Page 14

THIRTEEN

“Yeah,” her father said with a grimace. “And since I have no pull or friends in that department anymore—and no idea if the person who set me up is still there—I’m asking for help.” The last four words came out through gritted teeth, and Kenzie figured his blood pressure shot into the dangerous range.

So, it wasn’t easy for him to ask for help. Surprise, surprise.

“Who’s the mechanic on the forms?” Cole asked.

“His name is Cliff Hamilton. Do you know him?”

Cole shook his head. “The one I know is Tabitha Lewis.”

Logan clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back on his heels. “Dad, I’m a detective, you know that, right?”

“I know.”

“So why were you trying to keep this from me? You know I’d help you.”

Her brother looked deeply hurt, and Kenzie couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. And curious to know the answer.

Her father sighed. “Because I know the cases you have on your desk and you don’t have the time to devote to this. She does.”

Kenzie scoffed. “What?”

He shrugged. “You’re a SWAT medic. You have more time than most and you have access to resources to find out what’s going on.”

“Yes, I’m a medic, and yes, I’m on the sidelines some, but I also work at the hospital now two days a week, remember? Not to mention I have a house to renovate.”

“Well, you’re wounded now. I doubt you’re going to be doing much renovating, and surely they gave you a few days of sick leave from both jobs.”

She simply stared at him, then laughed and shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.” She should walk out now. Let him wallow in his bitterness and self-pity, but her gaze slid back to the wall. He thought her mother was murdered, and he had some weird potential evidence that somewhat backed up that belief. She wasn’t going anywhere. “Fine. I’ll do what I can.” With her phone, she snapped pictures of the wall and the mechanic’s reports and tucked the file folder into an evidence bag. “If we want to open a case, I’ll have to take this to Commander Hill and—”

“No,” her father blurted. “You can’t make this an official case. If you do that, you can’t look into it. I don’t even know where that file folder came from or if it’s legit. And I certainly don’t know who to trust in the department. Someone went to a lot of trouble to knock me down. If they’re still there, they’re not going to want you, or anyone else, investigating.”

“But—”

“No. Just look into it, see if there’s anything to it. If there is, then ... I’ll decide where to go from there.”

“Sir,” Cole said, “I noticed you have a camera on your front door. I know you checked. Is there security footage of someone placing that in your mailbox?”

“There is. You’re right, I looked. But it’s not helpful. Whoever it was rode on a bike and slid it in the box, then pedaled off. Shockingly,” he said with an eye roll, “he had on a hoodie, jeans, sneakers. I studied that footage like I’d win a million dollars if I could find an angle with a shot of his face. Nothing. He knew the camera was there and kept his face covered at all times. His clothes were baggy too. I can’t even give you a weight range. Height is probably somewhere between five nine and six feet. Could be a couple inches taller than that.” He shrugged. “Useless information.”

“Send me the footage,” Cole said. “We’ll look at it anyway.”

“Yeah,” Logan said, and Kenzie flinched. She’d almost forgotten he was in the room. “I want to see it too.”

Her father rolled to the desk and opened the laptop, clicked a series of keys, and her and Logan’s phones pinged. “Don’t have Cole’s number.” One thing she could say for her dad, he’d learned how to be tech savvy.

She glanced at Cole. “I’ll send it to him.” With a few taps of the screen, she did so, and he nodded he’d gotten it.

Kenzie tucked her phone away. “We’ll see what we can find out. Unofficially.” She paused. “Dumb question alert. Where’s the vehicle now?”

“Scrapped, of course.”

“Yeah.”

“Now don’t ask any more dumb questions. Try smart ones.”

“Sir—” Cole shut up when Kenzie lasered him with the fiercest look she could muster. She didn’t need him to run interference with the unit, and she didn’t need him to do so with her father. He held up a hand in surrender.

Her father’s gaze flicked between her and Logan and a look she remembered from her late teen years crept into his eyes. “Why don’t you two battle it out? See who can figure this out first? Be like old times, right?”

“Or Logan and I can work together.” She kept her eyes on her brother, refusing to let herself get pulled back into the desperate desire to prove herself worthy of her father’s love. She bit her tongue on what she wanted to say while Logan shot her a small smile and gave a half nod. His response lowered her temperature, and she was able to keep her cool. “If this report is legit, there should be pictures somewhere,” she murmured.

“Should be,” her father said, looking disappointed she hadn’t taken his bait. “But if so, they weren’t included.”

She nodded. “All right, then I guess we start with Tabitha Lewis and go from there. She’ll have access to all the reports from twenty years ago.”

“And I’ll see if I can track down Cliff Hamilton,” Cole said. He glanced at her. “Come on, I’ll take you home. You can work from there, right?”

“Sure.” They said their goodbyes and she followed him out of the room, leaving Logan and her father in quiet conversation. That was good. At least they weren’t yelling.

“What time do we need to leave to head to the lake?”

He raised a brow at her. “You think you’ll feel up to that?”

“Um, yes. I need s’mores.”

He chuckled. “I don’t guess it would hurt and there’s definitely safety in numbers.”

“There you go.”

“No swimming, though. No telling what kind of bacteria you could get in that wound.”

“Thank you, Dr. Garrison, I never would have thought of that.”

Ten minutes later, she walked into her home and finally decided she should probably check her phone. Sure enough, she had sixteen messages on the friend group thread asking her to let them know she was good and if she needed anything. How had they known? She looked up to find Cole watching her.

“So you do know how to do that,” he said.

“What?”

“Check your messages.”

“Ha ha. Cute. Apparently, James sent a prayer request for me.”

“He only meant to do a good thing, Kenzie, don’t be offended.”

“Offended? Not in the least. I’m ... touched.”

He smiled. “Good.”

“There are texts from Kristine, Jesslyn, James, and Stephanie, all discussing my well-being ... and praying for me.” She swallowed hard. “I’ve never had anything like this before,” she whispered.

“I pray for you too.”

Her gaze collided with his. “You do?”

“Every day. I pray for the whole team.”

Of course. The team. But he included her in that. “Thank you.” She hesitated, then, “Friends like you guys—or at least these guys—are what I’ve longed for, searched for, prayed for. My whole life has been one competition after the other. The only goal was to knock down the person in front of you so you could step on them to get to the next best thing. Even my brothers. While they’ve protected me in one sense—they’ve done their brotherly duty when it came to guys—in another sense, they’ve done nothing but compete with me for Dad’s approval. Knock me down and show how tough they were.”

“Knocking you down showed their toughness?”

The disbelief in his voice made her shrug. “I know. I don’t mean literally knock me down—much—but insult me or take me down a peg. Keep me in my place, in other words.”

“That’s verbal abuse.”

“Yeah. It is.”

“And they all do it?”

“Not now. And Mom kept them—and Dad—in line the first fourteen years, but after she died and Dad lost his job, Dad would lay into the guys and they would take their anger and frustration out on me. So ... past wounds still ache. It took about five years of counseling and moving out of the environment to understand there was nothing wrong with me—and honestly, it’s not my brothers’ fault either. They were victims as much as I was. In other words, it wasn’t me, it was him.”

“There it is again,” he muttered.

She raised a brow at him, and he shrugged. “That phrase is always going to remind you of her, isn’t it?”

“Eh, one day it won’t.” He shook his head. “I really thought she might even be the one. In my head, I know it was her issues that broke us up, not mine. Mostly. But getting burned hurts. Makes you leery.”

Boy, did it.

“I meant to ask you how you knew her name,” he said. “I don’t remember mentioning her to you.”

She shrugged. “I overheard you and Logan talking about her one night a couple of years ago when we were at Logan’s birthday party. I think you guys had just broken up, and Logan told you not to give up, that the right person was still out there.”

“I can’t believe you remember that.”

She did. Every single detail. Because she’d wanted so bad to give him a hug and tell him she’d never treat him like that. She cleared her throat. “Is that why you play the field now?” The words slipped past her filter before she could stop them. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”

“Yes, partly, I guess.”

“I said not to answer.”

“I don’t mind answering. I enjoy the company of women. Smart women. But there’s the whole trust factor, right? I’m not looking for romance—at least not actively. If the right person comes along, then ... well, we’ll see.” His eyes glittered. “But I’m not a player, Kenzie. I don’t lead anyone on. Friends are fine, good times are fine, a little light flirting is harmless. But romance is dangerous, and I make it known real fast that I’m not interested in anything more than friendship if I know right off the bat they’re not the one for me.”

She nodded, her heart aching. So, that moment in the hospital was just a little harmless flirting. Lesson learned. She forced a smile to her face and tilted her head toward her office. “I’m going to grab my laptop and see if I can get in touch with Tabitha Lewis.”

He looked a little taken aback at the abrupt topic change, but she had no desire to hear any more about how he wasn’t interested in relationships or romance.

“And I’ll grab my computer out of the car and start looking for Hamilton,” he finally said.

“Meet in the den?” She was so proud of how steady her voice was when she really wanted to go have a good cry and let all the stress out.

“Yes ma’am.” He headed for the door.

As soon as it shut behind him, Kenzie gasped and bolted for her home office. There, she shut the door and let the tears flow. But only for a short time. Finally, she pulled herself together, sucked in a deep breath, and cleaned her face in the bathroom. Thankfully, she didn’t go all blotchy and red when she cried, and within a few minutes, she was satisfied there was no evidence of her little breakdown.

With a steadying breath, she grabbed her computer and headed out to the den area to act like nothing was wrong and she was fine.

But she wasn’t. She wasn’t fine at all.

Because with everything else going on, the last thing she wanted to deal with was admitting she was in love with Cole Garrison.

And she had no idea what she was supposed to do about that.

WHEN KENZIE WALKED into the den with her laptop in hand, Cole was already seated on the couch and scrolling. He had Esther working on finding Hamilton as well, but the man seemed to have dropped off the planet.

“Or was he paid to disappear?” he murmured.

“What?” Kenzie dropped into the recliner opposite him.

She sounded a little stuffy. “Are you okay?” he asked.

She sniffed. “Fine. Allergies, maybe. Lingering smoke inhalation. Whatever. It’ll pass. Now, what do you mean? Who was paid to disappear?”

“Cliff Hamilton.” He narrowed his eyes at her. Something was going on with her.

“What makes you say that?” she asked without looking at him.

“Because it’s like he never existed. Two weeks after writing that report, he resigned and disappeared.”

“So how do we find him?”

“We keep looking.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, Esther is looking, but I know someone who works at the lab. Someone who was there before Tabitha got there.”

“Who?”

“Sherry Templeton. I’ll call her.”

“How’s that going to help?” She finally looked at him and there was a new distance in her eyes.

He frowned. What was that about? “She’s been there forever,” he said. “She was there when Hamilton was. Maybe she can tell us what the man was thinking and where he went.”

“Okay, you do that and I’ll try to get ahold of Tabitha.” She rose, walked onto the sunporch, and shut the French doors behind her.

Cole could hear her muted voice on the phone before he even dialed Sherry, his contact in the lab. With one last lingering look at Kenzie, and a sneaking suspicion he’d upset her but she didn’t want to admit it, he tuned into his call, realizing Sherry was calling his name. “Oh, sorry. I’m here. Hey, I have a question for you.”

“Sure.”

“It’s an odd one.”

“I work in a crime lab. I believe I’ve seen odd. Go for it.”

“You’ve worked in the lab basically since it opened—”

“Careful now. You calling me old?”

“No ma’am, just that you were there when Cliff Hamilton was.”

“Yep.” Had her voice just gotten slightly guarded? “What about him?”

“Did he ever talk to you about his cases?”

“Of course. We talked to each other about them all the time.”

“I kind of thought you would.” He blew out a low breath. “See, here’s the thing, Sherry. I need to talk to him, but I can’t find him. Do you know where he went when he left the lab?”

“Nope.”

Her answer was a smidgeon too fast. “Okay, do you know why he resigned?”

A sigh greeted his question. “Why are you asking all of this? That’s all in the past.”

“True, but sometimes the present and the past wind up colliding, and when that happens, you have to figure out why.”

“You’re talking in riddles, boy.”

Only she could get away with calling him boy. And it had everything to do with the fact that she’d changed his diapers when he was an infant. “No riddles.” He was tempted to fill her in but didn’t want to put her in the position of having to keep secrets. And right now, he wasn’t ready to announce the evidence until he knew who he could trust. “I just need to talk to him about a report he did. I think it’s related to a cold case, and he’s the best one to answer my questions.”

“I took over his cases when he left, then passed them on to the new person who was hired after him.”

“Tabitha Lewis, right?”

“Yes. So why not go to her?”

“Why’d he leave, Sherry?”

“He had his reasons.”

“Sherry, I’m not in the mood to pull teeth. What were his reasons?”

“I’m not talking about it on the phone.” Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “You want to meet, I’ll explain a little more in detail.”

“Name the time and place.”

“Tomorrow morning at Cornerstone Café. Seven thirty.”

“I’ll be there.”

Kenzie stepped back into the room. “Tabitha said she would look into the case and see if she could find out anything, go over the pictures of the car. You find Hamilton?”

“No, not yet.” He told her about his conversation with Sherry.

Kenzie frowned. “You think she’d mind if I came?”

“I think it might be best if I handle this one alone.”

She looked like she might want to protest, but instead nodded. “All right.”

He glanced at the clock. “You ready to head to the lake?”

“Sure, but I can drive myself.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You’re hurt, remember?”

“But I’m not taking any narcotics, so I can drive.”

He frowned. “What’s going on, Kenzie?”

She raised a brow at him. “Nothing. I’m just saying I want to drive myself in case I decide to leave early.”

“If you want to leave early, I’ll bring you back here.”

“Cole...”

“Seriously, Kenzie, you have someone who’s tried multiple times to take you out. I really think you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a brief second. “Fine. Just let me grab my bag and the potato salad from the fridge and we can go.”

“Fine. I was supposed to bring a dessert. We’ll have to swing through the donut shop.”

“Donuts are always welcome.”

Her flat tone carried back over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hallway in the direction of her bedroom. “What is her problem?” he muttered. Then sighed. He wasn’t stupid. He knew what her problem was. Him.

He was definitely a problem.

He’d made it a point to let her know that relationships and romance weren’t anywhere on his radar. It had shaken her. Most likely because her mind went to their little moment in the hospital.

A moment that had rocked his world more than he cared to admit. Shame engulfed him. He’d trivialized it when that was the last thing he wanted to do. And yet, he couldn’t let himself fall for her. He refused. And if he apologized for that moment of weakness in the hospital, he might hurt her feelings even further.

Past hurts and treacherous green eyes were never far from the surface of his memories, and if he tried to talk to Kenzie about his conflicting emotions, he wasn’t sure how she’d take it. So when they were in his 4Runner and on their way to the lake house, he turned the radio to his favorite country station and kept his mouth shut the entire forty-five-minute drive.

And so did she.