Page 28 of Killer Knows Best (Fallon Baxter FBI Mystery #4)

28

SPECIAL AGENT FALLON BAXTER

T he drive back to Pine Ridge Falls is a much-needed respite after the so-called interrogation with Karen Holt.

None of it went well from start to finish. But then, we weren’t really shaking her down as hard as we would have liked to. But that, too, shall come, rather than pass.

The crisp, cool fall night greets Jack and me as the two of us pass the sign marking the town’s border.

The leaves are a stunning amber and gold and they pop against the fading twilight. Ahead, the majestic falls that give this place its name spill down the cliffside and the moonlight illuminates them and makes me feel as if I’m living in a sci-fi movie. They stretch into the night sky like silver ribbons, surrounded by mist and the scent of pine and wet earth. It’s a stunning view, but I’m too wired to fully appreciate it or snap a quick picture for posterity.

My mother’s diner appears like an apparition and I frown once I see that Nikki beat us here by a fraction of a second.

Jack pulls the truck into the diner parking lot, and I hop out and stretch my legs along with Nikki just as Buddy bolts out of the restaurant and leaps toward us.

The cute pooch’s nails click against the pavement as he bounds over and his tail is wagging like he’s been waiting all night for us.

“Look who’s happy to see us,” I say, hugging him briefly as he leaps in and out of my partial embrace.

Nikki drops to one knee and gives him a good scratch behind the ears. “Well, would you look at that? My hot date has arrived,” she says, grinning. And she means it, too.

“Careful”—Jack says, stepping around his truck—“you’re going to give him an ego.”

“Is that what happened to you?” I tease as I blink a smile at him.

“Too late,” Nikki practically sings to Buddy. “He knows he’s a heartbreaker.”

“Just like you.” I nod to Jack as we head for the diner.

“I’m not looking to break anyone’s heart,” he says as he opens the door. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“You keep believing that.” Nikki laughs before turning my way. “Just tell me when it’s time to go after him with a bullet. I know how to make it look like an accident.”

“Hey,” Jack says as we pass him by. “You do realize I’m within earshot.”

“Consider it a warning,” Nikki shoots back.

The second we step inside my mother’s diner, the scent of pancakes and syrup battles it out with a freshly broiled steak. That’s a perfect example of what menu items rule the roost at this late hour in the evening.

Mom gives a friendly wave from a few tables over. “Find a seat, and don’t make a mess,” she says, pointing us toward the back .

My sister Riley pops up just as we land in the booth and hands us each a menu.

“Thanks,” Jack tells her with a frown. “How’s your investigation going, Detective Baxter? You hear any news about your sister?”

I’m glad Jack asked the question. Had I done it, the episode would have evolved into hair-pulling, fist-throwing chaos. I’m so angry that Riley feels bold enough to trek out on her own, but I get it. She wants to track down Erin as badly as we do.

“Thank you for acknowledging me like a real person,” she says to Jack with a click of her tongue before turning my way. “Some people don’t think I have the finesse for this line of work.”

“I never said you didn’t have the finesse,” I tell her. “The facts are that you don’t have nine lives. You don’t even have two, and if you start messing around in Elmwood, you soon won’t have one. What did you find out?”

Riley wrinkles her nose and suddenly looks like the spitting image of our mother’s younger years, a blonde ambition version.

“Nothing,” she says. “Apparently, no one on the streets wants to talk to me about her or the weather. They all think I’m a narc or a cop or one of you.” She hitches her head toward the kitchen. “You want coffee and pie?”

We all agree and she takes off.

The residents of Elmwood might think Riley is one of us, but she’s down one badge and more importantly down one Glock. I’ll need to have a private word with her and make it clear that she absolutely needs to stay away. Erin is my assignment. Maybe not an official one, but she’s my problem just the same.

Buddy bolts from Jack’s side of the table to the one with Nikki and me before sidling up between us.

“Looks like your hot date is getting comfortable,” Jack says to Nikki with that signature grin of his tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Let him,” she says. “He’s the best date I’ve had in a while. He doesn’t talk back, doesn’t argue, and he’s loyal. What more could a girl want?”

“A guy who knows his way around a kitchen,” I tell her without missing a beat.

“Hey”—Jack offers a playful frown my way and looks decidedly sexy while doing so—“I know my way around a delivery menu.”

“And that is what attracts me to you most,” I say with a wink.

Riley comes back with three piping hot slices of apple pie along with a fat scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on each one. She doles out the coffee before heading off to help with the rest of the tables. It’s a busy one tonight. All of Pine Ridge Falls looks as if they’ve shown up for a midnight snack.

“Speaking of loyal…” Nikki says as I’m about to dig into my apple pie when she narrows her eyes on Jack with a sly smile. “I bet you weren’t too happy when that guy back at the party was all over Fallon.”

I filled her in on what led to the spontaneous combustion that sent everyone at the party running for cover.

I tweak my brows over at him in amusement and he all but bristles.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He cocks his head. “I was a little too occupied to notice a thing.”

“Oh, come on, Stone.” Nikki belts out a laugh. “Rumor has it, the second that guy got too close to your honey pot, you were ready to rip his head off. Don’t worry. I happen to think jealousy suits you.”

As much as I want to play it cool, I can feel the warmth rising to my cheeks. Jack throws a look my way, his brow furrowed as if he’s waiting to see how I react. He has that unreadable expression, the one that says he’s pretending he doesn’t care, but he does. I know it’s true.

“It’s not jealousy,” Jack says, feigning indifference. “I just don’t like seeing people pawing at my—” He cuts himself off but glances my way, and it’s impossible to miss the way his jaw tightens.

Nikki laughs, tapping the table. “Better get used to it, Stone. Fallon is gorgeous. You’ve got a lifetime ahead of other guys wanting your woman.”

The word lifetime lingers in the air like an unidentifiable scent, and my mind twitches trying to figure out if it’s sweet or something foul that I should run from.

A flash of an image pops into my head—Jack and me years from now, still bantering, still fighting crime together, maybe more than just partners.

It’s a dangerous thought and one I don’t let myself linger on for long, but it’s there all the same.

“All right, enough of that. Let’s talk shop,” Jack says, steering the conversation back to safer and perhaps saner territory. “Nikki, how exactly did you mirror Karen’s phone?”

“Simple enough.” Nikki sits up a little straighter, clearly proud of her latest technical feat. “When she handed me her phone, it took me less than three seconds to install the spyware the men and women in the cyber division dreamed up. There are other apps like it out there for the general pop, but this is ours. It’s virtually untraceable. I’ll give you both a tutorial at some point. Now, anything Karen Holt does, we see. I’ll send you screenshots the second something comes through.”

“Good move,” Jack says, taking a sip of his coffee. “Sounds too good to be true, but I want updates as soon as you hear anything.”

I’m about to nod in agreement when the door swings open, and in walks a gray-headed skeleton with dark circles under her eyes. Her clothes are limp and look as if they’re perilously close to sliding right off her frail frame. Her pants do just that, but she catches them before they get to her thighs. Good grief, she’s essentially the stripper that none of us asked for.

Here comes trouble and yet trouble has nothing on Jack’s mother.