Chapter 11 Graveyard of Memories #2
She pushed her sleeves up. “Then it’d be ruined and I might cry. I’ve got a love hate relationship with my clothes. I love to buy things and then hate when I ruin them.”
“Sounds like a ‘you’ problem to fix when it comes to loud messy eating.”
She winked at him. “It is. Back to the McGregors. Cooper did work for them years before your sister’s murder. He left because Daniel is an asshole.”
“Daniel? Kane is the son?”
He hadn’t gotten to researching them yet, not wanting to cloud too many facts in his brain.
“Daniel is the owner, father. Kane is his only son. They moved here from downstate when Kane was a baby, like I said. They are developers and employ a lot of people.”
“Austin said residents were being asked to sell their homes?”
“They were and many said no. Most were sticking to it. You only need one to cave and have a condo built and others get nervous and don’t want that as their neighbors and sell too.”
“Is that what happened?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. The first condo didn’t even break ground until almost two years after Rene was murdered. I think everyone was fearful and not thinking along those lines. Daniel was worried some might not move here with the news. People just sat back.”
“So he could be someone who wanted an arrest and conviction quickly?”
“Him, other businesses, politicians. You name it. We are a small tourist town. When something big like this happens, everyone suffers. It was the end of the summer so slowing down anyway, but I’d heard some hotels had reservations canceled, fewer people who were here were going out to eat.
The economy took a brief hit, which isn’t your problem, but things can get sloppy then. ”
He knew that from when he was on the force. Pressure to do something fast didn’t mean it was right.
“So Daniel sounds as if he likes to wield power over people.”
“I think so. But that’s my opinion. I’ve met him a few times.
I think he likes to meet those who buy his condos.
He still owns the land and cares for it.
Daniel doesn’t do as much anymore that I know of.
Nothing more than kiss ass. Kane has taken over the bulk of day-to-day operations.
He’s older than me. Closer to Clay’s age. Not someone that I’d want to work for.”
“A chip off the old block?” he asked.
She shrugged. “He’s married and has a few kids, but every time he sees me, he gives me the once over as if he’s undressing me and trying to imagine if I’m wearing granny panties or a thong.”
“Neither,” Rory said. “At least not now. Not during working hours.”
“Oh, really?” she asked, sitting back. “Are we going to play that game?”
“I feel as if I’ve got to since you brought it up. Will you tell me if I’m right or not?”
“Only if I get to guess yours.”
“I’m all about equal opportunity,” he said.
“Deal. What am I wearing underneath?”
“Lace,” he said. “Bikinis, but not a thong, not a ton of material. You want the world to see you as powerful, but inside you’re a girlie girl and like to know that you hold that secret no one can touch.
See me but don’t really see me. That is what you’ve got going on.
I’m willing to bet your bra matches your underwear. ”
“Hmm,” she said as she stuck her fork in her salad, then put it in her mouth to crunch loudly.
He laughed and pointed at her. “I’ll take that as a yes. So I’m going to guess it’s a light pastel color since your sweater is. You wouldn’t want anything showing through on top.”
She leaned in closer to him. “It’s pink...and lace. And I’m not sure I like that you could figure that out.”
“I don’t think you’re that hard to get a read on,” he said.
“You’d be surprised. So my turn. You’re not a brief guy and boxer briefs would be too ordinary for you. I’m betting you like boxers, as it goes with your carefree personality that you don’t want anyone to know.”
He snorted. “No one thinks I’m carefree.”
“Sure, you are,” she said. “You can pick up and go where you want and when. You work when you want too. I think you’ve got structure in your life, but you also know that life can change on a dime and you pick up the coin and change directions when it lands in front of you.
So boxers, letting it all hang out to go where you decide. ”
He coughed on his bite of food. “No response, other than you’re right about my style of underwear.”
“Look at us,” she said. “Getting to know each other. Now tell me, how much have you gone through of the records?”
“Not as much as I’d like,” he said. “I sorted by category for now. I wanted to see the evidence against Cooper, and it was circumstantial at best. I’m surprised the DA wasted time on a case. No way that would have gone to trial anywhere else.”
“That’s it exactly,” she said. “Which is why those who knew Cooper, knew beyond a doubt it wasn’t him.
I think his alibi would have come forward prior, but no one asked.
She was a little old lady who talked to everyone and watched the neighborhood like a hawk.
But they also thought she was losing her memory. ”
“So they tried to discredit her?”
“They did,” she said. “But Liza’s daughter called shortly after the time of the murder and Liza had told her daughter she’d been outside talking to Cooper and bringing him water for over an hour.
Again, no one bothered to look into that.
I’m positive it was Cooper’s attorney who went back through talking to people and then following up with Liza’s daughter. ”
He shook his head. “I feel as if things weren’t done right back then. Sloppy and rushed to get it done.”
“It’s sad to say, but that might be the case.”
“Which will hurt more than help now,” he said sadly.
“If there is something to find, we will,” she said. “I promise you that.”
Hours later, Rory was sweating his ass off. How did it get so hot?
That damn kiss with Gale, that was it.
He couldn’t get it out of his mind, or the soft, gentle one she gave him on the cheek when she left.
He couldn’t just leave it at that, and pulled her closer, held her tighter, kissed her deeper.
If the first one was testing and teasing, this one was tasting and possessing.
It was a big mistake when he should be focused on other things, but she’d left and run her hand down his arm before she let herself out.
“Stop goofing off.”
He turned his head and there was Rene sitting in the chair in his rental house. Or he thought she was. He was dreaming again.
“I’m not.”
“You are. You’re getting worked up in more ways than one. I brought you here for several reasons. Make sure you don’t forget that.”
“What reasons?” he asked.
His sister laughed. “You have to figure that out. Stay open to the possibility that not everything is as it seems. Don’t get played. Don’t fall into the trap again.”
“What trap?” he asked.
“Watch your back.” Rene clapped her hands in front of his face and he was sitting up in bed.
What was that noise?
He waited a second and then heard it again. It sounded like a car door shutting.
When he looked at the clock flashing across the room he saw it was two in the morning.
He threw the covers back and went toward the front of the house. The light was on in his car. What the fuck?
He was going to open the door but was standing there in his boxers.
Screw that. He did it anyway, and just wished he’d had his gun on him. But he wasn’t able to bring it with him across state lines and the last thing he needed was to get arrested when he was poking around.
He whipped the door open, then heard footsteps rushing through the yard, but couldn’t see anything and wouldn’t give chase being in his underwear.
He swore his car doors were locked. He always locked them.
Once he had jeans and sneakers on, he went outside with a flashlight that he’d found and looked around his car. Nothing seemed out of place other than the back door wasn’t shut all the way.
When he was back in the house, he locked the door and decided to go through his sister’s trial again.
He was on the right track. He was getting warmer.
The burning up in his dream. That was it.
He was hot. Sweating. This was it, he felt it.
For years, every clue, every statement, every time he thought he was close, he’d have a dream and be freezing in it. Even in the height of summer, he’d be freezing.
But this time, he was burning up and he just hoped he wasn’t confusing it for what he felt for Gale.
“Son of a bitch.”
There was heavy breathing in the dark, his footsteps stopping as he dodged behind a tree, his heart racing more than it had in fifteen years as he inhaled and exhaled several times and waited in silence for his next move.
That was too close for comfort. He shouldn’t have shut the car door as hard as he had, but he wasn’t thinking, just reacting like he’d done that one fateful night. Then he just wanted to get the hell out of there once he got the information he needed.
Now he knew who the guy really was. But the question was—what was Rory Connors doing back here after all this time? Did Rory know something no one else had ever found?
Would his secret come out?
No. It couldn’t. He wasn’t going to let his life be destroyed over one stupid mistake.
He looked down at his shoes, ruined now from the caked-on dirt and his mad dash through the trees to slip back into the night. Once he knew he was clear, he walked quieter out of the woods on the edge of the street’s shadows toward his vehicle parked a block away.
As he drove past the overgrown bushes, his stomach clenched. That spot. The place he’d discarded her like nothing. The memory crawled up his spine, cold and shocking, his fists clenching as though the night itself was reminding him what he’d done.
That night had been buried. Locked tight, where it belonged.
And that was where it would stay...even if he had to bury someone else to keep it there.