Chapter 11
It only took fifteen minutes for the yard to fill with police and another twenty for a crime scene van to arrive. I placed the white mug on the railing and then quickly snatched it again. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.
A woman with black hair tied back in a super tight braid snapped photos of the rocks where we found the ring. My feet ached, and I switched positions to alleviate some of the stress.
“And you didn’t wash off the ring or anything after locating it in the rocks?” the detective asked Reed, who stood beside me on our small balcony.
He shook his head. “No, we found it, and less than two minutes later, Casey came over and identified it as his mother’s.”
I’d already answered the exact questions in the same way.
So far, we’d given the police our real names and said we were here on a holiday but had not explicitly said we were married.
We were hovering in this murky gray area that hopefully wouldn’t land us in jail. I really didn’t want to go to jail.
“I think that’s all I have for you right now. If we come up with anything else and have more questions, I will reach out,” the detective said.
He and Reed shook hands, and my fake husband held our back door open for me.
I practically ran through to get away from the police.
I couldn’t get the imagery of me in handcuffs for lying on a police report out of my head.
What if they ran background checks and saw I overdrafted my checking twice last month?
“That was close,” I whispered to him after he shut the door and locked it.
He had a furrowed brow when he looked at me. “What was close?”
“We almost went to jail. What if they find out we’re here from the podcast?”
He shrugged as if the thought of wearing an orange jumpsuit didn’t send his tenth-grade inner child into a coma. “The podcast never came up, so I don’t think that’s a jailable offense.”
I set the mug in the sink, grabbed it again, and placed it on the top rack of the dishwasher. “It still makes me nervous.”
“Hey,” Reed said, standing beside me and resting his hand on my shoulder. “It will be okay. No one will bother with us again. They won’t waste case hours on us.”
“You’re sure?” I asked, closing the dishwasher door.
He moved his hand, making me immediately miss it but also grateful for the space again. We’d moved closer and closer to one another during the police questioning, but he hadn’t put his arm around me again. I missed it and wished he would.
Which was a dangerous place for me to be in. We were here on a job. Falling in love with your bodyguard was asking for trouble. And heartache.
“You want to get some of that peach cobbler Samantha said we’d enjoy?” He held up a strip of paper. “Casey gave me the coupon. We’ll save an entire dollar.”
I smiled, more in response to his wide grin at the hilarity of a dollar savings than anything else. “Okay.”
“Let me change my shoes. Can you look up the address on the map?” he asked as he walked toward his room.
I stopped in the living room, plopped on the couch for two minutes of rest, and pulled out my phone. “Hey, can we walk by the Forrest Gump bench on the way there?”
The famous movie destination was only a little out of the way. Like no more than two blocks, but since everything in this part of Savannah was walkable, it didn’t seem too far away.
He walked out of his room, putting on a light spring jacket before grabbing mine from the kitchen table where I’d thrown it over the back of a chair. “Sure.”
I took the coat from him, and we started on our way with me giving the directions this time. “We’re close. The bench is right up here.”
“The bench,” he said, putting heavy emphasis on the. “You’re really into Forrest Gump, huh? Is it a Tom Hanks thing?”
“More so the movie,” I said, looking up from the map so I didn’t trip over an uneven piece of sidewalk. “My grandpa and I used to watch it every time I went to his house, so at least once a month. He said it reminded him of his youth.”
“Did he fight in the war?” Reed asked, giving me his attention rather than focusing on the uneven pavement.
I laughed. “No. It always made me wonder what part of that movie he shared a connection. Maybe the hippie part. He makes us eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp in Florida every time I visit him in Florida, so…”
“Now we definitely need to see this bench so you can send him a picture.”
We reached the square, and I stood by the tall bronze statue in the middle looking for the bench, but there weren’t any. “It should be right there.”
Reed’s gaze followed the pointing of my hand. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, we’re in Chippewa Square. It even has the bench labeled on the map.” I walked in that direction until I was right over the dot on my phone map.
An older woman, carrying a bag made from granny squares, approached us. “They moved the bench.”
“They did?” I asked with as much outrage as the question required. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Tourists probably.”
Reed and I watched her walk away. He slipped his arm around me in that signature move, which caused all those butterflies in my stomach to take flight. “We’ll get ice cream on our cobbler as a consolation prize.”
We turned back toward the cobbler shop and crossed the road into a median filled with large oak trees covered in Spanish moss. “Wow, this is gorgeous.”
“That’s not the only thing,” Reed said and grinned at me when I turned toward him. “You don’t know you’re amazing. Do you?”
“Um… no.” Was there a right answer to that?
He chuckled. “What are you even doing here, Elenore?”
My heart clenched. Oh, no. Was this not a nice thing, after all?
“I’m… putting together a viability report for my best friend Delaney.” There, that sounded extra official. It’s also what I told my mother.
He shook his head. “Yeah, but you want to solve it. Don’t you? Put the clues together and figure out who murdered Lisa. I see it in your eyes.”
“Well… maybe.” I wasn’t here to solve the case, but for some reason, we felt so close.
I had no clues and no additional leads, but the story had a weird heavy feel to it.
The city’s brightness tried to push in, but the curtain around the house kept everything out.
But I wasn’t a cop, detective, or even a reporter.
Reed stopped halfway down the street and walked between the moss-covered trees. “You know, I didn’t want to come to Savannah to watch some woman run around and ask questions about a dead body.”
“You didn’t? But it’s a free vacation.” And I’d desperately needed the vacation when I first signed up.
He lifted his left shoulder a smidge higher than the other. “I thought it was beneath me. Just a few months ago, I was out saving lives until my shoulder gave out.” He rubbed at the familiar spot. “Now I see God put me here with you.”
“He did?” My breath came quicker. It seemed like we were veering toward niceness again.
“He did.” Reed said it with such finality. Like he’d had a phone call with the big guy that morning and had firsthand knowledge. “I have enjoyed my time here. There’s something about your smile when you’re deep in thought. It’s…concentrated. I love watching you think.”
That had to be the weirdest compliment I’d ever received, but it was a compliment, so I kept it.
“And the way you twitch your nose when someone says something you don’t agree with,” he said with a short head shake.
Well, now he’d gone too far. “I don’t twitch my nose.”
“You do.” He nodded. “And it’s adorable. You have tenacity for this case. I feel it when you talk about Lisa. You have passion and are full of life, something I don’t see in many people.”
Was he talking about the fifteen-minute rant I went on last night before we went to the bar? I didn’t really think ghosts killed Lisa. Even if it would make a great storyline for a Halloween podcast episode. And right now, it was our most viable suspect.
“I want to get to know you more and.” He paused and inched closer. “Even though it’s totally against the rules, I really want to kiss you right now.”
“Me?” My eyes widened, and I checked the area for people. They were everywhere.
Then it happened.
We’d kissed before but under different pretenses. Fake pretenses.
This kiss was all real. One hundred percent.
My heart bounced around in my chest like it wanted an escape plan.
Reed stepped closer, as the world became just us and the trees.
My breath stalled—happy and nervous all at once—as his hand brushed my cheek.
When he finally lowered his mouth to mine, our lips met soft and sweet, and my chest bloomed.
Time slowed between us, and as he took control of my mouth, I grew dizzy with the realization that everything between us had changed in that second.
Screw the cobbler. We had to get back to our rental stat.
Then…
My phone rang.
Reed stepped away from me even as I tugged on his arm to keep him close. “You should get that.”
“Right.” My cheeks grew warm, but I blamed it on the Georgia weather. I would kill Delaney the next time I saw her. I raised the phone between us and turned on the screen. And she was definitely not getting a single hot guy photo. “Oh.”
It wasn’t Delaney on my caller ID but the condo building Lisa spent so much time fighting against. I answered quickly and listened to the woman on the other line’s sales pitch.
On a whim, I’d filled out the online form asking for more information.
I expected them to email me a brochure or something.
“I have time for an in-person tour this afternoon,” she said, and I bit my lip in anticipation. If we were going to solve this case, we’d call this step one. It was boots on the ground like Delaney wanted.
“Yes.” I glanced at Reed. “My husband and I would love that. What time?”
He raised his eyebrow at me, and I responded with a wink.
“That’s great. We’ll see you in two hours,” I said, and we disconnected. I started walking again, letting Reed catch up with me before I filled him in. “We have a meeting with the leasing agent at Lisa’s most-hated condo building.”
My stomach growled, and sadly—from the way he turned his attention in my direction—Reed heard it, too. “Let’s get my wife some lunch and peach cobbler first.”
He grabbed my hand as we crossed the street, and I let him. We had to look the part of a happy husband and wife, of course.