Chapter Five
Eve was happy to get out of her wedding dress and slip back into more comfortable clothes.
The slightly oversize knit sweater hung past the waist of her jeans while her tennis shoes felt like an apology to her poor feet.
She had never been a heels type of girl, and yet she’d had to endure the tall traps she had promptly thrown back into her bag once she had entered the bridal party dressing room.
The bobby pins forcing her hair into a headache-inducing tight hold were more of a production to get rid of.
She only managed to pull half of them out before deciding the ones on top could stay until the last vestiges of adrenaline had disappeared.
Because, ever since seeing Gary slumped over in the lobby, dead, Eve had felt like ants were crawling beneath her skin.
She felt for Gary. And she worried for her plan.
Not to mention the Darius of it all. After he and the sheriff had interrupted the wedding, she had believed a wonderful excuse was coming her way—something that would put a hiccup large enough in the proceedings that she would have more time to do what she needed.
But a murder?
That hadn’t been even remotely on her list of possibilities.
A knock on the suite door sounded. Eve checked her reflection in the mirror to make sure she didn’t look as chaotic as she felt and scooped up her bag.
No matter who was at the door, she had already decided that she wouldn’t be going back to the old library anytime soon. Especially not for her own wedding.
A familiar and not-at-all-liked face was frowning so severely that Eve had to fight the impulsive urge to shut the door as soon as she had opened it.
Maria Sanderson was a few years younger than Eve but acted as if she had lived twenty more lives than her at any given moment.
Her confidence came from two places and two places only: her husband’s money, and a lifetime of having everything she wanted handed to her.
It was a slightly harsh assessment that Eve had made after meeting the wife of Scott Keys’s best friend, Toby.
But now, a year later, she stood steadfast in her opinion.
Maria had never liked a pragmatic, daily worker like Eve. The gossip that came with Eve, though? That was worth more than any friendship.
Maria was already talking the moment the door opened.
“I can’t believe someone died at your wedding!
” Maria followed Eve out of the room and down the hallway.
She was still in her designer dress and covered in various accessories that sparkled even under the library’s old fluorescent lights.
Eve didn’t miss the woman’s gaze down at her now very underwhelmingly average outfit.
On a normal day it would have most likely prompted a backhanded compliment of some sort.
Today, however, Maria hurried past any veiled or not-so-veiled insult.
“Well, I guess calling it a wedding is generous, all things considered,” she said. “The ceremony didn’t even finish, and I’m guessing that rescheduling for later tonight isn’t in the cards either, huh?”
Maria might have liked gossip, but she wasn’t giving Eve any space to provide a word. Her heels clicked and echoed through the hallway around them.
“The sheriff already told us all to go back to the hotel,” she continued.
“Toby already left to talk to management about extending our stay. He wanted to go with the sheriff and Scott to Gary’s room to look around, but I told him we should probably take care of the guests who didn’t want to stay here more than a day, you know?
Just in case they’re needed with the investigation. ”
While Maria had been talking, Eve had been inching them toward the library’s lobby.
Pointing out that a man’s death was more important than a guest’s potential discomfort didn’t seem the right play, though Eve felt the urge to say it all the same.
But unlike Maria, she knew there was a time and place for things.
Right now? All Eve wanted to do was talk to only two people. Maria was neither one of those people.
Still, Eve couldn’t deny she was glad for the mini-update on what had happened in the time she had been sequestered to the bridal party dressing room to change.
Namely, finding where one of the two people she wanted to see next had gone.
“Is Mitchell with Scott and the sheriff?” Eve asked. “I can’t get him on the phone.”
Maria’s eyes widened. Her lipstick’s deep red looked oddly off-putting. The fluorescent lights really weren’t doing anyone favors here.
“He’s probably at the police station or department or whatever it’s called. I saw him leave, but he got into a police car with some man in a uniform.”
Eve paused in her short stride.
“He left in one of their cars?”
Maria nodded.
“Don’t worry. He was sitting in the front seat, or else I would have said something, believe you me.”
Why had Mitchell gotten into a deputy’s cruiser at all? Why hadn’t he gone with Scott and the sheriff?
Eve felt her brow knit together. Maria noticed but didn’t understand the emotion behind it.
The diamond of her wedding ring had swiveled downward. It pinched a little as she patted Eve’s shoulder.
“Don’t you worry, I’ll be talking to Toby and Scott about getting you two married as soon as possible so we can get back to civilization.”
Eve didn’t have the mental space to point out that Maria had just insulted her hometown and, instead, finally made her way out into the lobby.
After waiting in the offices for half an hour, then escaping to change, the old library’s lobby had apparently been emptied. Gary’s body was gone, and in its place some caution tape and a sign had been put up. All personnel and law enforcement were gone.
All but one.
Maria let out a little breath as both women saw Darius. There was definitely no denying he had more than grown up. Leaning against the wall next to one of the open front doors, he looked like he had stepped out of a magazine. Modeling denim, Eve couldn’t help but think quick.
Maria must have also appreciated the sight.
When Darius pushed off the wall and came toward them, she cleared her throat ever so slightly. Then that too-dark lipstick moved into a sharklike smile.
Darius gave her a small nod, but his gaze didn’t move from Eve. Which was good, considering he was one of the two people she was hoping to talk to now.
“Mrs. Keys, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming with me for a statement at the department?” He sure looked like Darius, but the voice and name change certainly threw Eve for a mental loop. She felt her brow fly high in question.
Maria beat her to a response.
“Miss Myers, actually,” she corrected. “Sadly, the ceremony was cut short, so she’s still Myers. Miss Myers.”
This time, Darius looked her way. He didn’t smile but did step back to open one of the doors even more wide.
“Even more of a reason to get going.” He motioned for Eve to go through the door. She gladly accepted the directive.
“I’ll be going now, Maria. Let me know if anything else happens, okay?”
Maria wasn’t used to being brushed off, and normally Eve would have been more polite with it, but given the circumstances, she assumed the faux pas would be overlooked.
Darius, however, addressed Maria’s presence the second they were in his truck.
“I don’t like her,” he said, grabbing at his seat belt. Eve followed suit but added in a snort.
“If you showed her your bank statements, she wouldn’t like you either.”
Darius made a sound of mock pain.
“Way to leg-sweep me there, Eve.”
Eve didn’t scramble for any kind of apology.
“Scott Keys might be rich rich, but Maria is married to his best friend Toby. And Toby? Already had six figures in his bank account before he exited the womb.”
Not that Maria was much different. While she wasn’t the stereotypical trust-fund baby, her mother had married a business tycoon in Texas. As far as Eve knew, neither woman had wanted for a thing after that.
Darius started the engine and had them aimed out of the parking lot, all while shifting expressions. His obvious distaste for Maria’s attitude smoothed a frown into a neutral middle expression.
“If you’re not a fan either, why was she one of your bridesmaids? Or, I guess, maid of honor.”
That surprised Eve.
“I guess you’re still good at the details,” she said. “I didn’t think there was time to look around before you and the sheriff shut everything down.”
In fact, other than a quick look between Eve and Darius while they were on opposite sides of the aisle, Darius hadn’t met her gaze again until they were each pulled out of the offices to talk.
“Just because I was stopping your wedding didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention.”
His tone was as matter-as-fact as they came. It bothered Eve.
Part of her had expected him to show up, part of her knew it had been a ridiculous request. Regardless, shouldn’t he have been asking more questions?
Even without poor Gary’s death, she would have expected more than inquires about Maria Sanderson.
But who was she to nitpick?
“When Scott realized I wasn’t planning on having any bridesmaids, he thought it would be a good to ask Maria since she loves big, social events. Janice and Renee, the bridesmaids, are from the foundation.”
“The foundation? You mean the Keys Foundation?”
Eve nodded.
“So you work with them, then.”
“Yes. Coworkers.”
They were driving across Main Street. Eve didn’t take in the scenery. She knew Seven Roads had changed; she didn’t need to know how much. What she had to do next was too important for her to worry about the outside world.
Even when it came to Darius.
“When can I see Mitchell? I haven’t been able to talk to him since you pulled me out to talk earlier.”
“We’re going to him right now.”
His neutral tone pricked a little.
Eve looked sidelong at him.
“I heard that Scott was helping the sheriff. Did they find something? Do you know what happened to Gary?”
Darius didn’t look her way, even as they slowed to a stop at a red light.
“We’re working a lead right now.”
Eve waited for more.
She didn’t get it.
“What’s the lead?”
Darius kept his eyes right on the road. The badge on the chain around his neck still shone in the fading sunlight.
For the first time since being back in Seven Roads, Eve saw the boy next door for what he was now.
A man of the law.
And, she realized too late, that his offer to take her to the department might not have had anything to do with their past at all.
“Darius, what’s the lead?”
In profile she watched him clench his jaw. It took a moment for him to answer.
And it wasn’t even an answer at all.
“Let’s wait until we’re at the department.”
IT WAS HARD to tell who was the most unhappy in the room. There was Liam with his thumbs hooked into his belt loops, brows drawn in and lips thin, standing at the head of the meeting room table. His chair was empty behind him. He didn’t seem like he was going to use it anytime soon.
Price wasn’t as robust in his aggravation. He had come into the room and sat down at his usual spot next to Rose. Despite her promotion, she looked more at ease next to the deputy, like old times. One hand was on her belly, the other was balled on top of the table.
Deputy Gavin, usually quiet, sat across from Darius with a frown.
The sheriff spoke first.
“I know we’ve been through a lot of tricky cases over the last few years, but I have to point out that this one is a bit more complicated than I would like.
And we need to make sure we keep everything—everything—aboveboard.
No breaking the rules for the greater good.
No going rogue. No missed check-ins because we’re all friends here. Got it?”
He pressed his fingertips down onto the tabletop but let his gaze sweep over each of them until everyone had nodded.
Darius also dipped his chin too.
Liam didn’t seem as convinced. Still, he moved on.
“As of right now we still haven’t found where Gary Whittaker was killed, but according to Doc Ernest, the cause of death was from the shot to his gut.
Wherever he was before, he bled a lot. That’s where I need you two to use your powers that come with being long-time locals.
” The sheriff motioned to Rose and Price.
Even though Darius had also been born, raised and mostly stayed within the Seven Roads’s zip code, Price had a penchant for gossip, and Rose had a way with locations.
Her husband, the only local mechanic, also had proven to be an asset when it came to local information-gathering.
“He was staying at the new hotel with the rest of the wedding party and last seen this morning in the lobby. Doc Ernest says he hasn’t been dead for more than a few hours. Wherever he was killed, we need to find it.”
Rose nodded.
Price looked to Darius.
“Have you talked to the brother yet? Mitchell Keys?” he asked. “I heard it’s not looking that great for him.”
Darius hadn’t.
Which led to one of the complications the sheriff now sighed about.
Rose picked up on the tension quickly.
“What? Let me guess. He started yelling for a lawyer?”
Liam shook his head.
“No,” he answered. “His fiancée.”
Darius felt the same flash of annoyance as he had when Mitchell had said the same thing to him no less than half an hour beforehand.
“What?” Price asked.
“He’s refusing to say anything until he can talk to his fiancée, not a lawyer, not his brother. Just Miss Myers. And he wants to talk to her privately first.”
Price snorted.
“Well, that’s not suspicious or anything,” he said.
The sheriff nodded.
“I agree. And normally we wouldn’t even entertain that idea but—” Liam looked to Darius “—Detective Williams has done something that he apparently has never done before during the span of his entire career that’s made me rethink our next steps.”
Three heads turned in sync.
Darius didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
Yet, he straightened his back as he spoke.
“I vouched for her. I vouched for Evelyn Myers.”