Chapter Thirteen
A coffee shop in Bozeman
Sam was gritty-eyed and shaky, but she all but burst into the coffee shop Olivia Underwood had agreed to meet her at, believing, with a fervency that probably wasn’t healthy, this was the break they needed.
Something had to break, or she would.
Sam scanned the interior of the trendy coffee shop. There were a couple of women sitting by themselves, but the one who looked over with sad eyes and nervous hands seemed like the right target. Sam made a beeline for her.
“Olivia?” she asked when she approached the table by the window.
The woman nodded. She had her hands curled around a mug.
Her nails were perfectly manicured in a shade of deep purple, and she wore an array of gold and silver rings and bangles on her wrists.
She was dressed in a turtleneck that matched the manicure, perfectly winged eyeliner, and a slicked-back bun without a hair out of place.
But no amount of makeup or facades could hide the bags under the woman’s eyes. “You’re Ms. Price?”
Sam slid into the seat across from her. “Call me Sam.”
Olivia nodded, her eyes on the window. The sunlight made the blue seem nearly translucent. Or maybe that was the tears she was clearly holding back.
Boy, could Sam relate. “I’m sorry about your friend.” Sam had thought Jules Hyatt a nuisance at best, but the woman was still a person who had family and friends and a life.
And hadn’t deserved to have someone take it from her or all the people left behind.
The woman’s grip on the mug tightened, but she nodded. “Thank you. I’ve already answered all the police’s questions. I don’t really know what more I can tell you. I … don’t even know why I agreed to meet you.”
“I know, and I can’t imagine how awful it is to keep having people bring it up.” Except she could indeed imagine.
Constantly being asked questions and not knowing how to answer them but wanting to. Needing to.
“It is, but no one’s been arrested.” The woman blinked a few times, no doubt trying to hold back tears.
She moved her gaze to Sam. “I was the one who pushed her to go the private investigator route when she started worrying about Michael having an affair. I got divorced a few years ago and I … I wanted her to take all the steps I didn’t because I didn’t know any better. ”
Sam nodded. This wasn’t the information she wanted, but she could tell it was the information Oliva needed to get off her chest.
“But Jules picked Honor’s Edge because she was so impressed with your track record.
I know it was your employee who handled her case, but …
I guess the only reason I’m talking to you is because she thought you guys could do something for her about Michael.
” The woman sneered when she said the man’s name.
“So maybe you can do something about this.”
“I want to,” Sam said earnestly, feeling only a little badly it was for her own personal reasons.
“I really want to. Which is why I called you again. I hate to harass people who are grieving, but we recently learned that Mrs. Hyatt went to the police about a perceived threat. We’re trying to follow that story, see if it leads us somewhere. ”
Olivia nodded. “The investigator who works for you suggested she do that.” Clearly the woman didn’t know Nate was a suspect.
Or Sam’s fiancé. Which Sam figured worked in her favor, even if it made things a little tenuous. She didn’t want the woman to feel like she couldn’t trust Sam.
“I also encouraged her to go to the police when she kept complaining about it, but I’ll admit…” Olivia inhaled shakily. When she spoke again, her voice broke. “I didn’t believe her. It sounded like she was … I don’t know. I didn’t believe her and now she’s dead.”
Sam wasn’t much of a touchy-feely sort, and she wasn’t here to assuage this woman’s guilt when she had people in her own life who felt the same guilt, but she felt so compelled by the woman’s grief that she felt like she had to reach out and touch the woman’s arm. Offer something. “I’m sorry.”
Olivia sniffled. Looked out the window again. “What did you want to know about it?” she asked, clearly trying to sound strong.
“Who she might have talked to about the threats. Even just which police department she went to. What they might have recommended to her.”
“She didn’t want to go to the Livingston police because she’d felt they weren’t very helpful before.
But…” Olivia’s face twisted into an expression that was kind of like a wince.
“She’d gone to them about Michael trespassing in their house months before, when he wasn’t really.
But it didn’t matter because Michael has a friend who’s an officer there.
So she felt like he’d skew things against her if she tried to file any kind of report about harassment. ”
“So Michael was harassing her? She had some kind of proof of that?” She’d certainly never presented any to Nate.
Olivia blew out a breath. “She said it was happening. I didn’t … I never saw any evidence of it. Honestly, Michael seemed so uninterested in the drama Jules wanted to stir up.” Olivia’s expression darkened. “He had his little side piece, why would he bother Jules?”
Sam felt frustration bubble up. Because if even her friend didn’t believe her, wasn’t this just a ridiculous dead end? Wasn’t whatever Jules had gotten herself into irrelevant to what Nate’s investigation had been?
Still, Sam was too good a PI, too well-versed in following every little tangent not to press. “So, she went to the police here in Bozeman?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think so. She, uh…
” Olivia cleared her throat. “I don’t know why I couldn’t bring myself to tell the detective this, but it just felt wrong.
And like I was blaming her.” Olivia looked at her earnestly then.
“You have to understand. She was … dramatic.” Olivia’s smile was full of fondness, though.
“She could be mean and self-absorbed sometimes, but she could also be really loyal and funny and fun. But when she started to suspect Michael of cheating, it took away so much of her light. The bitterness and betrayal just ate her up.” Olivia scowled, shook her head, clearly at Michael’s cheating.
“Maybe he didn’t kill her, but he’s to blame too.
He hurt her, emotionally, because he could.
Because he’s a self-absorbed asshole who has never faced a consequence in his life. ”
Sam didn’t know what to say to that.
She wanted to bring it back around to the harassment, but it felt wrong. “So, you think he did it?”
The woman cradled her head in her hands for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe? Mostly, I think he’s too much of a … I don’t know. He’s lazy. Useless. Murder seems a far cry when he was getting everything he wanted. But I don’t know who would kill Jules or harass her. Michael was her whole life.”
Well, at least this woman didn’t suspect Nate.
“So, she didn’t go to Livingston or Bozeman police. Where else would she have gone with her concerns?”
Again, the woman made a kind of wincing expression. “She … Well, again, this sounds like I’m bad-mouthing her, and I’m not. She was in a really rough spot and just trying to get through.” Olivia looked at Sam earnestly, like she was waiting for Sam to absolve her.
So Sam nodded, even if hearing a positive side of Jules Hyatt’s personality and life didn’t help her any.
“She … she thought if she went to the police where your investigations office is, it would prove to your investigator that she was telling the truth, and then she would … well, make him feel bad for brushing her off. Which felt more like she was trying to prove something than that she was actually being harassed. But I was wrong. Clearly, I was so wrong if she’s dead. ”
Sam sighed. The woman was crying now, and Sam didn’t want to sit here and comfort a stranger when she needed information and progress and her fiancé might be on the hook for all this. But…
Hell, she was only human. She grabbed the woman’s hand. Squeezed. “Olivia. You sound like a really good friend. I know you feel guilty, and I’m sorry that you do. Because the only one who should feel bad about this is the person who did this to her.”
The woman sniffled. Used a napkin Sam handed her to dry her eyes. “I know. I know. I just…” She crumpled the napkin, shook her head, and flexed her hand under Sam’s.
She took a deep breath. “Grief is a hard thing. Thank you for meeting me. I appreciate it.”
“But I didn’t help you any,” the woman said sadly.
“That’s not true. You narrowed down where she went. That helps. It’s a thread to tug.” One Sam couldn’t tug herself.
Neither could Nate or Cal. They’d just get stonewalled by Jake fucking Hayes. But if someone there had talked to Jules about harassment, there had to be a report. Proof. Something.
Maybe Glenda could use her bizarre connection to help. It didn’t matter. It was something, and if it led to nothing, well…
Sam couldn’t interact with that thought. She had to do, not consider what-ifs.
“I appreciate it. Really. Take care, Olivia. And you have my contact information if you think of anything else. Please feel free to reach out with anything, even if it feels like nothing.”
Olivia nodded as Sam rose, but before Sam could step away, Olivia held up a hand.
“Wait. I don’t know if this helps any, but Jules was happy after she met with an officer there.
She didn’t tell me anything concrete, but she was in such a good mood.
Like she’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted.
So, I assume someone there did believe her, or pretended to?
They might be looking into that, then? Don’t you think? ” Olivia asked hopefully.
Sam nodded, though her mind was reeling. Jules had told Nate they hadn’t taken her seriously. But to her friend, she’d been happy … like she was sure the police, the Marietta police, were looking into it.
It was something to poke into. Even if they’d brushed her off, and Jules had been happy to assuage her friend’s worry, there’d be a report. There had to be. She had gone there.
So why hadn’t anyone mentioned that? Who at the police department had talked to Jules? What had been the real outcome? There had to be evidence of all of that somewhere.
And Sam was damn well going to find it.
“Thank you, Olivia. Really. This gives me somewhere to go.”
“Would you … I know the police will release things, but would you … if you find something, would you let me know?”
Sam looked into the woman’s teary blue eyes. “I will, Olivia. I promise.”