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She had refused to go into any details over the phone, but he had heard the nervousness in her voice.
    As he headed toward her table in the back of the restaurant, he knew she hadn’t seen him yet, which gave him the chance to study her. Looking every bit of eighteen instead of twenty-seven, she wore dark brown slacks and a beige cotton blouse. He was still finding it odd seeing her without her lab coat, although he was enjoying doing so.
    His face went back to hers and he saw she was wearing very little makeup. She didn’t need any either. Something nagged inside him, reminding him of their kiss and causing sensations to flow through him. He frowned. Now was not the time to remember how she had felt in his arms or how she had tasted in his mouth. He was in the throes of an investigation that seemed to be getting more complicated by the second and the last thing he needed was thoughts of getting Charlene Anderson in his bed.
    He wasn’t surprised that he wanted to take her to bed. After all, he was a hot-blooded male who enjoyed sex as much as the next guy. Unlike most guys, though, he wasn’t getting any on a regular basis and seeing Charlene was reminding him of that fact.
    As if she sensed his presence, she tilted her head in his direction and their gazes met. While lust was probably glinting in his eyes, he saw something altogether different in hers. There was anxiousness there, a tenseness that immediately pushed any thoughts of sex from his mind…for the time being. Instead he couldn’t help but wonder what had her so worried.
    “Charlie?” he said, sliding into the seat beside her. And he knew whatever was bothering her was massive because for the first time she didn’t glare at him for the use of his play name for her. “What’s wrong? What kind of trouble were you alluding to earlier?”
    She took a sip of her coffee before putting her cup down and giving him her complete attention, turning those intense, beautiful eyes on him. “Nate caught me going through Dennis’s file.” She paused a second before asking, “Are you aware what Nate stated in the report he released to the police earlier today?”
    When he couldn’t stop drowning in the allure of her eyes quickly enough to respond, she said, “It said Joe Dennis’s death was the result of a heart attack.”
    That got his absolute attention. “What!”
    “You heard me,” she said tersely.
    He frowned. “Why would he lie about such a thing?”
    She shook her head. “I have no idea. I saw Joe Dennis’s body, Drey. I saw the bruises and I saw the key. Now the key is nowhere to be found.”
    Drey didn’t say anything but it was clear from what Charlene was saying that a cover-up of some sort was going on. Why had Charlene’s boss lied about the cause of Joe Dennis’s death?
    Drey looked at Charlene. He saw the nervous way she lifted her cup to her lips to take a sip of her coffee. There was more. He felt it. “What did he say when you questioned him about it?” he asked. There was no need to ask if she had questioned him because he knew that she had. It would go against her grain not to do so.
    She met his gaze again. “He denied it. He said I’d made a mistake about what I thought was the reason Dennis died. Then he suggested that I take time off to clear my head. Three weeks. And he went on to suggest that I leave town.”
    She paused for a moment and then added, “Something is going on, Drey, something that I don’t like. Nate was acting strange. Creepy. It’s like he was warning me off, making veiled threats, alluding that disappearing for a while would be in my best interest. I think we should go to the police.”
    “No,” he said, squashing that idea quickly. “You’re right, something is going on, but I don’t think going to the police is the answer, especially when they are the ones backing up a faulty report. It can’t help but make you wonder if perhaps they are somehow involved.”
    He saw the way Charlene was looking at