Chapter Seven
Okay. So officially reopening the case was harder than she thought it might be. Turned out, they needed new evidence in the case or a real-life police officer to petition the judge. Which meant she couldn’t put off compiling the file any longer.
It’d taken hours.
No matter how many times she’d showered, it felt as though a thin film of dust and smudged ink had burrowed beneath her skin in an effort to compile her father’s case files.
Thirteen boxes of handwritten notes, photographs of the crime scene—some taken long after the body had been removed—multiple copies of the same initial incident report, recordings of interviews and transcripts, victimology reports, witness testimony and more.
Some pieces were still missing—pieces like the original evidence that had been logged on that single sheet of paper she and Adrial had recovered—but she’d done her best to reconstruct the investigation file in chronological order according to the dates stamped on each section.
Now, it was a matter of filling in the blanks.
And checking the evidence list against the official BHPD file.
If they had an idea of what had gone missing over the years, they might have a clearer picture of who’d wanted Lila Mercer dead.
Which, based on the profile her father had put together, wasn’t a very long list.
From what she’d collected in reviewing the file from front to back a thousand times in the past two days, the victim centered her entire life around the clinic where she worked.
Winnie didn’t know if it was a matter of finances or purpose that drove Lila Mercer to live for her job, but it was pretty obvious she didn’t have a whole lot of fulfilling relationships.
Something Winnie didn’t want to look too closely at right now, as she made the half-mile walk from her dad’s house to the offices of Cold Hollow Investigations.
According to the notes she’d found, the victim’s dad had divorced her mother early in their marriage and disappeared, then her mom followed around the time Lila was a young woman, running after a married man no one wanted to identify.
No siblings or extended family from what detectives could find.
No one to take in Lila Mercer when she’d needed them the most. There’d been mention of a boyfriend in high school, but he’d moved away years before Lila’s body had been found.
The sad truth was, Winnie and Lila Mercer had a lot in common, made more apparent by a near match in their hair color and the few freckles Winnie had noted dotted across Lila’s nose from her old yearbook photo.
That was as far as the physical resemblance went, but she could relate to losing her mother at a critical age, being a lonely only child who might’ve been desperate to have something—someone—to hold on to and a father that didn’t want anything to do with her.
That hadn’t always been the case. Her earliest memories of Arthur Hutton still brought a smile to her face.
When he’d surprised her with a very DIY mermaid birthday cake for her fifth birthday and accidentally gotten the trick candles that couldn’t be blown out.
Or when he’d taught her how to shoot her first BB gun, later replacing it with her first nine millimeter, and the reverence of pride in his expression when she hit the target that first time at ten.
There were nights she’d burst into her parents’ room because of a strange sound or a nightmare, and her dad had tucked her between them, promising she was safe.
But those memories thinned out after her mom passed.
And then suddenly, she was living with a ghost. A father who was physically there but emotionally untouchable.
It’d only gotten worse after she’d left Black Hollow, her Happy Birthday and Happy Father’s Day texts going unanswered for days before her dad responded… when he even bothered.
Thinking back, she wasn’t sure Arthur had ever really wanted to be a dad, at least not without the love of his life by his side, but that wasn’t any excuse for pretending she didn’t exist at all.
And now that he was gone…She didn’t know what to feel.
Grief? That sounded like the logical answer, but she couldn’t seem to summon the effort to mourn.
Not even standing beside his coffin as it was lowered into the ground beside her mother’s resting place.
Sadness? She’d tried to force the tears more than once since stepping back into that house and come up with nothing but red eyes irritated from dust. Then again, what had she really lost?
The occasional text demanding she return to Black Hollow, where her father wanted her?
The unanswered phone calls and attempts to reconnect while going through the divorce?
Hours of wondering if he was still alive and taking care of himself?
If she was being honest with herself, she’d lost her dad a long time ago.
Winnie maneuvered the familiar sidewalk in front of storefront windows belonging to the shops along Main Street.
She’d spent hours after school eating herself into a sugar coma at Frosted and Fun, Black Hollow’s only cupcake bakery.
Puppies stared hopefully at her through the sidewalk-to-roof pane of glass at Meow and Fetch, waiting for adoption or bored window shoppers who needed to waste time.
Tiny Threads and Happy Petals—the kids’ clothing store and florist, both owned by the same family—hadn’t changed a bit in the ten years she’d been gone, but it looked as though Glitter and Glue, the one-stop shop for all her crafting needs growing up, had finally folded.
She pulled up short, staring through the smudged glass into the empty space.
Too bad. Maybe if she added some glitter to the file, Adrial might show something other than contempt.
She could see his face now. He’d never be able to get rid of it all.
Trees rustled at intervals from the breeze coming down through Hollow Canyon east of town, the constant airflow drawing warmth from her body and whipping her hair into her face.
Hugging the case file she’d painstakingly built, she navigated over a break in the sidewalk where tree roots attempted to take back their land and pulled up short at the intersection to cross the street.
“Winnie Hutton?” The high-pitched, feminine voice triggered a ringing in Winnie’s ears. “Is that really you? It is! I told you, honey. I can still spot her from a mile away with that hair.”
Oh, hell. Manners demanded she show some kind of acknowledgement when all Winnie wanted to do was run in front of traffic.
Seemed like the lesser of two evils, but the light had yet to change.
Facing off with the bottle blonde buried under what looked like three layers of cracked and dried foundation and lipstick, and the devastatingly handsome man at her side, she summoned a weak smile. “Darby. Henry. How are you?”
The woman’s teeth brightened glaringly white as her smile overextended past the capabilities of her face. Most likely due to the massive amount of Botox she’d gotten over the years. “Fantastic as always, but my day just got a whole lot better running into you.”
She bet it did. Winnie tightened her grip along the edge of the case file, digging the cardstock into her soft skin of her fingers.
It was impossible to shut down the tingling sensation at the back of her neck that warned her every time she became the focus of both Darby’s and Henry’s attention, even after all these years. “I’m so glad.”
She couldn’t put more distaste into those three words if she tried, but the couple standing there in their high-end outfits had never registered human emotion before. She shouldn’t expect them to understand it now.
“Are you back in town to take care of your dad’s estate?
” Henry Forbes, yes, of the founding Black Hollow family, dragged his wife into his side by her hip, towering over her at well over six feet.
Not quite as tall as Adrial, but nearly every man had more than a few inches on Winnie.
He hadn’t changed much, still freshly shaven with sharp features and a deceivingly handsome face.
And a button-down that matched Darby’s pale pink dress and heels.
His perfectly straight smile presented one front while the soul beneath had been long since been corrupted.
“If you’re interested in selling the house, we could really get a good profit for you.
Of course, you’d have to make some improvements before we list. Buyers aren’t really into that stench of failure your dad carried around since becoming chief of police. ”
And there it was. The first strike.
Winnie’s spine snapped tight.
Darby’s perfectly manicured hand slipped across her husband’s chest and beneath his deep purple tie with a playfulness Winnie recognized all too well.
“Henry, please. Winnie just lost her father. She’s obviously going through such a hard time right now.
Can’t you tell? She has cobwebs in her hair and streaks of dust on her jeans.
Unemployment is a serious problem. Here. Let me help.”
Darby drove her hand into her handbag, pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and offered it. “Lunch and dinner is on me. I’m sure you could find somewhere that would let you in dressed like…that. Maybe McDonald’s. You don’t even have to get out of the car.”
Ah. The old you’re-poor-and-ugly insult.
Winnie shut down the urge to scratch her nails across her own brain.
They weren’t in high school anymore. Did people really still act like this years later?
She’d spent years terrified of these people, dreading the day she’d have to come back, but she wasn’t that girl anymore.
She’d grown up, built a life, gone through hell standing up for herself through the divorce and found the courage to come back to Black Hollow.
Her high school bullies wouldn’t get the better of her this time.
“Tell me, Henry. Still driving drunk? You flipped your dad’s car the last time, right? ”
Henry’s false smile drained from his too-perfect face. “How did you—”
“Oh, I learned about all kinds of things from the police department growing up. That was a benefit of being raised in the station. You hear things no one else does.” Winnie took a step forward, refusing to back down, as she would have years ago.
And if felt good. “You know, I’m surprised you’re able to hold a real estate license with your history, Darby.
Or did your daddy pay for that drug charge to disappear? ”
Lines broke through that Botox-built face as Darby narrowed her gaze. “You little—”
“There you are.” Callused, warm skin slipped across her low back, dipping beneath the waistband of her jeans before securing tight at her hip.
Adrial’s body heat sank through her blouse and straight past her rib cage, and fought back the chill from the fog that surrounded the town.
Solid and strong and reliable. His gaze had never been softer as he looked down at her, easing his mouth closer before pressing his lips to hers.
The kiss was quick and efficient and lacked any kind of passion, but her entire body didn’t get the message.
It wanted more. “I know we agreed to meet at the office, but I wanted to walk with you.”
Her mouth wasn’t working. Neither was her brain. Winnie cut her gaze to Darby and Henry, both standing there as though they’d just witnessed a crime. What was happening? Was she dead? She cleared her throat, forcing herself to say something…anything. “No problem.”
“Adrial Tucker in the flesh, wow. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you prowling around town.
” The entire atmosphere changed in an instant as Henry’s game face was shoved back into place.
He released his wife, extending his hand toward Adrial.
“How the hell are you? I’ve been meaning to reach out to see if you’re interested in—”
“I’m not.” Adrial shored up his grip on her hip, directing her back to the corner. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Winnie and I have better things to do than waste our time on people who don’t deserve it.”
For the love of all that was holy. She’d never forget the drop in Darby’s and Henry’s expressions at being discarded, as she had so many times.
She checked to ensure they were out of hearing distance as the Hollows stared after them.
She could get across the street alone, but Winnie found herself not wanting him to remove his touch, either. “Why did you do that?”
“Do what?” He hadn’t looked at her since that kiss, but his hand was still firmly gripped against her hip. As though he couldn’t stand the thought of letting go just yet.
And she liked it. So much. “Pretend you actually like me.”
Adrial cut his attention to her then, a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “Who says I’m pretending, Red?”