Chapter Twenty-Nine
The apartment above Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
When Cal’s phone chimed, he practically leaped for it. Sam hadn’t checked in yet this morning, and he was starting to get worried.
“I swear to God, if you got arrested, you’re just going to have to deal with it,” he muttered.
But the text wasn’t from Sam. It was from Jill.
She was getting the report. Cal reread the text, afraid he was hallucinating. She was actually getting it.
Cal had a bad feeling it wouldn’t lead him anywhere concrete, but every little bit had to help. He had to believe it would help.
He responded to Jill, then opened up a text to Sam.
“If you don’t text back in fifteen minutes, I’m tracking you down.”
Maybe Sam wasn’t the best person to threaten, but he wasn’t in the mood to fool around trying to get through to her with a lawyer angle as Nate had suggested. He just needed to know she was okay, so he didn’t have to deliver any more bad news to Nate.
Damn it, if she’d gotten herself arrested, he was going to be so pissed. He muttered that to himself as he put on shoes and headed downstairs so he could let Jill in when she got here.
Jill. Who he’d barely had a chance to see or talk to since that kiss.
Which had been a mistake. He kept having to remind himself of that. A mistake best left in the past. If he ignored it, she would too.
Right?
He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Dr. Michaels. He’d had to reschedule his normal appointment with his therapist. He was too busy and was doing well for the most part.
Except maybe the part where you’re afraid of anything good in your life.
Well, that was neither here nor there until his brother was out of jail. Or so he told himself.
When the knock sounded on the back door, he immediately opened it.
Jill all but fell through, stumbling into the room. “It was Jake,” she said breathlessly, shoving a piece of paper at him.
He took it. “What was Jake?” But it all connected. “He took the report?” Cal demanded, already reading through the paper.
A few things were blacked out, but it was clear who’d taken the report. Detective Jake Hayes. Cal read through the whole report once, then twice.
“He … he took this nothing report and lied about it.” Lied about nothing.
Because this report, as it was, looked like absolutely nothing. Just noting what Jules Hyatt had claimed and not suggesting any kind of follow-up or belief that a real crime had been committed.
So why had he lied?
“Cal. He met her. He talked to her. Don’t you think this means…”
Cal tried to work through all the ramifications. Yeah, it made Jake look suspicious, but what didn’t? It was still just circumstantial, more or less.
“It isn’t proof. Not proof enough. We need more.”
“But it’s good. It’s positive. It’s a step,” Jill insisted.
She wasn’t wrong. He just wished it was more. “I’m not saying it’s not. I just…” He didn’t want to admit out loud that he didn’t know where to go from here.
That, sure, it was a step, but to what?
Maybe Sam had found something. If she hadn’t gotten herself arrested, anyway.
“I’m just … I’m worried about Sam.” And if he was changing the subject to avoid admitting he didn’t know how to proceed, so be it.
“She hasn’t checked in this morning like she should have.
Luckily, I had her turn on her location tracking last night, but I’m going to have to use it and find her and hope she didn’t do something stupid. So, that has to be my focus right now.”
“Of course,” Jill said, wringing her hands together. “What was she doing?”
“Following Hayes.”
Jill’s hands fell at her sides, worry in her expression intensifying. “Cal, I saw him at the station. I didn’t see Sam’s car anywhere. It’s pretty noticeable.”
“She’s in a rental car,” Cal replied, but he still didn’t like this. It wasn’t like the parking lot at the police station was vast. If Sam was watching for Jake, she should have been noticeable. Of course, Jill wasn’t looking for her.
Still. “I’m going to get my phone and see where she is.”
Before he could even make a move for the stairs, a hard set of knocks sounded at the back door.
Frustrated with the interruption, Cal jerked the door open. Then scowled. Before he could even demand to know what Hayes wanted, the man was making demands.
“I need to get a hold of Sam,” Jake said.
Cal studied Jake. He looked rattled, which was really odd to see on Jake Hayes. And was a concern, considering he was asking about someone Cal was struggling to get in touch with.
“Yeah, join the club.”
“You don’t know where she is?” Jake demanded, like he was Sam’s fucking keeper.
Which he assured himself he was not, even as worry gripped him. “No.”
Jake swore. And seemed a lot more than just frustrated. He seemed … concerned.
“What the hell is going on, Hayes?”
“I … I need to find her. I found something that concerns me, and I can’t get in touch with her or … someone else with a connection to it.”
“Details, Hayes.”
Jake inhaled, some of his usual calm cloaking him as he looked Cal in the eye and spoke seriously. “I still think your brother is a murderer.”
But there was something about the way he was dealing with this that made Cal wonder, because why did he need to qualify the situation?
“I … I had cause to review the security footage from the station the day Jules came in to report harassment. There’s footage of Jules and Officer Brian Mathews having a conversation on her way out of the station after talking to me.”
“That piece of shit?” Cal had no love lost for Brian Mathews, considering both he and Jake had fucked with Cal when Aly was dealing with her mom’s stuff last summer. “Does he have something to do with this?”
“Their interaction appeared … friendly in nature. They both get out their phones and appear to exchange numbers, but…” Jake shook his head.
“There’s no evidence in Jules’s phone of this, which I find suspicious.
” Jake inhaled deeply. “I have reason to believe that she then went out on a date with him the night she was murdered. It’s possible he saw something.
I’ve tried to get in touch with him, but he’s … on vacation.”
“Mother fucker. Saw something? My ass.” It was so clear.
Jake wanted to hold onto Nate being the murderer, but he clearly suspected Mathews of having something to do with this.
Brian Mathews. Cal didn’t know if he thought that jackass had the balls to murder anyone, but he didn’t really know the guy.
“I need to discuss this with Sam,” Jake said, earnestly now. “I need to get a hold of Olivia Underwood. And it’s a concern that I can’t reach either of them.”
“Cal was about to try to track Sam since she hadn’t checked in,” Jill supplied.
Cal glared at her, but she looked at him imploringly. “We need to work together,” she told him. “If Sam is in trouble, we need to work together.”
“You’ve got no reason to trust me, Bennet, but I think something is very wrong, and…” Jake inhaled deeply, let it out. Seemed to firm his determination. “I want to make it right.”
“Fine,” Cal muttered.
Fine. If Hayes was letting them in, then yeah, maybe this was the only way to go. He jogged up the stairs to where he’d left his phone. As he went back down to Jill and Jake, he pulled up Sam’s contact information and pushed the LOCATE button.
They all waited while a little wheel turned, indicating it was working on locating. Then Cal swore. “The TikTok Motel.”
“Maybe she’s just investigating, and that’s why she’s not responding,” Jill offered, but both Cal and Jake were already moving for the door.
Because somehow, Cal very much doubted it.