by Jen Talty
She rolled down the window. “Thank you. I think I’m fine.”
“Your car isn’t,” the man said. “Police should be here soon. Hang tight.”
Chapter Five
Ethan pulled into a spot off the side of Beach Road near the putt putt golf course, setting his radar gun in the holder on the window. The report Quinn had given him hadn’t shed any light on what happened to her engagement ring, other than he had to admit to himself it had indeed been stolen. In a weird way, that made him feel better. What would he have done with it anyway?
A white SUV drove by. His radar blinked two miles over the speed limit.
Three more cars eased past and with each one, he secretly wished one of them had been Annabel’s car.
His phone dinged with a text.
Rosie Matthews: Don’t forget that Annabel likes white wine over red. A dry white.
Ethan Ferris: This is meddling.
Rosie Matthews: This is helping you not crash and burn.
Ethan Ferris: Then be more specific. What brand?
Rosie Matthews: Unless her tastes have changed, she likes Harvard Hill Sauvignon Blanc. I can text her and ask.
Ethan Ferris: Don’t you dare.
Rosie Ferris: Text me later and tell me how the date goes.
Ethan Ferris: If you don’t hear from me then it went better than expected or I crashed and burned.
Rosie Ferris: Behave yourself!
Ethan Ferris: Butt out, sis!
Ethan shook his head, grinning. It had only been four months since his breakup, and he hadn’t thought he’d want to have anything to do with romance, but Annabel changed all that. It was nice that his sister approved, though the pushing he could do without.
He put his phone in the holster just as a sheriff’s car rolled to a stop next to him.
Palmetto rolled his window down.
“Twice in the same day, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Ethan asked.
“One of my colleagues informed me they’re working two unsolved burglary cases where bridal accessories were stolen. Both happened in the last couple of weeks.”
“Seriously?” Ethan asked, resting his hand on the file Quinn had given him.
“One last week down in Del-Ray where the actual bridal shop was broken into, but only one dress was stolen and get this, the dress belonged to a woman who had called off the wedding just the day before.”
“Do we know why?”
Palmetto shook his head. “I’m waiting for the full report.”
“What about the other case?” Ethan asked.
“This one happened in Wellington. The bride and groom were on their honeymoon when someone broke into their house and stole their wedding gifts.”
“And you think these are all related somehow?” Ethan’s pulse kicked up.
“I have no idea, but I requested the reports and asked for a county-wide search for the last year on similar cases. If I find something, I might reach out to other counties.”
“After talking to everyone in Annabel’s building, Danny is our most likely culprit. His last encounter with his ex was explosive. One of the neighbors said she threatened him, and he slammed his fist into the wall. I sent the official report to your office.”
“I appreciate it, but that brings me to the second thing I wanted to talk with you about. According to one of my officers, Danny’s got a solid alibi.”
“How solid?” Ethan asked
“Rock solid. He was at work. Thing is, we believe neither he, nor the small heating and cooling company he works for, is on the up and up.”
“What exactly do you think they are doing?”
“We believe the company is laundering money, but we have no solid evidence. Not to mention, Danny has a record of petty larceny.”
“Still makes him our most solid suspect, even with the alibi.” Ethan ran his thumb and forefinger down the sides of his jaw. “According to Holly, the items were out on the dining room table and easily seen from outside. So, it could have been a crime of convenience.”
“Could have been and the receipt doesn’t have any information because it’s a cash receipt. We’re running it for prints.”
“What was purchased?” Ethan asked.
“Storage containers and a hanging rack,” Palmetto said. “I’d say it’s a bust, but I’ll let you know if we get a hit on prints.”
Ethan nodded. “You might remember I was engaged a few months ago.”
“Yeah, man. Really sorry about what happened.”
“Well, I’m going to send you over a report that involves my ex. Seems the engagement ring, along with some other items, were stolen out of her car two weeks after we broke up.”
“No kidding,” Palmetto said. “That’s an odd coincidence.”
“It is and it’s probably just that, but I thought maybe we could look at all the cases together.”
“Send it my way, and I’ll take a look and get back to you.”
“Thanks. Always nice working with the Sheriff’s Office.”
Palmetto laughed. “I wish all townies felt that way. See ya around.” Palmetto saluted and then eased out into traffic.
Ethan went back to his speed trap. The limit dropped from forty to twenty-five about a quarter of a mile before this spot. He gave more warnings than tickets, especially in the off season, but it could be a dangerous spot at night as many people walked from bar to bar in the evening.
“All units, we have a report of a hit-and-run at the corner of Route 1 and Indiantown,” the female voice from dispatch said.
“Officer Ferris five minutes out.”
He dropped the radar gun on the passenger seat as he hit his siren and pulled out into traffic. When he turned onto Indiantown, he gripped the steering wheel as he saw Annabel standing on the side of the road, holding Trouble in her arms. An older man, perhaps in his sixties based on his graying hair, not to mention his paisley shorts dating back a few decades, stood next to her.
The driver’s side of her car was mangled like someone took a large club of some kind and smashed it into the hunk of metal. Not to mention the flat left front tire.
Pulling in behind her, he jumped from his vehicle. “Annabel, are you okay?” The need to touch her was almost too great to ignore.
However, he was in uniform, and this was a crime scene, so instead of hugging her tight, he curled his fingers around her biceps in a tender squeeze, staring into her wondrous, big, ocean-colored eyes.
She nodded. “Just shaken up.”
“What happened?” He glanced around, noting everything in sight. A few pedestrians stood off to the side, staring. Hopefully they’d seen something. Cars slowed as they drove by, checking things out.
Annabel’s car was mostly over the curb and had taken out a few bushes just short of the light between the movie theatre and Wind Harbor. Someone had been kind enough to put a couple of flares behind the accident, helping traffic merge to the other lane.
“Some jerk sideswiped me and then raced off,” she said. “He came out of nowhere. I took the turn and bam, the creep hit me.”
“Did you get a good look at the driver? License plate? Anything?”
“It was a dark-blue Honda or maybe Toyota,” the man standing next to her said. “I believe the driver was male and wore a baseball cap.”
“What can you tell me about the cap?” Ethan asked, taking out his notebook.
“Nothing. It happened so fast that I couldn’t get a good look at anything, and I was concerned for the young lady’s safety,” the man said.
“What about you, Annabel? What did you see?”
“I didn’t notice who was driving, but I did get three letters, A-B-T, from the Florida plate,” Annabel added.
“That will be helpful to narrow the search down,” Ethan said, glancing over his shoulder once again at the damage to the car. “I’ll call a tow truck, and then I can give you a ride home.” Ethan ran his hand up and down Annabel’s bare arm. Trouble nudged his hand with his nose.
Ethan arched a brow. “I’m taking you home.”
“I’m in no mood to argue,” Annabel said with a long sigh. “I could use a glass of wine.”
“Let’s take care of the police report, get a statement from the witness, and then I’ll make sure that happens.” Ethan’s shift would be over in an hour, and he had every intention of spending the rest of the evening with the lovely Annabel.
Annabel really wanted to stop at her place before going anywhere else. She didn’t like carrying around a box filled with stuff from the storage unit. Other than her mother, and her new friend Tara, she’d hadn’t told a single person about the contents of her storage unit. She really didn’t understand why she felt the need to keep it to herself, other than wanting to investigate more about each item and where it came from. The history in all that wedding stuff had to be interesting. Or least she hoped it would be.
She also worried about the jewelry she’d tucked into her purse. However, Ethan had talked her into going to his place so he could change before their big night on the town.
Thankfully, he didn’t use the word date.
“You know, you can borrow my car,” Ethan said as he parked the patrol car in the parking garage underneath Bella Bay Condominiums, only a mile down the street from her complex.
“I should be okay. I can walk everywhere I need to go.” Except the storage unit. Perhaps she should take Ethan up on his offer. “But I might borrow it a time or two if you don’t mind. I have some things I have to get out of storage.” She picked up Trouble, who peeked his eye open as he let out a yawn. Poor kitty, she’d woken him up from so many naps today, she thought it cruel. She scratched his back, hoping to help him settle back into a deep slumber.
“Not at all. I’m in the patrol car most of the time.” Ethan placed his hand on her back as he guided her into the lobby. She’d only been in the building one other time, several years ago. It hadn’t changed much with its marble tile floor and light-gray paint on the walls. A doorman waved, and Ethan nodded. “Let me know if I can help with moving stuff from the unit to your condo.”
For a second, she thought about telling him about the contents, but she just wasn’t ready yet. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Life had become surreal the second she moved back to Florida. When she’d left all those years ago, she honestly never thought she’d return, other than to visit family. Now she was the proud owner of a three-bedroom condo and about to go on a date with a man she’d had a wicked crush on in high school.
Coming home felt like she’d pulled out her favorite jeans after being dried for a half hour too long on the highest temperature. The fabric tight across her body, but with an hour of wearing them, they’d stretch out and fit her like a glove.
Only she didn’t think of Ethan as an old pair of jeans. He was more like a brand-new shirt that hung so beautifully on the hanger that you really didn’t want to wash it because it would never look the same.
Kind of like how every time he licked his lips, she thought about that damn whiskey shot. She hadn’t even been that drunk when she’d dared him to do it.
The elevator dinged, and she followed Ethan inside. He pressed the tenth-floor button. Trouble glanced about, as if surveying the area.
“I hope my car isn’t in the shop too long.” She’d sent it to the shop Ethan recommended. She also hoped that it didn’t cost much since the vehicle wasn’t worth more than five grand, but until she got her real-estate license and a full-time job, a new car was out of the budget.
“Rikki’s is the best in town. Fair price and fast service. If he said two days, he meant it.” Ethan leaned against the back of the elevator and pushed a piece of Annabel’s hair behind her shoulder. “I worry about you being alone in that condo between the break-in and the hit-and-run.”
Her heart pumped a little harder. It had been a long time since anyone other than her parents had genuine concern for her well-being.
Of course, Ethan’s profession required him to care about the community, and she was part of that.
“It’s a secure building and living in New York City made me diligent about locking my doors.” She’d never been afraid living in the city, but if she was being honest with herself, she had never felt completely safe.
And New York never felt like home.
They stepped out of the elevator into the hallway. The floors were covered with an off-white carpet, and fine art lined the creamy walls. The building had a posh feel to it. More so than hers did. Of course, this building was a good ten years newer.
Trouble stretched out his paw over Annabel’s shoulder and groomed it as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Doesn’t make me feel better about the situation. Someone ran you off the road,” Ethan said.
“It was an accident,” she said, not feeling too confident about her reply.
By the way Ethan arched his brow, he felt the same way. “You heard the eyewitness.” He pushed open the door. “Whoever hit you, veered right into the side of your car and then took off. It was like he was targeting you.”
“Whoever it was could have been texting or whatever and just got scared when he hit me.”
“Again, doesn’t do anything to ease my mind about you being alone.”
She held her breath as she crossed the threshold, her heart hammering in her chest. Not because of the breathtaking view or fine décor of his condo, but because she half expected him to ask her to stay at his place.
“Wow. I can’t believe you live here,” Annabel said as she set Trouble down so he could explore, but he went into cat pose before circling Ethan’s legs, rubbing his back and purring.
“This is amazing,” she said.
“I really like it.” Ethan smiled, planting his hands on his hips.
The kitchen, with a gray and white quartz countertop, opened into the family room. The living space faced the ocean and had access to the porch, which seemed to loop around the entire apartment. She’d hate to have to clean all those sliding glass doors, but she’d love the view every day.
“How long have you lived here?” She tried to keep her gaze anywhere but on Ethan. Being alone with him in his condo made her cheeks flush like the day he’d driven her home from school, and that was just stupid. She was a grown woman who didn’t need a man.
Yet, she felt a flutter in her stomach as she remembered his lips there. That night she’d closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his velvet tongue gliding across her skin, only to have the moment destroyed by the sound of her recently pronounced ex-boyfriend like a needle scratching across a vinyl record.
“I bought it two weeks after my sister’s wedding.” Ethan tossed his keys into a dish on a table to the right of the door.
His words brought her back to the moment. “Did you buy it for you and Quinn? I mean, put in the offer before the whole everyone-sleeping-with-someone-else thing.”
“We, you and I, didn’t sleep with anyone, so don’t lump us into the cheating pool,” he said.
“No, you just sucked on my belly button.”
“I still have the photo.”
“What!? There’s an image of that?”
He laughed. “You don’t remember the bartender taking it?” He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos before handing it to her.
She stared at an image of her holding up her shirt. The button to her jeans was undone. His open mouth hovered over her midsection as he made the peace sign with his fingers. She felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “God, I hope you haven’t shown that to anyone.”
“Quinn is the only one who saw it. I tried to hurt her, but it sort of backfired. Kind of what I was trying to do with this place. I bought it because she hates condos, would never want to live in one.” Ethan folded his arms across his muscular chest and leaned against the counter. “Do you want to hear something crazy?”
“I’m not sure anything can be crazier than that night.” She handed him bac
k his phone. The lightness she’d been experiencing evaporated like the mist over a lake floating toward the sky. The thought that he would show that photo to anyone, especially Quinn, brought her crashing back to earth. She’d used him in a way, too, so she had no right to be upset.
“When you came to the bar, I really thought your boyfriend was screwing Quinn,” Ethan said with a straight face. Not a single muscle twitched.
Annabel couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing so hard that it scared Trouble. He made a strange noise and scampered into the family room. “I thought the same thing,” she admitted, “but he actually wasn’t into Quinn.”
“I learned that later. Rosie told me.”
That stopped the laughter. The only person Rosie ever broke a confidence to was her brother, but Annabel had never experienced that before with her secrets.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
“She told me you caught Devin with another woman, and that’s why you broke up.”
Annabel nodded. “The night of Rosie’s wedding.” She swallowed the thick lump in her throat. “I found him with the wedding planner, Dawn.”
“What?” Ethan cocked his head, and his eyes went wide. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Annabel.” He unbuckled his gun belt and opened a door to a hallway closet.
She studied his movements as he carefully hung the heavy belt on a sturdy hook. Rosie’s wedding, it seemed, changed the direction of both their lives. She could only hope it was truly for the better. “I saw her coming out of our hotel room.”
“He did the deed in the room you shared with him?” Ethan took her by the hand and led her to the sofa in the family room. “What did he think would have happened if you’d walked in?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe subconsciously we were both acting out, ready to face the fact that what we had wasn’t what it should be.” She settled on the sofa, tucking her feet under her. Trouble had found a comfortable spot on the armrest of the chaise lounge chair on the other side of the room.
“You told me you thought you were going to end it with Devin at the rehearsal dinner, but you said it was because he didn’t want to get married and settle down. Not that he couldn’t keep his dipstick out of other women’s oil pans.”
