Jake observed the odd couple in front of him. The chief stood at least six feet and had to be tipping the scale at two-fifty on his best cardio day. Next to him, Lily’s slim frame appeared petite, but she was taller than she looked. She stood at least five-eight. Jake didn’t need a measuring tool for proof. He possessed sharp observation skills. Always had. While on the force, his superiors were quick to compliment him on his accurate descriptions. He perched himself on the edge of the couch now, thinking.
“So tell me about Sam. Lifeguard you say?” Jake rose from the couch, ignoring the strained expression on her face.
Circumstances took away his badge, but law enforcement would always be in his heart. And he was here to do a job. No matter whose toes he stepped on to find the truth, even if she had beautiful ones hidden in those black high-heeled boots. Focus on the case man, not the pretty woman. He cleared his throat and zeroed in. “When did you meet?”
She scowled at his questions as if they were too intrusive. “Why? What business is it of yours?” She turned to the chief. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. I get attacked in my store. Then he shows up at the very door my assailant ran out of, I might add”—she tipped her chin in Jake’s direction—“and scares the crap out of me. And then my ex-fiancé is murdered in my shop!” Her eyes narrowed, glistening with unshed tears. “Who are you really, Jake? You don’t act like any fisherman I know.” She turned to face the chief. “Maybe he’s the one who attacked me.”
The chief patted her hand. “Jake’s on the up and up. Don’t be concerned about him. In fact, I’m glad he’s here. He rented an apartment across the street and can keep an eye on you when I can’t. Make sure you’re okay. Been busy enough with these storm threats we’ve been having and I’m going to need all the man power I can get to investigate a homicide. The news crews are coming back in droves now that reports say another big one’s coming in a few days. Some fool reporter slipped off the rocks down by the water this morning in this thick fog and broke his leg. That’s what held me up.”
When she looked at him with confusion, he led her back to the couch. “Sit down, Lily. I’ll fill you in while we wait for my guys. Jake here’s an ex-cop from New York. Got injured on the job, and he’s on disability. He moved to New Jersey. And now he’s a small business owner.”
She looked Jake up and down. “He looks able bodied to me.”
Jake’s back jerked, almost in protest at her harsh response. Those big blue eyes were misleading. This Lily had thorns. “Got hit by a drunk driver I flagged over. When I got out of my vehicle to approach, he took off and clipped me hard. Sucker almost made it to Jersey before he was apprehended by fellow officers.”
“Jake’s lucky he wasn’t killed, but his back’s a mess.”
Lily visibly swallowed, then cleared her throat. “Sorry you got hurt. Glad they caught the guy.”
Car doors slammed out front. “My men are here.” The chief bounded toward the entrance to meet them.
Lily slid back on the couch. “So you’re a cop turned fisherman.”
Jake leaned back too and put on his poker face. He couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet anyway. First, he had to find out if she was in on the scam he was hired to investigate since she had a relationship with the dead guy. And now that he discovered she was no wallflower, he questioned how she could fall prey to Sam’s charms. Unless she was in on the deal. Could she have killed him? He’d have to dig into Lily’s background as well. “Yep, my father and I always dreamed of opening a bait and tackle shop. Now that Dad’s retired and I am as well, we thought why not now?”
“So how long have you lived in New Jersey? I guess your father lives close by, right? Or else, why pick this shore town? I mean, how did you even know the place was available if you’re not local?”
Years of practice enabled him to keep his thoughts from spilling out of his mouth and not let her interrogate him. He had to be careful about what he did tell her. “Wow, lots of questions. Let’s see. I’ve lived in the area a couple of years. My family still lives in New York. For now. We’ll see how our new store does before we make any big moves. And a realtor told us about it.”
“Interesting. Guess you’re going to replace all the tanks that are still there.”
Tanks? He wracked his memory of his store’s interior. A vague recollection of huge water tanks that at one time must have held different kinds of fish and bait came to mind. “Ah, yeah maybe.”
She studied him and something changed in her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with those tanks. Why would you think to get rid of them?”
She tested him. Stay in character, man. “We’re hoping a little elbow grease is all they need, but you never know. They haven’t been used in years.”
She crossed her arms against her chest and lifted her chin. Something brewed in that pretty head of hers.
“You didn’t inspect them thoroughly before signing a year’s lease? Robert hasn’t done a thing to fix that place up. If they leak, you’re stuck. It would cost a lot of money to replace them.”
Jake didn’t respond. He searched through his mental files. Who the hell was Robert? Oh right, Robert Reilly. The owner of the shop.
Lily kept on him. “Wouldn’t it have been a wiser investment to lease a place already in use? That way you’d get your feet wet. Just some friendly advice, from one small business owner to another.”
He heard male voices and went to stand, but she grabbed his hand and squeezed. Surprised, he sat back down.
“Jake, did you look at any other rentals?”
Chapter 3
Seconds later, the chief and several uniformed cops came in and went to the back of the store. One cop guarded the front door.
Jake turned from her and gave the cop a casual nod in spite of his jaw going tight. What initially tipped her off that he wasn’t a fisherman? His client had insisted he play the part, so he bought that old pickup truck and fishing equipment and sent her the bill. He even took fishing lessons. Up until that moment, he felt confident he’d covered all bases. Lily somehow had his number. Was she always this suspicious? Or was being left at the altar to blame?
When he didn’t respond, she went on. “We were trying to get Old Man Reilly’s estate to sell the shop to us, but his son Robert has been a challenge, to put it nicely. My sisters and I had a handshake deal with Robert, and we were working on getting the financing. But then he turned around and leased it to you, claiming we didn’t have a ‘meeting of the minds’.”
Jake turned his attention back to her and stuck to the truth as much as possible. “My sister owns a beauty salon and one of her clients is a realtor. When she learned of my predicament and our dream to have a place like this, she took it upon herself to look for us. And here we are. I’m renting an apartment right now, but if it all works out, I’ll buy my own place.”
Lily’s pink, delicious lips quivered. “Don’t get too attached to the place. By the time your lease is up, my sisters and I will have the financing to buy it, and I will take Robert to court, no matter how much a lawyer costs us. We had a verbal agreement.”
She patted the tissue under her eyes. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with those tanks except they’re a giant hassle to remove for anybody who doesn’t need them. The estate figured out quickly they couldn’t sell the place with them at the price they wanted, and Robert didn’t want to lay out any more money. He owns other properties and is known to be a bit of a slum lord. Anyway, we were working on negotiating a lease with an option to buy because the chief knew someone who could help us remove those tanks.”
At a loss for words, Jake ran his hand through his hair and cleared the guilt from his throat. He didn’t know this woman for more than a few minutes, but instincts told him she was tough, had a bit of an edge to her. Yet here she grew teary-eyed again. Not that he could blame her. First, her
ex-fiancé turns up dead in her shop, and now he learned that his client interfered with a family business plan.
Jake changed the subject to neutral territory. “You and the chief are close.”
Again, she eyed him suspiciously. “He’s like a second father to my sisters and me.”
“We have some time to kill, no pun intended. Tell me about your family and the chief.”
“Why?” She watched him with steady eyes.
The sharpness in her tone forced him to turn on the charm. He had never met a woman like her before, vulnerable one minute, spirited the next. “Trying to get the layout of my new hometown. Come on. The chief seems like a man I’d want in my corner.” Dissecting her relationship with the chief might be the best way to learn as much as he could about her and her family.
She grabbed another tissue from the box and dabbed the tears away. Then she sighed and her shoulders slumped. Suddenly, she looked defeated. He wanted to slip his arm around her waist and pull her into him and shield her pain. He resisted of course, but that gut reaction shocked him. Not the fact that he found her incredibly attractive, but that desire could get in the way of his job.
“Really. I’m a good listener,” he said with an extra-warm smile. He waited for his charm to work since his gift usually did on the ladies. On the force, his supervisors encouraged him to use this asset when interviewing witnesses or questioning suspects. The talent had been a bit of a guilty pleasure until now.
“Sorry, you’re being very kind. And I’m . . . well, I’m a mess right now.”
She batted wet lashes at him and smiled back, captivating him. A bead of sweat broke from his forehead and rolled down his temple. Now the tables turned on him. And for the first time, he got a sense of how the recipients of his magnetism must feel.
Yes, her beauty struck him, but when she smiled . . . His stomach clenched. Her pale skin covered with blotchy pink spots and clear-blue eyes now red and puffy from crying drew him in like a mythical siren of the sea. At that moment, he knew this case was not going to be easy. He stared at her rosy mouth and concentrated on every word that came out.
“When Dad died, the chief helped my family get through his sudden death. Soon afterward, he met his wife, Daisy. Funny how things happen. He was the typical middle-aged bachelor with no desire to settle down and then he met the love of his life. Daisy had never been married either. We planned the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful.”
“Life sometimes works out that way.”
Lily nodded. “Mom got sick soon after. I know she held out as long as she could for us girls, but Dad’s passing broke her heart. Cancer took over. The chief and Daisy became surrogate parents to us.”
Lily was calmer now, and in those key moments Jake, too, had gained back his senses. He pursued his questioning. “Tell me about Sam. What do you think is going on?”
She didn’t answer him at first, and he half expected her to tell him to mind his business. She remained slumped back into the couch, then spoke in a hushed voice.
“I have no idea. Like I said, besides that letter he left me on our wedding day, he hasn’t had the decency to face me and talk about it.”
“Coward.” Jake meant that. Sam sounded more and more like his client’s guy. The jerk must have had a stash of fake Id’s in a suitcase under his bed.
“Right? I mean, how do you date someone for months, talk to or see each other every day, then nothing? Cut them off. I still don’t understand what really happened.”
“You can’t. Not if you’re a respectable person. Tell me more about him. How did you meet?”
“He was hired to be a lifeguard in town for the summer a couple of years ago. I was walking the beach early one morning before the season started and we met. We were together every day after that.”
Jake gazed outside at the lifting fog. He didn’t need to be a fisherman to know that something fishy was going on here. He needed to be a cop. His client had hired him to find a man she called a snake in the grass. The snake had bitten her and she was after him like a mongoose. Jake suspected Sam was that snake. He turned back to look at Lily. “Nothing seemed off to you about Sam when you first met?”
She tipped her head to one side, then rewarded him with a chuckle. “You are suspicious. Not everyone’s a criminal or has bad intentions, you know.”
He sat back, surprised at her unexpected reaction. She could have doubted him, scoffed at his words, and even implied that he believed the worst in people. That wouldn’t be the first time a woman accused him of being a pessimist. His ex-girlfriend had hurled those charges at him before she slammed the door and walked out of their apartment a few months after his accident. But instead, Lily melted him with a beautiful smile.
“That’s the cop in me,” he said.
Her cornflower-blue eyes locked with his and he gulped. Something simmered in that pretty head of hers again. Could she see through him? He plucked tissues from the box and wiped his forehead. “Go on.”
“I walk the beach early in the morning for exercise. Then I go home and walk Leo to the bay. Dogs are not allowed on the beach that time of year. Then I shower and head down to my shop.”
“So you have a daily routine. How did you and Sam start dating?”
“Mom was already sick, and I was going through a rough time. Sam went through it all with me. Mom thought we got serious too soon. He held my hand, brushed away my tears. He was an angel sent by my dad, but he turned out to be the opposite. Like his letter said. He had commitment issues.”
Jake suspected Sam’s issues ran deeper than a fear of marriage. Her mom was right about their relationship. Too neat, too fast. “I know nothing about weddings except seeing what my sister went through. Took her almost two years to plan the event. Sounds like you got yours together in months.”
“I did.” She waved an arm about, showcasing the room they were in. “My sisters and I have been planning our own weddings since grammar school. I had a wedding scrap book, and over the years, I’d update my book. When Sam came along, he was the perfect groom. We belonged together. I learned how wrong I was on my wedding day.”
“Tell me about Sam’s family. Where was he from? Did he have a lot of siblings?”
“Hmm. Well, he was from a small town in Upstate New York. Lived near a big lake. He was an only child, and his parents both died by the time he was in his early twenties. He didn’t like to talk about them much. I gathered they were alcoholics. One night, when Sam was seventeen, his dad took their boat out on the lake while intoxicated. Fell overboard and drowned. His mother died a few years later, drank herself to death. Then he developed a friendship with someone from Australia who introduced him to lifeguarding. For several years, he’d go to Australia during our winter months and come back during our summer months.”
The chief came toward them with another officer. The young cop held a pen and pad.
The chief spoke to all of them but focused on Jake as if they were collaborating. “As far as I can tell he hasn’t been dead long. Body’s still warm. Looks like a gunshot wound to the head as cause of death, but I’m speculating. ME’s on his way.”
Jake got a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. “So Lily interrupted the murderer. She’s lucky she wasn’t killed too.”
Lily’s eyes widened as the knowledge she escaped death sunk in. She reached down for Leo who sat at her feet and snuggled him into her chest.
The chief spoke in soft tones to Lily. “I have questions for you Lily about Sam, and we’ll have to rehash some facts about your relationship. Come down to the station for that, but for now let’s go over exactly what happened this morning. This town rarely sees this kind of crime as you know.” To the other officer, his tone grew deeper and more authoritative. “We’re going to have lots of eyes on us.”
The younger officer poised himself to jot d
own whatever Lily said. They all turned and studied Lily, waiting for her to start.
She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I left my house around six-thirty to meet the early delivery here at the shop. On the way out, Aunt Bee stopped me. She needed help with her stove.”
The chief nodded. “I guess that was her excuse to check in on you.”
When Lily peered up at the chief with those gorgeous baby blues, the chief added with a shrug, “I asked her to look out for you while your sisters are gone.”
“I knew it!” Her neck flushed beet red. “I guess I deserved that after last week.”
Jake interrupted her. “Who’s Aunt Bee? And what happened last week?”
“Aunt Bee is Lily’s elderly next-door neighbor. She adores the three girls. Like my wife and me, she has no children. She dotes on Lily, Chrissy, and Rose. Lily’s sisters are gallivanting in Europe on some sort of wedding gown hunt,” the chief said, crossing his arms against his puffed-out chest, looking piqued.
Lily grew redder in the face, adding, “They’re going to runway shows looking to snag new dress designers who will work exclusively in our shop. We have our hearts set on a young Italian designer, and I think she’s interested. That special shipment was filled with some of her gowns. I can’t wait to see them up close.”
The chief grumbled something under his breath and Lily pursed her lips, miffed at his disapproval. Interesting. Jake had witnessed a similar exchange between his dad and sister when they disagreed.
Forever Hold Your Piece (The Becker Sisters Bridal Series Book 1) Page 3
