Chapter 5
Leaving the diner, Jesse bypassed the front of the bar and rounded the corner to enter from the back alleyway. She still hadn’t checked for any clues that might reveal who’d been knocking on her door last night.
Did she know what she was looking for? Footprints? A half-smoked cigarette? A scrap of clothing? Honestly, she had no idea. It wasn’t like she was a trained detective. Without a security camera back here, she had no way of exposing who had been lurking in the dark.
Not that the knowledge kept her from looking around.
Whoever had knocked would have had time to flee before she’d come down and opened the door.
But they would have to be in the alley watching to see when she switched off the lights to her room.
They couldn’t see that from the front of the building.
So where had they been waiting?
She moved down the alley. They would no doubt want to stay out of sight in case she glanced out the window. And the most obvious place would be behind Bea’s dumpster.
Leaning against the back wall of Bea’s Diner, she tried to squeeze behind the heavy metal container. It was impossible. Only a child could fit in the narrow space. So, had the watcher been inside the container?
With a grimace, Jesse grasped the rusty edge and tried to pull herself up far enough to peek inside. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to end up in the clinic getting a tetanus shot. Not that she was going to stop. She had to see if someone could stand inside and see her window.
“Dumpster diving?” An unwelcomed male voice scared the crap out of her. “You might do that sort of shit where you live now, but it’s illegal in Canton.”
Dropping her hands, Jesse kept her back turned as she brushed them together. She needed a minute for her pulse to slow. She wasn’t giving the bastard the gratification of knowing he’d scared her.
“Since when did you start caring about what’s illegal?” She at last turned to meet Adam Tillman’s suspicious glare. “You certainly didn’t mind forcing someone to lie under oath.”
He sucked air between the gap in his teeth. “Still bitter?” His gaze flicked over her in a dismissive gesture. “No wonder you look like a dried-up raisin.”
“Grape.”
His gaze jerked back to her face. “What?”
“You mean a grape. A raisin is already dried up. It’s redundant.”
His face flushed. “I suppose you think you’re clever.”
“Compared to you?”
He took a step closer, hitching up his utility belt, which was studded with handcuffs, a walkie-talkie, pepper spray, and a small pouch. On one hip was a slender baton and on the other was his service revolver.
He looked like he was hoping for trouble.
“What are you doing, creeping around back here?”
Jesse tilted her chin, refusing to be intimidated. “I’m not creeping around. I’m about to enter my private property. Is that a problem?”
He jerked his thumb to the back door of the Tap Room. “That’s your private property. You were snooping into Bea’s garbage. Why?”
“I wasn’t snooping.”
His gaze narrowed. “I know what I saw.”
There was no point in arguing, so instead she lied.
“I was looking inside because I thought I heard a cat when I came into the alley. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t one stuck in the dumpster.
” The fib came easily. Jesse had spent the past nine years bouncing around from one place to another, reinventing herself at each location.
She’d developed a talent for improvising the truth.
“People can be incredibly cruel. Even the ones who are supposed to be the good guys. I found that out when my dad was arrested.”
He ignored her deliberate insult. “You expect me to believe that?”
“Actually, I don’t care.” She shrugged. “Why are you following me?”
“It’s my job to keep this town safe.”
“Don’t let me keep you.” She waved toward the opening to the alley. “Go do whatever it is you do. Eating doughnuts. Harassing innocent citizens.”
His gaze moved to her exposed tats. “What I do is keep an eye on potential criminals.”
“Criminals? Are you referring to me?”
“I might not be as clever as you,” Adam sneered. “But I do know that your mother and sister disappeared—”
“Stepmother and stepsister.”
The sheriff continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “And then, astonishingly, your father vanished. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Wait.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you implying I was somehow involved?”
“You did end up with the family business and are about to come into a tidy fortune once your father’s insurance company pays out,” he drawled.
Jesse was gutted by his sick accusation. There’d never been a hint that she’d been involved in the nightmare. Hell, she’d still been a senior in high school when Victoria and Tegan disappeared. And everyone in town knew she adored her father. No one with a brain cell would think she could hurt him.
To even think that anyone would … no. Stop it, Jesse. She forced herself to take a deep breath. He was deliberately provoking her.
Why? The most likely explanation was that he was a jerk.
The sort of man who enjoyed kicking puppies and evicting old ladies from their homes.
Or he might want revenge. He’d blamed her for getting her dad released from prison, hadn’t he?
Forget the fact that Mac had disappeared a few hours later.
In his twisted little mind, it’d confirmed his belief that Mac had murdered his wife and stepdaughter.
Not that the why mattered. She wasn’t going to let him rattle her. Not when there were more important questions nagging in the back of her mind.
“How do you know my dad had a life insurance policy? If you’ve browbeat my dad’s insurance agent into revealing private financial information, I’ll sue the sheriff’s department.”
He flinched, as if caught off guard by her threat. “Everyone has a life insurance policy,” he blustered. “Besides, I have the right to gather information in an ongoing investigation.”
Jesse shook her head. She was tired of arguing with this idiot. The day was only half over and she was already exhausted.
Time to move on.
Resisting the urge to keep her back against the wall and scoot past Adam’s bulk, she stepped forward.
“I would give every penny I have to have my dad back. Every single penny,” she hissed. “Now, I have things to do. Go bully someone else.”
She swept past him with her head held high, digging into her purse for her keys. Reaching the back door to the Tap Room, she willed her hand not to tremble as she unlocked and shoved it open.
“How long are you going to be in town?”
Jesse shuddered as Adam’s hot breath crawled over her nape. “As long as it takes.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
“You better watch yourself, Jesse Hudson,” he growled. “I’m sheriff now. I enforce the law in this town. And I do it my way.”
Grimly, she forced herself to glance over her shoulder, meeting his hot glare. Unease curled through the pit of her stomach. It was daylight, but she was completely alone with this man.
Would Bea hear if she screamed? Would anyone?
She stiffened her spine. “I’m no longer the teenage girl you can frighten with a badge and a gun, Adam Tillman.”
He stepped until his pudgy belly pressed against her back. “Is that a threat?”
Her fear transformed into a scalding anger. The creep. How dare he touch her?
“It’s a warning from a woman who learned how to protect herself. You try to hurt me and I’ll make your life a misery in more ways than you can imagine.” She jabbed her elbow into the gut pressed against her. “Screw with me, I’ll screw with you. Ten times worse.”
He grunted in pain, not sure how to deal with a woman who refused to be browbeaten into submission. Jesse didn’t wait for him to figure it out. She slammed the door in his face and locked it.
There was a buzzing sound in her ears as she leaned against the wall, peering out of the back window to keep a watch on the sheriff.
He stood, frowning, at the closed door for a full minute.
Was he considering the pleasure of forcing it open to punish her?
Finally, he turned away with a jerky motion.
Expecting him to head out of the alleyway, Jesse frowned as he bent over and shuffled toward the dumpster, moving with slow, deliberate steps.
Was he searching for something? Maybe something he’d dropped last night when he’d been banging on her door?
She pressed her nose against the window, straining to keep him in sight as he got down on to his hands and knees to peer around the rusty container.
Whatever he was looking for he didn’t find, and he at last shoved himself to his feet and dusted off his hands.
He sent one last glare in the direction of the Tap Room before he was marching down the alley and disappearing from view.
What the hell was that?
Jesse forced herself to count to one hundred, making sure the sheriff didn’t circle back to spy on her before crossing the foyer.
Then, climbing the stairs to the third floor, she headed to the closed door at the end of the hallway. Without giving herself the opportunity to lose her nerve, she grabbed the knob and shoved open the door.
The smell of stale air and mildew wafted past her, like ghosts being released from their prison. She shivered, her mouth dry as she stepped over the threshold.
The last time she’d been in her dad’s private rooms had been a few days after he disappeared. She’d searched for anything that could give her a clue to what might have happened. There’d been nothing to help, and she’d shut the door, refusing to go back in.
Now she glanced around, feeling like an intruder.
For as long as Jesse could remember, the apartment above the bar had been a hodgepodge of shabby, well-loved rooms that were spread over two floors.
On this floor there were three bedrooms and a shared bathroom.
While the second floor was cut in half for the kitchen and living area, along with a small alcove that her father used as his office.