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“ R elax, I’m going to cook dinner for you,” Kai said. “I’m not a great, but I can rustle up a couple of steaks and throw a few baked potatoes in the oven.”

Kai and Lulu were back at his place after their long day. He’d promised her dinner in exchange for hearing all that she’d learned. He’d also promised to tell her what he’d learned that day as well.

He’d called in a favor from an old college friend who worked at a major news agency on television. He’d asked his friend to check out Allie Baker and Jay Bradford. He was anxious to let Lulu know what had been found.

“Any meal I don’t have to cook is gourmet to me,” Lule replied, stretching out in front of the fireplace. The temperature had dropped quite a bit today. “Can I help?”

“I’ve got this under control,” he assured her. “Steaks are in the fridge marinating and the potatoes are in the oven. Cooking the meat won’t take long. How do you like your steak?”

“Medium. How about you?”

“Medium-rare. I had horrible visions of you saying well done.”

“My dad refused to cook steak above medium-well. Not that we ate steak a lot, mostly he grilled burgers and hot dogs because that’s what we liked most.”

“I could make hot dogs if you’d rather.”

“No, I’m happy to eat the steak, but I admit that I don’t have one of those refined palates. I can be happy with grilled cheese. After living in Los Angeles, you probably like fancy food.”

He wasn’t sure what she classified as “fancy”, but he could admit to liking well-prepared food. He could also admit to enjoying quite a bit of junk food on occasion. It was all about balance, right?

“The problem with fancy food is that they don’t usually give you much of it. Comfort food, on the other hand, usually is served in large portions. I have a big appetite,” he explained. “Ladies first on talking about their day.”

“I talked to Allie Baker, Glen Foster, and Allie’s roommate Kathleen Meadows today, but I’ll just cut to the chase. I handed over the evidence so far regarding Allie to the district attorney, and he’s going to try and get a judge to sign off on a warrant to search her home and vehicle.”

Lulu had been a busy bee today. He was floored that the investigation had made that much progress. But then, he’d had a productive day, too. He’d already started writing the human-interest piece about Dana Cartwright, wanting people to know more about her than she was just a victim of a heinous crime.

“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” he said, settling onto the floor next to her. The heat from the dancing flames felt cozy and almost hypnotic after his long day in and out of the cold. He’d been thinking about just this scenario - curled up with Lulu - since morning. “What did you learn about Allie that makes you think she might be the one?”

“Allie knew that Dana was pregnant,” Lulu said. “Her roommate Kathleen works in the doctor’s office. In a roundabout way, she told Allie. That gives her even more motive. She also blew a huge hole in Allie’s alibi. Kathleen heard Allie leave the apartment after Jay dropped her off, and she didn’t come back until early in the morning. That means she had opportunity, too. Take that with her threat at the sports bar that night… I’d be remiss if I didn’t consider her a major suspect.”

“That does sound like motive,” Kai agreed. “Does that mean that Jay Bradford knew about the baby?”

“Supposedly not. I have to say that he truly looked shocked when I mentioned it this morning. He could be a great actor. I can’t rule that out, but right now, the answer is that he didn’t know.”

“You’d think Allie would be mad at Jay, not Dana.”

“You’d think she wouldn’t be mad at anyone because the chances of it being Jay’s baby are small. It’s a huge leap in logic to go from Dana being pregnant to it being Jay’s baby, especially when it sounds like Allie rarely leaves him alone long enough to get another woman pregnant. But Kathleen said that Allie was pretty much obsessed with Dana. She planned to try and convince Dana to leave town to have the baby and then get Jay to marry her while she was gone.”

“Allie doesn’t sound…stable.”

A guy in college that Kai had hung around with had a girlfriend like Allie. Every girl on campus was after her man, and she’d kept him on a short leash. The poor guy couldn’t have any fun unless she was there. She’d actually said that out loud, too. Life was too short for that shit.

“Being jealous doesn’t mean she has mental health issues, although I’ve heard more than one person say today that it does. While Jay seems perfectly innocent, I have to wonder if he has some ownership of this jealousy. We don’t truly know if he’s stoking this, playing Allie for a fool while he dreams about reconciling with his ex-wife.”

“It could be a little of both. I wanted you to have a chance to talk about your day before I did, but since we’ve brought up Allie’s mental health, I do have something to add to that.”

“You didn’t dig into her health records, did you?”

“I didn’t break any laws,” Kai assured her. “I asked a friend who works at a news agency to look into Allie and Jay. Public information only. No hacking. He didn’t find anything at first. Bradford has lived a quiet and pretty uneventful life, and Allie seemed the same. It was only when he dug further that he found a record with the campus police at her university. Another student had complained about her harassing him after they went out once. He didn’t want to see her again, and she didn’t take the news well.”

“One complaint isn’t exactly a crime spree or murder,” Lulu replied. “But it’s something to keep in mind.”

“It sounds like she’s a clinger.”

“A clinger?” Lulu repeated.

“The type that goes out on a date or two but gets these grandiose ideas in their head about how they’re going to live happily ever after with two kids, a dog, and a picket fence. All after a frozen yogurt, and maybe a kiss goodnight.”

“And Jay Bradford just went along with it?”

“If he wanted a girlfriend or just goes with the flow? Yes. For some men or women, they might appreciate all the hard work of a relationship being done for them. Of course, everything has a price.”

“Either way, the DA is going to try and get a search warrant. The case is still open as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to get tunnel vision. I need to keep an open mind. Jay Bradford’s alibi checks out. Glen Foster’s as well, although he was never a serious suspect in my mind. I just wanted to talk to him about what he heard that night. By the way, he denies ever having an affair with Dana.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I do. He seemed honest and straightforward. I may not like him personally, but he seemed genuine when I spoke with him. What about you? Did you learn anything else?”

“I spoke with Dana’s sister Jillian, and her best friend Stacy. It was like being in the twilight zone. They didn’t even sound like they were describing the same person. Stacy told me specifically that Jillian was full of shit and to not believe a word she said. Frankly, Jillian sounded like she hated Dana in a way. She certainly doesn’t have a lot of respect for her. She didn’t have much of anything positive to say about Dana or her parents. She thinks they coddled Dana while she had to work for everything.”

“Is it true?”

“According to Stacy Simpson, no. Jillian says that their parents gave Dana the house she lived in for free, but they were supposed to sell it and split the money between the daughters. Stacy said that was never the plan. The grandmother willed the house to Dana because she was the only one who spent any time with her. Jillian also said that she was constantly bailing Dana out of her bad decisions, but Stacy denied that, too. She did say that Dana was dating someone - a married man. She was deeply in love with him, too.”

“Let me guess, he was getting a divorce any day now.”

“You sound so cynical, sweetheart,” Kai joked. “Not very optimistic and open-minded.”

“Maybe I am a bit cynical,” Lulu conceded. “But I’ve seen it happen with a few friends. But I’d be glad to be wrong.”

“I have a feeling you might be right,” Kai replied. “Dana said that the man was going to divorce his wife soon. But soon hadn’t come yet.”

“He’s the person I want to talk to,” Lulu said, sounding frustrated. “Whoever this person is, they’re still on my suspect list. Dana gets pregnant, and all of a sudden, she ends up dead. Plus, the probable father is married but getting a divorce…eventually. It sounds sketchy as hell to me. That man - and his wife - are suspects in my mind.”

“I don’t see how we’re going to figure out who Dana was seeing unless they walk up to you and introduce themselves.”

“If they were going to do that, they probably would have already,” Lulu said with a sigh. “There has to be someone who knew who she was seeing.”

“Her best friend didn’t even know. I think they were keeping things secret. Very secret. Which tells me that the man is very married. Probably kids, too.”

“Yes, and he’s not going to admit that he was seeing Dana. I already don’t like this guy,” Lulu admitted. “I think there’s a special place in hell for cheaters. If you want to sleep around, then fine. But just end your relationship before doing it.”

There was a certain tone in Lulu’s voice that said she was speaking from personal experience.

“Did some asshole cheat on you?”

“How did you know he was an asshole?” Lulu laughed. “Oh right, he’s a big old cheater. And yes, when I was in high school my boyfriend was cheating with a girl a few towns over. I guess he thought if he didn’t see someone in the same school I’d never find out. What a jerk. He tried to play it off as if I was crazy or confused. I was just too dumb to understand, he said.”

Kai couldn’t even imagine saying that to any woman, let alone Lulu, who was clearly above average in intelligence.

“What did you do? Dump him in front of all your friends?”

“I did, but it’s his own fault. When a guy tells me in front of all of our friends that I’m dumb, he gets what he gets. I told him to go fuck himself, and then I kicked him in the balls. Chase always said that I fought dirty.”

Kai winced at the mere thought of getting the family jewels racked in such a manner. Not that the jerk didn’t deserve it, but…damn. That was harsh.

“He probably didn’t like that, Lulu.”

“He didn’t. He went crying to the school principal who called my parents. Mom and Dad had to come to the school to get me and all that jazz. When my mom heard my side of the story, she told that principal in no uncertain terms that Brian - his name was Brian - was lucky that’s all he got. She would have done worse. In the meantime, Brian’s parents were threatening to sue or some shit like that while my mom was telling them that they didn’t raise Brian right. Everybody was yelling and crying, and it was just chaos.”

“Were you yelling or crying?”

“Neither. I was just watching it all go down. You’ve never seen my mom in action, but she’s epic. I knew I was in big trouble when we got home, but she was also a mama bear about me getting my heart broken. Anyway, it’s all loud and chaotic. Then my dad walks in.”

From the smile on Lulu’s face, the memory was a good one.

“You’re not going to stop here, are you? I have to hear how this ends,” Kai cajoled. “I’ve met your dad, and I didn’t get the impression he liked chaos.”

“He doesn’t,” Lulu confirmed. “He walked in, and silence fell on the entire room. It was like something out of a movie. Very cool, but kind of a little scary, too, because I didn’t know how he was going to react to all of this. Technically, I’d assaulted a person, and my dad was the sheriff. So…you can imagine how nervous I was when he walked in.”

“And?” Kai prompted.

Just what had Sheriff Seth Reilly done?

“He walked right up to Brian and got nose-to-nose with him. He said, ‘Are you the one that broke my little girl’s heart? That cheated on her?’ I’ll never forget Brian’s face. I think he almost peed himself. He told Brian that now everyone in town would know what kind of person he was. Brian didn’t say a word, just scared as shit of my dad.”

“Then he turned to Brian’s parents and asked what they wanted to do in this situation. Were they pressing charges? Funny, how five minutes before they wanted to send me to the electric chair, but suddenly they wanted it all behind them. They just wanted to forget the whole unfortunate situation. That’s what his mother called it. Anyway, after graduation, Brian went to an out-of-state school and rarely comes back to town. What my dad said was true. Everyone knew what kind of person he was.”

“What about you? What did your parents do?”

“That’s more complicated,” Lulu sighed. “I was always doing crap that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. My poor parents were exhausted, of course, because they didn’t know what to do with me. Ben hadn’t been any trouble, and Chase wasn’t really either. While Mom was adamant that Brian had it coming, she also didn’t think it was a good idea to encourage me to react that way whenever I got dumped by a boy.”

“Wise. You’d get a reputation, too.”

“No guy would come near me for months. In the hallways at school, they’d pretend to get scared and cross their legs when I’d walk by. I told my parents it was punishment enough to be treated that way.”

“Did they agree?”

“Nope, I was on dish duty after dinner for three months. Oh, and Brian and I had to apologize to one another. Him for being a low-down dirty dog, and me for kicking him in the balls. Frankly, I don’t think either one of us meant it, but it made our parents feel better. And in case you’re wondering, I don’t feel the need to kick anyone in the nuts anymore if they cheat on me.”

“What do you do?”

She did carry a gun now, after all.

“They aren’t worth any more of my time. I’m just gone. Out of there. No, we don’t need to discuss it, hash it out, or get closure. It’s just over. Let’s move on.”

“Much more mature. But no closure?”

“Closure is an illusion,” she replied. “If it even exists, it’s something that you find within yourself, not something that you get from another person.”

“You have an interesting take,” Kai said.

“People think that closure will make them magically feel better about something,” Lulu explained. “But does it? Truly? If a woman cheats on you with your best friend, do you really want to sit in a coffee shop while she tells you that he was just so sexy and interesting? She couldn’t help herself. It was nothing personal. Maybe you and I are different, but that wouldn’t make me feel better. If anything, I’d feel worse.”

“You make an impressive argument. You’re right, I wouldn’t want to have that conversation. But let me play devil’s advocate here for a minute. What about if it was one of your best friends? You’re inseparable. You tell each other everything. Then she falls off the face of the earth. She doesn’t return your calls, she’s never home. You see on social media that she’s fine, but she no longer wants anything to do with you. You don’t have a clue what you did to make her act like that. Are you saying you wouldn’t want to know?”

“Is this the lawyer in you?” Lulu joked. “Wanting to win an argument? And I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I’m just saying what I believe. You can believe however you want.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Fine, counselor. Yes, I would want to know why, but it isn’t her responsibility to tell me. She doesn’t have any obligation. And let’s say she did tell me, and I don’t agree with her. I don’t think I’ve done whatever it is she thinks I did. Well, then we’re at a stalemate. No closure there.”

“I like talking with you. You make me think.”

“You make me think, too.”

He couldn’t stop himself from asking the question.

“Is it your dad or mom that gave you this idea about closure?”

Lulu laughed and shook her head.

“You just can’t let it go, can you? I don’t know if they did. They never outwardly said anything, but I think watching my father as a lawman might have contributed to it. Very often, he didn’t get any sort of closure as to why people do what they do. Why did Wade Bryson and his son kill all of those people? Bryson said it was because he had to cleanse the bloodline, but I don’t think my dad or Uncle Logan ever got a definitive answer. A lot of people died that weren’t Brysons, after all.”

“People are still searching for that answer. Books, articles, documentaries.”

“Good luck to them. Wade Bryson isn’t around to answer any questions, and the few times his son has been interviewed he just blames Uncle Logan and all of his friends. As in my dad, who never even met them, let alone did something to compel a human to murder.”

“What was that like? Growing up in the shadow of two serial killers?”

“That’s not how I grew up,” Lulu replied. “My parents tried hard to keep all of that out of our lives as much as possible. There was one trip during summer break with all the aunts and uncles and my cousins. What I didn’t realize right away was that the uncles and my dad were searching for Bryson and protecting us at the same time. They tried playing it off as a madcap summer on the road, but we knew something was up. Eventually, Ben spilled the beans to us kids. He was older and had heard them talking. Then Aunt Kaylee got shot, and things sort of blew up from there. I think people would be shocked at how little the Bryson family played into my life at all. Of course, my cousin Brianna would say something different.”

Kai had followed the case enough to know that Brianna had been taken hostage as bait. The plan was to use her to lure Logan Wright in and then kill him. What Jake Bryson hadn’t realized was that Logan Wright was going to go scorched-hell-on-earth with anyone that harmed a hair on his child’s head.

“It was in your life enough to make you want to be a sheriff just like your dad,” Kai pointed out.

“Not just like my dad,” she said with a shake of her head. “Maybe on my first day I was thinking that, but what I’ve come to realize this week is that I need to be the sheriff I was meant to be. That may not be like my dad. I may be a completely different law enforcement officer. But I need to be a genuine me, not a second-rate Seth Reilly.”

“Lulu, you could never be second-rate,” Kai replied as sincerely as possible.

She needed to know just how amazing she was. Every minute that he spent with her simply made him want to be there even more.

Was this love? He’d thought he’d been in love before, but later realized it was only lust.

He wanted Lulu in a carnal way, but he also wanted to hang out with her. He wanted to debate, and laugh, and even cry with her. He wanted to sit next to her in front of the fire while her heady scent of vanilla mixed with the acrid aroma of wood and smoke. He liked the way the leaping flames highlighted the gold in her hair and made her eyes seem to smolder in the half-light.

Hell, he just liked her. A whole lot, and more than he’d expected to.

If wanting to spend as much time with her as possible - in bed and out - was love, then he was a goner.

“How are you with a screwdriver and a hammer?” she asked him, bringing him out of his reverie.

“Is this some weird sexual kink you’re talking about or actual do-it-yourself construction?”

“You are such a smart ass. Seriously, this is about furniture construction. The furniture I ordered about a million years ago is finally being delivered tomorrow morning to the house, and I was wondering if you might help me put some of it together. If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I can ask Henry and Chase.”

She’d mentioned that the apartment over the sheriff’s station was only temporary, and eventually, she’d move into where her aunt and uncle used to live on the family ranch.

“I’m happy to help,” he replied. “And I do come with experience. Me and my college roommate furnished our place with a hell of a lot of IKEA.”

“Then you’re hired. They’re supposed to show up between eight and ten tomorrow morning. I’ll thank you now for being willing to help.”

“It will be fun,” Kai said. “We can see how we work together in a stressful situation.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t become stressful. Are you one of those frustrating people who won’t read the instructions?”

“I guess you’ll find out tomorrow. But what about the search warrant? Don’t you need to be there when they serve it? Assuming the DA gets the judge to sign off.”

“Deputy Steve has experience, but he’ll just be sort of overseeing things. The DA wants the forensic team to do the searches, and I agree with his assessment. Since this is a high-profile murder case, he wants to be sure that any physical evidence is collected by the book. He doesn’t want to give a defense attorney any reason to get something thrown out of court.”

“What if they don’t find anything? Are we back to square one?”

“I don’t think so. Top of my list is to find the married man that Dana was seeing. Someone, somewhere, has to know his identity. I might try checking out some of the restaurants and bars in nearby towns. Maybe they met outside of Harper for anonymity. I can show Dana’s picture and see if anyone recognizes her.”

“Motels, too,” Kai suggested. “They had to meet somewhere private if Dana was pregnant.”

“That ought to be fun. Find every seedy motel in a hundred-mile radius. Should I do a search on the internet for that?”

“They say you can find anything you want on the internet.”

“I guess I’ll find out if that’s true. Now, have the steaks marinated long enough? I’m starving.”

“They have. I’ll get them in the pan. I think we’ve timed the meal just right. The potatoes should be done with the steaks.”

A good meal, a warm fire, and a beautiful woman.

Lulu was a one-of-a-kind woman, and by the way she was currently looking at him, she might feel the same way.

Life in Harper was looking up, and the possibilities seemed endless.