Sawyer went to jail paled in comparison to the price Melanie would pay.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped and let Sawyer take the lead. He didn’t take her to the end of the hall where she knew the master suite was, but rather opened the bedroom door that had been closed since Amanda had arrived at the house.

“Erica didn’t share my bedroom,” he said, and ushered her into a room that was a pink riot of ruffles and lace. Clothes were strewn everywhere and makeup and jewelry cluttered the top of a vanity dresser. “As you can see, she wasn’t into housekeeping, and the sheriff and his men weren’t exactly neat when they searched. I haven’t had anything done in here since…” His voice trailed off.

Erica wasn’t “into” housekeeping. She wasn’t into mothering and obviously she wasn’t into being faithful. Erica couldn’t be more alien to Amanda. She looked at Sawyer, wondering what was going through his mind as he looked at the bed where his wife had slept and the clothes she’d worn before her death.

His features were a stoic mask, giving nothing away of his internal thoughts. “The authorities searched here immediately after Erica was found, but they found nothing they thought might be important to the case.” The mask slipped slightly, and a fire of anger shone from his eyes. “I think most of the investigators had already come to the mistaken conclusion that I was their man.”

“Then let’s find something that proves them wrong,” she replied.

The anger in his eyes faded and a hint of gratitude took its place. “Why don’t I start in the closet and you can go through the drawers.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed.

As he disappeared into the walk-in closet, she went to the dresser and pulled out the top drawer. It contained panties and bras, little wisps of colorful material that Amanda couldn’t imagine fitting a grown woman. It somehow felt obscene, digging into items that had belonged to another woman, a woman who was no longer among the living.

If Amanda died and anyone went through her underwear drawer, all they would find would be white cotton underpants and sturdy, no-nonsense bras.

For about a half an hour, she and Sawyer worked in silence. The sound of him pulling things off shelves and opening boxes drifted from the closet, but other than that he didn’t make a sound.

The dresser yielded nothing but clothes. She took each drawer out and checked beneath to make sure there was nothing hidden on the bottom or inside the dresser.

When she was finished with the dresser, she moved to the vanity. Makeup, hand and body lotions and perfumes filled the two drawers. A jewelry box spilled its contents over the top of the vanity. Sparkling bracelets and necklaces competed with cocktail rings and shiny earrings. But there was nothing there to point a finger at a killer.

By the time she’d gone through those drawers, Sawyer stepped out of the closet, an expression of defeat on his handsome features.

“Nothing. I didn’t find anything that might be helpful.” He sat on the edge of the bed.

Amanda remained seated on the vanity stool. “I didn’t find anything, either. Is there anyplace else we could look? Anyplace else in the house where she might have kept private things?”

He leaned forward and covered his face with his hands, his shoulders slumped in obvious defeat. “I don’t know.” He straightened up and dropped his hands to his side. “It seems I knew less about the woman I was married to than I thought I did.” He looked around the room, then gazed back at Amanda.

“I was going to divorce her. I’d finally made up my mind. I’d stayed for Melanie’s sake but had come to the conclusion that Melanie would be better off coming from a broken home, rather than living in one. Then Erica was murdered.”

“You didn’t love her anymore?” Amanda asked. There was something contemplative in his expression, something that made her think he needed to talk.

He smiled wryly. “I’m not sure I ever truly loved Erica. It was definitely lust at first sight, and she fascinated me. She was unlike any woman I’d ever known before. She was unpredictable and passionate about life. She got pregnant with Melanie almost immediately and we got married.”

He looked around the room, then back at her. “Deep inside, I knew we’d made a mistake, that we had different ideas about marriage, about love. But then Melanie came and I hoped Erica would finally settle down.” He sighed. “I was wrong. What about you? Left some broken hearts in your path?”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m certainly not the kind of woman to leave broken hearts behind.”

He tilted his head, his gaze intent as it lingered on her. “Now, why would you say something like that about yourself?”

She laughed self-consciously. “I’m not particularly fascinating. I don’t stir great passion in anyone.” She averted her gaze and tried not to think about the one person she’d apparently stirred something in, a young boy who had wound up dead.

“On the contrary,” Sawyer said, and she looked back at him. “I find several things about you quite fascinating.”

The air in the room seemed to thin, making it more difficult for her to catch her breath. “Like what?” she managed to ask.

He stood, walked over to her and held out his hand. “Let’s get out of here. This room reeks of unhappiness.”

She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her out into the hallway. He dropped her hand when they reached the stairs, and she followed him down and into the living room.

He opened the French doors that led out to the patio. “How about we step outside and get a breath of fresh air?”

She followed him outside where the sultry night air closed in around them and the scent of flowers mingled with the underlying odor of thick vegetation.

Insects buzzed and clicked from the swamp and occasionally a ripple sounded from the water as some creature entered or exited the murky depths.

He stood close enough to her that she could smell him, a hint of minty soap and a spicy cologne. “Erica was wild and crazy and many men found her fascinating. But I find your calm composure intriguing. I find your gentleness with my daughter charming.”

Once again the air seemed to be too insubstantial to fill her lungs. Was he trying to charm her? To manipulate her so she’d be on his side in the mess that had become his life?

He took several steps away from her and stared up at the moon that hung low and plump in the sky. “Johnny used to talk about you a lot in college, his little sister who seemed to have her life more together than he ever hoped to have.”

She smiled, her heart swelling as she thought of her brother. “Johnny can’t seem to find his place in life.”

“And you’ve found yours?” His green eyes glittered in the moonlight.

“I thought I had.” He waited, as if expecting her to go on, but she couldn’t tell him what had thrown her off track, what tragic event had reshaped her life. She wasn’t ready to talk about that. “Life has a way of throwing curveballs that sometimes make you change your path.”

He laughed without humor. “Tell me about it.”

“What made you and your friends choose a college in Missouri to attend?” she asked, wanting a change in the subject.

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