When Madison came downstairs the next morning, she didn't find Keith in his usual spot, standing in front of the stove. Madison had been here a full five days, and in that time, she'd come to enjoy having breakfast with Keith, and not because he knew how to fry an egg or made a mean stack of pancakes.
Keith made for good company, she enjoyed their interesting conversations. Madison talked about home a lot, and he gave her little insights into his youth as well. His father had been a doctor, like his father before him, while his mother owned an alterations shop. And he had a younger brother named James, who he said passed away much before his time.
It seemed lonely this morning without him.
She found a stack of file folders on the counter waiting for her, and a note, as well as a bag from Dunkin' Donuts. Keith wrote that all the receipts and papers she requested should be in the files and that he would let her deal with the police while he kept everyone else busy and out of the way.
She wondered if she'd upset him in some way last night. It didn't seem like Keith to avoid her. Or perhaps it was, hell, what did she know? Except for that little voice inside that told her otherwise.
Shaking off that sinking feeling, Madison enjoyed her muffin, gathered all her things and headed for the clinic.
Damien got there at exactly 10:00 am and didn't seem at all surprised to be met at the gate by Madison rather than Keith, after all, she'd been the one to orchestrate the whole thing. After politely handing him a rather large box filled with file folders and explaining that they held copies of any and all purchases made by the ranch or any of its staff members over the last six months, as well as the financial records for herself, Walker, and her father, Madison gave him a list of the chemicals and medications on hand, and began instructing them on how the search would go.
She seemed like quite the bossy little thing. And he almost admired her for it.
If not for the fact that she undoubtedly covered for Keith in some way, Damien might have actually respected Madison for her ability to take charge and the thoroughness with which she saw the job through.
Madison then informed him that while she'd given him her permission to enter every building on the property, they shouldn't disturb or destroy anything or anyone. And due to the nature of the ranch's operations, Madison would accompany them everywhere. Counting his blessings for being there at all, Damien didn't balk at any of her demands.
For good measure, in addition to a team of five crime scene technicians, Damien brought along a friend of his in computer crimes, and a couple of canine teams, one from the narcotics unit and the other a cadaver dog, presumably, to search for dead bodies.
In order to respect the privacy of the staff members, Damien and his techs kept it to a simple walk-through in their quarters while allowing the dog handlers a sweep through as well. Other than a couple of joints and a bowl tucked away in the dresser of one of the younger staff members, they found nothing out of the ordinary and wanting to be charitable, Damien gave the young man a warning and left it at that.
Madison took them through the barns next, one by one, starting with the livestock. They'd let all the horses out in the field, which made for a pretty quick search and as expected, turned up nothing of interest.
The dog barns seemed a little harder to maneuver. Though some of the dogs had already been taken out to what she called a training field, others still remained, and Madison made them wait for her to enter each individual enclosure and lock them out in their dog runs, for safety reasons of course.
The clinic took the longest as they attempted to match the chemicals and medications to those on the list Madison provided, but since they kept the place in meticulous order, it felt more tedious than anything.
At one point, while inspecting the clinic, Madison treated Damien to that stubborn tenacity Robert had been so famous for which surprised him even though it shouldn't have, Madison claimed to be Robert's daughter after all. However, it might have been the intelligence she'd shown while verbally manhandling his technician rather than plain arrogance that caught him off guard.
"Do you have a warrant?" She asked Damien's IT guy.
"Well, no... but I thought..."
"You thought what? That I would hand over the clinic's computer? We're trying to run a business here, and I've already been far more gracious than you deserve."
"Yes, ma'am..."
"You're welcome to take that nifty little laptop of yours and clone the hard drive, but I'm not going to let you walk out of here with it. Besides patient records and business contacts, you have everything of importance that pertains to this ranch and the people that live here."
Damien gave her credit for being such a smooth operator, he could see why Robert entrusted her with his home and business. Lancaster PD did business with Robert a few times in the past, seven of their ten dogs were rescued and trained by this very ranch, though after hearing about Robert's death, Damien hadn't given much more than a passing thought as to who might take over.
Looked like they found the right woman for the job.
Thank God she wasn't completely like her father though, he might never have gotten this opportunity otherwise.
The little blunder with his IT guy aside, the rest of the search operation went smoothly and quickly, with absolutely no results. The barns looked clean, the storage areas organized and free of anything incriminating, and the house appeared spotless.
Though he found the wolf barn to be quite fascinating, he saw absolutely nothing of interest from a legal standpoint at the Melton property, which made him curious as to why Robert fought so hard against letting him do a search the first time around.
He had a hunch he knew though.
Keith probably learned to perfect whatever crimes he kept committing; that's what it came down to. Whatever evidence he hid, Robert's daughter probably wasn't in on it. He worried about her, she was attractive, young, and living with a predator.
His tail between his legs, Damien apologized to Madison for having to put her through this ordeal and thanked her for her cooperation. Keith failed to show his face the entire time, not that Damien held the desire to see him or the notion to apologize for accusing him of well, anything.
Damien and his crew packed up, leaving with enough files and paperwork to keep them busy for the next several weeks, and he didn't look forward to it. Today might as well have been a colossal waste of time. No closer to figuring out the case, Damien grumbled to his colleagues about getting one hell of a headache on top of it all.
Madison watched them go and headed inside, straight to the safe room. As she suspected, Keith sat in one of the chairs, watching the monitors.
"How long have you been here?" She asked.
Keith shrugged. "A while."
"Thanks for the muffin."
"You're welcome." Keith turned towards her, a weary look on his handsome face. "You care to go out for dinner tonight?"
"What did you have in mind?" Madison sighed, sliding bonelessly into the chair beside him. After what amounted to one awfully long day, she felt absolutely exhausted mentally, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was cook; good thing Keith read her mind.
"I could go for a good steak."
"Outback?"
"Sure," he chuckled, getting to his feet and lending her a hand.
Keith must not have known his own strength in that moment, or the safe room might have been a tad too small, because while helping her to her feet, Madison suddenly found herself coming up hard against his body, which wasn't soft by any means.
Nearly knocking the breath out of her, Keith laughed low in his throat as he looked down into her eyes to apologize, it had been one hell of a day, and clearly, his reaction time was a bit off. But when their gazes met, something flickered in her eyes.
Despite the incident last night, the tension slowly began to build between them, and neither of them needed a ghost to tell them they were attracted to each other. But Keith knew better, and with that knowledge, he realized he'd be taking advantage of Madison, something he refused to do.
Until he told her the truth, all of it, he needed to find a way to keep himself, and her if necessary, in check. He couldn't allow himself to lose control. Not with her. So Keith wrapped his arms around her, and though he wanted to do much more than merely hug her, he pulled away moments later, a soft smile on his face.
"I wanted to thank you," he said.
"For?" she whispered absently, lost in the sensation of her body against his.
"For today, for sticking up for me and having my back. I'm not sure how I would have gotten through all of this without you and Robert, and since he's not here, I'm thanking you."
Madison wanted to believe there was more to it than that. She hoped he'd faced some inner struggle, and that thanking her proved that he could be a gentleman. Because the way she felt, the thoughts swirling in her brain, the emotions fighting and clawing to the surface couldn't possibly be in vain. Forget about the ghost, forget about the supernatural pull between them, this seemed real. There had to be something here, and she didn't want to let that something go.
At least not without a fight.
"Sure, anytime." She agreed, gathering up her thoughts and feelings and compartmentalizing them for now.
She'd come to the ranch to get to know her father, to escape from her mother, and to find herself. But now that she'd spent a few days here, she realized she'd never want to leave. There would be plenty of time to convince Keith that this thing between them was worth exploring.
For right now though, she'd settle for dinner.