Page 51 of Single Mom’s Undoing (Lucky Lady Reverse Harems #1)

“I… have this thing,” she says and rolls her eyes as if she’s embarrassed to say it out loud. “This ridiculous attention for microscopic detail. I’m extremely perceptive with the ability to notice connections and patterns. I’ve also got a bit of a photographic memory.”

“A bit?”

“Okay, a full-on photographic memory,” she admits with a sigh. “Tim calls me a walking, talking computer. Anyway, point is, I see things most people don’t usually pay attention to. It’s kept me out of trouble for most of my life.”

“Until it didn’t,” I reply.

“That’s a different story.”

“One you don’t want to talk about.”

“Not my favorite chapter, Sheriff.”

“Let’s start over for now. You noticed the cufflink didn’t belong with the charms on the bracelet.”

“Yes, and I tagged it separately. I also flagged it for Gary.”

“You said that. But he never came down to check it out.”

“No.” Tassia shrugs lightly. “I did add a note in the email about it, though maybe I should’ve set it up with a read receipt or a follow-up alert. My bad.”

“Not at all. You did your part. I’ll take this and have Gary go over it,” I say, picking up the bagged cufflink. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I pause to glance over my shoulder as I turn to go with my new lead in my jacket pocket. “You and I are going to talk about this later, Tassia.”

“I didn’t tamper with evidence!” she almost shouts.

With a small grin I let her stew as I head upstairs to deal with Gary and his many unanswered emails.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tyler says as we meet outside the Hamilton drugstore on 5th Street two hours later. “Gary’s been sitting on a potential lead for the past week?”

“In his defense, the email system failed to flag Tassia’s request as a priority, and the man has been overwhelmed since long before Tanya Burrow’s death,” Mitch says.

I check the intel on my phone once again before we go in. “At least we made it here eventually.”

“Which is where, exactly?” Tyler scoffs. “One of the mayor’s drugstores? That’ll play really well with the local press.”

“The cufflink delivered a partial print for William Jade, an employee of this particular store,” I reply.

“They are in the drug business,” Mitch shrugs.

“ Legal drug business,” Tyler retorts.

And then it hits me. I’ve had these thoughts for a while, truth be told, tiny suspicions worming their way to the surface, then burrowing deeper into the back of my head over the past few months. Connections I couldn’t quite make in the absence of any tangible proof.

This could be it. The missing link.

“We go in clean,” I tell my deputies, the two men I trust most in the world. “We’ll ask some basic questions and see how Jade reacts.”

“CCTV footage from the street corner showed both Tanya Burrow and Dina Kellogg making repeated visits to this drugstore,” Mitch says. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

“No, it can’t,” I reply and lead the way.

The Hamilton pharmacy chain is a market leader all over the state of New York, owned by the mayor. Frost Valley alone has two of his drugstores, and there are another five spanning over three neighboring towns.

“Good afternoon,” William Jade greets us from behind the glass counter. He’s dressed in the Hamilton-signature shirt and pants—white with the Hamilton logo embroidered onto the shirt’s chest pocket. “How can I help you today, Sheriff? Deputies?”

He doesn’t seem happy to see us, proving my theory already.

“Good afternoon. William Jade, right?” I ask casually.

Tyler and Mitch flank me, cautiously looking around. The other store attendants and the few patrons getting their prescriptions filled keep stealing curious glances our way, but I remain focused on Jade.

“Yes, sir,” he replies with a flat smile.

Beneath his well-groomed appearance, his eyes are bloodshot, and there’s a sheen of cold sweat covering his pale skin. That, along with his jittery hands and dilated pupils, I’d say he’s a dealer who likes to get high on his own supply.

“How can I help?” he asks again. He looks like he’s about to freeze up or bolt.

I’m ready for both.

“This yours?” I ask, raising the evidence bag with the cufflink inside.

His eyebrows arch in surprise. “Oh, dear. I wondered where I’d left that.”

“So, it is yours,” I conclude.

“I… maybe. No. Yes.”

Mitch chuckles dryly. “Pick one, Bill. Either way, you’re fucked.”

“Why is that?” Jade asks, his voice trembling.

“This was found at Tanya Burrow’s house. Close to her body,” I reply. “We think it belongs to whoever killed her.”

“Oh, I don’t…” Jade’s voice trails off as he bolts away from the counter.

Got him.

Tyler intercepts, taking him down with a tackle worthy of the NFL. I hear a loud thud as Jade’s body hits the floor, then a grunt as Tyler rolls him on his belly. He cuffs his wrists behind his back and reads him his Miranda rights.

“What is going on here?” The store manager storms out from his back office, looking understandably confused and insulted.

“We have some questions for Mr. Jade. He’ll need to clock out early today,” I tell the manager as we walk out of the store with our suspect in custody.

By the time we reach my squad car and load a dazed William Jade into the backseat, the events that led us to this particular moment dawn on me, and I can’t help but laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Mitch asks, closing the passenger door.

I shake my head. “It took Tassia a split second to crack this whole case wide open with something we didn’t even know existed.”

“Could it have been a fluke?” Tyler asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. “I think there’s a whole other dimension to Tassia that we weren’t even aware of until today.”

“You mean aside from her being a ticking sex bomb we’re dying to blow up with?” Mitch scoffs, though quietly. “She’s got the three of us twisted in more ways than one, brother.”

“True, but she may also be able to help us with our cases.”

“What do you suggest, then?” Mitch gives me a curious look.

Tyler beats me to it. “We could ask Tassia to go over the evidence in other cases that have stalled. She might notice something we didn’t.”

“I can do us one better,” I say.

As soon as they realize what I mean, both Tyler and Mitch give me their signature, half-intrigued, half-excited looks. We’re playing with fire here on a three-dimensional game board, that much is clear. But the pieces have already been set in motion.

There’s too much at stake not to move forward.

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