Chapter Twenty-Six
Parking lot outside a restaurant in Bozeman
Sam was dragging. Even though she’d slept all right last night, she was still catching up on all the sleep she’d missed, and being out past dinner was a drag. Especially since she hadn’t eaten dinner.
She’d gotten a rental car in Livingston, so as not to be IDed by Jake, then staked out Jake at the police station all afternoon, then followed him out to Bozeman, where he’d run a few errands and then stopped at this restaurant and gone inside.
Sam yawned. Was someone in there waiting for him? Could she risk getting out of her car and peeking inside?
Yeah, she was going to have to take some risks, and if they blew up in her face … well, so be it, right? Anything for Nate. Anything for the truth.
She got out of the car, eyed the restaurant, its entrance and setup. The windows partially looked out at the parking lot, but most of the blinds were closed against the setting sun.
She heard a car door slam behind her. If it was a group, she could potentially hang back and hide behind them as they went inside. Blend into the group, avoid any detection by Jake.
But it wasn’t a group. It was a woman she recognized striding intently toward the entrance.
She was so surprised, she said the woman’s name before even thinking it through. “Olivia.”
Olivia stopped near the entrance as Sam jogged over, worry about being seen long gone. What the hell was Olivia Underwood doing here?
Olivia clutched her purse before turning around. Her expression was deeply suspicious. “Are you following me?”
“No.” Sam supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by the accusation since she was following someone. “I was here on … a different matter, and I happened to see you. I just wanted to make sure you’re all right since you haven’t returned any of my calls.”
Olivia looked her up and down, clearly not happy with her. Yeah, Jake had no doubt spun some tales this morning.
Jake … who was inside. What the hell?
“Are you here to meet Detective Hayes?”
Olivia clutched her bag harder and lifted her chin.
When she spoke, every word was ice. “Ms. Price. I don’t know what you want from me, but—”
“I know Jake cornered you at Honor’s Edge this morning, and I want to know why.”
Olivia shook her head. “It’s none of your concern.”
Frustration warred with sense. Sam had to work really hard to keep her tone even, to come off friendly and professional instead of livid and demanding. “Olivia, I don’t know what Hayes told you, but he—”
“He told me someone was arrested—something you failed to mention, even though you promised you would.”
Sam hated feeling chastised, because she’d had her reasons. She’d absolutely had her reasons. “Because they have the wrong man,” she said through gritted teeth.
“The wrong man? Or your fiancé?”
Sam inhaled slowly, trying to calm herself.
There was no undoing what Jake had done if she got belligerent with Olivia.
“He can be both. I know the truth, Olivia,” she said earnestly.
“And so does Jake Hayes. He’s purposefully hiding it.
He’s somehow a part of whatever happened to Jules, and I am working on proving it.
I promise you.” She desperately searched her brain for some way to get through to the woman.
“Did Jules ever make it sound like Nate was … a threat? Doing anything besides bending over backward to help her without returning her”—Sam cleared her throat, searching for a kind word—“interest?”
Olivia’s expression flickered a little at that. She didn’t answer, but to Sam, that was an answer.
“I don’t know what Hayes is trying to accomplish,” Sam said earnestly. “I don’t know why he’s so dead set on pinning this on Nate, but I know Nate did everything he could to help Jules. He wouldn’t have hurt her. It’s not who he is.”
Olivia glanced at the restaurant and then back at Sam. She looked like she was about to say something. Maybe offer something, but the entrance door swung open and Olivia looked toward it.
Sam didn’t. She focused on Olivia, willing the woman to talk. “Please, Olivia. I know—”
“Sam.”
Sam closed her eyes for a second, wishing she could have had just a few more minutes with Olivia. She’d felt a kind of softening, but she wouldn’t get there now, not with that low, male voice interrupting them.
So she turned and stared down Jake. “Hayes.”
“I’m sure this is just a happy coincidence.”
She resisted telling him to fuck off, but only because she physically bit her tongue.
Jake moved so that he effectively boxed her out of Olivia’s line of sight. “Olivia, I’m sorry if she’s harassing you,” he said quietly. He gently put his hand on Olivia’s elbow. “Let’s go inside. She won’t follow or we’ll call the Bozeman police. Let them handle her harassment.”
Sam balled her hands into fists. She would follow, police or no, if she thought it would get through to Olivia. But Jake had gotten his hooks in her somehow, and all that would happen if she went in there was an unnecessary scene.
Jake looked back over his shoulder at her while he held the door open for Olivia. “She means well. But she’s misguided.” Then, when it was clear Olivia wouldn’t see because she’d moved inside, he smirked.
God, she wanted to throttle him. But she didn’t. She stood where she was and tried to work through the whirling thoughts. The raging fury.
So Jake had beaten her to Olivia. Her one potential lead. That was fine. That was fine. Because she was going to follow Jake until he gave something away. No matter what.
She whirled to stalk back to her rental car. Then changed course. No. She wasn’t done with Hayes yet. Making sure to keep herself hidden behind other cars, she moved through the parking lot to where his truck was parked, taking up two spots like an asshole.
She knew the truck would be locked, but she still checked the handles.
Looked around the outside of the vehicle.
Was there any way to fasten one of her listening devices somewhere it might matter?
She couldn’t get inside the interior, but maybe if he and Olivia ended up outside the truck later, she’d be able to pick something up if she put it somewhere close to a door?
Major long shot, but—
“Sam?”
Sam didn’t jump. She didn’t act guilty. She’d been an investigator too long to let surprise incriminate her.
She just clicked the button on her key fob, pretending to be looking for her car. She turned toward her name being called, then she didn’t need to act, because she wasn’t thinking about Jake’s truck and the listening device in her purse.
“Brian.” She’d once considered Marietta Police Officer Brian Mathews something of a friend.
He’d helped her find details about what was going on with her father for years.
But last year he’d gotten a little too pushy in the what he expected for payment department.
Then he’d been a dick to the Bennets and …
yeah, she hadn’t had much to do with him since.
He laughed. “Isn’t this weird running into each other out here? What are you doing out in Bozeman?”
“Oh, just working on a case.” She frowned.
He wasn’t in his uniform, and he wouldn’t have jurisdiction out this way anyway. Surely, he wasn’t meeting Jake and Olivia since he wasn’t a detective, but it was too weird.
“What are you doing?”
Brian shoved his hands into his pockets. His shoulders hunched up to his ears. “Meeting somebody.”
“Who?”
He blew out a breath, a kind of self-deprecating laugh. Which was weird, because she had never known Brian Mathews to be self-deprecating. “Giving online dating a whirl.”
Online dating. Sounded plausible, she guessed. Still… “So, you didn’t know Hayes was in there?”
“No shit?” He angled his head as if to see inside the restaurant. “You think he’s hitting the apps too?”
“No,” she said flatly.
He was hitting up witnesses and convincing them not to talk to her. The prick.
This was a weird coincidence, but maybe it was something more like fate. She tried to work up a smile. “Hey, Brian, if I asked you some questions about the Jules Hyatt case, would you answer them?”
He rocked back on his heels, looked up at the sky. “Aw, come on, Sam. Not this again.”
“You were really helpful about my dad’s case.”
“Yeah, and then you got messed up with those Bennets and have been a bitch to me ever since.”
He delivered it so easily, so matter-of-factly. Like it was just a normal thing to do, call her a bitch. For a moment, Sam was rendered speechless. She didn’t fully absorb what he’d said or how nasty it was when delivered in that reasonable tone.
But it landed eventually.
As did her furious response. “Okay, cool. Well, fuck you, Brian. See you around.”
He blustered something, but she walked to her car and got in, pretending like she didn’t give a shit even as she seethed with rage.
She pitied whatever poor girl had matched with him on a dating app. She was liable to be very disappointed.
*
“I’m sorry about her.” Jake looked across the table at Olivia.
She was clearly worked up about Sam’s little stunt, even though she was pretending not to be.
“She’s … I don’t want to go through all Sam’s issues, but she’s certainly got them, and her fiancé being a murderer doesn’t help.”
Olivia nodded, but her gaze drifted over to the windows that looked out over the parking lot. “It’s just … she seems very…”
“She’s a good investigator when she’s not swayed by personal feelings. Unfortunately, her personal feelings are all over this one. It might make her seem … right or sympathetic, but she’s planning on marrying the murderer. She’s not coming from an investigative place.”
Olivia nodded. “I’m sure you’re right, Detective.”
“Jake, remember?” He flashed her a smile, and she reciprocated some, a little of the tension in her shoulders loosening.
She was a beautiful woman, easily flattered, and Jake didn’t mind using that to his advantage. Especially if it distracted the woman from being softened toward Sam at all.
“Like I said on the phone, I just have a few updates. I’m glad you wanted to meet up for dinner, though. It’s nice to feel … human, I guess. Instead of like the bearer of bad news.”
Her shoulders loosened even more, and her smile broadened.
“It’s nice to feel closer to normal than I have in a while,” Olivia said.
She looked around the restaurant. “I feel like I’ve been in this fog of grief forever.
But it’s … well, on the one hand guilt for wanting to move on from it and also realizing that’s just … healthy.”
“It is,” Jake assured her. “And it doesn’t mean we can’t get business out of the way first. I wanted you to know I looked through Jules’s phone.
She didn’t have any contacts with the initials O.M.
No emails, no messages from any initials that fit.
” He could have told her that over the phone. Even in an email.
But he wanted to ensure this woman stayed far away from Sam and didn’t come up with any more loose ends he needed to cut.
Olivia nodded, but her expression was confused. “But if you think the investigator did it, why are you looking into this guy she went on a date with?”
“I’m a detective, Olivia. It’s my job to find all the answers.
And the fact of the matter is, Sam’s appearance here proves that some people are going to great lengths to try to prove Bennet’s innocence.
I want to make sure they can’t accomplish that in a court of law just because I didn’t do my due diligence on everything.
Jules deserves justice, no matter what.”
Because no matter what Cal Bennet said, that was Jake’s goal. If he enjoyed justice a little more when he hated the person getting it handed to them, well, Jake considered that human.
Olivia inhaled shakily. Her eyes had filled with tears, but she blinked them back. “That’s all I want. Justice for Jules. I don’t care who finds it or how, honestly. I just want it to happen.”
“The police have found it. Now we’ve got to work with the courts to ensure the perpetrator pays. Every little bit helps, Olivia. I know you know that, or you wouldn’t have agreed to dinner.”
She was fully looking at him now. “I don’t know if that’s true.” A clear and direct flirt. Perfect. An advantage he was damn well going to press.
He gestured at the menu. “How about a bottle of wine with dinner?”
She wrinkled her nose a little, then laughed. “I feel like I probably shouldn’t drink wine in front of a cop if I have to drive home.”
He smiled at her. “Well, I can always be your designated driver.”