Chapter Four
Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
Nate sat at his desk, trying to put everything together he thought might give Hayes the information he needed to cross Nate off the suspect list.
In between looking over at Sam.
Who perpetually had a scowl on her face, even as she made phone calls, typed up what he assumed were emails. She was focused on work or pretending to be. Sometimes she’d get up, go into the back room, and return with a mug of coffee.
She did not offer to bring him any like she usually did.
And, still, that ring he’d bought her was a little gold glint on her finger.
Nate didn’t know how to navigate this bump in the road. He understood why she was so … scared. Because nine out of ten times, angry Sam was just scared Sam.
Not that she wanted to hear it. She wanted to stomp and fume and give him the silent treatment. She wanted to be angry at him rather than admit that she was just terrified.
Which might have pissed him off if he didn’t know she did all that just to keep from crying.
She’d tried to hide that that’s what she’d been doing this morning in the shower, but he’d seen the red eyes and the attempt she’d made to have makeup cover it up.
It ate him up, and he didn’t know how to fix it. Because God knew he couldn’t convince her not to worry after she’d spent nearly fifteen years trying to get her innocent father out of jail, only to have it all end even worse than it needed to.
But this wasn’t the same. It just couldn’t be. Yes, he’d had a somewhat public fight with Jules that might look bad, but since he literally hadn’t seen her for days before the date of the murder, there could be no physical evidence linking him to the crime.
And yeah, Hayes might hate him, but it wasn’t something founded in anything but … well, Nate could only assume jealousy. Just like when Hayes had pulled him over last month, this was just a dick move meant to flaunt some power, but it wasn’t going to amount to anything but frustration.
The bell on the door tinkled and Cal strode in, making a beeline right for Nate.
“I thought you said it’d take an hour or so.”
“It didn’t.” Cal shrugged, grabbed a chair in the corner, and dragged it over to Nate’s desk. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Nate shoved the stack of papers across the desk to Cal.
“I printed out the email chain. My expense reports, which prove where I was and what days I worked on her case. We write little reports after every meeting—just a few sentences—so I have all of those, including the one I wrote after our altercation at the hotel in Bozeman. Can you think of anything else he’d need? ”
“I want to listen to any phone messages, read any texts, but we’re not going to hand those over to Hayes just yet. If I think of anything else, we’ll deal with it as it comes up.”
Nate opened his mouth to argue with Cal, but Cal just kept right on talking.
“Let’s head over to the police station with this before Hayes gets it in his head to get a subpoena or search warrant. It’ll look better to offer this up ourselves, and it might distract him enough for the real murderer to be caught before we have to supply anything else.”
Nate rubbed his palm over his jaw, feeling more than conflicted. “I went through my calendar to see what I was doing the day he asked for my alibi.” Nate looked over at Sam, who had indeed looked up. Because she’d been listening, even if she’d acted like she wasn’t.
And she knew as well as he did that there was no alibi to be had. “Sam got stuck in Bozeman overnight. I was home alone.”
Cal muttered something under his breath. “Look, it won’t come to that. We’ll avoid alibi talk for the time being.”
“He’s going to ask.”
“And you’re not going to say anything,” Cal said, sounding so sure and in control.
Nate had no doubt Cal was a good lawyer. He’d helped with Dad’s case, even in the middle of his own personal unraveling, with quick thinking and certainty. But that was the thing.
Nate wasn’t Dad. He wasn’t a criminal or a murderer.
Sure, he felt some guilt over how little he’d helped Jules, but Cal hadn’t been wrong this morning.
The woman had made it difficult to help her.
Nate still felt like there should have been something he could have done, but that didn’t mean he was guilty of anything that he should need a lawyer.
So Cal’s entire involvement in this grated. And Nate couldn’t even take it out on Cal, because Hayes and maybe a dead woman were the ones to blame for this.
“Listen,” Cal said in that I’m the oldest and best voice Nate remembered from growing up.
“We’re going to provide him with all the necessary information on your interactions with Jules Hyatt.
When he comes to us with some concrete proof that makes supplying an alibi necessary—which we all know he won’t ever be able to scrounge up—we’ll give him that alibi. ”
“The one I can’t verify?”
“After the station, you’ll do what you can to see if there’s some way to verify you were home. Landline records. A neighbor who saw you. Your car on someone’s doorbell camera. Whatever. But we’re going to go deal with this first.”
“I’ll work on that now.”
Nate looked at Sam as she spoke, and so did Cal. She was already standing and grabbing her purse.
“Sam—”
“You guys go. I’ll work on proving the alibi.”
Nate got up, crossed to her, though she didn’t look at him. She’d barely looked at him since last night.
“Sam—”
“Go. See Hayes. Give him all that.” She looked up at him then, all that fear and worry in her gaze, even if she was scowling at him. “And listen to your brother.”
“That’s the first time you’ve given me that advice. Hope it’s the last.”
She didn’t so much as crack a smile, but he sensed enough of a softening to lean down and press his mouth to hers. “I love you.”
Her eyes were shiny, but she didn’t unclench her jaw. “I love you too,” she muttered, then turned away from him.
Not exactly progress, but something, he supposed.
*
Cal had insisted on driving. There was something to be said for optics. Hayes might think lawyering up was a sign of guilt because he was a cop and thought with a cop brain, but it was just smart.
So Cal drove away from Honor’s Edge and toward the police station, a million things about this running through his mind. Not unlike a usual case. So many threads to tie together. So many different ways things could go.
But the thing his brain kept coming back to was Sam.
He wouldn’t say he knew Samantha Price all that well, but over the past year, he’d gotten a real sense of her.
She didn’t rattle easily. In fact, the only time he’d really seen her unsteady was in the aftermath of her coming across an actual dead body.
So the fact she was rattled really bothered him. Especially considering what he’d noticed as they’d been getting ready to leave.
He tapped his fingers on the wheel, glanced at Nate, who sat stiffly in the passenger seat, a folder of paperwork on his lap.
“She’s real fucked up over this, huh?”
Nate didn’t look at him. But he answered honestly at least. “Yeah.”
“That why you haven’t mentioned that ring on her finger?”
Cal felt Nate’s gaze turn to him, but Nate said nothing. The silence stretched out as Cal drove. Cal didn’t know what else to say if Nate wasn’t going to explain. Cal didn’t know what he was trying to ascertain, in fact.
Then Nate sighed. “Hayes must have some kind of radar. He popped up about five minutes after she said yes. Things have been a little weird since, so … I don’t know. I don’t think she’s thinking about it right now. At least not in terms of telling anyone.”
Fascinating to hear a little bit of uncertainty coming from Nate the Stoic. Also a little concerning, so Cal found himself wanting to offer some kind of comfort. “She’s wearing the ring though.”
“Yeah. Well, she did say yes.”
“Can’t imagine why. I bet you still leave toothpaste clumps in the sink.”
Nate snorted, which Cal considered a win. “I was like thirteen the last time we shared a bathroom. Pretty sure the army beats such things out of you.”
The army. Cal could still remember what Hayes had asked him last month.
You really believe this bullshit that your brother ran away for fifteen years, comes back, and is nothing but a perfect war hero?
Cal did, in fact, believe that. But… Well, if he was going to help Nate, he had to cover all his bases. “Speaking of that, there’s nothing there I need to know about, is there?”
Nate’s confusion was real and not put on. “About what?”
“Something that might have happened when you were in the military. An altercation. A crime committed. Something they could potentially use against your character, if it came to that.”
Cal pulled into a parking spot and looked over at his brother when Nate didn’t say anything. The expression on his brother’s face was a mixture of shock, hurt, and fury.
“I was a criminal defense attorney for ten years, Nate. I know how investigations work. I’m just covering my bases, making sure there’s nothing Jake’s going to unearth that looks bad.”
“You really think he’d just … pin this on me?”
“No. But I also know he’s got to pin it on somebody. He wouldn’t be the first cop to follow the first idea in his head under some circumstantial evidence. Especially when there’s a little personal vendetta in the mix.”
“I’d hardly call it a vendetta.”
“Maybe not, but you got the girl. He didn’t.”
Nate looked away. “We’re not teenagers,” he muttered.
“In my experience, a lot of men are nothing but perpetual teenagers.”
“I thought you liked Hayes.”
“I don’t know if like is the right word. He’s a complicated guy. Not bad to investigate with or even have a drink with, but…” Cal tried to find the right words to both ease his brother’s mind and make sure he understood he couldn’t just blow this off.
“I might think Sam is overreacting about a lot of this, but coming to your house last night was just a dick move. And in the scheme of dick moves, I’ll stand behind my brother before I stand up for some guy who’s a superficial friend at best.”
Nate took a minute to think that over.
When he finally spoke, it was stoic and detached. “My military records should reflect I was an exemplary soldier who followed orders.”
Cal frowned at his brother. “That’s a real lawyer way of putting it.”
Nate shrugged. “I don’t know that being a good soldier, particularly a sniper, is a great defense against murdering someone.”
Well, Cal couldn’t argue with that. He pushed out of the car and waited until Nate did the same before heading into the station.
He walked up to the front desk, flirted with the woman behind it while they waited for Jake. Eventually, they were led back to Jake’s tiny office. The detective stood behind his desk, eyed them both. Then pointed to two chairs shoved together on the other side of his desk.
“Well, Bennet, bringing a criminal defense attorney is certainly telling.”
“Actually, I’m handling all kinds of law these days, Jake.” Cal helped himself to a seat.
Then, because he knew how to set a scene, put his feet up on Jake’s desk, ankles crossed.
He gestured behind him at where Nate still stood, all military ramrod straight. “My client is, of his own volition, supplying you with any and all paperwork involved with his taking Mrs. Hyatt’s case.”
Nate reached forward, put the folder on Jake’s desk. Said nothing.
Which clearly pissed Jake off. But he didn’t say anything either, just picked up the folder and flipped through the pages. “What about a magical alibi? Got one of those?”
“Are you accusing my client of something, detective?”
Jake’s eyes zeroed in on Cal. “I could be.”
Cal didn’t let the reaction show, but Jake was really pissing him off.
“But you’re not. Because we have cooperated by giving you every scrap of information about Mrs. Hyatt hiring my brother as her private investigator.
And there is no evidence anywhere that they had a relationship outside of that. ”
“Evidence is a funny thing. Because none of this is evidence.” He tossed the folder on his desk. “It’s just busywork. Offering up only the most basic information sounds like something a man who’s guilty of something would do.”
Cal held Hayes’s gaze. He didn’t so much as blink. And when he spoke, he kept his tone easy and conversational. Even as each sentence held as many daggers as possible.
“To you, a man employed by a police department that arrested, convicted, and kept an innocent man behind bars for more than fifteen years, I bet it does seem guilty. It also brings up an important subject before we go. We should probably discuss what constitutes harassment.” Cal smiled blandly at Hayes.
Who, for all his impressive stoic control, turned a fascinating shade of purple.
“Not saying you will harass him, of course,” Cal continued, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “I just wanted to be clear on the law, since your issues with my client are very well known.”
Hayes took his time, but his voice was low and lethal when he finally spoke. “Don’t fuck with me, Bennet.”
Cal figured it was fair enough to match it. “Then don’t fuck with my brother, Hayes.” He got to his feet, shot Jake a sunny smile. “See you around, buddy.” Then he gestured to Nate to exit the office.
Nate did so without a word, thank God, so Cal followed. He half expected Jake to shout something at them or stop them on some trumped-up charge, but they walked back to the lobby without incident.
“Yeah, you really calmed things down,” Nate muttered as they walked out of the station.
“Better he know we’ve got angles, too, than calm things down,” Cal replied.
Nate sounded exhausted. Cal felt revved. Pissed, too, but revved over it. He didn’t relish being in this position, but, man, he did love being a lawyer.
They climbed into his SUV, but before Cal turned the keys in the ignition, he looked over at Nate. He didn’t relish this next part, but it was part of that whole being home for good thing.
“Landon’s going to need to know.”
Nate leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes. He looked as tired as Cal had ever seen him. Which made Cal feel something like worry for his baby brother.
Yeah, moving back home created all sorts of weird.
“Why don’t you let me handle it?” Cal said casually, making sure none of that worry crept into his voice. “I can drop you off at Honor’s Edge, then head up to the ranch and fill them in myself. I’ll lay on the lawyer speak, tone it down so they don’t get too worked up about it. Sound good?”
“None of this sounds good,” Nate muttered, the first little sense of any petulance or fight from him.
Good, he was going to need some of that going for him.