“There was no handshake.”
He got to his feet but did not step toward her.“What was I supposed to do?Wait for another body?Another person I cared about dead?Who would you like, Selena?Jessie?Your dad?Or some random who means nothing to you but something to those of us who live here!?”
“Come on, Connor,” she said.“You can’t think you’re being targeted.”
“I don’t,” he conceded.“But it could be anyone in town, and the chances of it being someone who means something to me… That’s pretty high since I’ve lived here my entire life.”
“You were supposed to tell me what you were doing.I would have talked you out of it.”
“I don’t answer to you.”
“No.You answer to the law.Remember that?The oath you took?”
The words hit him.Selena saw it, but she did not take them back.
Connor turned his cup between both hands.“I was careful.I wasn’t followed.Morimer was the only one who handled the money.”
Selena laughed once, short and disbelieving.“What if the FBI has him under surveillance?”
Connor’s face changed.
There it was.The thing he had not considered.
“Do you think that’s a possibility?”he asked.
“Yes.While you were away getting into trouble, I discovered that Warren Holt made repeated payments to an account attached to Morimer.”
“Warren?”He shook his head.“Why?”
“I don’t know.It looks like he had some money troubles, and he was probably paying Morimer back for some emergency loan.But the point is, I wasn’t allowed to talk to him because there’s some sort of FBI sting operation going on.And you might have just incriminated yourself in bribery!?”
He looked forlorn.“Do you know this for sure?”
Selena sighed.“I know he’s being watched.If a field office has a bug in that house, or a long lens on the gate, or a file you don’t know about, then there’s a recording of a sitting sheriff handing cash to a crime boss during an active murder investigation.”
Connor looked down.
The anger drained from his posture and left weariness behind.He sat again, slower this time.
Selena finished her drink.“But I guess it’s done now.”
“For what it’s worth, I thought I was helping.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make it right.”
He lifted his eyes.
“If you pull any shit like this again, talk to me first.”
“I don’t need permission.”
“No, you need good judgment.You’re emotionally compromised.”
His expressions tightened.
Selena poured another drink and took a harder swallow than she should have.“Connor, if you were anyone else, I’d make sure you got suspended for this, pending a further investigation.You’d lose your badge.”
“But I’m not anyone else, am I?”
