Cole glanced her way, his eyes narrowing then brightening.
She hadn’t exactly officially told him he was hired before this moment.
“I’ve vetted him and agree he’s top-notch,” Hargrove said. “I feel better knowing you’ve hired him. Let’s keep in touch, Mercer.”
“Any news on the victim’s identity?” Cole asked.
“Gotta go. I’ll be in touch.” The call suddenly ended.
She needed some air. Jo got out of the truck and started toward the stairs. This was déjà vu, and her knees shook, but she had to see this through. Cole joined her, following her, weaving through the vehicles with others toward the steps. She released a pent-up breath. Somehow, she’d have to hide from him just how much his presence affected her, but it also reassured her. Because, hey, big, strong former Green Beret. Who wouldn’t feel more confident facing danger?
“How did he get off that ferry?” Cole asked. “How did he evade law enforcement?”
“The billion-dollar question. Let someone else answer it. That guy doesn’t concern me right now. Pop concerns me right now.”
“You witnessed a murder. You’re the only witness. And you saw the killer. Youshouldbe concerned.”
“Bad enough someone was already after me.” Okay, nowshe had to sit down. Jo found a bench and slumped onto it. And Cole sat with her.
He took her hand.
She focused on the strength there. The calluses too. What did he do to get calluses?
“I know it’s a lot to take in.”
“I thought that eventually I would go back to Michigan. After a while. After things died down and, I don’t know ... try to figure out my mother’s warnings. What happened to her. But I built a new life. Pop, Remi, and the Cedar Trails Lodge staff are my family. The people in town, I know and love. Pop ... he really is the best dad. Dale, I loved him like a father, and ... I still do, even though he left and died before he could maybe come back, but Pop cherishes me. You know? A person can tell the difference. I didn’t want to lose that, so I let go of solving the mystery behind my mother’s death. Left behind any danger to me. Sometimes I think that I might have imagined it after all.”
“You didn’t imagine it. I read the reports.”
Instead of responding, Jo listened to the roar of the ocean, the crashing of waves. The ferries usually took the smoothest paths, but that didn’t seem possible today. At least this new ferry wasn’t being battered like the one this morning. She might have stayed in her Rover and none of this would have happened. After she was back at Cedar Trails and the small town of Forestview, she might not ever ride another ferry. Still, she’d only gone to Seattle because of her father.
God,please let Pop beokay.
She tried him on the cell again. Nothing. Cole’s concerned expression almost brought on the tears.
“It’s not like him,” she said. “Totally not like him.”
“You can kick me later for asking the hard questions.”
Really? “What now?”
“What do you really know about him? His past?”
And nowColewas doing the kicking. Kicking her when she was down. It wasn’t enough he had to knowhowshe knew that Raymond Dodge was her father.
“He’s owned the R&D Auto Repair Shop for thirty years. Everyone in town loves him.”
“Anything before that? Did he grow up here or move from somewhere else?”
“He was from Texas. It’s where he met Mom. Loved Tex-Mex and made the best chili. Said after they went their separate ways, he moved up to the Pacific Northwest to get away from the memories and the three months of Texas blazing sun along with three-digit temps. Beyond that? Who knows anything about anyone going that far back?”
Still, his question left her unsettled.
6
The question had to be asked. Given his experience and his present line of work, his mind automatically jumped to some of the worst-case scenarios. Was Dodge a former murderer in hiding? He didn’t seem the type, but Cole had witnessed stranger occurrences. Often the worst sorts of criminals lived in plain sight, involving themselves in a community that had no idea about their past. But it wasn’t fair for Cole to attach those thoughts to Jo’s father, a man in whom she’d placed her trust. Not until he knew more.
In coming to Washington state to find her, Cole had prepared to ask her the difficult questions about what happened in Michigan regarding her mother’s death. Was it murder? He would uncover the truth. He’d come here with the thought that at least she had her father for support. He never could have imagined that her father had put her in danger. He admired Jo for her strength and how well she held up under pressure. If only Cole could have come to see her without bringing investigative questions with him.
