Now he knew.
Connor opened the door and left.His next step would be even further over that line.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Roy Tanner’s Bar sat at the edge of Elmsview’s main drag, where the town began to loosen into tire shops, storage units, and fields that had not yet been sold to anyone with better plans.
Selena parked beneath the sign and looked up at it through the windshield.
The paint had faded under years of sun.On one side, a cartoonish Roy lifted a bottle of beer with a grin too wide for any human mouth.On the other, blue musical notes curled around the bar’s name, most of them bleached almost white now.Back then, she and Jessie had treated the place as if adulthood began and ended at Roy’s front door.
Connor had been part of that, too.
At first.
Then nights at Roy’s became arguments waiting for a reason.Connor at the bar with his friends, drinking too fast, laughing too loud, one shoulder turning stiff whenever some man looked at him wrong.Selena could still picture his hand closing around a bottle.His grin fading.A shove near the pool table.Chairs scraping back while Roy shouted for everyone to take it outside.
That Connor felt distant some days.
Other days, not distant enough.
A burst of static came from the portable radio on the passenger seat.
Arnold’s voice followed.“Agent Raven, you there?”
Selena picked it up.“I’m here.”
“Did you find Ray Parkinson, all right?”
“Not yet,” Selena replied.“His office said he went to Roy’s bar for a business meeting.”
Arnold laughed.“Wish I ran that type of business.”
“Any updates?”
“Just that he sent Chuck over to Carl Higgins’ place to get some security footage.We’re reviewing it now, but it looks like he was at his home last night.The chief switched his radio off after that, said he needed some time.”
Selena looked toward the road, half expecting the sheriff’s SUV to appear.It did not.
“All right,” she said.“I’ll keep you posted.”
She returned the radio to the seat, stepped out into the heat, and locked the car.The lot shimmered under the afternoon sun.Three pickups were parked closer to the entrance, all with work boots visible through the rear windows and dust filmed across the tailgates.
Music reached her before she opened the door.Low guitar, a slow drumbeat.
Selena pulled the door open.
Roy’s Bar wrapped around her at once.
The place was larger than it looked from outside, with a long bar to the left, booths against the far wall, and a small stage at the back where local bands had once played covers badly enough that everyone sang along to protect them.Old beer had soaked itself into the boards over the years.Fryer grease clung to the corners.The result hit Selena with embarrassing force.
It was almost like coming home.
A pool table sat near the side wall, green felt worn pale in the middle.Framed photographs hung crooked above the booths.Deer season winners.Softball teams.Men in ball caps holding fish with both hands.A picture of Selena hung somewhere in this room, she was sure of it.Twenty-two, sunburned, laughing, one arm around Jessie, the other around Connor before the rot had found them.
Her gaze went to the bar.
For one second, memory supplied Connor on a stool, younger and broader in his own mind than any man had a right to be.Beer in hand.Friends beside him.Temper close to the surface.She could see the moment before trouble.The way his mouth changed.The way the room watched him without looking.
