Hometown Detective (Cold Case Detectives Book 6)

by Jennifer Morey

  Roman chased after him and Kendra left the building to follow. The man vanished in a tree-lined alley in the neighborhood. Kendra’s sandals crunched over the one-lane dirt and gravel road, and she was careful to avoid tripping in the many potholes. A dog rushed the fence of a backyard, barking viciously and startling her. She veered to the other side of the alley.

  The man Roman chased did an acrobatic side swing over a low chain-link fence. Roman used a dead tree stump to jump over. The man running was small and wiry, and could turn and pivot tightly. He avoided patio furniture and ran to the side of the house. Jumping another fence, he ran into the street, where a car was parked and running. The small man got into the passenger seat and the car sped away.

  Kendra opened the gate in the low chain-link fence and walked cautiously to the front yard of the house. Down the street, Roman stopped running after the car.

  It was hard to tell from this distance, but Kendra didn’t think there was a license plate on the car. Tires squealed as the car spun into a turn and went out of sight.

  Roman started walking toward her.

  Stopping in the street, she watched his long, strong strides and the slight bend of his head. Wide shoulders swayed and muscular arms swung in a masculine swagger.

  As he neared, she saw him look down her blue sundress and back up to her face as though admiring her the same way she admired him.

  “He got away,” he said as he came to a stop.

  “I saw that,” she said. “No plates, either.”

  “There was an In Transit sign in the rear window.”

  “Clever. Did you get a look at the driver?”

  He shook his head.

  “Awfully bold to be shooting at us in such a public place.” His eyes squinted as he looked behind him.

  She glanced around with him. “Kind of desperate.”

  “We’re getting close.” He took her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  She trotted to keep up. “Where are we going?”

  “Back to work.”

  As opposed to riding a Ferris wheel talking about love?

  Chapter 15

  Cal brought Chinese food to Roman’s hotel room and the three of them sat at the small kitchen table to discuss the case. Roman had already briefed him on what they had uncovered so far. The Barfknechts. Perry Gordon and the trip to the Canary Islands.

  Roman opened a file on his laptop and turned it so they could all see the screen. “Brock Barfknecht wasn’t falsely convicted. All the evidence points to him.”

  “Even though we can understand why his father would insist his son is innocent,” Kendra added. She still wore that sexy blue spaghetti-strap sundress. Roman was beginning to get uncomfortable in his tan pants and black short-sleeved button-up. Women didn’t sweat like men did.

  “Right, but Mr. Barfknecht gave us some pretty insightful information on the Gordons.” Roman clicked through the files and opened several financial transactions made by Hudson. “And then we found this.”

  Kendra leaned closer to see the screen and Cal remained seated. “We’ve uncovered two instances of bribery, one involving the Gordons and the other the mayor. But Perry Gordon was arrested prior to his involvement with the murder and let go. Hudson appears to have been bribed in other cases, as well. He owns a boat, but there is no record of him ever purchasing one. Same goes for a BMW parked in his four-car garage.” Roman pointed to a deposit. “This deposit isn’t in association with any legitimate income.”

  “It’s twenty thousand,” Kendra said.

  Roman clicked to another bank statement. “Look at the date for this ten-thousand-dollar deposit.”

  Cal leaned forward now. “It coincides with Perry Gordon’s prior arrest on drug charges. They were dropped to misdemeanor.” He opened his laptop and turned it so all could see. “I reviewed all his cases. That twenty-grand deposit was made before a trial involving a man who worked under the mayor. He headed up education and community development. He was arrested for a DUI and the charge was mysteriously dropped. He never saw a judge.”

  “Hudson and the mayor have a history,” Kendra said. “A scandalous one.”

  “I bet if we presented all of this to the mayor he’d talk,” Roman said.

  “Let’s not play that hand until we’re ready to make arrests,” Cal said.

  Roman had to agree. They still needed Deidra’s body exhumed, and Kaelyn’s car and the rock that was thrown into Roman’s rental were still being processed.

  “Hudson has to know we’ve got enough on him to put him away. What do you think he intends to do? Will he run?”

  “I’ll get a car on him,” Cal said.

  “The more heat we put on him, the more dangerous he could be,” Roman said.

  Leaning back, Kendra thoughtfully put curled fingers to her mouth. After a time, she lowered her hand and looked at Roman. The green beauty of her eyes sparked a reaction in him.

  “Kaelyn must have discovered Hudson’s corruption,” she said.

  “Not necessarily,” Cal interjected. “I think she discovered Deidra was poisoned and Deidra is the one who learned of his corruption.”

  Roman ticked through the timing and concurred. “Hudson’s been taking bribes for years. Deidra must have caught him when he first started.”

  “When he was sloppy,” Cal added.

  Something still didn’t add up. Kaelyn called Vikki with a warning. She wouldn’t have done that if she hadn’t known Deidra was killed.

  “Kaelyn called Vikki to warn her about Glenn, not Hudson,” Roman said.

  The other two were silent for a few seconds, thinking through what he had said.

  Then Kendra asked, “Do you think Glenn is protecting his father?”

  By killing off anyone who discovers his corruption? “That’s possible.” Not only possible, it made the most sense. “The gunman at the carnival wasn’t Glenn.”

  “He or Hudson could have hired someone,” Cal responded. “They have the money.”

  “And the connections,” Kendra added.

  “Glenn and Hudson are working together?” Cal suggested.

  Roman wasn’t sure if they were working together. Glenn seemed to be trying to be honest, as though he didn’t want to believe his father was corrupt or that he was capable of murder.

  “Kaelyn may not have known about Hudson, but if she discovered Deidra was poisoned and he found out, he’d have reason to kill her.”

  “How would she have discovered Deidra was poisoned?”

  “Hudson must have put the poison in something she ingests on a regular basis. His being there wouldn’t be suspicious. He’s Glenn’s father. He could have easily done it.”

  “And somehow Kaelyn found out.”

  “She found the poison,” Cal said. “Maybe she confronted Glenn about it and he told his father.”

  “Or he confronted his father,” Roman interjected. “And if his father denied it, he would have believed him because he wouldn’t want to believe his father killed his first wife.” He stood from the chair, feeling stiff.

  “It’s not Glenn. It’s Hudson?” Cal tapped his fingers on the table.

  Kendra raked her fingers through her thick red hair, making Roman want to touch it, too.

  He walked to the windows, having to pass the unmade sofa bed on the way.

  “Kaelyn might have used another email address to communicate with me. Has anyone checked that account?”

  “The account on her computer was checked,” Cal said. “We didn’t know she had other accounts. We looked but didn’t find any in her browsing history.”

  “She would have kept that wiped clean out of fear Alex would find out she was talking to me.”

  “I’ll get some people on that,” Roman said.

  “Must be nice to have that freedom.” Cal got up and went int
o the kitchenette.

  “If you worked for DAI, you could have that same freedom.”

  Pausing in the act of pouring coffee, Cal looked at Roman. “I like my job.”

  “You just said you don’t have any freedom. DAI is always looking for good detectives. Kadin is expanding the business, opening satellite offices all over the United States. You wouldn’t have to move. Besides, Chesterville seems to have its dose of corruption and murder.”

  Kendra glanced at him sharply. “This is a nice town.”

  “My parents wouldn’t live here if it wasn’t. But even the most charming towns have crime and scandal.”

  Kendra yawned and eyed the unmade sofa bed. “Are we finished?”

  “I’d like to go through some more files,” Cal said, looking at Roman. “You should go through them with me. We could take this downstairs in the lobby.”

  “No. I’ll just lie down and listen.” Kendra stood and went to the sofa bed, stretching out onto her back with her head on the pillow he’d slept on last night. She closed her eyes and moments later, fell asleep.

  “Well, she doesn’t have any trouble sleeping at night,” Cal said.

  “Not tonight.” He went to the table with Cal and settled in for a few more hours of work. It took him a while. He kept looking over at her, sound asleep and looking so sweet all he wanted to do was lie next to her and put his arm over her.

  “You find it hard to maintain relationships in your line of work?”

  Roman looked at Cal, who had clearly been watching him. Roman couldn’t stop himself from looking at Kendra most of the time. She was not only a beautiful redhead, she had somehow worked her way into his heart.

  “I don’t meet women that way.” The women he encountered through work were either family of victims or other cops. He had never met anyone who had attracted him that way.

  “I make it a policy not to. I was involved with one woman.” He dipped his head to indicate Kendra. “She was a stunner like her.” He turned back to Roman with rueful eyes. “It didn’t last, and then we had to work together.”

  “I take it you ended it?”

  “Only after I found out she was seeing another guy.”

  “Nice.”

  “She wasn’t the worst. I knew we weren’t right for each other. I could have thanked her for making the cutoff so decisive.”

  Roman grunted, reminded of his own past relationships that ended on a sour note. No woman had ever two-timed him, but they had told him they were interested in someone else.

  “It happened. If it isn’t right, it isn’t right.”

  “It would take an exceptional woman for me to want to get serious.”

  Cal was younger than Roman and had more time for patience. Strange, how he hadn’t thought this way before meeting Kendra. Now all of a sudden, he thought in terms of ticking clocks and running out of time. He didn’t think it mattered all that much to him to have a companion. He liked being alone. He liked the freedom. Kendra was the same way, though. She definitely liked her freedom.

  “Tolerant of the hours you work for sure,” Roman said.

  “Amen to that. Why are women so demanding about schedules? I don’t have a lot of time to give, and if I made it available, a lot of dangerous reprobates would go free.”

  Roman scanned through a page he had open on the laptop screen. It was rare when he connected with someone who could relate to the difficulties of being a homicide detective. “The dead deserve justice. I spend more time with them than I do women.” He chuckled a little and Cal joined him briefly.

  “That’s why I see them but don’t date them, that’s my policy.” Cal looked at his own laptop screen.

  Something must have happened to make him so rigid. Roman didn’t ask. He hadn’t really ever had his heart broken, but he could imagine how something like that would alter a man’s view on love. A woman’s, as well. Take Kendra as an example.

  “My only policy is it has to be real,” he said. “That’s the only way you know if it’s love.”

  Cal looked up, and then back at the computer screen, mulling that over awhile and then asked, “What about her?”

  “Kendra?” What about her? “I guess you could say I’m seeing her.”

  “Is it love?” Although Cal seemed to be reading whatever he had up on his screen, he’d asked in a curious way.

  “I can’t tell yet.” Kendra clouded his senses with desire most of the time.

  “She seems different than some women I’ve known. Not clingy.”

  “No.” Roman grunted his derision. “She’s anything but clingy. Independent to a fault, I’d say.”

  “I’ve had women say that to me.”

  Roman spent time with his women. He did run into issues when he worked nights, though, and he worked a lot of nights. He doubted Cal’s baggage stemmed from clingy women. He’d bet whoever had broken his heart had been independent like Kendra.

  “Do you think Kendra could turn into something good?” Cal asked.

  “We’re pretty different. She’s creative and I don’t have a creative molecule in my body.” Which he’d always found strange, given that his dad was a popular writer. He must have taken after his mother. “She also holds back a lot.”

  “You mean her feelings? You want a woman to express her feelings?” Cal’s eyebrows rose as he glanced up from the computer.

  “Just enough to let me know she’s on the same level.”

  “You’re on a level with Kendra?”

  He gave up trying to concentrate on the page glowing on his computer screen. “At first, I thought she was too sheltered, but then I got to know her. She isn’t where she is in life because she needs to be sheltered. She’s where she is because she’s a survivor. Her adolescence makes her guarded.”

  “And if she let go, what then?”

  “I’m afraid to speculate.” He looked over at Cal, his newest friend, a genuine one.

  “Because then you’d fall hard for her, huh?”

  Roman didn’t respond, but he didn’t have to. Cal understood, except for one thing. He avoided women who’d make him fall hard for them. Roman waited patiently for a woman like that. He just didn’t believe they existed. Kendra could change all that. What if she was the one he’d been waiting for that he didn’t think would ever show up?

  * * *

  Kendra woke warm and snuggled under blankets—and something else.

  She opened her eyes and grew aware of Roman lying next to her on his side, with his arm draped over her waist. She’d fallen asleep on top of the covers and he must have covered her. She was still fully clothed. Roman had slept in his jeans. His consideration warmed her even more. He made no assumption based on their previous encounter in her office.

  She looked up at his face so close to hers, his eyes closed, breath falling even on her face. No bad morning breath for him. She studied him at her leisure, every slope and pore.

  As though sensing her attentiveness, his eyes began to open. Focusing on her, he rose up onto his elbow and pressed a sleepy kiss to her mouth.

  “You fell asleep on my bed.” His gruff and groggy tone tickled her senses.

  “Sorry.” She sounded gruff herself.

  “I’m not.”

  Lying like this with him, even clothed, became too intimate. Smiling, she eased away and climbed off the bed.

  Roman’s cell phone rang or maybe he would have tried to stop her.

  Cal was in the lobby and would meet them for breakfast. He had news on Kaelyn’s car and the rock.

  * * *

  Kendra always took care in getting herself ready for the day. She applied minimal makeup, just enough to accentuate her eyes and lips. She dried her hair with a side part so her long bangs would drape and the wavy red strands were smooth and shiny. She’d chosen a blue-and-white-striped trapeze dress. The uneven
horizontal lines popped out to the eye. She didn’t own many jeans. She wore mostly dresses and slacks. Maybe that was the artist in her, the creative part. Lately, however, getting ready for her day held a little more zing. Once again, she felt as though she were dressing for Roman. Or maybe she was more aware of how she looked with him around.

  Why was that so important? She’d never felt this way with a man. She had never felt the need to look her best.

  Leaving the bathroom, she saw him sitting on the end of the bed in his underwear, towel beside him. He’d waited for her to finish before taking his own shower.

  He looked up at her and then his gaze moved down her body, slow and not missing a single detail. He stared where the dress ended at her knees before lifting his eyes. He made her tingle when he looked at her like that.

  “Sorry I took so long,” she said.

  “It was worth the wait.” He stood and walked toward her.

  When he neared, she stepped out of his way, but he stopped her with his hands on her arms.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  Her face began to flush and not from embarrassment. He heated her up.

  As he noticed, he grinned and lowered his head, putting his face right above hers. “Did you do that for me?”

  Had any of her previous boyfriends told her she was beautiful? Hot, maybe. They’d been sexual, selfish creatures, not the warm, loving one standing before her now. His honorable traits, along with a keenly intelligent mind, made him stronger than any man she’d ever met. She didn’t have to compare him physically. Her previous boyfriends had all been fit, but none had the formidable presence Roman carried.

  She didn’t answer, just closed the distance between their mouths and kissed him. As his eyes flared in answer, she moved back.

  “I think I’ll go do some crossword puzzles while I wait for you.”

  His hand slid off her arm as she stepped farther away. She smiled coyly at him before she turned and went into the living room where she’d left her Kindle.