Well, he looked at the four people at his table.Histable.Hishouse.Hiswife moving around the room making sure everyone’s coffee was topped off.Maybe this wasn’thismystery, but it had ended up in his house and involved Aly’s friend and someone Cal had some weird connection to.
So instead of hiding his head in the sand, he took control.These people had come here forsomething.He intended to give it.
“So, this guy you found, Sam.He was the police officer who would have responded to Gerald’s death?”
“Far as I can know,” Sam said.
She sat stiffly in the chair, staring at her hands.Landon wasn’t sure she’d made eye contact with anyone.He’d never seen her like this, and they’d been through a lot together at this point.
“I was just going to ask him if he remembered it.I can’t find any report, and there had to have been one.Even if Glenda took Gerald to the hospital herself, there has to be a report.”Her eyebrows drew together.“The medical examiner was retired, and she didn’t remember for sure, but she thought it was this guy.So I thought I’d go ask him some questions, but he…” She shuddered and Nate moved his chair a little closer.
“I asked some questions of the first responders,” Jake interjected.“The initial theory is that he’d been there a few days.It’s too early to have more details than that.”
Landon ran a hand through his hair.Another suicide.Even though it was a stranger, the timing of it didn’t sit right or well.“Okay, so how does this connect to Mr.Everly and Kalispell?”
“It doesn’t,” Cal said, toying with his mug but not taking any sips.“It just all seems to be coming to the same head at the same time.”
Landon couldn’t decide what was worse.A clearcut answer and connection or… this.All these unknowns.
At least they had options when it came to shitty knowns.
“So, we set Gerald’s stuff on one side.Then on the other side is Mr.Everly protecting whoever is threatening you by claiming the art was done by someone it wasn’t.If it’s not his nephew, it has to be someone he cares about.That’s why you protect someone.”
“That’s whyyouprotect someone, Landon,” Cal said.
“He’s right though,” Nate chimed in.“At least partially.There’s a reason Everly lied.I’m going to look into him today and see if it leads us to a reason, but…” Nate looked around the room.“I think we need to confront Glenda.This has gotten out of hand.She has answers—maybe not all of them.Maybe nothing about Cal’s threat, but all these threads… touch.”
“It’s a small town,” Sam pointed out.“Sometimes touching is just coincidence.”
“Sometimes, and sometimes it’s because they were braided together a long time ago.Sheknowssomething aboutsomethinghere.Maybe it was fair at the time for her to keep her secrets to herself.Maybe she’s got every right to keep this a secret, but not if Cal is getting threats.Not if…” Nate trailed off, but his hand was rubbing up and down Sam’s back.
“We can’t just all go charging up there at this hour and demand answers,” Aly said gently.“No matter what’s happening, she’s a traumatized woman with a health condition.”
“That’s why we stopped here first,” Cal said.“To try and figure out how to approach this.I don’t want to push Glenda, but I’m with Nate.This feels like it’s spiraling out of our control.Maybe this guy’s suicide is a coincidence, maybe the threats don’t connect, but…”
Hadn’t they all learnedcoincidencesweren’t for them?And it had started fifteen years ago, when their father had murdered their mother.Everyone in this room had something to do with that.
Except one.
He turned to the odd man out here.“Well?”
Detective Hayes eyed him warily.“Well, what?”
“You’re the cop here.”
Hayes looked at Landon, then around the room.After a moment, he wiped a hand over his mouth, and Landon thought it might be the only time he’d ever seen Detective Hayes look anything but detached and sure.
“As a detective, I have to caution you all on taking any action.The police will investigate the threat to Cal, the suicide Sam stumbled over.Answers will, eventually, be found.Probably.”
Cal snorted at theprobably.
Hayes’s expression sharpened then, turned into something far more determined.“But I am not here as an officer of the law,” he said, looking at Cal.Then Sam.“I’m here because everything since my father’s death was brought up after twenty-five years of barely thinking about the guy has been fucked.And none of it’s criminal, besides the things I previously mentioned.So, we could go to the police, but for what?”
“Guess there is a reason to have private investigators after all,” Sam said, clearly some attempt at a joke.
But Jake didn’t even crack a smile when he looked at her, and she wasn’t smiling either.Still just staring blankly at her hands.
“I want to know what Glenda knows.Maybe it’s a fat lot of nothing, but damn, I doubt it.”
