Chapter Twenty-Three
Outside Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
Jake didn’t consider parking his car along the street a few buildings down from Honor’s Edge as crossing any lines. Everything he was doing was part of trying to understand this case. He’d done his due diligence by collecting enough evidence to get a warrant for an arrest.
That didn’t mean his job was over. A trial was still going to happen, and he needed to ensure that the prosecution had everything they needed to put a murderer behind bars for good.
That was the job, and he was damn good at his job.
So good, he certainly wasn’t wasting any time entertaining what Cal had said the other day about refusing to admit he was wrong. How many cases had he had to keep an open mind, change theories on the fly, investigate, learn, observe.
Not decide. Not blame or interpret. He dealt in facts.
Sure, he was a little frustrated he’d wasted his time with Sam the other day, and that was feeling more than fact. There wasn’t going to be any getting through to her, though part of him was still looking for some angle. Some point of purchase.
She probably just needed time. Time to calm down. Time to realize.
Bennet would show his true colors eventually. Just like Benjamin Bennet had.
Not because sons had to pay for their father’s shitty behavior. Just because it made sense that if a person grew up with something, it was natural that it might influence them. Like alcoholism or drug use or a lack of respect for the law.
Surely Sam was bright enough to see through him once the trial laid it out. Jake just had to be patient. Pushing her wasn’t patient. Though the desire to do so was a persistent, frustrating itch just out of reach.
If he could convince her, then he could relax into being certain. Not that he wasn’t. It was just something about the case ate at him, but that didn’t mean he had to spend a lot of time quantifying what that was or why. Or wonder if he was wrong. He just needed to investigate.
So he watched the storefront of Honor’s Edge. He was disappointed in Sam for closing it down, for staying up at the Bennet Ranch. He’d thought her stronger than all that.
Black-and-white cop thinking.
Jake gritted his teeth and pushed Cal Bennet’s voice out of his fucking consciousness.
If Sam did come and open Honor’s Edge, he wouldn’t go in there. He was just taking stock of who came and went. The Bennets thought there was some way to turn this around on him, which normally would be so ludicrous he wouldn’t even concern himself with it.
But Cal Bennet and Sam Price were two hallmarks of tenacity.
And Jake Hayes was not a perfect man.
So he watched. Considered a wide variety of things. When he noticed a car pull between buildings—a car he didn’t recognize—he kept his gaze on the path from parking lot to front.
If in a few moments no one came out, they were likely here visiting Cal. And he’d have to figure out who they were and why they were making a house call, so to speak.
But not two minutes later, a woman appeared. She walked up to the front of Honor’s Edge. Either she didn’t see the closed sign in the window or she didn’t care. She went to the door and tried to pull it open. When nothing happened, she knocked on it.
Jake surveyed her. She looked vaguely familiar. Medium height. Slender in an elegant kind of way that spoke of someone who worked very hard at their appearance. She was dressed fashionably and looked more suited for a bigger city than strolling along Main Street Marietta first thing in the morning.
When no one answered the door, she shaded her eyes and looked in the windows, then looked around Main Street as if it would tell her what to do.
He’d blame the big sunglasses for how long it took him to recognize her, but once he did, he sat up taller in his seat.
Olivia Underwood. Jules Hyatt’s friend.
He’d interviewed Olivia as part of his investigation since Jules had been staying with the woman when she’d been murdered. Olivia hadn’t been able to give police much, but she’d been cooperative.
What the hell was she doing at Honor’s Edge?
Well, he was certainly going to find out.
He got out of his car. He was wearing his gun on his shoulder holster, so he grabbed his jacket out of his backseat and shrugged it on to hide it.
He remembered the way her eyes had kept falling to it when he’d interviewed her before.
Like she was wary he’d pull it on her, which was ridiculous.
But some people could only view cops as the enemy. Like Sam and the douchebag Bennets.
He jogged across the street, then reminded himself to be slow. Casual. Unconcerned. He was just heading up to the diner, and if they bumped into each other…
“Miss Underwood?”
She turned to face him. She looked braced for some kind of attack as her gaze swept over him. But it landed on the badge he wore around his neck, and she let out a little sigh that sounded like relief.
“You’re that detective. Yes. Hi.” She smoothed a hand over her already smoothed-back hair. “I … I’m sorry. I don’t remember your name.”
“Jake Hayes.” He held out his hand, offered a polite and professional smile.
The woman looked straight-up weary. But she took his offered hand and shook gently before pulling her hand quickly away. She offered him no explanations or further greetings. She looked at the door of Honor’s Edge wistfully again.
“I was just walking down to the diner for some breakfast.” He gestured at the Honor’s Edge building. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
She shook her head. “No. No, I was just looking for the woman who runs the place. Sam Price. She … I…” Olivia shook her head. “It’s nothing. I guess she’s closed.”
“Yes, I know Sam. We’re friends. Maybe I could help you with something or help you get in touch?”
“Oh. Um.” She looked at the building, then back at him.
He worked to keep his expression friendly and kind while the woman clearly wrestled with the idea of giving him the truth.
“No, that’s all right. I have her phone and email. I can reach out to her myself. I just wanted to show her something.”
“Is she investigating something for you?”
The woman didn’t answer. Not a nod or shake of the head. Clearly, she didn’t want to clue him in, and that would be fine if he thought she was here for her own personal problems, but he very much doubted it.
This was about Jules, and she was going to Sam for help. When he was the damn cop in the situation. She shouldn’t be coming to Sam over him for anything.
He didn’t let that annoyance take hold. Not yet. Kept the placid smile of a man just looking to help.
When she didn’t say anything, Jake figured he had to press a little bit. If she was dealing with Sam, had Sam convinced her that Nate wasn’t the murderer? Yeah, Jake wasn’t going to let that fly.
“You know we have a suspect arrested, right? So, if there’s anything pertaining to the case, you really should come to the police. Sam’s great at investigating, but that’s not the law.”
Her mouth dropped open for a moment. “You … you arrested someone?”
“Yes. Nate Bennet.” There was a kind of grim satisfaction in being the one to tell her—and that Sam hadn’t. “The private investigator Jules hired.”
Again, shock seemed to land in her body like a blow. “The investigator. But … Jules thought he was so nice. She called him a goody two-shoes.” Olivia let out a little laugh, then seemed to remember the situation and breathed out as if in pain. “You really think he killed her?”
“Yes.”
Olivia lifted a hand to her chest, rubbed at it as though her heart hurt. “Sam was going to tell me if they arrested someone,” she said, as if talking more to herself than him. “Is this recent? Did she not know? But he works for her and…”
“Believe me. Sam knows. He doesn’t just work for her.” He let that hang for a moment, wanted to make sure the rest of the information landed like it should. Landed like betrayal. “She’s engaged to the guy.”
For a few moments, Olivia seemed to just stare at him—unblinking, unbreathing, unmoving.
He almost felt sorry for her, but it was hidden under feeling some kind of triumph that whatever Sam was doing cavorting with Olivia wasn’t going to work out.
“Is there something I can help you with, Ms. Underwood? Or maybe I should be asking, is there something you can help me with? To ensure justice for your friend.”
She inhaled deeply. Looked at the building again, then him. “I … it probably means nothing if you’ve arrested someone, but Sam was asking me some questions about … things.”
“What kind of things?”
“When Jules went to the police. Who she spoke to. I didn’t have a lot of good answers, but Sam told me … She was so nice.” Olivia shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe anything Jake had said.
But it was true and verifiable, so she’d know, one way or another, Sam had lied to her.
“Anyway, she told me to tell her if I found anything else about that. I didn’t, but I did find something I thought might be of interest. I started looking back through all my old emails with Jules.
Not to find anything helpful, necessarily.
It was more a … grieving thing, I guess.
Anyway, I found this one that was an invitation to her digital calendar.
It had been because we were planning a trip together two years ago, but it still worked. I could see her digital calendar.”
Olivia rummaged around in her bag and pulled out her phone. She started tapping at the screen. “She had a date with someone the night she died.”
Jake had been through Jules’s phone himself, but he hadn’t seen anything in her calendar app that suggested she used it. “A date?”
Olivia nodded. She held out the phone. A calendar was on the screen, and it was brought up to the day Jules had been murdered. Date with O.M. @ The Graff.
The Graff. O.M. She’d actually been in Marietta if she’d made the date before she’d gone to the TikTok Motel. Maybe with the date? But who was O.M.? Certainly not Nate Bennet.