As we cleared off the table and placed our dirty dishes in a wash basin, I considered what came next. Hopefully, that afternoon, Charlie would be able to tell me what the forensicslab and the coroner had found out about Brett’s death. The information should help point us in a direction that steered far from Lacy.
As we were saying goodbye to Gladys, a bell above the door tinkled, and when I turned around to see who was entering the Morning Brew, there stood Deputy Wright, her hand wrapped possessively around Charlie’s bicep.
TWENTY-FIVE
As soon as Charlie saw me, he shook off the deputy’s hand and stepped toward me.
“Dakota,” he said, the single word laden with uncertainty. “Did you get my note?”
I thought of the simple sentence he’d scrawled:Meeting with Wright this morning to discuss case.
“Yep,” I said. “It was very informative.”
He stood awkwardly between me and Deputy Wright, whose face had assumed a more professional expression, the flirtatious grin she’d been beaming at him wiped away for now.
In that moment, I despised my insecurity. Momma had taught me to be a strong, independent woman in so many ways, and I was proud that despite losing her, I’d forged ahead. I was about to graduate from one of the most challenging veterinary programs in the country with full honors and a fellowship recommendation. But when it came to romance, I’d never had an example of relationships, good or bad. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t quite get a grip when it came to Charlie.
He nodded in greeting to Savilla. “I’m not sure you had the chance to meet my new deputy last night during the questioning.”
“I haven’t had the pleasure,” Savilla said, though her voice wasn’t raised in that high pitch she reserved for those she was actually pleased to meet. “Charlie did my interview, which was much too short. I was almost offended not to be more of a suspect.” She laughed, but the deputy didn’t seem to get the joke.
“Jill Wright, this is Savilla Finch, owner of The Rose,” Charlie said, motioning between the two of them.
Savilla reached out a hand even though her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes and her lips were tight. I could tell that she was also disturbed by the visual of the pair of them entering the café. She seemed to be taking her newly discovered role as my sister seriously. “I assume you’re both at the Morning Brew as part of the investigation?” she asked.
It startled me to hear the edge to her voice, one that said she wasn’t about to stand for any shenanigans.
“We wanted to drop by the station to run a background check on a couple of people staying at The Rose, so we decided to grab a coffee,” Charlie answered, before turning to me. “I actually heard from the lab this morning. Do you have a few minutes?”
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to talk to Charlie, especially not if I was going to be sitting across from him and his deputy, staring at the two of them side by side, being reminded what a nice matching pair they made in uniform. I’d seen obvious desire in the deputy’s eyes, but Charlie was more difficult to read. Still, how could he not respond to the advances of such a woman like Jill Wright?
I nodded curtly, telling myself that I would time my stay just as I’d hoped to do last night at the reunion. They could order their coffee, and I would sit across from them for ten minutes, max.
“Why don’t I ride with Jill back to The Rose?” Savilla asked, interrupting my plan and improvising her own. “That way the two of you”—she waved a hand from me to Charlie—“can discusswhatever you need to discuss for as long as you need to discuss it?”
“Actually, Charlie and I were planning to—” Deputy Wright began.
“No,” Charlie interrupted, his eyes still on me. “That’s a good idea. You should go with Savilla and check on things at The Rose. We’ll be behind shortly.”
The deputy’s eyes flitted toward me, her expression annoyed. “Fine,” she said. “Let me get a coffee to go and we can head out.”
“Goody,” Savilla said with a facetiousness I’d never heard her use. “We can get to know each other on the way home.”
Savilla shot me a look as if to say she would take things from here, and I almost felt a smile forming on my lips before I glanced back at Charlie and saw his sheepish frown. Was he embarrassed that I’d caught him flirting with another woman? Or did he actually have something to discuss with me? Perhaps it was both.
A group of tourists, antiquers it looked like, stepped into the coffee shop, so it took several minutes for Gladys to ring up the new orders and make their drinks. While we waited, Deputy Wright actually tried to make conversation with me.
“Charlie says you’re in a veterinary program?”
Even though it might be unreasonable, I hated hearing his name on her lips—and anyway, he was her boss. She shouldn’t have been using his first name.
“Fourth year,” I answered.
“How many years does it take?”
“This is my last year, and next semester is almost entirely clinical.”
