It was never hiding the good things.
So he didn’twantto keep pushing into Gerald Harrington’s suicide.He didn’twantto find out more about how Charles Hayes had died or what Mr.Everly had to do withanyof it.
But he knew he had to.Or it would keep building, building, building until he had a breakdown.
Damn it.He was tired of breaking down.
He waited in the parking lot for Hayes like they’d agreed.Just like they’d done yesterday.And just like yesterday, Cal was early and Jake was late.
“Sorry, got held up,” Jake said when he approached.“Ready?”
Cal nodded.It was a strange turn of events to suddenly be working side by side with Detective Hayes, but what wasn’t strange since coming home last spring?
The truth made for strange bedfellows—Sam Price and Detective Jake Hayes definitely at the top of the list.
“I don’t think Sam’s too happy we’re pushing this,” Cal offered as he climbed into Jake’s truck in the police station parking lot.
“Didn’t know you cared about Sam’s approval,” Hayes returned, eyes on the road as he drove out of the parking lot.
“I don’t.”Though he did care about how Sam’s approval trickled down and around the other people in his life.“Figuredyoudid.”
Jake shot him a look out of the corner of his eye.It was just a flick of a glance, but Cal saw everything he’d suspected right there in it.
It eased him some, to feel like he had some kind of upper hand somewhere.
“Nope,” Jake replied easily, but it didn’t change thatlook.
Detective Jake Hayes had a thing for Sam.Which explained the weird tension in the air when Jake had come into the office to share that his father’s remains had been recovered.Nate must beveryaware of said thing because there had been nothing but… antagonism between the two.Even when they hadn’t acted on it.
Cal nearly smiled.He certainly liked thinking about other people’s complicated and perhaps contentious relationships rather than what was going on in his brain.
The drive wasn’t too long, but it was an uncomfortable, tense kind of silence the whole way.Because they both knewwhatthey were doing—but Cal didn’t think either one of them had a clue as towhy.Particularlytogether.
Jake pulled up into the drive of the house they’d come to yesterday.A tiny, suburban home with a very well-tended yard.No one had answered yesterday.Maybe no one answered today.
Cal wasn’t sure at what point they’d be content to give up.He didn’t know much at all.The only thing he knew for sure was he had to keep moving forward, poking into things long buried, until they weren’t haunting his nightmares anymore.
Don’t tell.A voice in his head—sometimes Glenda’s, sometimes his mother’s.He wasn’t sure if it was real memory or just… some kind of haunting.
Just like yesterday, neither of them got out of the truck right away.Cal glanced at Jake, who glanced at him with an expression that Cal fully understood.It seemed to saywhy the hell are we doing this and how did we end up doing it together?
But here they were.
They hadn’t called ahead yesterday, and they hadn’t called ahead today.They both agreed that some element of surprise might work in their favor.
Cal got out first, breaking the seal, so to speak.Hayes followed.Up a neat stone pathway to the front door.Cal rang the bell, Jake waiting just behind him on the stoop.
Today, he sensed movement from inside, and after a few moments the knob turned, and the door opened to an older man.He had a shock of white hair, lines like deep grooves around his eyes and mouth—a sign of being out in the sun a lot and smoking as much as, if not more so, than from age.His dark gaze moved over the both of them for a moment, then a smile bloomed.
“Cal Bennet.”He reached out for Cal’s hand, pumped it eagerly.“It’s good to see you.”
“You, too, Mr.Everly.”The warm greeting actually served to ease some of Cal’s tension.
Even though he was here under not-great circumstances, well, it was nice to be greeted with something likehappiness.
“Maybe you remember Jake Hayes,” Cal said, gesturing to Jake behind him.“Another Marietta High graduate.”
Again the old man’s gaze moved over the other man on his stoop.“Of course,” he said, his tone gentling, something in his gaze softening from that happiness to a kind of… sympathy.“I knew your father.”
