Part 6
Cassy knew she was being courted.
She was frightened by her susceptability to Tom's charms. They had come so close to losing each other last time. She could see now it was over trivial stuff, but at the time their problems seemed insurmountable. But there was no guarantee that they would be able to see past the growing pains again and make a relationship work. Even as just partners and friends they were still at each other's throats about dumb things.
Was she still secretly waiting for the fairy tale?
Wasn't that what she had with Brett? Nary a disagreeable word passed between them. Cassy didn't feel as if her personal autonomy or space was threatened by his presence in her life or home. Was that because deep down they knew it really wasn't permanent? Or because there wasn't the same passion and intellectual synergy as she and Tom have always had? Or was it because they were suited for each other?
Cassy wasn't sure, but what she couldn't deny, as she sniffed the flowers Tom surprised her with, was that she felt a curl of anticipation, even as she tried to temper it with the theory that Tom was just rebounding from Virginia.
So before she would decide whether she would marry Brett, Cassy knew she needed to work these feelings about Tom out now. Otherwise, their partnership might not survive her marriage.
Another week had passed and Tom and Cassy were no closer to clearing the case. Harry, even more than the two detectives who were actually enjoying the high life, was getting ready to cancel the undercover operation. It only was the pressure of the FBI who was convinced that the killer would eventually reveal herself that stopped him.
Over the past week the FBI had planted their own undercover agents. Two men, one of whom was picked to be the decoy. That meant he had to pretend to seduce Tom's "wife." He didn't have to feign his jealousy and anger, Tom thought ruefully to himself as he watched Cassy meld herself to the attractive agent.
Jason Tollen, or "JT" as Cassy and only Cassy had taken to calling him, was pretending to be a surgeon who had just transferred to Florida to rid himself forever of the brutal winters in Montana. A doctor. Tom couldn't help but wonder if the choice of professions was deliberately chosen to torment him. If he hadn't seen Cassy's haunted look, quickly hidden of course, he might have suspected she had picked it herself. Doctor Brett was still haunting them.
Since the night he had left her the flowers, Cassy had been alternately hot and cold with him. One moment she was warming to his advances, the next she was backing off. He knew she hadn't given the doctor an answer to his proposal and Tom had purposefully refrained from bringing up the subject as he continued his relentless pursuit of her for himself. One thing Cassy hadn't shied away from were there intimate evenings in the pool or the hot tub. The hot tub had started the night he had left her the flowers.
"I have a cure for what ails you." He had turned to see Cassy standing seductively in his bedroom door clad only in a red bikini.
"Yeah?" he had rasped out as he took her in.
"Come with me." She smiled and turned away.
Like a man under a spell he followed her right to the hot tub, which was set in a secluded area away from the pool. Playing on the radio was one of his favorite country tunes and a bottle of chilled white was ready to pour. Cassy already had bathing trunks waiting for him, which she must have snatched while he was in the shower.
Smiling slightly at his dumbfounded and hopeful expression Cassy slid her hands under the towel adorning his hips and slid it to the ground.
Tom never knew that being dressed by a woman could be even more erotic than being undressed.
Tom's hand tightened around a glass of water as he watched her pretend to be seduced by the handsome doctor in front of her husband. It took all of his self control not to walk onto the dance floor and take the guy apart.
He bet that Harry would get another report on what a good actor he was.
It was almost funny.
But, not quite.
With a frustrated grimace Tom wrenched his gaze away from the dance floor. As his gaze sifted through the crowd committed to conspicuous consumption he spied a movement in the dark doorway leading from the kitchen area. Curious, Tom stood up and made his way around the dance floor to get a better look.
As the light shifted and the shadows lifted Tom's eyes narrowed.
He was watching her again.
Tom had teased Cassy about the obvious crush Brian Taylor had on her, but the look on Brian's face as he watched Cassy dance with the FBI agent wasn't adoring. It was troubled. Too troubled for a nineteen year old boy who had a crush on an older, married woman to have as he looked at her dance with a man that wasn't her husband. It might be the kind of look that someone might have, say, if they had deep-seeded disapproval of infidelity.
And the boy's movements matched the killer's.
>>>>>>>
"He's practically an innocent," Cassy said when Tom told her his new suspicions.
"No nineteen year old boy is an innocent. Especially not one who has older, rich woman salivating after him and stuffing money down his pants," Tom said wryly.
"You make it sound like a strip club. I've spoken with Brian, I would know if he was a killer. You do realize he would have been, what, twelve when the killings first started," Cassy said as she opened the door to the house and walked inside.
"Fourteen," Tom corrected.
"The profile said it was a woman," Cassy said.
"Profiles have been known to be wrong," Tom said.
"Rarely," Cassy said as she pulled her high-heeled shoes off.
"He was watching you and he wasn't salivating. I know what I saw. He was very intent on watching you with your supposed lover." Tom flipped his tie and coat over his shoulder.
"So was the rest of the room. That's the point." Cassy turned and began to tread up the stairs.
"And you were loving every minute of it!" Tom said, accusingly.
"Cut the act Tom." Cassy turned around with a laugh and looked at Tom who was still standing at the bottom. "Wait a minute, you're not acting. You're jealous. You're really jealous. Tom it's an act!"
"I'm not jealous." Tom flushed.
"Yes, you, are." Cassy said each word as she moved down another step closer to him.
"I'm not." Tom grabbed Cassy's hand before she could touch his face.
"Yes, you are." Cassy pressed.
"That's ridiculous," Tom denied, not meeting her eyes.
"Tom, you're getting carried away. We're not really married and I'm not really having an affair," Cassy said.
"I know it's ridiculous, but it feels that way, all right! Am I entitled to have my feelings or do I need your permission for that too?" Tom threw her hand back at her and turned and stormed out to the backyard.
"Shit," Cassy whispered as she watched him. She stood there for a moment before following in his wake and bending to lift up his sports coat and tie. She smoothed them over her arm as she stared into the darkness out the glass wall into the gardens where Tom had disappeared.
With a sigh she turned and went upstairs, deciding to leave him alone to cool down. They had been here before, right before they had begun dating. They couldn't afford to screw it up this time. But Cassy couldn't see how they couldn't. If Tom was determined that they get together it was inevitable. Either they would get together and rediscover their incompatibility or they wouldn't and he would resent her.
Why couldn't he just leave things as they were? They loved each other, they always would. But they had more as partners and friends, more time together, more trust, more respect, just...more, than when they were married.
Really married.
It might be fake, Cassy thought as she closed Tom's door behind her and headed for her room, but Tom was just as jealous. And she was touched by it.
End Part 6