Chapter Five #2
I don’t know if this is the life for me. She wanted to say it aloud, but she didn’t want to let Sara down.
Sara had been there for her when she’d most needed a friend. She’d offered Elle another chance at life after she’d been widowed. Sara had believed in her and encouraged her when the people of Sarasota had turned on her after the accident.
So many people assumed she’d been drunk. That she’d been at fault. That she’d murdered her husband and two people in the other car. That she’d ruined the life of the seventeen-year-old who’d been in the back seat of that other vehicle.
Eventually the truth had come out, but it was too late for her career and for her standing in the Sarasota community. Too late for her to continue representing the women who’d needed a competent attorney, one who wasn’t the source of a scandal that never seemed to die.
And quite a few people hadn’t believed the truth anyway, even though there’d been video evidence.
When Sara had offered her a job in her agency, Elle had seen it as a lifeline. She’d grabbed it with both hands, jumping into her new career with both feet.
But…
She wasn’t happy. It was important work, but…
It didn’t matter. This was the life she’d chosen and she’d suck it up and stay the course.
For as long as I can.
She could always go back to family law at some point in the future. She was licensed in California, thanks to the fourth member of their circle of law school friends.
Alexis Hellier was a defense attorney with a respected firm in San Francisco.
She’d never been on board with Elle becoming a bounty hunter and lately Elle had wondered if she’d been right.
Thanks to Alexis’s not-so-gentle nudges, Elle had taken the California bar exam and passed the first time.
She’d completed all the other requirements and was now fully licensed to practice law in California.
So she had options.
But she couldn’t leave Sara in the lurch. It felt disloyal.
“You think the best of people,” Sara said, her tone now gentler. “And in most professions that’s a good thing. In this one? Not so much. I don’t want to see you get hurt—physically or emotionally.”
Like last night. Elle had woken more than once in a cold sweat remembering those men with guns. They’d been so damn lucky.
Dianne Foster hadn’t been.
“How did Miller know we’d talked to Dianne Foster?” Elle asked, changing the subject. “That’s been bothering me.”
Sara looked like she wanted to continue their almost-argument, but she backed off. “It’s been bothering me, too. Miller has to know they’d send hunters after him. Maybe he’s been following us.”
Elle couldn’t stop herself from looking around, as if Reece Miller would jump out from behind a tree or a parked car. Of course, no one did.
She’d half expected Detective Clarke to confront them after he’d left the pharmacy, but he’d just driven away. Off to do more detective stuff.
She wondered what he knew that they didn’t.
Elle always wanted to work with the locals, but Sara and Felicia had forbidden it. She knew that sharing Reece Miller’s name with Clarke was going to come back to bite her in the ass later. But she’d still sleep better tonight, knowing she’d done the right thing.
“Could he have hidden a tracker in the Tahoe?” Elle asked. “Or is that too crazy to even consider?”
“It wouldn’t be too crazy if I didn’t check the vehicle for trackers every day, but I do.
So we’re not being electronically followed.
Maybe he’s not in Willits. Maybe he’s hiding around here.
We’re just going to have to be patient. If he’s here, we’ll find him.
If he’s not here, we’ll find out where.”
Elle sighed. “I feel like a heel for hoping that Wendy comes back to the pharmacy soon because the baby stays sick.”
Sara’s laugh was rueful. “Same.” She swiped the screen of her phone, checking the feeds of the cameras they’d set up in the town’s three pharmacies and the two clinics.
They’d retrieved the cameras from Steve Garfield’s backyard and transferred them to the other sites of interest. “The baby must not be super sick because she hasn’t shown up at any of the places she’d need for medical care.
We’ll stay here until they close and then head back to the inn. ”
Placing the cameras so that they pointed at the clinics’ front doors had been another area of disagreement between them. It was a huge violation of patient privacy, but they weren’t looking for anyone but Miller and his wife. They’d destroy the footage of anyone else.
Still, it left Elle’s blood cold.
Which meant she was cold inside and out.
“Thank God for the inn,” Elle muttered, hoping that Sara wouldn’t decide to check out because the innkeeper had called Clarke. The woman was only doing what she thought was right, too. “I need another hot shower. I am so damn cold.”
Sara turned up the heater. “I ordered you some hand warmers and some alpaca socks. They’re supposed to be super warm.”
Elle was touched. “Aw. Thank you. That was so nice of you.”
Sara looked uncomfortable. “Don’t tell anyone that I’m nice. I’ve worked hard on my bitchy reputation.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” She pulled up the collar of her coat. “Are we really going to sit in this parking lot every day until Wendy comes back?”
“Yep. Or until she uses the credit card somewhere else.”
“Okay. You’re the boss.”
“I never said it was nonstop excitement, Ellie.”
“Trust me, after last night, a few weeks of boring are very welcome.”
Sara winced. “Don’t tell Felicia about the illegal growers with guns.”
Elle was surprised. “You didn’t tell her?”
“Hell, no. She’d have my hide. She says if I get hurt on a hunt and she has to change all the diapers, she’ll wait until I’m recovered and hurt me again.
I think finding out we narrowly escaped two men with rifles who let us go out of the goodness of their hearts?
That would qualify me for diaper duty for the rest of our lives. ”
Elle laughed. “Or until the baby’s potty-trained. That’s what? Three more years?”
“God, I hope not that long.” Sara unbuckled her seat belt. “The hospital and clinic are closed, so watching those cameras is done for today. I’ve needed to pee for the past hour. I’m going to the Taco Bell to use the bathroom. You want me to bring you back a coffee?”
“Yes please. The pharmacy is closed, too, but the store part is still open till seven. Wendy may still show up and I need to be awake if she does.”
Elle watched Sara cross the street and settled back into her seat, locking all the Tahoe’s doors.
Then jumped a foot when someone knocked on her window.
Well, shit.
It was Ronan Clarke, looking rather grim.
Elle sucked in a breath and let it out slowly.
Busted. Maybe literally.
She rolled down her window. “Hey, Detective. How can I help you?”
Fort Bragg, California
Wednesday, January 21, 6:20 p.m.
Ronan was a little surprised. She’d allowed herself to be startled. He figured she’d have seen him coming, the way she’d been looking every which way around the parking lot.
Good. Maybe he’d rattled her enough to get more information.
“Ms. Randolph. I couldn’t help but notice you loitering in the parking lot.”
She lifted her brows. “Really? Loitering? Is that the best you can do, Detective?” she asked lightly. “I expected something so much more…I don’t know…relevant, maybe. Even intimidating.”
He chuckled, surprised once again. “Do you mind if we talk?”
“Yes, but I don’t suppose that’s going to stop you.”
He might have winced, but he got the impression she did want to talk. That she wanted to tell him more.
So he rounded the car and got into the passenger seat. “It’s cold outside.”
She shivered. “It is. My Florida blood’s too thin for this weather.”
“The wind makes it feel colder, coming in off the ocean like it does. Especially once the sun goes down. Feels really good in the summer, though.”
“Yeah, no. I live in San Francisco. Summers there are still way too cold.”
He eyed her heavy coat and gloves. “I went to Florida once,” he said. “I felt like I was trapped in a slow cooker.”
She sighed dreamily. “I know. I miss it.” Then she eyed him. “Is the small-talk portion of our conversation over now, Detective?”
He chuckled again. “Are you always this to the point?”
“Mostly, yes. What do you want to know?”
“Why are you sitting in this parking lot?”
“Same reason you are, I expect. Got a hit on Reece Miller’s credit card being used in this store. We’re hoping he uses it again.”
He. Did that mean she didn’t know that it had been Miller’s wife using the card? Or was she trying to throw him off the scent?
She was tricky. He’d have to stay on his toes. Somehow the notion intrigued him a lot more than it should have.
This close, in the light of the streetlamps, he could see the freckles that sprinkled her nose and cheeks. The deep brown of her eyes. The curve of her mouth. She was…interesting.
“Did you talk to the pharmacy manager?” he asked.
“No. Thought I’d try when the store closed. Looks like you did, though.”
That she hadn’t tried talking to Eunice was true, or at least Eunice hadn’t mentioned it, and he believed that she would have. But Elle Randolph was still hiding something. “Do you know where Miller is?”
She frowned. “If we did, we’d have taken him into custody by now.”
He watched her carefully. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, maybe from the heat pouring from the vents. Or maybe she was simply flustered.
She was even prettier this way. Maybe because she seemed more real than she had in Judith’s office at the inn.
Her eyes seemed more genuine than he could allow himself to accept. “I meant generally. Do you know about where he is? Is he still in town?”
Discomfort flickered across her expression, for just a moment. He might have missed it had he not been studying her. “I thought he’d moved on, but then we heard about him using his credit card here for a second time. You did know it was used twice, yes?”
“Yes. And?” he pressed, because she was biting her lower lip.