“What about the other murders?”
Judah shook his head. Then frowned. “Maybe it’s the opposite, then. Maybe someone from the mine is killing people who oppose them.”
Those words hung in the silence and Piper shivered, then continued with the online research Judah had asked her to do.
“Okay, your top guy is Malcom Everett. Other names listed online are Lisa Harlow and Mike Turner.”
“Thanks.” Judah turned into the entrance to the mine office and hoped someone would be willing to answer his questions. Next to him, Piper was still on her phone, though he wasn’t sure what she was doing. He pulled into a parking spot and was looking around at the campus, when Piper spoke in a voice that made him still.
“Wait, here’s Randy Walcott’s LinkedIn profile. He works there, too.”
Judah nodded. Piper tapped away at her phone and then breathed in sharply.
“Judah.”
Her voice was soft and urgent, and immediately brought him to attention.
“I looked at the Raven Pass Gazette online to see the articles you mentioned. One of the journalists who wrote all those articles about the mine?”
“Yeah?”
“It was Nichole. The woman who died in the river after allegedly falling in while she was camping.”
He looked over at Piper, not able to stop the excitement in his expression. He could feel it. “We’re close, Piper. It’s not a coincidence that two of the three victims or near victims were tied to the mine.”
“I wonder if there’s a connection with the man who was just killed in Anchorage, Jay Jones. The hiker I saved who was killed.”
“I would be confident in saying there must be. We’ll figure it out, but for now, I think we’re getting close. Let’s go figure out what the mine stands to lose and who could be involved.”
“If they’ll let us talk to them.”
Piper’s words were as unoptimistic as her tone, and for good reason. Their reception from the administrative assistant was nothing short of chilly. The top guy wouldn’t see them, but Lisa Harlow, the assistant manager of the mine, agreed to talk to them.
“She can give you five minutes,” the admin said, a slight, patronizing smile on her face. “But she’s very busy.”
“Thank you, we appreciate it,” Judah said. They were led to a small office where they waited. A woman whom Judah guessed to be in her forties walked in.
“Hello, I’m Lisa Harlow.” She shook both of their hands. Her handshake was tighter than it needed to be. Judah found that interesting; it tended to imply that someone had something to prove.
“I’m Officer Wicks, with Raven Pass Police Department. This is Piper McAdams. She’s assisting me on a case.”
He felt Piper smile at him.
“I don’t know what the police would need to do here. We’re current on our inspections and we pride ourselves on being a positive contribution to the community,” Lisa said forcefully.
Piper spoke up before he could stop her. “I suppose that’s why the community is pushing back against your proposed expansion and the newspaper is running articles about the heavy metals your mine seems to be leaching back into the soil in the community. That’s the positive contribution?”
He shot her a look. Obviously it didn’t take much work to figure out which side of the hotly debated Gray Mountain Mine issue she was on. But this was bigger than the politics currently dividing their little town.
“Not everyone will agree with what we are doing here, but we have documentation that we are doing a fantastic job of being cognizant of important environmental issues.”
Lisa’s expression had wavered, though. Piper’s words, though they might have been delivered hastily and a bit unwisely, had hit home. And it was possible she might have saved Judah some time and effort because they were already talking about the issues that seemed to factor into the case.
“On that subject, out of curiosity, is there any kind of complaint handling system? I know the mine does endeavor to be sustainable and environmentally friendly.” Judah tried to put things as gently as he could so they didn’t completely alienate one of the people who might be able to help them.
“There isn’t a reason for people to complain,” she insisted.
Piper just stared at her, her expression blank and unimpressed. Judah almost laughed, but he stayed quiet.
The woman blew out a breath. “Yes, we have a complaint form on our website. Believe me, most of them are ridiculous. Someone will accuse us of making too much noise, when we are all tucked back into the woods here, with no houses within half a mile. Some people just like to complain.”
“Do you have a record of people who have made complaints?” Judah asked, keeping himself going down the same track. It had occurred to him just a little while ago that the people being targeted could have been complaining about the mine in some capacity. While that alone didn’t seem like reason enough to kill, it could be tied to something else.
He felt like he was taking investigative stabs in the dark, but he’d focused so much of his energy on Piper, on keeping her safe, that he hadn’t had a chance to do as much research into connections between the victims as he liked. He also felt more pressed for time than he usually was. A ticking clock was one thing when he was protecting a victim he didn’t know. He still cared, still worked hard and did his best, but there was no getting around the fact that his feelings for Piper were making him work this one differently. Right now he wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
“I have a record,” Lisa finally answered.
“We’d like to see it.”
“Do you have a warrant?”
“Is there a reason we would need one?”
She stared at him. Shook her head. “I’ll get them to you. Leave an email address with me and I will send them before I head home for the day.”
It was the most they were going to get for now, Judah felt, so he nodded. “Thank you, we appreciate it.” He walked toward the door. Piper followed.
They went back down the long hallway, their footsteps echoing all the way to the glass front doors.
“What did you think?” Piper asked when they’d stepped outside.
Judah shook his head. He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Not at a place like this, which likely had them on some kind of closed-circuit TV right now.
They continued to the car, and when they were both inside, Judah turned to her.
“I think we’re onto something,” he said with a grin.
“I agree, but I don’t know what the connection is, do you?” Piper asked. Judah just blinked and she shrugged. “It’s not my job to figure these kinds of things out. Water rescue? Now, you probably won’t find someone better at it.”
He liked that she was confident about her strengths but didn’t downplay her weaknesses. She knew she wasn’t the best at everything but wasn’t the type to profess a lot of false modesty, either.
Judah put the car in gear. “Let’s get away from here. I don’t like feeling watched.” He drove back down the lane, past where they had climbed, and then pulled into a narrow road.
“Really?” Piper raised her eyebrows. “You’re taking me to Lover’s Ridge?”
“To talk,” he insisted, feeling his cheeks start to heat up. And he wasn’t a guy who did a lot of blushing. But it was true that he was taking Piper to a popular post-date spot that overlooked the river. They needed to be somewhere private to talk about what they’d learned and maybe research on their phones, but he hadn’t wanted to go back to his brother’s house. He needed a little more time alone with Piper first. Just talking to her was intoxicating, the way she captured his attention.
Even if what he should focus on right now was the case, he would rather do it with Piper beside him.
“I was teasing.” Piper sounded embarrassed.
“Hey, I know.” He smiled at her, hoping they were back on easy footing now, but it did feel more and more complicated to talk to her, ever since those kisses. What had it been, two days ago? It had been the most surreal experience, especially since neither of them had mentioned it and nothing had really changed between them...
Well, that wasn’t true. Nothing had changed outwardly, except maybe he’d held her hand since then. Everything had changed inside, at least for him; he just didn’t know how to talk to her about it, what to say. It was the worst timing ever for starting a relationship, and Judah still wasn’t sure it was the wisest choice anyway. He wanted better for Piper than what he had to offer. He knew his faults and knew that he probably worked too hard.
Should he talk to her?
He wasn’t good with words like that. He’d never been that guy.
Instead he just sat there, silence surrounding them, wondering if he was missing his chance.
* * *
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Piper asked to prompt him. Anything to end this awkward silence.
“The case.” He frowned. “I don’t think I’m reaching by thinking that Gray Mountain is involved somehow.”
“More than one person at the mine, you mean?”
“Okay, I might have misstated that. I think someone there is involved and the mine might be part of what’s going on that is getting people killed.”
Piper nodded, processing what he’d said. “So the connection with Randy was that he works there, right?”
Judah nodded.
“And the woman who drowned was a journalist,” she said slowly. “What about Jay, the man who was just killed?”
“I don’t know.” Judah frowned. “I called a friend at APD who confirmed that it looked like a murder, but he couldn’t tell me any more at the moment. I forgot to follow up with him.”
“Hey,” Piper started to say. “Don’t beat yourself up. It’s been really busy lately. Overwhelmingly so.”
“Mistakes get people killed in my job.”
Piper glared at him long enough for him to have realization dawn on him. The same happened to her. “Oh...yeah...”
“Yeah, so I get it.”
“Hey, but none of this is your fault.” Judah shook his head. “You’ve got to remember that. All these cases we are wading back into... I’m sure they take a toll emotionally. But you didn’t make mistakes with these. Someone was intentionally killing people.”
“I wish we knew who.” Piper let out a sigh. The hardest thing about Judah’s line of work, she’d decided, was that it was full of so many extremes. One second you were running from bullets, and everything was high stress, and then there was waiting, working, investigating. The waiting was almost worse.
“Oh.” Judah’s voice was serious.
“What?” Piper looked over at Judah, who had pulled out his phone to look at a text message.
“Jay was murdered, according to Anchorage Police. It happened just north of the city, on a trail near Eagle River. From what I’m reading, it looks like it was set up similar to the rescues you made. Made to look like an accident, someone called it in, but of course Jay was dead when help arrived.”
“You think the same person killed him?” she asked.
Judah nodded.
“So whoever it is has specific targets...”
Judah finished. “All of whom have some kind of relation to the gold mine. My contact in Anchorage just clarified what Jay did for a living.”
“What was it?”
Judah nodded. “He was a scientist who was responsible for some of the testing done near the mine site. The examinations revealed that they weren’t taking the kind of environmental precautions they were supposed to be taking.”
He started the car. “We should probably head back. You need to get some food and rest.”
Judah realized his mistake before she had a chance to. “I mean, I want you to be able to rest if you want.” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, Piper. I just care about you. You can tell me when I’m doing that, okay?”
Something in her chest warmed. He cared about her enough to invite her to tell him when something bothered her. That felt like a big step to her, somehow.
* * *
The car was quiet as they drove back to town, neither of them speaking about the events of the day. Piper wanted to talk, but she wasn’t sure Judah was in the mood for it. Even after they’d kissed, even after the fantastic time they’d had climbing today, she didn’t know where she stood with Judah. Neither of them had talked about it and that was okay with Piper. It seemed less like an avoidance of commitment on either of their parts and more the way one would treat something fragile. You didn’t try to catch a soap bubble unless you wanted it to pop.
Maybe it was a bad thing for her to be this uncertain of a relationship, this careful with it, after what she’d been through. Piper wasn’t sure. But all she knew was that she cared enough about Judah that she didn’t want anything to go wrong with this.
“You hungry?” he asked her, nodding toward Micky’s Diner, on the side of the narrow highway.
It was a dive, but one that was supposed to have good french fries anyway. Piper would sacrifice a lot of nutritional value and culinary skill for a serving or two of really good fries.
“Starving,” she answered and he pulled the car over. It was difficult to quantify, even to herself, exactly what had changed with their relationship today. It wasn’t that they’d kissed; they hadn’t. And that was something they’d done days ago. More than likely it was the fact that today had been an odd blend of old times, of climbing together and laughing, and they worked well together as investigators.
Piper climbed out and took Judah’s hand when he offered it. He held it only long enough to help her out of the car and then released it.
They walked across the parking lot and Judah held the door for her.
The diner was one big room, with wood paneling that made it feel warm and dated.
“Two?” a waitress asked, and Piper nodded. They were led to a table in the back corner, one without any other people around, which was saying something because the place was actually fairly crowded. A dance floor sat in another corner, and several couples were out there, dancing to a country song popular twenty or so years ago. They sat down and Judah grabbed his menu. Piper did the same, thankful to hide behind it for a few minutes.
Had he decided that kissing her had been a mistake? Had it been a one-time thing born out of worry for her, and not something he had planned to act on?
But she’d thought maybe...
Two steps forward, one step back.
She let out a breath and focused on the menu. “Do you know what you’d like?” the waitress asked when she came back.
Piper looked at Judah, took him all in. His warm brown eyes, the way he had laugh lines that crinkled up when he smiled. His grin that was sometimes unexpected but so sincere.
Yeah, she knew what she’d like, all right.
“I’ll have the patty melt and fries,” she answered once she was able to tear her eyes away from Judah.
“I’ll have the same.” He handed the menu off, and it was like he didn’t want to break the eye contact, either.
They sat for minute in quiet before Judah spoke up. “While we wait...want to dance?”
Her heart might have skipped. Kisses were one thing, but the thought of being wrapped in his arms...
“Yes, I’d love to.” She heard herself say it out loud, in a voice much calmer than how she felt.
He offered her his hand and led her to the floor. The song that had just come on was a slow one, from the 1990s, about a man who was tired of pretending he wasn’t still in love with a woman.
Judah released her hand, wrapped his arms around her waist instead. His touch focused all
of her senses, and she blinked up at him, wondering if this man had any idea how strong her feelings for him were. Her arms rested on his shoulders, then wrapped around his neck almost without hesitation.
He pulled her closer.
The song played in the background. Piper was fairly sure she saw the expression on Judah’s face change at one point. Then she heard him singing quietly.
Her breath caught.
Was he only singing the song, or did he feel the same things in the song?
Piper didn’t know. But she knew that when he pulled her even closer and she laid her head down on his shoulder, it was the most natural thing. However he felt, one thing was for sure.
She loved him.
She couldn’t pretend she didn’t anymore.
FOURTEEN
Piper’s head was resting on his shoulder and, for a moment, Judah felt like everything was right with the world. The weight of his job and responsibilities didn’t hang on his shoulders, and he wasn’t afraid for her safety, though he wasn’t letting his guard down, either. He just was right there in the moment, holding Piper, wishing he could hold her every day for the rest of his life.
The music played on and they continued dancing, Judah pulled her even closer, his arms tightening around her, and she didn’t protest.
Her glacier-blue eyes looked up at him now, wide and innocent, rimmed by her dark eyelashes. She was looking at him like he was her hero and it made him want to prove her right. He would do anything to be who she saw him as.
His gaze lowered to her lips. He’d already kissed her, twice on that one night, but doing so now would bring up more questions. Conversations. Judah didn’t know what to do. He’d been so sure he would just live out his life alone.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” He didn’t mean to say the words out loud and didn’t realize he had until she picked her head up off his shoulder, then looked up at him and blinked in confusion.
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