“I want the truth, Mason. Besides, the cop in charge of the investigation wants to solve it. He’s not going to give up.”
“Sounds like you know a lot about what he wants. How come?”
“Why do you think? I’ve talked to him a lot. I’m trying to help.”
“No cop did much when Billy went missing, except question you. That Detective Evans was a jerk and barely ever returned your calls when you called to see if he’d made any progress. You don’t need to help them now.”
“This police officer is different. K—I mean, Officer Olson is a good man. He really cares about solving this case.”
“Going back over things that happened a decade ago isn’t going to help you, Liana.” His voice turned husky with emotion. “All it’s going to do is dredge up a lot of bad memories.”
“Mason, I love you, and I’ve appreciated how you’ve looked after me for years. I don’t know what I would’ve done without your help...especially when I was still with Billy. But you don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’m stronger now.”
“You know where you’d be if I hadn’t helped you, Li? You’d be in the ground somewhere. That’s what would’ve happened to you. Billy wasn’t going to stop beating you and he wasn’t ever going to let you go.”
“I guess it’s good that God stepped in and took care of him, then.”
“God and whoever had the good sense to give Billy what he had coming. Only the good Lord and Billy’s murderer helped you live, Liana. Remember that next time you’re trying to be oh so helpful to a bunch of cops,” he threw over his shoulder as he walked into the kitchen.
He let the door slam behind him. It gave Liana a good minute to catch her breath. She’d just felt as if her brother was giving her a warning—but about what?
Was he really concerned about her turning back into the beaten woman that she’d been? Was he really that upset about her trying to help solve Billy’s murder? Or was it something more?
Remembering the day Billy went missing, the expression on Mason’s face when he’d seen just how banged up she’d been when he stopped by her house unexpectedly, Liana finally allowed herself to face her worst fear. That Mason knew a whole lot more about the night Billy had been killed than he’d ever let on.
If that was the truth, she had to figure out what to do about it. Did she keep it to herself, confront her brother about her suspicions or tell everything to Kent?
She honestly didn’t know.
Chapter Fifteen
Liana had been stewing and praying about what to do for a while now. If she kept to herself, she felt safer. She could paint, read her books, lie to herself and pretend nothing was wrong. She sure had lots of practice doing that.
On the other hand, she could reach out to Kent and talk to him about what was on her mind. If she did that, she would risk opening her past up to more questions. And perhaps even risk their new friendship. After all, Kent might think he really liked her—but what if he learned things that he didn’t like? He would eventually finish his investigation and she would never hear from him again.
Frustrated with herself, she walked to her front flower beds and started weeding. Pulling weeds wasn’t going to change her life, but at least she’d get something done while she fretted.
“Look at ya, working hard in the sun today!” Martha called as she trotted up the walkway.
Tossing the weed she’d just removed on the ground, Liana stood up to face her sweet Amish neighbor. “Hi, Martha! This is a nice surprise. I haven’t seen you in days.”
Martha set down the basket she was holding. “Sol and me have been on vacation. It was our twenty-fifth anniversary.”
“Twenty-five years? Congratulations. That’s wonderful.”
“Danke. Got has been gut to us. We are blessed.”
Liana smiled. “You two deserve many blessings. You are wonderful people.” When Martha just chuckled, Liana added, “So where did you two go?”
“We went on a bus trip to Shipshy.”
“You went out to Indiana? Good for you. Did you go to the flea market?”
“We did, but we mainly saw our friends.” Still looking pleased, Martha said, “It was a gut trip.”
Since she couldn’t stop thinking about Kent, Liana asked, “Do you have any relationship advice?”
“Do you need some?”
“Kind of.” Feeling Martha’s steady gaze on her, she sighed. “I mean, yes.”
“If you are walking into a relationship, then I’m happy for ya.”
“So any advice?”
She folded her arms and looked out into the distance. “Well, I suppose I could tell ya to be honest and patient with each other. Hmm. And that humor is always a good thing, too...” She clucked her tongue. “But I reckon the best advice is to believe in love.”
“Believe in love?” Liana didn’t even try to hide her incredulity. “That doesn’t sound very Amishy, Martha.”
Martha chuckled. “Maybe it is, maybe it ain’t. All I do know is if one doesn’t believe in love, it makes for a real hard marriage.”
“I guess you have a point.”
Martha grinned. “Of course I do.” Picking up the basket, she said, “I brought you some of my first berries and a loaf of sourdough.”
Taking the basket from her, Liana smiled. “Thank you. I will enjoy both of them.”
“Gut. Now, I’d best get on home and you’d better go do whatever it is you were putting off.”
“Weeding?”
Martha chuckled again as she started walking down the path. “Weeds will wait, Liana. Go do what’s really on your mind, ja?”
“Ja,” she whispered back. When Martha was out of sight, Liana carried the basket back inside, popped a sun-warmed blackberry into her mouth and picked up her cell phone at last.
Her wise neighbor was right. It was time to stop fussing around. Afraid to waste another moment, she dialed the number she now had memorized.
“Liana, is this really you?” Kent teased the moment he answered.
Surprised, Liana frowned at her cell phone’s screen. “Yes. Why?”
“Because this is the first time you’ve called me. I just wanted to make sure no one had picked it up and started dialing.”
Finally catching on to his playfulness, she rolled her eyes. “If I would have known you would be so entertaining when you picked up, I would’ve called you weeks ago.”
“Sorry. I’m just pleased. So what’s up?”
Looking at Martha’s basket, she took a fortifying breath. “Well, um, I thought maybe we should talk about something.”
“This sounds serious.” All traces of humor faded from his voice. “I’m sorry for joking around. Did you call about the case? Have you remembered something new?”
“No. This isn’t about the case,” she said in a rush. “I mean, it kind of is, but not really.”
“What is it about?”
“You and me.”
“Come again?”
Kent sounded completely baffled and Liana didn’t blame him. Boy, she was making a mess of things. “Sorry. I’m not making any sense. Let me backtrack. See, I went to my brother’s house for a barbecue yesterday.” She paused again, trying to find the right way to convey a bunch of things she wasn’t even sure she wanted to say out loud.
“You went to Mason’s,” he prodded after a couple of seconds went by.
“Yes.” A knot formed in her stomach. She knew they’d talked about Mason but it kind of took her off guard how easily Kent had recalled her brother’s name. Feeling even more awkward, she continued. “Well, you see, my sister-in-law, Jeanie, had first been hoping to set me up with a friend of theirs when I was there, but it ended up just being a get-together with some friends.”
“Okay.” That one word sounded as strained as she felt.
She clo
sed her eyes. Why had she decided to call him without practicing first?
Because it was the right thing to do, she reminded herself. “Well, um, to be honest, the barbecue was kind of a bust. An old friend was there who isn’t really very nice. She brought up Billy, which of course led to her talking about how bad he’d treated me. And then...well, then I told everyone that he’d been murdered.”
“I see.”
Kent didn’t sound too happy. “I didn’t think Billy’s murder was a secret,” she murmured. “Was it?”
“No. I mean, I wouldn’t have told you if it couldn’t be shared.” His voice sounded carefully controlled.
“Good. Okay, then,” she murmured, but she felt like she was talking in circles.
“Anyway, everyone was pretty shocked by that news, and then my brother got kind of upset with me about you.”
“What did you say about me?”
“Not much. Only that you’re different from the other cops.” When Kent didn’t respond right away, she attempted again to be more articulate. “I meant that you’ve been helpful and that I’ve been helping you.” She closed her eyes, wishing she didn’t sound so nervous and awkward. “I mean, that we’re working together.”
“That’s true. We are working together,” Kent replied, sounding as if he was weighing every word. “But Mason didn’t like hearing that?”
“No.” Liana took a deep breath, ready to share her suspicions about Mason knowing more than he was letting on, but she chickened out. “He thinks Detective Evans and Officer Grune should have worked harder on the case. He believes they should have called to give me more updates.”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your brother feeling that way,” Kent said. “He cares about you. I’d feel the same way about my sister.” Sounding slightly amused, he added, “Li, don’t worry about him hurting my feelings, either. I can take it.”
She sighed. “Kent, that isn’t the whole reason I called.”
“What else is on your mind?”
“When I told them that we were working together, I didn’t mention our date.”
“Because you thought they’d be upset?”
“Yes.” Because he was a cop. “I enjoyed our date. I liked it a lot.” She felt happy just thinking about the loving glances, the way he’d taken her hand, his lips on her cheek... “I thought it went well. Did you feel the same?”
“I did. I absolutely did.” He sighed. “But to be honest, everything that you mentioned has crossed my mind, too. It might be a good idea if we slowed things down a bit. After all, I’m investigating a case which you have ties to.”
A new worry crossed her mind. “You don’t think I’m a suspect, do you?”
He chuckled. “As bad as you think Officer Grune and Detective Evans were, they ruled you out as a suspect. There’s no worries there.”
“Good.”
“But even though I believe you’re perfectly innocent, some might see our relationship as a conflict of interest for me.”
He still sounded so controlled, Liana couldn’t get a read on his mood. Boy, she wished she would’ve waited to talk to him in person. “What do you think we should do, Kent?”
“I want to keep you as a friend. And when all of this is over, I’d like for us to take things to a more romantic place. That is, if you still feel the same way.”
“All right. I think that sounds smart.”
“Don’t worry. I have a feeling all this will be over with soon.”
“Really? Did you find out something new?”
“Nothing that I can share. But I have been talking to some of your husband’s old friends. We’re getting some good information.”
“I guess that’s the most I’m going to get to hear about right now, huh?”
He chuckled. “You sound irritated. Please, don’t be. I promise I’m on your side.”
“I’ll have to trust you, I guess...”
“Does that mean if I ask you out for pizza tonight you’ll say yes?”
She felt like he was being hot and cold and she couldn’t keep up. “What about our decision to step back and avoid conflicts of interest?”
“Even friends go out for pizza, Liana. What do you say?”
After weighing the pros and cons and remembering Martha’s words of advice, she said, “Could we meet in Anderson instead of out here by my house? I... I’d rather not take a chance on Mason seeing us together.”
“That’s fine with me. Panjo’s Pizza is just a couple of blocks from my work. How about we meet there?”
“I can do that.”
“Great. Say, six o’clock?”
“Six sounds good. Thank you, Kent.”
“No, thank you. I’m really glad you called,” he said in a warmer tone of voice. “You were right to bring all this up, Liana. I should’ve brought it up when we went to dinner but I was having such a good time I didn’t want anything to spoil it. We need to keep everything out in the open and talk about anything that’s bothering us. It’s better that way.” She heard a beep. “Oh, sorry. I’ve got to take this. See you at six. Bye.”
He hung up before she could say another word, which was probably a good thing. At this moment she wasn’t sure how she felt about anything.
Popping another blackberry into her mouth, she amended that thought. She might not be sure how she felt about a lot of things, but she was sure of one thing—Martha had been right. It was better to believe in love—or at least in the possibility of it happening one day.
Chapter Sixteen
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Liana said a week after their dinner at Panjo’s. After several days of exchanging texts, phone calls and even one quick breakfast at the diner, he’d convinced her to do something she never thought she would—attend one of her gallery showings at Gallery One.
“I didn’t talk you into anything,” Kent said. “You made up your mind on your own.”
“Not exactly.” Folding her hands together in her lap, she added, “I seem to remember you making me feel pretty guilty about always refusing Serena.”
After changing lanes a couple of times on the highway, he darted a smile her way. “All I did was point out that this evening could be fun.” When she coughed, he added, “And that Serena would probably be extremely grateful for your presence.”
Though she knew that Serena was grateful, Liana doubted she was going to find any part of the evening fun. That said, she thought she might feel pretty proud of herself. She needed to take more chances and have more confidence in herself. Going to this party would be another step in the right direction.
When Liana didn’t say anything for several seconds, Kent’s teasing grin faded. “Wait, you really don’t want to go, do you?”
“I really don’t, Kent. But you knew that.”
He flicked on his turn signal and started moving toward the exit. She held on for her life. “What are you doing? And by the way, do all cops drive like you?”
“I’m taking the next exit. We’ll go do something else.” Glancing at her again, he chuckled. “And yes. Most of the cops I know drive like this. It’s part of the job.”
Realizing that he was being completely serious, she glared at him. “Wait! We can’t back out. Serena would kill me. And I didn’t realize putting your life on the line on the highway was a requirement for employment.”
“Most cops have put hours and hours on duty on the highways. We’re pretty comfortable there.” He switched lanes again. “You can blame your absence on me, Liana. Tell Serena I changed my mind or that something came up and I couldn’t attend.”
“I’m not going to blame anything on you.”
“You can if you’d like. After all, I’m the one who pushed you to do this in the first place. It wasn’t right and I should’ve respected your wishes more.”
“No
, I’m going to do this.” If she backed out now she’d never forgive herself.
Kent glanced at her again. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” She meant it, too. “I just don’t like crowds. Or strangers.”
“No kidding?”
Liana attempted to look affronted, but really all she could think was that she was comfortable with him. Here they were, having two conversations at the same time and joking while they were doing it. That wasn’t anything she was used to—but she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying every minute of it.
Fifteen minutes later Kent pulled into one of the last spots in the parking lot. It was off to the side, but it did afford her a view through one of the large plate-glass windows. The gallery was brightly lit. The white walls were in stark contrast to the black metal crown molding and the chrome fixtures attached to the ceiling. It all looked modern and slightly cold. Actually, Liana had often thought it looked much like a prison for paintings.
But she’d never seen her paintings displayed on the walls at night. Or when there were customers in the space.
“Whoa,” Kent said. “Your paintings look amazing, Li.”
“They really do.” She couldn’t deny it—her paintings looked gorgeous. Their bold, vivid colors looked cheerful and welcoming compared to the dark storefronts surrounding the gallery.
“There’s a ton of people in there, too. And every one of them is dressed to the nines just to see your work.” He winked.
She knew he was impressed with the fancy crowd and likely was trying to make her feel excited about it, too. But all she could do at the moment was stare at her outfit in dismay. “Do you see those ladies’ cocktail dresses? I’m in black slacks and a white polyester blouse.” She moaned. “They’re going to think I’m their waiter.”
He opened the driver’s-side door and stepped out. “If they do, then they won’t say a word to you—other than they’d like a glass of champagne or something. You won’t have a thing to be worried about.”
He had her there. Just as Liana reached for her door handle, he was already there. He had a hand out to help her to her feet.
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