With the crowd nearly gone now and Kat busy speaking to a very non-threatening, elderly woman, Matt felt it safe enough to move a few feet away, so the two ladies wouldn’t overhear.
“Something about this whole thing feels…off.”
Zade’s brows furrowed behind the rim of his sunglasses. “Off, how?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know.”
“So talk it out.”
That was one of the things Matt loved about Zade. The man was a badass in his own right. A former SEAL who’d seen and done things most couldn’t even imagine. Yet there was still a sort of tenderness about him that brought with it a fresh outlook to the team.
Matt had teased him once about being the kind of guy girls left in a perpetual friend zone because he always wanted to talk about shit. Truth be told, Zade’s uncanny way of knowing when someone needed a sounding board was one of the things Matt liked best about the guy.
“Maybe I’m seeing shit that isn’t there, but this whole situation has been nagging at me.”
“What’s eating at you?”
“For starters, I don’t like Kat being out in the open like this.”
Zade gave a slight shrug. “It’s her dad’s funeral, Matt. Not like she’d miss it.”
“My point exactly.”
The other man frowned before looking out around them. “You think someone’s going to try something here?”
Shoving his hands into the pockets of his black suit pants, Matt sighed. “I don’t know. All I do know is I haven’t talked to Marsh in over ten years. Suddenly, I go to confront him about what he did to Kat and me, and he ends up dying hours later, that very same day?”
Zade thought a moment. “The timing does seem a bit odd.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
A raspy female voice had both men’s heads turning. With a casual, yet guarded step, a woman and a man—both appearing to be in their early-to-mid thirties—approached them. Matt immediately noticed their matching badges and guns.
“You Matthew Turner?” the man asked Matt.
“Do I know you?”
“Not yet”—the female answered—“but you will. I’m Detective Casey. This is my partner, Detective Holloway. We’re with the Long Beach Police Department’s homicide division.”
The tightening in Matt’s gut worsened. “Homicide?”
“That’s right.” Holloway looked back at him. “We’d like to ask you a few questions about your relationship with Mr. Marsh.”
With a quick glance to make sure Kat was still preoccupied, Matt told the two detectives, “Pretty sure someone in your department got their wires crossed. Thomas Marsh died in a car accident. He wasn’t murdered. Sorry you wasted a trip out here.”
He and Zade had only just turned around when the woman said, “That’s what the M.E. thought, too. At first.”
Matt closed his eyes.Ah, fuck.Facing the detectives again, Matt said, “As you can see, Marsh’s body was released for burial days ago. So, if there was some confusion in the paperwork or something—”
“Oh, there’s no confusion,” the woman said confidently. “We know for a fact the man in that casket was murdered.”
A soft gasp hit Matt’s ears, and he spun around to find Kat looking back at the two strangers, her jaw having dropped.
“Murdered? W-what are you talking about? There must be some mistake. My father was killed in an automobile accident.”
“Ah, hell,” Zade muttered under his breath.
“Someone went to a lot of trouble to make us think that, Miss Marsh.” The woman stepped forward and offered Kat her hand. “Detective Casey, Long Beach Homicide. I’m sorry for your loss.”
