“You mean, given that his face was blown off?” She smirked at him. “Clothes, hair and ID in the wallet in his pocket.” She strode past him. “The build matches and the hair color—what wasn’t bloodied—matched up. Now if there’s nothing else?”
“No.”
“Then I suggest you get to work on those witnesses.”
Logan followed her from the office and then kept going to his desk to get the report on the witnesses he’d be interviewing. He wanted to call Rowdy, but not yet. He needed complete privacy for that, and that meant getting through part of the day first. He had questions to answer, plans to make, reports to fill out.
He locked gazes with Reese.
Where to start, he wondered…and with whom?
* * *
MOSEYING BAREFOOT around the property, Pepper saw that it was more weeds than grass, without a speck of landscaping in sight. The sun was so incredibly bright that it hurt her eyes—and she loved it.
The old house could use a new coat of paint. The windows needed a good cleaning. A few flowers would really be nice.
Like a vigilant shadow, Dash trailed silently behind her. He wasn’t intrusive, but he wasn’t an irritant, either.
Knowing he’d hear her, she said, “If I had a place like this, I’d plant wildflowers everywhere.”
“The point of wildflowers,” he replied, “is that you don’t have to plant them.”
“But I would.” She stopped at the corner of the house to pull up a sturdy weed. “There are some really pretty ones, and they don’t need much care.”
“Meaning my house looks bare?” He smiled at her.
He was so incredibly handsome that if Logan didn’t already have her so twisted up inside, she might have been more admiring. “You’re supposedly rolling in dough, right? So why don’t you pretty up the place a little?”
He bent to pull a weed, too. “I’m not rolling in dough,” he told her. “But I am comfortable.”
She snorted. Comfort could mean a variety of things to a variety of people. Only the well-to-do used it to describe a lifestyle filled with security and extravagance.
“If I lived here,” Dash said, “maybe I would decorate more. But the draw for me is that I don’t have to do anything when I’m here. I cut the grass—”
“You mean the weeds,” she quipped, and pulled another.
“—when it’s necessary. But mostly I just laze around in the sun, go swimming, row out the boat, that sort of thing.”
“Do you come here often?” If it was her place, she’d never want to leave.
“A day here, a day there, and a couple of times a year I find a week or more.” He bent, turned over a rock and watched a fat spider scurry away. “I don’t want this to become a big responsibility, and that’s what it’d be if I felt like I had to get here to water bushes or flowers, or trim the lawn.”
“I guess. But you could hire someone.” Since he was so well-off.
“Then others would know about it.”
And Logan wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving her there. Dash hadn’t complained, but she still felt she owed him an apology. “I’m sorry that we intruded on your privacy.”
Standing in the shade of a shed, he looked around at the fallen branches and twigs from tall trees, and at the rusted lock on the shed door. “Don’t be. Logan knows he can count on me for…anything.” He checked the lock. “Damn, I guess I do need to do a little maintenance work.”
“You have a lawnmower?”
“Push, yeah.” Using his wrist, he cleaned sweat off his forehead. “The hill is too steep for a rider.”
“I’ll cut the grass.”
He paused. “You don’t need to do that—”
“I want to. I love the sun and the heat and the fresh air.” Grudgingly, she confessed, “I’m a little bored, and I’m feeling sluggish. Since I don’t have a suit for swimming, and Logan got his boxers in a bunch over the idea of me skinny-dipping—”
“Would you have?” he interrupted her to ask. “I mean, without Logan here to know you’re doing it?”
The grin came slow and easy. “You think I only did that to irk him?”
“Yes.”
And he’d be right. “You’ve got me there. But if you tell him, I’ll make you sorry.”
He joined her in grinning. “Why would I do that?”
“Logan is your brother.”
“That he is, and even though I love him, last night was mighty entertaining.”
Entertaining? That hadn’t been her intent at all. But it was so nice hearing Dash openly admit to loving Logan that she let it slide. “Most men aren’t so honest with their feelings.”
“Men who aren’t wusses are.”
She laughed at that. “I’m not overly modest, you know, but I’m not really someone who runs around in the buff, either.”
“You impressed me. It was a diabolical payback, the type only a woman could connive.”
“I’m not sure I like the way you say that.” He made her sound really vindictive and wicked. Was she? Okay, she could be. But Logan had it coming…didn’t he?
“I just meant that Logan’s too serious. I like it that you’re keeping him on his toes.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still mad at him.” She went to the shed and tugged at the flimsy lock. “You have a key?”