CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Finn's gaze cut to mine before returning to study Derek. "I'm not usually in the business of interviewing people in a bowling alley," he said, although I could see he wanted to talk to Derek.
"If you stay in Star Junction, I'm sure it won't be the last time," I encouraged. I grabbed his arm again and pulled him forward, stopping in front of Mitch and Derek, who had left their dates at a high-top table cross the room. "Derek? You remember Detective Butler," I said. "He was looking for you earlier today, but you'd already left work."
Derek paled, the smarmy self-confidence I associated with him draining away. "You wanted to talk to me again?" he asked incredulously.
"It's nothing," Finn said reassuringly. "Just double checking some things about the Justin Hunt murder. It'll just take a minute."
Derek glanced at Mitch, but Mitch said nothing in the way of helping Derek out. Finally, Derek looked back at Finn and said, "What do you want to know?"
"It's kind of loud right here. Why don't we step closer to the door?" Finn said, walking away without waiting for a response. It worked, because Derek followed.
I leaned back against the bar where Derek had been standing, desperately wishing Finn had asked me to come along.
"What do you think he wants to talk to Thompson about?" Mitch asked as he pulled his beat-up baseball cap off his head, ran his fingers through his thick dark hair, and resettled the hat into place.
"I have no clue," I said. It was a lie, but I wasn't going to give any details of the case away. At least not to Mitch. Penny didn't count. She was my best friend. Chris didn't count either. He was the prime suspect.
"Last I heard, they were still looking at Chris for the murder," Mitch said, still watching Finn and Derek, his fuzzy, caterpillar-esque eyebrows snapping together.
The rest of the forensics better hold some damning evidence clearing Chris and implicating someone else, or I was afraid Mitch was right. "I think they're following a bunch of different leads," I said blandly.
"That's good," Mitch said. He turned to look at me slowly, as if it took effort for him to look away from Finn and Derek. "You seem close with the new detective," Mitch added.
I shrugged. "I've been helping him figure out who to talk to," I said. "He doesn't know all the ins and outs of Star Junction yet."
Dan shot me a dirty look as he walked by, as if daring me to order another frilly drink.
I grinned back at him, continuing to believe he enjoyed our little repartee. "I saw Derek's here with Heidi," I said to Mitch.
"You know Heidi?" Mitch asked before taking a swig of his beer.
"I know she was dating Justin," I said.
Mitch nodded, as if appraising my statement, and said, "They weren't serious."
"Tell that to Samantha," I challenged. My gaze drifted toward the bowling lanes. Karl, the firefighter, stood with his arms crossed, staring daggers at me. I grimaced and held up one finger, asking for a little more time.
I couldn't hear his scoff, but I could see it.
Finn and Derek walked back to us, and my throat burned with every question I wanted to ask but couldn't in front of Mitch and Derek. Instead, I looped my arm through Finn's. "Looks like the boys are waiting for us. Ready to get back to bowling?" I asked cheerfully.
Finn slipped his phone in his back pocket. "Ready," he said before turning to Derek and Mitch. "Thanks for your time."
"Our pleasure," Mitch said, answering for both of them.
As we walked back toward the lanes, I couldn't hold the questions in any longer. "Learn anything helpful? Did Derek crack? Did he confess to killing Justin? No, I suppose not, or you'd have arrested him. Do you think he could have done it, because that would really solve a problem for me."
Finn pulled to a stop several feet away from where Karl continued to glare at us. "That's a lot of questions. And what kind of problem do you have that would be solved by Derek being arrested?"
Oops. I hadn't meant to mention that out loud. "That's nothing. Don't worry about it. What about the murder?" I asked.
"I think we already established that I don't let questions go with an answer of 'that's nothing,'" Finn pressed.
I really didn't want to get into it right now. I'd made the mistake of mentioning it to Chris last year. He'd gotten red in the face, pulled out his phone, and shot off a series of texts to Derek. Guess what? Those texts accomplished nothing. In fact, I think they encouraged Derek to double-down. I didn't need anyone riding to my rescue. I needed answers about Justin's murder. "I'll explain later," I lied. "What about the case?"
"I didn't learn anything actionable," Finn said in tacit agreement to let me tell him about my problem with Derek later. "Derek says he and Heidi are off and on," he continued. "He didn't seem to mind she was dating Justin. He definitely denied having any motive to murder the guy."
Derek could deny it all day long, but there was a small part of me that relished the thought of him behind bars and out of my hair.
We walked the rest of the short distance to the lane where Titus was sitting silently and peacefully as if our delay didn't faze him at all. Meanwhile, Karl seemed a little too interested in being the team to win the free drinks.
"There you are," Karl said, all business. "You're up, Butler."
"Sorry about the wait," Finn said as he picked up his ball.
Penny walked over to me and whispered, "Did I see Finn talking to Derek? Is he going to arrest him?"
"Yes and no," I said in answer to her questions. "Derek is a creep, but can you really see him murdering someone?"
"Can you see anyone you've talked to murdering someone?" she asked.
"No," I said dejectedly as I realized she was right. "Maybe Tony?" I offered.
Penny chuckled and said, "You just want it to be Tony, because you know him the least."
"You might be right," I said glumly.
Finn finished his frames with a total of nine pins down.
"My turn," I said to Penny.
"Good luck. Remember what happened last time," she said as she walked away.
I was never going to hear the end of throwing that ball into the next lane. If Penny had been trying to get into my head, she'd done a pretty good job. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass myself in front of the guys.
I picked up my ball and pulled in a steadying breath. Launching the ball down the lane, I put every bit of effort into not stepping over the line, which had directly led to my feet flying out from under me and my ball bouncing into the other lane last time. Who knew the actual alley in a bowling alley was so slippery? I succeeded in staying on my feet this time, but my ball went directly into the gutter. That wasn't much better.
"That's okay," Finn said encouragingly. "You'll get the next one."
Karl looked less certain. Titus gave me a friendly grin but said nothing.
I held my hand over the air vent as I waited for my ball to return. I could feel the eyes of my team watching me. Pull it together, Gwen. I wasn't a champion bowler, but I was better than this.
The ball finally returned, and I grabbed it thankfully. I just needed to get this over with. I sent it down the lane without giving myself too much time to overthink it. Turning before I could see whatever disaster was about to strike, I caught Finn watching me, a warm smile on his face, which only drew my attention to his sexy beard that I was finding myself spending way too much time thinking about.
"That's better than nothing," Karl muttered as he approached to take his turn.
I looked behind me in time to see I'd managed to knock down four pins. That was better than nothing.
The next frames flew by in laughter. I managed to hold my own, even getting a strike on frame seven. By the time we were bowling our last frames, it was going to be up to Finn and me to bring it home. The other two teams had finished first. Apparently, talking to Derek and Mitch had set us back a few frames.
Everyone gathered at the end of our lane. If either Finn or I bowled a strike, we'd win. My stomach fluttered with nervous energy, but not like the nerves I'd carried all week. These nerves filled my body with warmth and light. "We can do this," I said to my team. I gave Finn an encouraging slap on the back.
Really, I needed Finn to do it. We couldn't count on me to pull out a strike. He'd managed to bowl four strikes to my one, so it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that we could win this.
He pretended to crack his knuckles. "All in a day's work," Finn said confidently.
Finn focused, taking three steps before releasing the ball. It sailed down the center of the lane. All ten pins exploded from their positions. The reaction to Finn's strike was mixed as groans and grumbles blended with the cheers from our team.
I turned to Penny and then Chris. "Ha!" I said. "Who's the winner now?"
Penny scowled at me, although I didn't know what she had to complain about. With her team coming in second, she wasn't paying for anyone's drinks. Finn sauntered over.
"I knew you had it in you," I said to him, raising my hand for another high-five. Our palms connected, and he caught my hand in his. He held my hand for a breath before releasing it.
Karl clapped Finn on his back. "Ever thought about joining a bowling league?" he asked. They set off toward the bar together. I glanced back at the screen showing our score. We didn't need me to bowl my frames, but I wasn't going to leave the game unfinished.
I grabbed my ball and sent it flying down the lane. Nine pins knocked over. Instead of waiting for my ball to return, I grabbed one of the other balls and rolled it down the lane, not even caring when it missed the last pin.
Penny was the only one who'd bothered to wait for me. She gave me a polite golf clap. "Much better than last time," she said, linking her arm through mine as we headed toward the group gathered at the bar. "See? Tonight was fun. Aren't you glad you came out?" she asked.
Penny was right. Justin's murder had given a single-minded sense of purpose to my days, but it had robbed me of my joy. It was good to see it wasn't gone completely. With this sense of happiness came a deep exhaustion. Not like the kind fueled by fear, but the kind that led to restful sleep. "Thanks for talking me into it," I said to Penny. "But I think I'm going to call it a night."
"What? But we're just getting started," Penny said.
This was the disadvantage of not having my own car here and why I'd first fought Penny's plan to pick me up. "Maybe Jack could run me home real quick?" I asked hopefully. The round trip would take him twenty minutes. He'd be back before the group was on their second round of drinks.
Finn stepped over, leaving his conversation with Karl. "I can drop you at home," he said.
"No," I said, waving away his offer. "I can't ask you to do that."
"Sure she can," Penny said, practically pushing me at him. "Thanks, Finn. See you later," she said to me before running off to join her husband, Jack.
"You've already given me plenty of rides this week," I said to Finn as I adjusted my purse on my shoulder.
"I'm heading out anyway," Finn said. "I'm going to go back to the precinct and go through the case file again."
Here I was, leaving with visions of my warm, cozy bed dancing through my head, and Finn was going back to work. I was half tempted to see if he'd let me come with him. I'd never seen the file. But before I could suggest it, a wide yawn split my face.
Finn's chuckle was just as warm and cozy as the bed I couldn't wait to crawl into. "Let's get you home," he said.
Chris looked up from a conversation he was having with Penny's husband, Jack. "You're leaving?" he asked me.
"I'm tired. Winning took a lot out of me," I said with a cheeky grin.
Chris smiled, but it was thin as he took in Finn by my side. "Do you need a ride? I don't mind," Chris said.
"Thanks, buddy," Finn said. "We've got it covered."
Chris's jaw ticked, but he didn't argue. He gave me a brief hug and said, "Let's hang out tomorrow. I've hardly seen you this week."
"Give me a call when you're up tomorrow," I said before turning to Finn. "You ready?"
Finn and Chris stared at each other for a moment, much like they had at the coffee shop. I glanced over to see Penny watching the three of us. Her eyes widened, and she mouthed oh my gosh as she pointed between the two men.
I gave her a look that I hoped communicated some mixture of knock it off and grow up. She just grinned. She'd gotten the message. She just didn't care.
"Ready to go?" I said to Finn again, pulling him out of whatever weird standoff was happening between the two men.
"Whenever you are," he replied.
Chris watched us walk out the door, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
The chilly walk to Finn's truck erased some of my exhaustion, but not all of it. The front bumper still held the evidence of our accident from Tuesday night. Ten minutes later, we were pulling up in front of my house. I half expected Finn to insist on checking my house again but then remembered he didn't know about the bag of screwdrivers.
"I'll walk you to the door. Make sure you get in okay," Finn said before jumping out of the car and opening my door for me.
"Thanks, but that's not necessary," I said as he helped me down from the truck. "Star Junction is a very safe town. At least normally."
"It'll make me feel better. Really, you'd be doing me a favor," he said.
I shot him a sideways glance, his words making me smile. "I guess if it'll make you feel better," I said wryly. Scanning the stoop, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear of threatening notes or packages.
I made it to the top step and turned, Finn one step below me, bringing us closer to eye level. "Thanks for the ride," I said, suddenly overwhelmed by his proximity and that weird urge to run my fingers over his beard.
Finn's breath puffed into the cold air, the glow from my porch light dancing in his eyes. "Tonight was fun," he said.
"Star Junction might not be as exciting as Chicago, but we manage to have a good time," I replied with a smile.
Finn shuffled his feet. He kicked at a chunk of dirty snow on the edge of the step before lifting his gaze to meet mine. "I'd like to take you out on a date," he said in a rush of words.
"A date?" I repeated, as if I was having a hard time making sense of his words.
"Yes, a date." He chuckled, but his eyes betrayed his uncertainty. "It'll have to wait until this murder is solved, but what do you say?"
Butterflies rioted in my chest, and I gave him what I hoped was a flirty grin. "On one condition," I said.
"Here we go with the conditions again," he complained, but his grin matched my own. "Name it."
"Tell me what Finn stands for," I said.
For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to answer me. We stood in the moonlight, gazes locked, just inches apart. Finn's voice dropped low. "So, if I tell you, you'll say yes?" he asked.
I nodded, finding myself at a loss for words under the intensity of his gaze.
Finn leaned in. For a brief moment, I wondered if he was going to kiss me, but instead, his mouth lingered near my ear, his breath sending tendrils of warmth through my body. "It's Griffin," he whispered before pulling back. "I'm going to solve this murder. Then I'm taking you out on a date." He turned and walked back to his truck, leaving me breathless on my doorstep.