Page 97 of In Cold Blood

“Yeah. I’ll be right back.” Noah got out just as Jack patted the guy’s ass. The stranger ambled away.

Jack was all smiles as he jangled his keys and pressed the button on the key fob.

“You pat all your clients on the ass, Jack?” Noah asked.

His head swiveled 45 degrees, and the color drained from his skin. Like a kid found with his hand in the cookie jar, his cheeks soon went red.

“Noah. Um. Lena said you were back.”

He fumbled with his keys and dropped them.

“You look nervous, Jack. Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, straightening up. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“So?” Noah raised an eyebrow, gesturing with his head toward the man who had now crossed the road. “How much does he cost?”

“I… um… this isn’t what it looks like. Okay? He’s a friend,” he said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. “And I wasn’t paying for anything. It was to help him out.”

“A friend. Of Gloria’s?” He paused. “By the way, does Gloria know you’re here? I mean I would love to chat with her. We haven’t caught up in ages. You know what, maybe I should give her a call. Yeah. That would be great. We could all go out for coffee.” Noah pulled out his phone, pretending as if he had her number. He didn’t. Those days were long gone. They’d moved into a new place. Numbers for the Grayson family besides Lena’s went to a dead signal.

“She wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

“No?”

Axel started barking, his head sticking out of the window.Jack looked over and his cheeks went even redder. “Is that Mia and Ethan?”

“Yeah. Do you think Gloria would believe them?” He paused. “So, what was your friend’s name?”

Jack swallowed and got closer to him. “Look. Noah. This is embarrassing enough as it is. I don’t do this often. I’m just under a lot of stress and…”

“Hey, you’re a grown-ass man. None of my business. But there is something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about now that we’ve bumped into each other. How did you stumble across Erikson?”

“What?”

“Keith Erikson.”

“I was out. Hunting. I’ve already told them this.”

“Yeah, it’s surprising, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“You know — how they never arrested you or treated you like a suspect.” Noah tossed it out there knowing full well that finding a body wasn’t enough to justify arresting a man, never mind treating him like a suspect, but Noah said it to see what kind of reaction he would get.

“Based on what evidence? My friendship with Cyrus doesn’t mean I was involved in a crime.”

“Were you?”

“No,” he shot back.

Jack glanced off and then looked back at him. “So that’s it?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that your buddy killed him and you thought you would go to bat and get him out of a sticky situation after my brother figured out what a lowlife he was.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”