Page 66 of Nora
Nora was quiet for a moment, then nodded against his chest. “That’s a good idea. It will be easy for me to introduce the topic since I won’t be there. I can ask if he’s excited about it and then follow up with questions about any plans he might be making. If he is the killer, we might surprise him if we ask about hiking or trekking. Nothing obvious, but it will be interesting to see if we get a reaction.”
“You’re probably right that it isn’t him. Honestly, I hope you are because that means we’re down to Jean and Angelo. But let’s see what happens tonight before we make a final decision,” he said. Again, she nodded, her hair brushing his chin. They drifted into a comfortable silence, and after a few minutes, Nora’s breathing evened out and she fell asleep. He’d have to wake her in an hour or so, in time to get ready for dinner, but in the meantime, he was going to enjoy holding her. And even though they still had a killer to catch, for just a little while, he was going to pretend that wasn’t the case.
* * *
“Are you all looking forward to being in Norway?” Nora asked. They were seated at the largest table in the dining room. Sophie sat on the other side with Jurgen on her left and Angelo on her right. Jean sat on the other side of Lucian, who was to Nora’s right.
“At least we’re there in April and not now,” Jurgen replied with an easy smile. “It’s a beautiful country, but being in Norway in the winter isn’t my favorite.” He paused, then made a face and added, “I know we’re getting a big stormherethis weekend, but it’s not quite the same.”
Sophie gave a dramatic shiver. “It will still be cold in April, but yes, at least we’re not there now.”
“It sounds like you both have been before. Have either of you?” Nora asked, looking at Angelo and Jean, inviting them to enter the conversation.
Jean shrugged. “Once when I was a child. As I said, Sweden to visit family was where we usually went when I was young.”
Nora looked to Angelo. He shook his head. “I have not been. In Europe, everything is so close that it seems like we should all know these places. But we just get caught up in what we know and what is comfortable. As a child, I didn’t vacation, for obvious reasons. But now, well, my wife prefers to go to Croatia or Spain.”
Nora smiled, hoping she looked encouraging. “Both those places are gorgeous; I can see why she’d want to return. Still, maybe that will make Norway more interesting? You don’t have too much free time while you’re training, but we did manage to fit in at least one hike here. Perhaps you’ll have a chance to do something like that there. Although from what I’ve heard, you might have a hard time deciding which one, as there are so many. But I suppose that’s what the internet is for.”
Jurgen shifted in his chair, drawing Nora’s attention, but he was smiling and nodding. She glanced back just in time to see Jean’s head tip to the side, as if in thought. But it was Angelo’s eyes that caught her attention. For a moment that was so brief she almost doubted she’d seen it, he looked angry. It wasn’t a look she expected—not even if he was the killer—and it took her aback.
“I hope so,” Jurgen said, drawing her gaze. Under the table, Lucian nudged her with his knee. He either noticed, too, or he was warning her that he’d noticedherreaction. And if he’d noticed her slip, others might have as well.
“I’ve heard the hiking is great, but so are the boats,” Nora said, shifting the topic. She didn’t want to betooobvious. “When I was a kid, we spent a month sailing down the archipelago. It was one of the most stunning trips I’ve been on. Will you be near the coast?”
“We are,” Lucian said. “We’ll be at the NATO base near Trondheim.”
“Fun!” Nora exclaimed, hoping she didn’t sound too insincere. “Hiking is great, but archipelagos like Norway’s and Sweden’s aren’t quite as common. I hope you get a chance to explore it.” After that, the conversation turned to boating and the islands, then to more mundane topics. Angelo asked her a few questions about his dog. Jurgen and Lucian discussed what was in store for the next day. Jean remained silent, although he didn’t appear uncomfortable, just thoughtful. Or perhaps just tired.
She’d spread the word that she hadn’t slept well the night before, so no one blinked twice when she said she was retiring to bed early. A few folks agreed to head out to a bar that they’d heard played good live music. To her surprise, both Angelo and Jean were part of that group. Maybe Jean wasn’t so tired after all.
Twenty minutes after she watched the small party leave via the camera feeds, Lucian knocked on her door. As if he’d read her mind earlier, he’d brought a bottle of wine. Curling up on the upholstered chair, she draped her hair, wet from a hasty shower, over her shoulder and let the heat from the fireplace dry it.
They sat together comfortably, sometimes chatting, other times silent. Lucian had noticed both Jean’s and Angelo’s reactions to the hiking suggestion, too. Neither of them had any insight into the reason, though. They did both agree that it was looking more and more as if Jurgen could be removed from the suspect pool. It was possible he was fooling them. But there was a kind of peace about him that had Nora believing his three years with the abbot truly had dispelled his demons.
When the night wore on, and the bottle ran empty, they both crawled into her bed. Whatever it was between them was new, and yet it somehow felt like it had always been. Nora wasn’t much of a believer in fate, but she couldn’t deny her feelings. Didn’t want to deny them, either. What was between her and Lucian was right and real. It might not last very long, but while it did, she was going to savor every moment.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Saturday afternoon rolled around fasterthan Nora would have liked. Not because she didn’t want to see her friends, but because it meant they were closer to Monday, when the clock for murder number three would start ticking. For the moment, though, she was trying to push that reality to the back of her mind and focus on the next two days. She and Lucian were on their way to Cos Cob for the party, and she was looking forward to seeing her friends. The only hiccup was that she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous about Six’s reaction to her and Lucian. But that was something else she was trying not to think too much about.
The storm had started that morning—twelve hours later than predicted. The roads were still clear, but a light layer of snow blanketed the ground and trees, and Lucian kept his eyes on the scenery as they drove. She and her friends had lived in Massachusetts for twenty years, and yet Lucian had only ever visited once. He was seeing everything about her home state with more or less fresh eyes, and she wondered if he saw the same things she did. The gentle rolling hills that soothed more than awed. The old farmhouses that dotted the fields, smoke rising from their chimneys as it had for centuries. The colonial settlements in the state weren’t nearly as old as some of the cities and buildings in Italy, but they still had a history. A history that was almost easier to appreciate because it was only hundreds, rather than thousands, of years old.
As they drove, he asked a few questions about the area. She also told him about Cyn’s outrageous house, where they’d be celebrating, and Cos Cob, her hometown. Like all her friends, she adored the small seaside town. Shop owners, teachers, public servants, and millionaires commingled regularly. They all took pride in the place they called home and worked together to keep it the town they wanted it to be—safe, prosperous, accessible, and historic.
Eventually, they came up to the town limits, and she navigated her way to her house. “I won’t be long, but I need to pick up everyone’s gifts,” she explained.
He looked at her. “You still get each other gifts?”
She laughed. “Yes, but we have a limit on it, nothing over a hundred dollars. The goal is to make them more meaningful than grandiose. Especially after the great music system debacle of eight years ago.” He arched a brow, and she smiled and continued. “Cyn decided that Six’s boat needed a better sound system, so while it was in dry dock over the winter, she had a new one installed. Top of the line, every bell and whistle you can imagine. She told Six her present was a surprise and she’d know it when she saw it. Well, months later, Six had her boat brought out from dry dock for the summer. When she turned it on, the system blared Bruce Springsteen. It scared the shit out of her and then, because it was a new system, she didn’t know how to turn it off.”
Lucian chuckled. “I take it she didn’t just shut the boat off?”
Nora laughed again. “She did not. She beat the thing to a pulp with her boat hook.”
Lucian’s chuckle turned into a laugh, and she realized how little she heard him laugh.
“I do not find that a difficult thing to imagine,” he said.
