Chapter Two
The apartment above Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
Cal Bennet heard voices outside his door. Kind of hushed whispers, but since he was up and making himself breakfast in the kitchen just a few yards from said door, he could hear them, even if he couldn’t make out the words or place the voices.
He assumed it would be Sam and Nate since they were the only other ones with keys to the building. It was a little early for them to be at the office—since his apartment was situated above Sam’s Honor’s Edge Investigations—and even then, they didn’t usually come up the stairs to bother him.
He considered last night. The party had been fun. His family—the family he cared to acknowledge—had come together with a few friends, namely Jill and Glenda Harrington, to celebrate his passing the Montana bar. Essentially, celebrate him being home permanently after over a decade in Texas.
He’d managed to get his stick-in-the-mud middle brother off the Bennet Ranch and into town, no doubt his sister-in-law’s doing.
But Landon and Aly had seemed to enjoy themselves.
Sam and Nate had enjoyed themselves, too, though Cal wasn’t sure Nate had taken his eyes off Sam.
So much so that Cal had kind of been glad that Jake hadn’t been able to show up because of whatever work thing he had.
Cal might consider Jake something like a friend, but there was no denying Jake and Nate in the same room always had the potential for disaster. Especially if Sam was involved.
Jill and Glenda had stayed longer than he’d expected.
Long enough for him to spend some time flirting with Jill.
Not really something he should indulge himself in.
Sure, she was smart and pretty, and her writing fascinated him, but even with a passed bar, a five-year plan, and a therapist on speed dial, he should not be sniffing around anything that even whispered of roots and commitment.
Everything about Jill screamed both those things.
But what was the harm in a little flirt?
Which was the problem. It had been a nice night. Normal. Fun. Not things that happened in the Bennet world.
So, trouble on the other side of that door? Yeah, seemed about right on time.
Setting his plate in the sink, Cal moved over to the door. He didn’t bother to look out the peephole, just opened it.
Sam and Nate stood right there on the other side. They both stopped whispering at each other and peered at him like they were surprised to find him in the apartment he rented from Sam.
“Good morning,” Cal greeted. “Or is it?”
“Jules Hyatt was killed,” Sam announced with no preamble. Or explanation.
Cal waited for some kind of dawning horror to hit him, but the name wasn’t familiar. Certainly not anyone he knew or had a relationship with.
“Who’s Jules Hyatt?”
“The woman who hired Honor’s Edge to investigate her husband’s affair,” Nate said flatly.
The memory of a tall, built, blonde woman flashed. Right. She’d hired Nate to investigate, but she had seemed far more interested in him than in answers.
Uh-oh. Cal studied his brother. Stoic as ever.
But this was definitely trouble.
He moved out of the doorway and gestured them inside. “Coffee?”
They both shook their heads.
“Nate thinks I’m overreacting, but Jake very purposefully came to our house after your party to question Nate. And make it clear he’s a suspect. Then this genius answered questions without a lawyer present.”
Sam was not stoic. She was vibrating with a kind of fury that would make a smart man tread carefully.
Cal Bennet wasn’t always smart. “Well, I’m sure he is one.
” Before Sam leapt at him—which Cal was sure was incoming—he held up a hand and continued.
“They have to look at anyone who was in her orbit toward the end of her life. That’s what detectives do.
They’ll talk to the husband, coworkers, neighbors.
And yeah, the guy she hired to get proof her husband was cheating. It’s just procedure.”
“What Jake was doing was not procedure,” Sam returned through gritted teeth. “Coming to our house late at night, after a party—a party he knew about.”
Cal agreed that was a little out of the box of normal procedure, but he didn’t know enough about the case to know why Jake might have taken that route. There could be a reasonable explanation.
“We all know Nate didn’t do anything. They’ll look into the case, probably want your records. Maybe your emails with her. You just cooperate, and it’ll be fine.”
Cal thought Sam’s eyes might actually bug out of her head.
“Do you guys not remember what happened fifteen years ago in this very town with this very police department and a lot of the same damn players?”
It was a fair enough question, Cal supposed. No doubt Sam was a little touchy about it, considering it was her father who’d spent nearly fifteen years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
And then did commit a murder once he got out because all that jail time had broken something inside of him.
“It’s not the same, Sam. You’re overreacting.” Nate’s tone was conciliatory, but even Cal knew telling someone in a panic that they were overreacting was a bad idea.
“I hope so. I fucking hope so.” With that, she whirled away, out the door, down the stairs, and into the front offices.
A door slammed somewhere, likely the one between front and back rooms.
Nate didn’t follow her, but he watched her go. He let out a sigh but didn’t have a similar outburst.
“You’re handling this better than she is,” Cal noted with some surprise.
Nate had no love lost for Jake, and if Jake had been the one questioning him, Cal would have expected his brother to be more offended and riled up.
“Jules told me she was in danger. I didn’t listen.” Nate raked fingers through his hair, and Cal wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his brother look so unsure, so without his usual ex-soldier stoicism. “I didn’t kill her, but damn if I’m not partially to blame.”
A little of Sam’s temper must have rubbed off on Cal. “Oh, fuck that, Nate. That woman was a nuisance.”
Nate’s mouth firmed. “Doesn’t mean she deserved to die.”
“I didn’t say that. I said she was a nuisance, and she made it difficult to damn near impossible for you to help her. That’s not on you.”
Nate said nothing.
Cal wanted to scowl at him. Self-blame wasn’t going to help. Because while Cal had enough faith in Jake’s detective abilities for this not to turn out the way Sam was worried about, that didn’t mean care shouldn’t be taken.
“The one thing Sam is right about? Don’t talk to Hayes again without me there. That’s just common sense.”
“Because you’ll help the situation?” Nate replied incredulously.
Cal grinned. “I’m a lawyer, brother.”
“Exactly.”
Cal wanted to laugh, but the situation was just a little too serious, and Nate didn’t seem to be taking the right notes away from it.
“Look, Jake hates you. There’s no bones about it. I don’t think he’d let that color his investigation on purpose, whatever Sam thinks. He’s a good detective.” Cal couldn’t go so far as to call him a good guy.
He had started to count Jake as almost a friend, but there was still something vaguely … other about the guy. Buttoned up and kept separate. A bit like Nate himself.
Cal couldn’t quite get a full read on him, which Cal supposed was why he’d started to consider him a friend. Cal didn’t trust anyone he could see through that easily.
Still, just because Jake was a good detective didn’t mean he was perfect.
No one was.
“But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that his feelings about you subconsciously color things.” It wasn’t more than a month or two ago when Cal and Jake had sat in a fast-food restaurant outside of Kalispell and Jake had demanded to know if Cal really thought Nate was a good guy.
Cal didn’t just think it, he knew it, but he wasn’t so sure he’d convinced Jake that night. Especially if Jake was showing up to Nate’s house last night when it would have made more sense to wait until this morning.
“So, we’ll just play this by the book, huh? You don’t talk to the cops without a lawyer present. You want to hire someone besides me, be my guest. But you need a lawyer.”
Nate said nothing. His hands were in his pockets. He was still looking at the door where Sam had disappeared. Then he took a deep breath and let it out, looked at Cal. “I was going to grab my case notes and head down to the station this morning.”
Cal shook his head. “No. This morning you’re going to get those case notes, and every last scrap of paperwork, emails, whatever that had to do with the Hyatt case.
” Cal glanced at his watch. “I’ve got a meeting at the diner at nine.
I’ll come back here after, see what you’ve got, then we’ll go down to the station. Together.”
Nate sighed. “I guess that might keep Sam from kicking my ass after.”
Cal nodded, but he thought that was a big might.