Liam didn’t want her to have to hide anything from him, but he also understood that sometimes you needed time to process new information, and usually, that was easier with a clear head. Even if you had to temporarily force it clear to get there.
“But for Beth to publicly scold Mr. Grant?” Blake shook her head. “There must have been something that upset her about what she found during her investigation into the furnaces. She wasn’t the type to just fly off the handle, especially not at a man like Mr. Grant. He holds more weight in this town than the mayor or the—” She stopped short.
Liam snorted.
“Or the sheriff,” he finished. “Believe me, I may not be a true local, but I know the social standings of everyone. If Missy’s dad has a loyal following for his old tractor supply business, the man who employs half of the town is close to God.”
She nodded.
“Small towns give you a run for your money, that’s for sure.”
They had already gotten caught in the same questions before, just as they had with questions about Missy.
Why had Missy had Beth Bennet’s laptop the day of her death? Had she broken into the Bennet home to get it? But then, if she had, why return it?
And did all roads lead back to the steel mill?
Liam ran a hand down his face, then stood. He extended his hand back down to where Blake was sitting. He had her on her feet in a blink.
“We need answers, so let’s ask the right people questions,” he said. “Looks like we’re going to the steel mill.”
THEPLANSEEMEDSIMPLE, but it took two hours on the phone to get an appointment set up to speak to Mr. Grant himself the next day. And even though Liam wanted to be the one taking the job on, it was Blake who ended up making the plans.
“Mr. Grant will see me faster than he will you,” she had explained before calling. “He knows my father and I can play the sympathy card too. I’ll just say I found something about my sister’s investigation there and had some questions. He’ll have to see me one way or the other.”
And that’s exactly what had happened.
Mr. Grant’s assistant had confirmed the appointment for the next afternoon at his office. Like meeting with Kyle, Liam hadn’t liked the idea of her going alone.
To which she had responded with a slight teasing to her tone.
“You’re coming too, so don’t worry about that. We just need to figure out how to get you in there without making anyone clam up.”
That had been on his mind too but shifted to the back burner as day turned to night. They returned to Price’s house and Liam relieved him. They spoke at the car after dinner was finished and before he left.
“Darius is still working on getting that guy with the baseball cap that y’all caught at the house to talk,” he updated him. “He has a lawyer though and isn’t budging. Then there’s the whole Mater situation. Ray too.”
Ray McClennan had flatlined twice and was still in the ICU. Mater was still in the hospital but wasn’t saying a word either. Liam didn’t like their only lead being the steel mill, but as the shadows of night grew darker, he couldn’t think of another way to get an answer. At the very least, they could cross off some of their new questions.
Liam was still going over those questions as he took a new change of clothes into the guest bathroom downstairs when soft footsteps sounded in the hallway. He peeked his head out to see Blake shuffling across the hardwoods toward him.
Since meeting the woman, he had been aware of her—from the lobby of the high school to the coffee shop to the department to her home to his apartment—but now it was like every sense Liam had went on a higher alert.
Her hair was wet from the shower she had taken after supper. It made the normal red into a dark heat, waving to the tops of her shirt and making the fabric darker too for it. Her shirt was oversized and swallowed her body all the way to her thighs. He could just make out the bottom of some shorts but only barely so. Then those legs were free and clear until the pair of socks that were helping her slide so quietly along the floor.
She had no make-up on. No lip anything.
Those lips.
They still hadn’t talked about the kiss from earlier that day.
He wasn’t going to bring it up now.
Blake had the baby monitor in her hand.
She shook it in the air a little when she met his eye.
“Unlike the three of them up there, I can’t sleep,” she said, voice low. “I was coming down to see if you wanted to chat.”
