“I didn’t look up there. I was trying to figure something out.”
“And did you?”
“When Shawna and her mom were getting ready to go for lunch, she said they were at the front there as her mom cleaned her shoes when she noticed the bruise. When she asked about it, Tina said it was from work, but Shawna seemed skeptical, so I went up there to see if Rhett could have heard them talking from up there.”
“I see where you’re going with this.” Grace smiled. “And?”
“You could hear everything clearly in the front there. Tina knew Rhett was home, and whether he gave her the bruise, or it was from work, she knew there was a good chance he would hear whatever she said.”
“So you think she might have been worried about telling Shawna either way.”
“Yeah, and also,” Madigan turned to her as they drove down the street, “what kind of timing is that—the ex showing up with divorce papers the day his ex-wife goes missing?”
“More like the day after, but I get your point. Listen, I know you’re interested in helping Shawna, but we can’t interfere with the investigation. We can make suggestions or give information, but we aren’t in control, and we don’t have all the facts.”
“So what are you going to do next?”
“I’m going to call my old partner from when I was a beat cop and see what he knows.”
They turned out of the subdivision and headed back toward the bridge over Bones Bay to Tall Pines.
Tension between Tina, her daughter, and her boyfriend. Possible stress from work.
Why would Tina leave without telling anyone? Where would she go?
She’s a person who goes the extra mile for people in need.
Maybe she took things too far? Learned something that put her in danger?
But she wasn’t on the job.
“What do you think happened to Tina?” Madigan asked once the possibilities tangled together in her mind, too messy for her to sort through.
“It’s too early to make guesses. She has conflict in her personal relationships. Possible abuse at home or assault at work. An ex-husband back in the picture. The house looked clean and tidy. No signs of struggle. Just from being on the job, though, I know how dangerous it can be, so looking into her work is my first instinct.” Grace glanced over to her as they stopped at an intersection. “What’s yours?”
I wasn’t even looking around the house. I was paying too much attention to Shawna, and what she said and felt about Rhett that I missed so much Grace naturally picked up on.
She’s right, we can’t make guesses.
If I’m going to be a private investigator, I need to keep open eyes, ears, and mind.
“You’re right. Too early to guess.”
“Well, I’d agree with Shawna at the very least,” Grace said. “Tina has some bad taste in men if they are all trying to control her.”
I’ve got two suspects so far. Rhett Carrigan and Matt Morelli.
“Do you think you could find out what Tina was working on recently?”
Grace has the law on her side, but I’m going to do some digging of my own.
“After I talk to my old partner, that’s as far as I can take it.” Grace turned the corner out of all the subdivisions. “If it gives us any facts to work with, maybe we can see about finding a lead.”
Now I’m sounding like Mac.
“Well, we can be there to support her…”
A black car in the rearview mirror caught Grace’s eye, and as she glanced back and forth from the road ahead to the car behind them, she made out the figure driving.
Detective Shelling.
“Grace? Did you hear what I just said?”
“I need to pull over.”
Madigan turned over her shoulder as Shelling waved toward the curb.
“So do you know him?” Madigan asked.
“No, but I guess he has heard of me.” Grace rolled her window down as Shelling approached.
“Detective Sheppard. What’s your relationship with Shawna Morelli?”
“She’s a friend. She asked me to come for support.”
“Is that what she wanted?” he asked, peering past Grace to Madigan.
“Yes,” Grace said, catching his attention again. “That’s all.”
“Sergeant Colette wants to make sure you understand that Shawna can’t be speaking to anyone else about this investigation right now,” he said.
“I understand. I’m not trying to—”
“From what I’ve just come to understand, there’s a reason you’re not welcome around here. I don’t know you, but I’ve been told to make sure you know you’re to stay in your own lane.”
Madigan leaned forward, but Grace blocked her view and stuck her head out the window. “I’m going to be there for Shawna if she needs me as a friend. That’s all. I won’t be interfering with your investigation, Detective Shelling. I have my own work to focus on.”
Shelling stared at her with a straight face.
“Anything else?” Grace asked.
“Sheppard.” He nodded once and tapped the roof of her car.
As he strode away, Grace rolled her window back up, pulling away from the curb. She took a deep breath and focused on the road.
“I guess it’s good,” Madigan said, “that you don’t have to work with him. He seems like a real piece of work.”
“Him? Oh, he really was being nice about it compared to the flack I’ve gotten from the rest. After the stories they’ve all heard about how I disobeyed orders while undercover—how I couldn’t save Leah from the hit her boyfriend had taken out on her—and then the demotion, my reputation precedes me.”
“So, what? He can just order you to stay away?”
Grace shook her head. “I’m not under Sergeant Colette anymore. He can’t give me orders…”
But he can make sure I never work in Amherst again.
“So why was that detective acting like he still has a say in what you do?”
“He’s got a lot of power and the ears of the people with even more power. No one goes against him. I think Shelling is a new detective, and he’s probably just trying to start out on a good foot. You don’t cross Sergeant Colette and get away with it. I don’t blame him for relaying the message.”
Grace’s cell phone buzzed in her purse.
“Think that’s Shawna already?” Madigan asked.
“Could you check it?”
Madigan took her phone from her purse, and Mac’s name lit up on the screen. “Text from Mac.”
I hope he didn’t say anything she’d read into. We aren’t a thing. There shouldn’t be anything going on between us, and if I tell Mad about it, it’ll turn into a thing.
“I’ll reply later.”
As they drove across the bridge over Bones Bay, Grace tried to imagine what Mac had texted her, but she couldn’t remember where they left off at Roy’s.
Maybe he wants to see me tonight. Yes, I could see that.
If he does, it’s too soon. I have to finish my files.
“You really shouldn’t have let him talk to you like that,” Madigan said, and Grace frowned, wondering if she had read Mac’s text. “Shelling—all threatening and ordering you around. If he’s not your boss, you should tell him off.”
“I don’t have a choice. If I want to come back eventually, I can’t risk getting on his bad side. I might work with him in the future. I’m trying to rebuild my reputation, and that means focusing on doing my job well.”
“Do you want to go back to Amherst?”
“I do,” Grace said on exhale.
But she just got a taste of how I’m treated here. She wouldn’t understand why I want to transfer back.
“I want to excel at my career and help as many people as possible.”
“Well, you’re doing that in Deerhorn County. All the cases you’ve solved already. The medal you received for catching Brad Hensen and Todd Leaver. They must have heard about that in Amherst.”
“I
t’s all small stuff to these people. Amherst is where the action is, and it’s where the best detectives work.”
“So you want to move back?”
“No, I don’t want to move. It’s great being close with you again. I’d commute.”
And maybe I’d be able to see Mac and feel good about it if there was no chance we’d be working together.
“Just as long as I don’t lose you again,” Madigan said.
“You won’t.”
Grace’s phone buzzed again.
“Want me to check? Could be important.”
“No, thanks. I’ll get it later. Am I dropping you off at Roy’s to get your bike?”
“Yeah. Why don’t we have a drink together?”
“I’ve got my case files to work on, and visiting you was only supposed to be a short break.”
Now I’m going to go against my word with Shelling and call Greer? No, I can’t. I don’t know whose side Greer is on, and I can’t risk him telling Shelling I was digging for information.
As they pulled into Roy’s lot, Madigan turned to Grace. “Tina left her house at some point. Her vehicle is gone. Maybe one of her neighbours saw. Maybe we could ask them tomorrow morning?”
Grace shook her head. “I told Shelling I’d stay out of it, so I can’t do anything that obvious. And stop. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s better to stay out of their way. Amherst has the best process and resources for a missing persons case like this.”
“Officer Morelli is out there somewhere, and I’m just supposed to wait for someone to find her?” Madigan shook her head. “That doesn’t feel right. This woman saved us. I understand you feel like you’ve repaid the favor, but I haven’t. I want to help her like she helped me.”
“You can help her. We can be there for Shawna if she calls.”
Grace’s phone buzzed again, and Madigan stuck her hand in her purse.
“Hey!” Grace reached for it.
Madigan checked the screen. “It’s Mac again.”
“I said I’d get it later.” Grace held her hand out.
“Fine.” Madigan put it on her palm and grabbed her bag, opening the door. “Let me know if she calls, okay?”
Grace nodded, but as Madigan got out, she held the door open, staring at her sister. “Promise.” Grace smiled, and Madigan shut the door, jogging away to the side of the bar.
Grace tapped Mac’s name and scanned over the three missed messages, devouring each word.
You underestimate how much I like the chase.
Hey, think it’s time for another break?
Meet me tomorrow night. My place.
Grace grinned, tucking the phone back into her purse.
He wants to see me just as much as I want to see him—but I can’t.
As she drove out of the lot, Madigan’s bike rumbled to life.
I need to get back to work on those files.
Madigan feels like my debt was repaid by helping Shawna get out of Amherst, but it’s not just about what I owe.
I want to help Tina. I want to help Shawna. Madigan would, too, even if she didn’t feel like she owed her.
If that’s my job—to help people—why is it so difficult?
Maybe, if I have time, if I can be discreet, I’ll try to look into Tina more. What cases was she working? Who might have had something against her?
One question nagged at Grace as she drove down Main Street.
Why didn’t Rhett Carrigan report Tina missing when he hadn’t seen or heard from her 24 hours after their fight?
Chapter Four
Madigan knocked on the Holden’s door and turned around, squinting into the early morning sun and examining her old home across the street.
“Madigan, great to see you.” Mr. Holden opened the front door wide as she grabbed the small box from the ground. “What a nice surprise. Come in!”
She carried the box into the foyer. “Nice to see you too.”
“Let me help.” He took the box. “What have we got here?”
“Thank you.” Madigan rearranged her bag over her shoulder. “Those are some of Drew’s things I found while clearing out his room before the house sold.”
“Ah.” He set the box down on the living room table.
“I’ve brought them to see if there’s anything Jack would want.”
“Very thoughtful of you.” He nodded, averting his eyes from the box. “I’ll get Jack.”
Madigan stood in the living room doorway, admiring the new wedding photo the Holdens had taken a month after Doreen and Kurt’s wedding.
I guess they really did create a new memory, free from the devastating events of their wedding night when Kurt’s best man turned up dead in his car in the reception parking lot.
Jack stepped inside from the backyard. “Nice photo, right?”
Madigan nodded as he stood beside her, the pine and cinnamon scent of his cologne wafting toward her. “My parents keep the one of our families from the actual night on the dresser in their room. Did you ever see it?”
“No.”
But I remember Aleesia being asked to join, and she refused.
You seemed fine with that, too.
“How are your parents?” he asked.
“They’re well, I think. I heard from them a while ago, asking if everything had been removed the day before the new owners took possession. How are they, by the way?”
“Nice enough.” He shrugged. “I’m not here often enough to say. Young couple with a new baby.”
“Oh yeah? The couple on the right just had a baby last year, didn’t they?”
“They’ve already become friends.” He nodded. “Old cycles beginning again.”
“Well, that’s nice.” Madigan adjusted her shirt and nodded to the box on the table. “Those are some of Drew’s things. I was told I could have whatever I wanted from it, but these are things I’m fine parting with—some of them, I distinctly remember you two playing with or poring over, like the Marvel comics—so I thought you’d like to have your pick.”
Jack dug into the box at the mention of comics and brought out a few worn copies. “If these were in mint condition, they might actually be worth something, but we didn’t care about that. We’d take turns reading these and put them away for a while, then read them again.” He turned to her. “Thanks, Mad.”
She tucked some hair away from her face and took a baseball out of the box. “This is one of the things you have to take. You remember the day my dad took the three of us to the Jay’s game, and you caught this ball?”
“Whoa. I forgot Carlos Delgado signed it after the game.”
“Why did Drew have it?”
“We took turns with it. Every other month, we’d switch. I guess we forgot about it, and he was the last…”
“Well, he’d want you to have that back, so like I said, if nothing else—”
“Are you kidding? It’s an honor to have this stuff. I want whatever you’re cool with giving me.”
“All of it. I took what I wanted, and there’s no room for the rest of it in my trailer. If there was anything you didn’t want, I was going to bring it to the group home next time I’m out that way.”
“Let me look through it, alright?” He grinned down at an old water gun.
We had the best water fights. The best times together.
“Pogs! I remember these! You were the Pog champion, if I remember correctly.” He laughed, and she smiled up at him. “This really means a lot.”
“No problem.”
“Hey, everything going okay with you?”
She frowned. “Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “The past few times I’ve seen you, you’ve seemed—different.”
She raised her brow and shook her head.
“You know,” he said, “like at the wedding.”
He knows how I feel—he must—what gave away my jealousy towards Aleesia?
“I mean, I guess it’s been differ
ent lately…”
“Hey,” Jack said, “you don’t have to tell me what’s bothering you if you don’t want to. I’ve just noticed you’re not your usual self.”
“How so?”
“You’ve never been a delicate flower.” Jack laughed as soon as she grinned, but it faded. “But you’ve had this wall up with me. Did something happen after you broke up with your boyfriend? That night I drove you to Grace’s—that was the last time I saw the Madigan Knox I know.”
The attack.
He only saw me once since then before the wedding. That’s why he was shocked by my short, dark brown hair—and I was changed that night of the attack in Grace’s kitchen—he’s right about that.
“I’d rather not get into it, but it’s not personal.”
He nodded, taking his hands out of his pockets and grabbing another toy from the box. “Okay, s’long as you know I’m here if you wanna talk. Also, I hope you don’t mind me saying, but I miss the old Madigan.”
Me, too.
“Hey.” He put the toy down. “I’ve been meaning to tell you something, but since you’re not right across the street, and I’ve been working most nights, I haven’t gotten the chance to come into Roy’s.”
Her chest fluttered, and she pursed her lips, hiding her excitement. “What’s up?”
“Aleesia and I got engaged not long after my sister’s wedding.” As the words sank in, she couldn’t focus on the rest. “…and the engagement party is this coming Saturday. Seven, right here in the backyard—Mom insisted. Tell me you’ll come.”
“Oh, um, yeah.” She nodded, trying to catch her bearings.
“Yeah?”
A celebration for them. Why would I want to be there for that?
Pretend to be happy for them? No.
“I mean, if I’m not working. I have to check.”
He pressed his lips together and nodded, folding his arms over his chest. “Sure, yeah, no problem, and sorry for not telling you until now. I just hadn’t seen you, and it felt like something I should tell you in person—not over the phone…”
He stepped closer, moving in for what might have been a hug, but she took a step back.
I can’t do this. The friend thing. Not with him.
The Lies You Told Page 4
