“Do I know this guard?” she asked, eyes sticking to Billy’s.
Was that what was making her uncomfortable? Who the guard would be?
Billy motioned to the front yard.
“Deputy Caleb Foster has offered. When you head over to the hotel he’ll meet you there.” Billy glanced at Matt. “Once you all are there Detective Walker will go home and get some rest.”
That was an order, given in a no-arguments tone by the sheriff. It kept Matt quiet. This time Maggie looked at him. She didn’t say anything, either.
“Until then, we need to get a better handle on this situation,” Billy continued. He dug into his pockets and pulled out his keys. He tossed them to Matt. “Take the Bronco and see if you can retrace any of her steps before Cody gets out of school.”
“Shouldn’t we get him now?” Maggie jumped in. “If our mystery person knows me then he definitely knows where my son goes to school.”
“Which is why Cody has his own guard. Do you know my chief deputy?”
“Suzanne Simmons,” Maggie said with a nod. “She had an impressive résumé even before her promotion when you took over as sheriff.”
Billy smirked.
“That’s her. Impressive to the teeth. Great at her job. Cutthroat when needed.” He sobered. “She’s also the godmother to my kid. Not to mention she’s a mother, too. She won’t let anything happen to Cody.”
Maggie visibly relaxed a fraction.
“Detective Ansler is still working this case,” Billy continued. “You keep him in the loop. And, Matt, you call in at any sign of trouble. You do not take off after it. Am I understood?” Matt nodded. “Good. I don’t need to send the Bronco to the body shop again. I’m still in the doghouse for slamming it into a house last year.”
“Hey, I appreciated that.”
They turned as Deputy Foster walked over. Billy was referring to when he’d intervened in a wild rescue of Caleb and his now girlfriend. Both men shared a quick smile.
“All right, let’s go pick up your dog and then head back to the station,” Billy said, conversation over. Caleb pulled out a card from his back pocket and handed it to Maggie.
“Call me if you need anything before we go to the hotel.”
Maggie took it and gave a small smile.
“Okay.”
Matt didn’t know how it happened but there it was. Jealousy. Just sitting there in the pit of his stomach, unhappy at the idea of passing Maggie off to someone else.
Someone who wasn’t him.
Get it together, Matt scolded himself.
But still that feeling stuck even as Caleb and Billy walked off.
“Wait!” All three men turned to Maggie. She was looking at Billy. “I know enough about the sheriff’s department and the people who work there to know that you consider them more than just colleagues. And you and Matt are friends. Good friends.” She hesitated. It was a strange reaction to see in her. Even stranger was the look she gave Matt before continuing. “He doesn’t like me. A lot of law enforcement around here doesn’t. So why are you doing all of this? Most people would have kept me in cuffs in the first place and now I’m going to ride in your personal vehicle while the godmother to your child watches mine? I get that you’re the sheriff but that seems a little bit beyond the call of duty. Why help me, of all people, like that?”
Another feeling Matt didn’t like replaced jealousy. He didn’t have time to address it before Billy answered.
“You already said it. I’m the sheriff and you’re a resident of Riker County who needs help.” Billy flashed a genuine smile. “There’s nothing that I won’t do to help my people. It’s that simple.”
* * *
MAGGIE WAS GRATEFUL for the sheriff’s candor. She wasn’t special in his eyes, which was somehow comforting. It was like she had a clean slate again. Like she hadn’t fallen in the eyes of Riker County law enforcement yet. Now she was just a resident of the county who needed some protection.
And answers.
However, those were trickier to get as proven by the stoic set of Matt’s shoulders as he walked from the spot on her front porch to the Bronco she was sitting shotgun in. He left behind a man from CSU who disappeared back into her house to finish whatever it was that he was supposed to be finishing.
“What did he say?” Maggie greeted. Matt answered by swearing.
“Let me guess, they didn’t find anything. Again.”
“They found the prints they believe to be ours from today,” he said, voice constricted with frustration. “But like Dwayne’s house they are almost positive your place was cleaned. Where there should be prints of you and Cody there are none. Which doesn’t help us.”
Maggie’s stomach turned.
“I’m now one hundred percent for staying at a hotel with a guard,” she decided. “This is getting too creepy.”
“We can go there now, you know,” he replied matter-of-factly. “To be honest it would be much safer for you than running around the county grasping at straws until school lets out. Detective Ansler and I will keep looking for leads no matter what.”
It didn’t sound like a dismissal but Maggie still felt the sting as if he was trying to get rid of her. She bristled at the thought.
“Listen, I might not be a cop but I did something yesterday that created chaos for everyone. Whether we like it or not that everyone includes you and myself. That means we have a better shot at figuring this thing out. Together. So even though you’d rather be detecting with someone else, it’s me you’re stuck with for now. Okay?”
To her surprise Matt chuckled.
“You sure are bossy for someone who technically is still a suspect.”
“By bossy I’m sure you mean determined,” she replied, pushing her shoulders back. Her attention went down to the purse in her lap. She’d started to go through its contents when the man had stopped them from leaving the house to update Matt. CSU had allowed her to take the bag and the contents she’d poured out onto the floor. Now she was sifting through the items in hopes of finding a clue.
“So is there anywhere you think we should go?” Matt asked. She could feel him watching her. “Anything in there jumping out at you? Anything bringing back some memories?”
Maggie cycled through scraps of paper and cards that had been in her purse for upward of two years.
“I’m remembering all of the times I promised myself I would clean this thing out.” She set the stack of scraps on her thigh and picked up a new handful of odds and ends. “Yesterday apparently wasn’t the day I decided to follow through.”
The detective laughed again. This time it was softer.
“Erin once lost her engagement ring in her purse. She forgot to take it off before work and had to drop it in there.”
Maggie kept her gaze down. She didn’t want to spook the man from opening up. No matter how much it shocked her. Whenever they had talked about Erin in the past it had been one-sided with her trying to get him to agree with her theories on Erin’s death. And that at that time, Maggie was positive his beloved had been killed on purpose. Targeted by Ken Morrison. Not just a random victim. Maggie was more than happy to hear nice stories rather than speculation of the reason behind the young woman’s death.
“How long did it take her to find it?”
“Two days. I kid you not. We turned that thing inside out and still managed to miss it until we thought it was long gone. Then bam she reaches into her purse for some gum and comes out with the ring. I couldn’t believe it had been there all along, but she said the Bermuda Triangle is at the bottom of every woman’s purse. How things disappeared and reappeared there was a mystery.”
Maggie didn’t have to see his smile to hear it.
“Well, she wasn’t wrong.” Maggie was smiling, too. Though she knew her patience was about to turn tail and run. They needed a lead. Not to bon
d.
Matt kept the car in Park as she continued to sift through the remnants of her life that had never made it back out of her bag. Old receipts, notes for work, a few fast food napkins, a pack of tissues, five pens, allergy medicine, two canisters of lipstick and four plastic dinosaurs that Cody had insisted they take with them to the park one day last month. Nothing out of the ordinary...
“Wait.”
Maggie pulled out a card she almost mistook for more paper scraps and notes. Her handwriting on the back didn’t help.
“‘Two-hundred-one,’” she said, reading the card before flipping it over. “This is new.”
Her eyes traced the words but no sparks of recognition flared.
“Looks like we’re going to a hotel after all,” she continued. “Just not the one the sheriff had in mind.”
She handed him the card.
“Country Heart Hotel,” he read. “In Kipsy. What’s there?”
Maggie shrugged.
“Hopefully answers.”
He turned over the ignition and started their drive away from her home. It bothered Maggie more than she thought it would. It wasn’t like she was leaving the house forever. Then again, someone didn’t like whatever it was that she’d found out. What if the next time the unknown man came back he issued more than just a threat tied to a brick?
Thankfully she didn’t have to dwell on that thought for too long. The detective handed his phone over and told her to call the hotel.
“We need to see if that room is occupied. If so, then we’re calling for backup,” he explained. So she sweetened her voice, called the room and, when no one answered, called the front desk and asked if the guest had already checked out.
“He did,” the man at the front desk confirmed. “Would you like to book it?”
Maggie politely declined at the detective’s insistence.
“He said he,” Matt pointed out.
“So do you think I met the mystery man there yesterday?” Maggie was relieved in part that she hadn’t been the one to book the room. “And what? Now he’s trying to threaten me?”
Matt shrugged.
“Maybe you tried to get the information to someone else after I wouldn’t bite.”
But who would that have been? Maggie wondered as silence stretched between them for a few miles. Matt finally broke it.
“The list of names you found,” he started. “We got interrupted before you could tell me who they were and where you got them.”
Maggie felt around inside her purse again until she found a pen. She took an old sticky note with her grocery list on one side and flipped it over. Taking in a deep breath, she jotted out three names, then she let that breath out slowly.
“I might not have the original list but I won’t forget their names,” she explained when he gave her a questioning look. She traced her handwriting before continuing, “I researched them for almost a year straight. And I asked you about them, too, but it probably wasn’t the best time to do it. I doubt you remember them.”
Matt’s hands gripped the steering wheel for a moment. Then they relaxed.
“After the funeral.” It wasn’t a question. How could either forget that afternoon? Regret filled Maggie’s chest.
“I’m sorry,” she answered instead. “I should have approached you somewhere—anywhere—else. I—I just felt like I was running out of time. I was desperate. But still I shouldn’t have—”
Matt held one hand up to stop her. Maggie quieted.
“We can’t change the past,” he said, voice thrumming into a low octave. Not a sensual tone but a decisive one. “But we might be able to right some of its wrongs. Now, tell me about the names and where you got them. And maybe we can solve this damned mystery and let everything get back to normal.”
Maggie wanted the same thing but couldn’t deny she once again felt a surprising sting. Their normal was two different paths. Without any intersecting points.
Completely separate from each other.
That had never bothered her before. But now, for some reason she had trouble understanding, it did.
Chapter Nine
“Joseph Randall. Jeremy Pickens. Nathan Smith.”
Maggie waited to see if the detective recognized any of the names. He shook his head. “There’s quite a few of each in the United States as you can imagine. And definitely more than a few in Alabama.”
“Feels a lot like grasping at straws.”
“And that’s how I felt until I found news stories on all three names.” That got the detective’s attention. He kept his eyes on the road but she could tell he was focused on her. “Without going into all the research I had to do and all the phone calls, emails and lies I had to tell to get the information, here’s the basics. Joseph Randall, early thirties, died in a head-on collision in Florida almost a decade ago. Jeremy Pickens, also in his thirties, died in a fire started by faulty wiring at his home in Georgia eight years ago. Nathan Smith, forty, was hospitalized after a mugging turned more violent. He succumbed to injuries in the first few hours of being admitted to the hospital. That was six years ago in Tennessee.”
Matt didn’t say anything right away. It gave Maggie a moment to look at him in profile. Strong jaw. Prominent nose. Stern lips. Those same lips were downturned. He hadn’t known about the list and he didn’t know about the men on it. She wished she could hear his thoughts. Instead, she’d have to settle for another one of his questions.
“And where did you find this list?”
Maggie sighed.
“You’re not going to like this answer,” she warned. A muscle in his jaw jumped.
“Maggie.”
“It was taped to the top of Erin’s locker at work. Which is probably why you didn’t see it when you cleaned it out.”
Matt went tense again. She couldn’t blame him.
“And the hospital just let you back into the nurses’ locker room?”
Maggie looked at her hands.
“I might have done some sneaking around.”
Matt said some not-so-great words. She waited for more but was surprised when it was himself that he cursed.
“I should have found the list.”
Maggie started to reach out for the man, to try to comfort him, but caught herself. They could talk about all the things they should and shouldn’t have done later. Right now they needed to focus.
“I contacted a friend up north in law enforcement and, as far as he could tell, there was still no connection between the names on that list and Erin. Or Ken, for that matter. Why she had those names and where she got them from, I never learned.” She blew a breath out. “And to be honest, that’s when I started hitting all of the road blocks. A wave and a list of names taped to the top of a locker does not a conspiracy make.”
“But now that list is missing and there’s a very real person threatening you to be quiet,” he added.
She nodded.
“There is that.”
They lapsed into another silence. This time it wasn’t that bad. Maggie chalked up the detective’s quiet to him silently processing the new information. Most likely trying to track back memories of his wife to figure out why she had the names in the first place. Or maybe his lack of sleep was starting to get to him. He wasn’t sitting as tall as he had been on the ride over from the hospital. Either way, Maggie watched out the window as the small town of Darby was replaced by the much larger city of Kipsy and tried to give him privacy. She felt the weight of weariness starting to press on her bones, too. Even though it was barely afternoon, it felt like days had passed between the hospital and walking through the back door of her house. An ache had begun to beat in her chest as she thought about Cody at school, oblivious to everything bad that had happened. Maggie prayed they could find the answers they needed before the three-o’clock bell rang.
It wasn�
�t until they pulled up to a two-story building that didn’t look like it had more than two stars, let alone five, that Matt broke the silence with a low whistle. He pulled into a Country Heart Hotel parking spot next to the front doors and cut the engine. Worry started to fill Maggie’s gut.
“Are you sure this might have something to do with your investigation?” Matt asked. “And not something...well, else? You know, something personal?”
Maggie turned on the man like he’d thrown a bucket of ice water on her. She felt heat scorch up from her belly, across her neck and into her face.
“And what exactly are you trying to suggest, Detective Walker?”
Matt held his hands up in defense.
“Nothing illegal or anything like that,” he answered. He jabbed his finger out the window. “I just meant this place kind of looks like the type where a person might meet a special kind of person when they wanted some alone time. I didn’t know if you had someone like that in your life right now.”
“And you thought that if I did, that yesterday, the day I potentially made some big discovery in an investigation that destroyed my reputation, that I decided to visit some imaginary—what?—lover here instead of at my house or his?”
“Hey, you said you can’t remember anything from yesterday.”
“Still, I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a rendezvous with a secret lover,” Maggie said. “Considering I’d need a secret lover to do that.” The detective lowered his hands and for a split second Maggie thought she saw relief in his expression. It made the heat in her cheeks reach a new height. “And if that was your way of trying to see if I have a boyfriend, next time just ask.”
The detective’s lips thinned. For a moment Maggie wondered if she’d crossed some imaginary line between them. It was pretty foolish for her to think, even for a second, that Matt Walker was relieved she was single.
What was also foolish was to admit she liked the idea that he might be relieved.
What am I, in high school? she thought.
Wanting anything beyond their forced proximity acquaintanceship wasn’t just barking up the wrong tree, it was barking up the wrong tree in the wrong park. Plus, she’d only spent less than one day with the man. Why was she entertaining any thoughts about him like that?
Forgotten Pieces Page 7
