Chapter Eight #2
“We’re not investigators,” Landon pointed out. “We don’t know any of the players. What are we supposed to do?”
“That’s why I thought we should all be here,” Cal said, looking around the room. “Sam and Nate can give us all a little PI 101, and we can go from there.”
*
Jill knew she shouldn’t be filing information away as future inspiration for a book, but the way Sam explained how she set up an investigation was fascinating. The similarities between it and police work, with some notable differences, had a million ideas percolating.
They wouldn’t have access to the kind of crime scene tools that a police department would. They wouldn’t be able to prove anything with prints or DNA, but that didn’t mean there weren’t avenues that might lead them to results.
“Jake gave us an alibi window, so we know about when she was killed, but one of the things the police haven’t released is how she was killed. Which means we don’t know what kind of weapon we might be looking for,” Sam told them.
“We also don’t know where she was found,” Nate added. “Which would give us an idea of where to look for someone being in a place they shouldn’t be.”
“I did some poking around on that this afternoon. Because surely if it was in Marietta, we would have heard about it,” Cal said. “Got nowhere.”
“Her house with Michael was in Livingston,” Nate supplied. “She was staying with a friend in Bozeman last I heard. There wouldn’t be much reason for her to be in Marietta except to go to Honor’s Edge, as far as I know.”
“And if Jake is investigating, the murder or the body had to be in Marietta. Which also might be why he’s stuck on Nate as a suspect. Just proximity,” Cal said this with a kind of casual shrug that earned him a glare from Sam.
“You’d think in a town as small as Marietta someone would have witnessed a crime scene,” Landon grumbled.
“You’d think. But it was overnight, and there are some more isolated parts of Marietta.
Still, without a how or where, I think our best bet is to try to focus on the why,” Sam said.
“I mean, if someone can get it out of Jake how and where she was killed, I’m all ears, but I think he’s going to be pretty careful around anyone connected to Nate. ”
“Unless Jill takes him up on his offer.”
Jill blinked at Cal. He said it so casually.
But it was pointed in a weird way. The casual in his tone almost made her feel like she was being accused of something.
It made her uncomfortable and irritated that he’d use what she’d said this morning.
Not that he was using it against her, exactly, it just felt … weird.
And she didn’t like it. Especially since everyone was staring at her right now, including Grandma.
“He didn’t offer anything, except to help me with my book.” She looked right back at Cal. “Just like you’re doing.” Because screw him for saying that stuff about not being too old and then throwing Jake in her face.
“Well, if he ever does offer, see what you can get. I think you’re our best shot.” Sam said it so offhandedly, she certainly didn’t care about Jake potentially flirting with Jill.
She didn’t care about Jake at all.
Which made Jill feel a bit silly thinking Jake being interested in younger women was somehow a character flaw. Maybe she was just … na?ve. Too many years up on Grandma’s mountain.
But none of that mattered, because they were focused on a mystery. Maybe she usually dealt with fictional ones, but she also read a lot about real ones.
“Nate, you said her husband was happy with this new girlfriend,” Jill said. “But what if the new girlfriend wasn’t happy? Money makes people do weird things, and if her new boyfriend was going to owe his ex-wife a lot of money, maybe she wasn’t too happy about that. Do you know anything about her?”
Nate seemed to think this over. “I know a little. Not enough to know her feelings on Mrs. Hyatt or money, but … enough we could maybe try to figure it out.”
Cal got out of his chair and went to a bag by the door. He pulled out a laptop. Opened it and typed a few things, then handed it to Nate. “Put everything you know about her in this Word document, and we’ll go from there.”
“Nate, you said you didn’t feel like Mrs. Hyatt’s interest in you was personal,” Aly was clearly a little uncomfortable, but intrigued and eager to help if she could.
“It was more she just wanted to get back at her husband. So doesn’t that mean there could have been other men she, well, was trying to use that way? ”
“Good angle, Aly,” Sam said. “So, anyone she might have employed, that could have been her MO. Or what about this friend she was staying with? Male? Female? Someone around the place to hit on?”
“The cops will have covered all these bases, wouldn’t they have?” Landon asked, always the voice of reason … and potentially doom.
Though Jill supposed reason and doom had a place in the Bennets’ lives.
“The cops would have, yes. But we might see something they don’t,” Cal said.
“They’ll overlook things. Especially if they want it to be Nate,” Sam muttered. “Which they do.”
“It’s a good start,” Cal said. “The husband, the girlfriend, and anyone Jules might have employed or stayed with. For now, we’ll just split up our people of interest and do a little light internet stalking, huh?”
*
Cal assigned everyone a person to search.
Nate and Sam could look into Michael Hyatt and the girlfriend since they already had that information and anything they found could be claimed as part of the case Nate had already investigated.
Cal would handle trying to find anyone Jules might have employed, and he’d given Jill the name of the woman Jules had been staying with.
Landon and Aly weren’t going to be of much help at this juncture, neither particularly internet savvy nor people who left their ranch much, but Cal knew they’d jump into help wherever they could.
It felt like progress, and Cal was revved.
Or he would be, if Jill wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder.
So she hadn’t liked that comment about Jake offering something. But he hadn’t been so far off base, had he?
Off base and being a dick on purpose to create distance after taking a step toward connection this morning.
He heard that in his therapist’s voice. He decided to ignore it because she wasn’t right about everything.
Maybe.
Sam and Nate left first, followed by Jill and Glenda. Cal didn’t want to dawdle in happily married land, so he was on Glenda’s heels out the door.
“Did you read my notes on your scene?” he asked Jill, hoping she might have some more questions for him.
She didn’t so much as look at him. “Yep.” Then she strode forward at a quick clip, leaving him and Glenda in her dust.
“She’s not happy with you,” Glenda offered in her raspy voice.
It was still strange to have her talking. She still didn’t do it much. There were no superfluous words from Glenda Harrington, but she communicated what she wanted.
Like the obvious, apparently.
Cal shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Can’t imagine why.”
Glenda eyed him. It didn’t feel quite so unnerving as it had before he’d remembered everything.
You hope you remember everything.
Which was not a thought he wanted to be having at all.
“If I were you, I’d come by the cabin in the morning and apologize. With donuts.”
He glanced down at the old woman. “You trying to get some donuts out of the deal, Glenda?”
She made a noncommittal noise, but he recognized that gleam in her eye. It was a gleam Aly sometimes got.
And they were both wrong to get it. So he should probably stop ignoring it and start cutting it off at the pass.
“Just so you know, I think your granddaughter is pretty great,” Cal said, not wanting to piss any more women off today. But…
“But?” Glenda asked, as if she could read his thoughts.
Hell, maybe she could.
Cal sighed. Weirdly, of everyone, he felt like he could be the most honest with Glenda. Of everyone in his orbit, she felt the most … like him. After all, her traumas had led her to not speak for nearly twenty years, if not longer. She’d made some questionable decisions in the face of trauma.
Maybe she’d understand.
“But I’m not so great.”
Glenda inhaled, let it out. Then she shook her head and began to walk toward her truck where Jill was sitting in the driver’s seat. Waiting.
“Not so bad either,” she grumbled as a parting shot.
As shots went, it hit pretty hard.
Because he didn’t believe her, but he wished he did.