Chapter Eighteen
Marietta Police Department
“You have to be on your best behavior, Cal.” Sam didn’t know how she’d been talked into letting Cal tag along to talk to Jake.
She didn’t think he’d be much less antagonistic than Nate, and they needed to get along to get to the bottom of this.
But the threat was against Cal, and Nate had mentioned Cal’s vague connection to Daryl Everly.
Sam didn’t know how it would all connect.
She mostly thought it didn’t, that it was all small-town ties masquerading as clues.
The threat to Cal seemed most likely connected to him being a lawyer based on the drawings, so whatever happened to Gerald Harrington—and Charles Hayes for that matter—just didn’t make sense to connect.
Cal had been like ten when the two men had died, so he definitely didn’t connect to that.
But some threads were thin and loose and needed tugging to tighten up into a knot. Maybe Cal wasn’t part of the knot, but apparently, he was going to be part of the tug.
If she could keep him from being a thorn in her side and decidedly Cal about everything.
“Now Sam,” he drawled, “when have I ever not been on my best behavior?”
“Hilarious,” she muttered.
If she trusted Nate to deal with Jake—or vice versa—she would have made him handle this. For all his lawyer experience, Cal was nothing but a liability.
Sam smiled at the woman behind the front desk, informed her she had a meeting with Detective Hayes. After a while, they were led to a cramped room. Jake wasn’t here yet, so Sam took a seat on one side of the table. After a few moments of hesitation, Cal took the one next to her.
He must have sensed her curious glance. “This is where I told him,” he said gruffly. “About remembering.”
Sam didn’t respond to that. There was nothing to say. This was where Cal had laid it out for law enforcement that he’d witnessed his father kill his mother. That somehow his own brain had blocked that information from him for years.
Yeah, that was no doubt as traumatic as anything else. “You can always—” But before she could tell him he didn’t have to be here, Jake strode in.
“Got a new Bennet guard dog I see.” He smiled. Meanly.
Sam smiled right back, with some mean of her own. A year ago, the idea of feeling protective of Cal Bennet would have made her laugh and laugh. Now, it was just second nature. “Didn’t Mathews fill you in on what happened at Honor’s Edge last night?”
That must have surprised him because his face went carefully blank. “He must not have submitted the report yet.” He glanced from Sam to Cal, then finally took the seat across from them. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Cal recounted it from his point of view, and Sam added hers about getting the notification that her silent alarm had gone off. But, according to Cal and Mathews, nothing had been observed.
Except the threat.
Jake made some notes, and he didn’t interrupt. Once she and Cal were both done, he sat back in his chair and studied them both.
“Honor’s Edge is looking into this,” Jake said. “So why tell me?”
“I want a police report,” Sam told him. “For legal reasons.”
Jake drummed his fingers on the table between them, then studied Cal. “And you don’t know who’d want to kill you?”
Cal snorted. “The list is long and varied, but no. No clue as to which one. I’m looking through old cases, but nothing is sticking out.”
“Usually a threat is meant to scare more than it’s actually meant to … be a warning. If someone really wanted to kill you, they’d do it without warning. All nice and planned out, so they can get away with it.”
“If they’re sane, sure,” Sam agreed. “Doesn’t mean we don’t go looking into the source.”
Jake sighed. “All right. I’ll make sure Mathews submits the report, and if you send me pictures of the threats, I’ll add them to the file. Now, is that all?”
“No. That was a new addition. Nate told me they found your father’s remains.”
Jake’s expression was blank, but it flicked to Cal briefly. Sam half wondered if he’d refuse to discuss it in front of Cal, but eventually, Jake nodded. “Yes. Gallatin County sent me a report.”
“And their findings match up with everything you know about the accident?”
“They do.”
Sam wanted to get up and pace. She’d been hoping for something … more. And that was silly, because what would be more or different?
These were all loose ends, sure, but they were likely dead ends, and she’d felt she’d owed it to Jill to figure that all out before Jake, but now … with a body? Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe she needed to use him.
Use Cal.
Use everyone.
“Can you give us a minute, Bennet?” Jake asked Cal, almost sounding equitable.
“Actually, if you don’t mind, I want Cal here.
I’m going to use him.” The idea snowballed quickly and easily.
More hands, less work and all that. Even though Cal looked surprised, he didn’t voice it.
“Cal was tight with Daryl Everly back in the day,” Sam told Jake.
“I want him to use that to talk to him eventually.”
“Tight how?” Jake asked suspiciously.
“Mr. Everly was a mentor to me, from an academic standpoint,” Cal replied.
“We kept in some touch for a while after I left for school—an email here or there. At one point he invited me to come speak at the high school, but I wasn’t coming home much at the time, so I declined.
It’s been a few years, but I think he’d be happy to hear from me.
Or at least, open to having a conversation. ”
Jake took his sweet time considering that information. Sam didn’t know what he thought about it, but he turned his attention back to her.
“I still think my father’s death was an accident. There’s absolutely no reason to believe it’s not,” he said firmly.
When he didn’t continue, Sam leaned forward. “But?” she supplied gently.
He huffed out a breath. “But … I don’t like the timing. I haven’t thought much about my dad in over twenty years. Then you come talk to me, and a few days later, my cousin calls out of the blue that they’ve found my dad’s body. It’s too damn weird.”
“If you just got the report, they would have had to have found his remains a while back,” Sam pointed out. “It would take time to identify them.”
“Yeah, a few weeks ago when we had that warm spell beginning of March. Some hikers accidently dropped some gear, went searching for it and found him instead.”
A few weeks ago. Interesting. “Give me a date and the names of the hikers.”
Jake frowned. “What for?”
Sam shrugged. “Not sure. I just want all the details.” Because Jill had first asked her to look into Glenda back in February. Sure, Sam had just gotten to Gerald in the past few weeks, but…
It was probably nothing, but she was going to check every nothing. If there were no answers to be had for Jill, well, Sam would have made sure they weren’t just hiding. She’d know there were no answers to be had anywhere.
“Fine. I’ll email it all to you,” Jake said, somewhat reluctantly. “But I want to handle talking to Everly, without Honor’s Edge involved.”
Sam would have normally argued, but an idea was starting to take shape.
Instead of an argument over boundaries, maybe it was time to erase all the boundaries.
“Actually, gentlemen, I’ve got a crazy idea.
” Sam couldn’t deny she enjoyed the suspicious glances she got from both men.
“You two join forces. You go talk to Mr. Everly together.”
“Why would I need Bennet?” Jake replied, his tone even, but temper flashed in his eyes. “I have every reason to go talk to Everly about my dad’s accident, especially now that they’ve found the remains. I don’t need Bennet.”
“You know, Jake, personal feelings are all well and good. You want to have a thousand pissing matches, that’s your business.
But you saw Cal work that trial against his father.
You know he’s good. You know he might have questions that you don’t think of.
” Before Cal could interject, no doubt to ask why he needed Hayes, Sam powered on.
“And vice versa. Jake’s a fine detective with tons of experience. You could be a good questioning team.”
Silence seemed to echo around them, and Sam let it for a while, but she didn’t have all day.
“It’s probably a dead end anyway, but you might as well find out what happened on that hunting trip. Why not together? Who’s it going to hurt?”
Cal and Jake eyed each other, like that was the answer to her question. And hell, Sam wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up in some kind of fist fight, but they’d get answers first.
“What about you?” Jake replied, still very suspicious. “Why can’t you go?”
“I’ve got to go into Helena today and try to track down some paperwork.
” She’d been hopping from county seat to county seat trying to track down Gerald Harrington’s death certificate and hadn’t gotten anywhere.
Gallatin County should have it, since that was where he died, but they hadn’t been able to find it.
She’d checked Crawford County since that was where he lived, but they hadn’t had it either.
The state level was her last chance, and that was going to be an annoyance and a half. Probably take her the whole damn day. Especially if she stopped by the Harrington cabin first, just to see if Jill might let her test the waters on that front with Glenda first.
“If you guys can lock down a time to talk to Everly, it’s one thing off my overflowing plate, and I think he’ll be more likely to talk to his late friend’s son and his former mentee without suspicion or hesitation.”
Jake tapped his fingers. Cal ran his tongue over his teeth. Neither one agreed.
But neither one refused.
“Cal will be the representative from Honor’s Edge on this one. Now, I’ve got to get going. You two hash out the details, huh?” She got to her feet, had to bite back a chuckle at the way both men gaped at her like she’d lost her mind.
Maybe it’d be a bonding experience for them. Maybe it’d be a cage match. Their call.
As for her, she had work to do.
*
“She’s just messing with us,” Jake said, still looking at where Sam had left.
When Bennet said nothing, he finally looked across the table.
There was a thoughtful expression on Cal Bennet’s face.
Jake kind of wanted to punch it off.
Maybe Nate was his least favorite Bennet, but Cal was right up there. And Sam had left them here alone. To work together.
But he couldn’t even sit in his irritation over that, because Cal asked a very thoughtful question, in a very respectful way.
“Do you think your dad’s accident was something else?”
“No,” Jake replied tersely.
He didn’t. He really, really didn’t.
“Then why are you looking into it?”
He hated that question—because it was his own. Over and over again, he found himself drawn back to his father’s death, and over and over again, he asked himself why.
And he didn’t have a damn answer.
Jake sighed. He supposed he was man enough to treat Cal the way Cal was currently treating him—with some respect. If that changed, he’d reserve the right to punch the guy. But not on duty. No, he’d have to wait.
So for now… “Like I said, the timing is too weird. Sam asking questions … anything involving the Harringtons … it all leaves me itchy. I’m not so much expecting to find something terrible as much as I just want to … ensure there’s nothing terrible there to find.”
Cal seemed to think this over and the silence stretched out, not entirely uncomfortable. More broody. For the both of them.
“Look, I’m all for unearthing truths—or making sure there aren’t any to unearth. We’re on the same page there. I guess it doesn’t hurt to start from that common ground.”
Common ground. With a Bennet. Seemed like a bad idea.
But maybe it could be … a temporary kind of thing. Just while all of these weird threads were tangling together. Once everything was straightened out and clarified, he could go back to hating Cal Bennet.
Actually, he could still hate Cal and work with him. He had no love lost for Brian Mathews—somehow lazy and a hothead—and they worked together just fine.
“Do you know what Mr. Everly is up to these days?” Cal asked casually, all friendly ease Jake wasn’t quite ready to believe yet.
“Retired. Lives in Livingston. Alone.”
“I assume you’ve got the address.”
“Yeah, but this isn’t official police business, and I’m on duty.”
“Until when?”
“Three.”
“I’ll come by at three then, unless you want to give me the address now?”
Jake said nothing, and Cal smiled—a shit-eating kind of smile. “Didn’t think so. Well, I’ll be back then.” He got up to leave, but Jake wasn’t about to let him leave feeling all … superior, or whatever it was that the Bennets exuded that pissed him off.
“You’re tight with the Harringtons.”
Cal paused in his walk toward the door. He turned to face Jake, who remained sitting.
He looked down at him, expression bland. “Not quite the word I’d use.”
“All that stuff Glenda said on the stand about helping your mom, that doesn’t make you tight?” Because in her testimony against Benjamin Bennet, Glenda Harrington had made it clear she’d helped Marie Bennet survive her husband’s abuse for a very long time.
Cal took his time answering. “I have a lot of complicated feelings about Glenda Harrington, and one of those complicated feelings is knowing that she’s still hiding a lot of things. Good or bad, I’d like to get to the bottom of them.”
It was complete and utter honesty. Even if it surprised the hell out of him, Jake couldn’t deny it was that.
But then Bennet grinned. “We’re going to be partners, Jake,” Cal said, with that overly familiar, jokey way he had that pissed Jake the hell off. He even added a friendly shoulder slap. “Better learn to trust each other.”
Jake smiled thinly and thought it’ll be a cold day in hell.