It was evident that his father had noticed the interaction, as well. Looking pleased, he said to Kent, “Let’s go have a chat.” Then he set off toward the teenagers. Kent picked up his pace and stayed by his side.
Though neither of them were in uniform, of course, Kent figured they might as well have Police emblazoned in bright orange letters across their chests. The closer they got, the less the boys were making any effort to even pretend to be playing ball.
Practically every eye in the area was focused on them.
The back of Kent’s neck started to tingle. For the first time since he’d joined the force, he was worried about the safety of his partner. Not that he didn’t think his father could handle himself, but Kent doubted he could shield him sufficiently if anyone pulled out a gun.
“You want to take the lead or me?” his father asked.
“I’m going to let you, since you’ve worked with some of these guys—or guys like them.”
“One or two of them are here. Maybe not standing in the park but they’re around. I’m sure of it.” On the heels of that statement, he walked forward to the boys on the court, each one blatantly staring at them. “Who’s winning?”
“Who wants to know?” the teen who’d first glared at them said. Right away, though, it was obvious that the guy wasn’t a teenager at all. Kent guessed he was closer to twenty-four or twenty-five.
Just as Kent was about to play it casual—or as casual as possible, given that they were obviously cops—his dad charged forward.
“I do, Joe. Remember me?”
Suspicion filled the guy’s eyes. “Nobody calls me Joe anymore.”
“Do you want me to call you something else?” Richard asked easily.
“I don’t want you to call me anything.” Lifting his chin, he added, “What are you doing here, Olson?”
“I need some information.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Kent spoke up. “It’s about something that happened ten years ago.”
Joe—or whatever his name was—looked shocked. Kent figured he had good reason to be. He was pretty shocked himself about the way the conversation was going.
“Ten years was a long time ago.”
“It was,” his dad murmured. “You were into some bad stuff and I was thinner.”
To Kent’s amazement, Joe chuckled. “You had blonder hair, too...and a whole lot more of it.”
Seeing that the other guys were shifting restlessly and starting to get uneasy, Kent said, “Nobody’s in trouble. All we need is some information about a cold case. Then we’ll be on our way.”
Still staring intently at his father, Joe said, “As much as I appreciate what you did for me back in the day, I don’t see why I should do a thing to help you now, Olson. Like we said, a lot of time has passed.”
“I’m asking because it’s about Billy Mann.” His dad waited a beat, then said mildly, “Remember him?”
Joe’s eyes flared before they went blank again. “What about him?” he asked as he took a step back, like he was trying to get some space from Billy’s memory.
“His body was found a couple of months back,” Kent said. “He’d been killed and left out near Adams Lake Park.” He pointed toward the hills. “He rotted there for ten years.”
Distaste—or maybe it was dismay—filled Joe’s expression before he tamped it down tight again. “Like I said, ten years is a long time. Billy Mann ain’t my problem.”
“We know he was using and dealing a little.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “He weren’t much of a dealer. He weren’t much of anything.”
“We’re trying to find out who killed him,” his dad said.
“So you think it was me?”
“Was it?” Kent asked.
“Of course not.” He scoffed. “Billy Mann wasn’t worth my time.”
“I wouldn’t have come out here if I didn’t need information, Joe,” his dad said. “I agree that Billy wasn’t much to speak of, but my job is to solve murders, not judge victims.”
Joe looked at them both for a long moment, then motioned for his buddies to move away. The guys looked irritated but did as he asked. Two minutes later only the three of them were standing on the court. “Look,” Joe said. “I get that you have to do your job, but that guy has nothing to do with me. Not who I was back then and not who I am now.”
“I get that. And I get that you’re not anxious to revisit your past. But Billy’s widow needs some closure.” His father lowered his voice. “I heard you’ve got a wife and kids of your own now. Surely, you can relate to her worrying.”
Joe scoffed. “I don’t know if you two are telling me crap or if you think I’ll believe anything you spout off.”
His dad looked confused. “Tell me why you’d say that.”
“Everyone knew Billy Mann beat her all the time. And when he wasn’t doing that, he did a whole lot of stuff that was just plain wrong.”
“Such as?” Kent asked.
Joe eyed Kent with disdain. “Like not giving her any money for food and laughing about it. I can’t figure out why you’d think I’d buy that she’d spare him a second thought. If I was her, I’d be dancing on his grave.”
He hated the thought of Liana going hungry. It physically hurt him. “I knew he abused her,” Kent said, struggling to keep emotion out of his voice. “I didn’t know everyone knew it.”
“Of course everyone knew. It wasn’t a secret.” Joe shook his head. “I remember I saw her once, her face all swollen and black-and-blue. She was skinny as a rail, too.” He paused, then added, “One of my guys was worried about her. Like, enough to think that she needed to go to the hospital.”
Kent was blown away, hearing this former gang member talk about seeing Liana like that. It also made her situation seem more real. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed her; it was just that he hadn’t completely put the woman he knew now into that role.
His father looked Joe in the eye. “I saw her from a distance once. She was a timid thing. She never filed charges against Billy. Never went to the hospital, either. I would’ve helped her if I could, but our hands were tied.”
Joe shrugged. “I told my guys if someone was beating my sister or my daughter like that, I’d take the law into my own hands.” He paused long enough to look them both in the eye. “You two might think differently, but I’m telling you this. Sometimes you gotta do what’s right, even if the rest of the world says it’s wrong.”
Thinking about Liana, about just how much Billy had hurt her, about the way she was skittish over everything even after all this time... Kent knew that what Joe was saying wasn’t exactly wrong.
But then, just as they were pulling into the police department parking lot, something Joe said struck a chord with him. If someone was beating my daughter or sister...sometimes you gotta do what’s right.
Suddenly, Kent wondered if he’d been going about the case all wrong.
Chapter Twelve
Liana wasn’t sure why she’d said yes, but she supposed she was a glutton for punishment. Why else would she have agreed to a dinner date with Kent?
It had all happened so quickly, too. One minute she’d been sitting on the couch, flipping through old episodes of Top Chef, and the next she was holding her cell phone, wondering what in the world she’d just done.
Actually, she’d been at a loss for words while he’d told her that he really wanted to take her out to spend time with her. Not to ask her another twenty questions about the man she tried so hard to forget.
When she’d finally gotten her voice back, she hadn’t been all that sweet. Actually, she’d kept telling him that he didn’t need to buy her a meal to get help for his case. That was a sure thing.
He’d had the nerve to sound offended. And maybe hurt, too.
Which, in the end, was what had made her sa
y yes. Kent might have originally reached out to her because of the case, but she was enough of a realist to know that his invitation wasn’t because of any misplaced guilt or lies. Cops didn’t offer dinner invitations as part of their job. Moreover, an upstanding man like Kent could no doubt ask out any woman he wanted. He was not only extremely good-looking, he had a good job, as well. He also obviously came from a cushy family with lots of support.
There was only one reason he’d asked her out, and that was because he wanted to. And when he told her that, with no attempt to temper his words, Liana had melted.
He had just given her everything she’d ever wanted—honest words and real emotion. Not lies. Not slick smiles covering years of manipulation. She wanted to feel something real.
He’d given that to her.
Now here she was, dressed in a dark ruby-red maxi dress that she would have never bought on her own but had been coerced to by Angel and her online shopping expertise.
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she studied herself this way and that. She usually didn’t wear bold colors or prints. But the ruby shade brought out the color of her lips and the flush of her cheeks. It even drew attention to her blue eyes, something she’d never considered highlighting before.
She’d added some flat sandals with gold braiding around the toes and a pair of gold hoops that Serena had given her after her first big art show.
None of this was her. But she couldn’t deny that even with her hair up in a carefully arranged messy ponytail, she looked pretty good.
When her doorbell rang, she picked up her small purse and opened the door to Kent. “Hi.”
“Hey, Liana.” He smiled at her. “You look gorgeous.”
She smoothed her hands down her thighs. “Hardly that.”
Still gazing at her, he shook his head. “No, definitely that. I’m sorry for staring. I guess it’s, ah, the way you have your hair done. It caught me off guard.” He flashed a smile. “Are you ready?”
“I am.” Pulling her keys out of her purse, she said, “I’ll just lock the door and we can go.”
He pressed a hand on hers. “Hold on. Turn on a light inside. And one by the front door.”
Obediently, she flicked the switches. “Why?”
“It’s not safe to leave the house dark.”
“It’s fine. I do it all the time.”
“I’m going to lose my mind if I know you’re walking into a dark house whenever you work late at the diner. Help me out and don’t do it again. Okay?”
She’d come a long way from the days when she was Billy’s wife. Back then he’d used whatever method he could to make sure she followed every directive. Within the first months of their marriage, she’d learned to simply do as he wished in order to keep the peace—and her sanity.
When he’d gone missing, she’d vowed to never become a victim again. Or, at the very least, to never simply agree with a man’s wishes in order to make him happy.
So it wasn’t easy to simply let him have his way or to say yes without arguing. But reason reminded her that he wasn’t trying to control her; he was trying to keep her safe.
“Okay,” she said at last.
He chuckled under his breath as he opened the passenger-side door of his SUV. “Boy, for a moment there I was afraid you were going to make me start spouting facts and figures to prove the need for lights.”
“I’m not that stubborn,” she said as she buckled her seat belt after he joined her in the car.
“Liana, you’re one of the most stubborn women I’ve ever met.”
“Then you may count yourself as blessed indeed. I promise there’s a whole lot of women who are far more stubborn than me. Besides,” she added, “I happen to think I’m just independent.”
“I think I’ll agree with you on that one.” He shifted gears as he sped down the road. “You’re impressive. That’s what you are.”
“Where are we going, by the way?”
“There’s a good seafood place on the Ohio River,” Kent said as he headed south on the interstate. “Ernie’s. Have you ever been there?”
“I’ve never even heard of it.”
“Oh? Well, you’re sure to be happily surprised.” Smiling big, he added, “You should see the king crab feast they serve up. They fly in the crab a couple of times a week, and serve it with drawn butter, lemons, dirty rice and grilled vegetables to die for. I promise you’re going to love it.”
“I bet I would...if I wasn’t allergic to crab.”
The crestfallen expression that lit his face was picture-worthy. “Oh my gosh, Liana. I’m such a dope. I didn’t even think to ask.” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “We could go all the way down to Newport. There’s a lot of restaurants to choose from there.”
He was speaking of Newport, Kentucky, the first town just on the other side of the Ohio River from Cincinnati. It was nice there, with the revitalized shopping area that offered a wide array of dining and bar options.
“I like Newport, but I’m going to like Ernie’s, too.”
“I don’t want to take you someplace where you can’t eat.”
“I can eat fish, just no crab or shrimp.” Feeling bad now, she said, “I’m sorry. It was so much fun to tease you, I hadn’t really thought of how rude that was.”
“No, this is on me. I know better than to spring this place on a date.”
“I promise I still want to go.”
“All right,” he said as he got in the right lane. “It’s the next exit. Let’s take a peek. If you don’t like it, we’ll go.”
She decided right then and there that no matter how bad the fish was, she was going to eat it and not say a word. “Sounds like you’ve been going here a while?”
“Ever since I was little. Ernie’s was my dad’s favorite place. It still is. So every Father’s Day we would go. And his birthday.”
“That’s nice. I like that y’all have so many traditions.”
He glanced her way again. “You don’t talk about your parents much. Did you grow up going to favorite places, too?”
“Not really. My mom was a pretty good cook.” Realizing she was making her mother sound like a chef, Liana clarified her words. “I mean, Mom could take pretty much any five things in her pantry, add some salt, lard, ingenuity and produce something tasty.”
Liana shifted in her seat, wanting to watch her words, to try to describe life with Mason and her parents without sounding pitiful or bringing up a bunch of stereotypes. “We didn’t have a lot of extra money for going out, which meant that even dinners at the diner where I’m working were a big deal. The worst thing for my mom was to go out and realize she was paying good money for food that wasn’t half as good as she could produce.” That was true, too. It was also a much better depiction than how things usually were, which was that her parents weren’t around much and Mason, the football star, always had first dibs on what was in the pantry.
“You were fortunate. My mom is terrific but can only make about a dozen things. She rotates them like clockwork.”
“It might sound odd, but that makes me happy.”
“Why is that?”
She shrugged her shoulder, wanting to be completely honest but not wanting to sound insecure or even snippy. “I guess it makes me feel good to know that the two of us aren’t really that different.” Realizing how that sounded, Liana tried to rephrase it. “I guess sometimes, when I look at our situations, I feel like you have all the advantages. You said your mom was a lawyer and your father had a good job, that he’s some kind of superhero cop.”
“I thought you got along with your parents?”
“I did. I mean, I did well enough. It’s just that, well, college wasn’t ever in our conversations and I wasn’t ever really close to them, though Mason and I are now.”
“You’re selling yourself short. You’
ve been through some really difficult times yet you haven’t let it get you down. Now you’re painting some really amazing paintings and working at the diner.” He shook his head slowly, as if her work boggled his mind. “Added to that, you’re beautiful and as sweet as you can be. You’re pretty incredible, Liana Mann.”
It took everything she had not to gape at him. Kent’s short speech had been one of the nicest things anyone had ever told her. “Thank you.”
He laughed.
Her cheeks heated. “I know. I’m completely awkward around you.”
“Just around me?”
“Pretty much.” And that was all she was going to admit to.
His smile slipped. “Do you still not trust me? Or is it something else? Did your husband mistreat you so badly that you’re having a hard time believing anyone else?”
“I... I don’t know.” She half expected him to nod like he understood, but instead he stilled.
“I’d hate it if you didn’t trust me, Liana. I’d never hurt you. I’ve never raised a hand to a woman in my life.”
She almost smiled. “I can’t imagine you ever hurting me.” At least, not with his hands. But there was still a piece of her that wondered how genuine he was being. Did he really want to date her?
Or was it something else? Was he hoping to get closer to her so he could solve Billy’s case?
“Have you discovered anything more?”
He blinked. “About your husband’s murder?”
“Yes.”
“Not really.”
“But you did find out something?”
He leaned back. “I’d rather not talk about the case tonight.”
She hadn’t wanted to discuss it, either. But was that really smart? She needed Billy’s disappearance and murder solved as much as Kent did—but for far more personal reasons. She needed that part of her life to close so she could live again.
Taking a deep breath, she said, “When you reached out to me, there was no turning back. You know that, right?”
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