by Debbie Mason
But the one thing Nell hadn’t mentioned, either yesterday or today, was Jill’s embarrassing episode with Sawyer. Given that it was Nell, Jill had no doubt the older woman had heard the news. And kept quiet about it. Which Jill told herself was a good thing. A great thing. But, she had to admit, it was also a little depressing. Because it meant that Nell had more than likely realized what Jill already knew. There was no chance of a romantic relationship between her and Sawyer. And after her comment about how determined Brandi was, no doubt Nell had gone back to her first choice for Sawyer’s love interest in book number seven. Since Jill had decided to move on anyway, she didn’t completely understand why Nell giving up so easily bothered her. Except that Nell never gave up…on anything.
So maybe that’s why it hurt, just a little. Jill had never felt like she measured up. She was good at sports, but not good enough for a scholarship. She was attractive, but not pretty…She just wasn’t enough. She knew she had issues. Growing up with a domineering grandmother she could never please kind of guaranteed she’d have them. At least Jill knew where hers came from, and she would deal with them. She figured the best way to do that was to make a fresh start. Today was the first day of her new life. She smiled at the thought as she pulled into a parking spot in front of the station. Maybe the positive sayings she’d pinned to her vision board last night were actually working. This was the first time in months that she hadn’t had to park a block away.
If things kept going the way they were, the sheriff’s job was as good as hers. Yep, thanks to baby McBride, her chances of being elected sheriff next spring had gone up exponentially. And the increase in salary would bring her one step closer to her dream house on the lake. No twenty-year wait for her.
Down the street Dan looked up from sweeping the sidewalk in front of the barbershop. “Great job delivering the McBride baby. Proud of you, honey. Your next trim’s on the house.”
Jill had known Dan since she’d moved to Christmas. His barbershop was only a couple doors down from her grandmother’s apartment above the bakery. He used to cut her hair when she was young. “Thanks, Dan.”
She smiled, walking a little taller. No better way to start the first day of her new life than as a hero, she thought, opening the door to the station.
Suze looked over from the dispatch desk and grimaced. “Sorry to rain on your parade, but we just got a call from Mrs. Burnett. You’ll have to take it.”
Jill forced her smile to stay in place. New day, new way was her current motto. “No problem. I should probably apologize to her anyway.” Jill held up her hand. Suze tossed her the keys to the cruiser. “Fill me in while I’m driving.”
As soon as Jill pulled onto Main Street, she connected with Suze. “Okay, give it to me. Why did Mrs. Burnett call in?”
“This morning or last night?”
It was getting harder to hang on to her good mood. “Are they related?”
“Well, last night she called in a noise complaint, and this morning she says she saw someone skulking about in her backyard. Her words, not mine. And last night’s call was actually legit. Brandi Dawson’s husband, Steve, got out of jail and came to pay her a visit. It got loud. Brad says Dawson was sober and moved on when he asked him to. He didn’t have any reason to charge him,” Suze said.
Brad had good instincts so Jill trusted he made the right call. But Brandi’s ex was an abusive alcoholic and that concerned her. Gage had worked hard to get the man put away. He’d be about as happy as Brandi was that her ex was in town. Steve had broken parole a couple years ago and ended up back in jail. Jill would like to think that this time he got some help while he was inside. “Why didn’t Brandi call it in?” she asked, turning off Main Street.
“Who knows. Maybe Dawson took her by surprise, and she didn’t have her phone nearby.”
“I suppose. Did you let Gage know?”
“I will as soon as he gets in. He’s picking up Chance, Vivi, and the baby at the hospital this morning and taking them home. Bet you earned some serious Brownie points with the boss bringing his nephew safely into the world. That was pretty awesome, girlfriend. I’m impressed.”
“Vivi did all the work. I was just there to catch.”
“You’re a pain in the butt, you know. Take some credit for a change. You did good. Own it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m owning it. I should be back at the station in an hour. I’m going to stop by and check on Brandi after I finish up with Mrs. Burnett. Knowing Gage, Brad’s report won’t tell him everything he wants to know. I’ll be able to get a better read on her. Do me a favor and check in with Steve’s parole officer.”
Jill’s stomach dipped at the thought of seeing Brandi. She wasn’t exactly happy that the woman had witnessed her humiliation and shared it with her friends. But when it came to her job, Jill didn’t have a problem putting her personal feelings aside.
“Will do. See you in a bit. Looking forward to hearing all about yesterday’s excite…” Suze started to laugh. “Ty just posted a picture of you on Facebook with bird poop on your shoulder. I have to say I liked the one Nell posted better. That Chance McBride is one smoking-hot daddy. Baby’s adorable, too.”
See, there you go. She knew the likes had nothing to do with her. “So is Chance’s wife.”
Suze sighed. “I know. Can you imagine looking that good right after having a baby? Too bad she’s so nice. I could work up a good hate-on for her.”
“You know, you might want to get off Facebook and back to your real job.”
“My real job’s boring. Besides, you wouldn’t believe what people post on Facebook.”
Jill turned onto Mrs. Burnett’s street. “All right, later. I’m just pulling up to Mrs. Burnett’s now,” she said as she parked in front of the robin’s-egg-blue bungalow.
“Well lookie here, I’ve solved your case for you. Someone just posted that there was a black bear spotted one street over from Mrs. Burnett’s.”
“I doubt she’d mistake a person for a bear, Suze. But good to know. I’ll check it out. Give Logan at Parks and Wildlife a heads-up.”
“Person who posted already did. And you never know, Mrs. Burnett’s eyesight isn’t what it used to be. It could have been a bear. Better be careful. It may be a mama bear, and the cubs are still around.”
Through the passenger’s side window, Jill caught a glimpse of the tree she’d cut the branches off of a few weeks ago. “I hope her eyesight is going because it looks like I killed her cherry tree.”
“Really? That sucks. Someone posted last week that her husband had given her the tree for their twentieth anniversary. He died a week later.”
Jill groaned and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. “I really didn’t need to know that,” she said, wondering how she’d make it up to the older woman. It wasn’t like Jill had meant to kill the tree. But it’s possible she’d overreacted. She sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face. “I guess I can buy her another one. Maybe get a plaque or something to commemorate their anniversary.”
“I’ll check around for you.”
“Okay. Thanks. Later.” Jill disconnected and got out of the patrol car. As she walked up the driveway, the floral drapes in the living room window moved. This should be fun, she thought as she scanned the cedars lining the property. She didn’t bother knocking on the front door. She’d check the backyard first.
Remembering Suze’s warning, Jill jangled the keys in her pocket as she walked along the side of the house, checking for any sign someone had been skulking about. None of the furniture on the small patio in the backyard had been moved. No sign the windows had been tampered with. Jill headed for the overgrown garden butting up against the sun-bleached wood fence and Brandi’s backyard. The branches of several scrub trees had been broken. Evidence that someone or something had been back here. She stepped deeper into the brush and crouched down, moving the leaves and branches littering the ground in search of prints. There weren’t any that she could see.
“Wh
at are you doing in my backyard, Jillian Flaherty?”
Jill pulled a breath through her nose and stood up, turning to the older woman standing at the open patio door. Her white hair was in pink foam curlers that matched her robe and slippers, a cigarette hanging out the side of her mouth. “Morning, Mrs. Burnett. I’m following up on your call.” She gestured to the fence. “Is this around where you thought you saw someone?”
“No thinking about it, I saw someone hiding right where you’re standing. Lord Almighty, you broke more of my trees, didn’t you?”
Jill shoved her hand through her hair. “Look, Mrs. Burnett, I’m sorry about your cherry tree. I’ll replace it. But I didn’t do this.” She held up a broken branch. “There was a bear spotted a street over. Is it possible that’s what you saw?”
The older woman took a long drag on her cigarette, then blew out a couple of smoke rings while eyeing Jill. “You mean that? You’re going to replace my tree?”
“Yes, and I’ll have it planted for you, too. But not where your tree is now. It’s dangerous having it that close to the house.”
“You think I don’t know that? But I don’t want a cherry tree. Never did like fruit trees. They attract birds and squirrels, you know. An evergreen would be nice though. A blue spruce I can decorate for the holidays. A big one, mind you.”
Jill fisted her hands on her hips. “If you didn’t like the damn thing, why did you make such a fuss?”
“It doesn’t matter if I liked it or not, it was my tree. You had no business going at it with a hack saw. Besides, you were acting all uppity when I called, like I was putting you out or something. And you cut my phone line.”
Jill was mentally telling herself to stay calm and not react when Mrs. Burnett tossed out the last. “I did not cut your phone line. I tripped over the wire, and it came out of the wall.”
“Same difference.”
“No, there’s a very big difference. And if you want your blue spruce, you’re going to call the sheriff and tell him what really happened. Deal?”
Mrs. Burnett took another drag on her cigarette and lifted a shoulder. “I suppose. But it better be a big one.”
“Five feet,” Jill said.
“Eight.”
“Six.”
“I suppose that’ll have to do.”
“Good. Now that we’ve got that settled, tell me exactly what you saw and when,” Jill said, taking out a pen and small notepad from her breast pocket.
Ten minutes later Jill made her way to the patrol car. She didn’t have much to go on, other than that a man wearing a dark hoodie had been crouched in Mrs. Burnett’s garden around seven thirty this morning and was gone when she’d returned from calling it in. And Jill was out at least a couple hundred bucks for a tree. So much for bird poop good luck. Then again, maybe it was all in how you looked at it. Mrs. Burnett’s complaint would no longer be on Jill’s file. Now she just had to work on the other four…Or was it five?
Jill started up the cruiser, pulled a U-turn, and turned left at the end of the street, then made another left one block over. The first thing she spotted as she drove down the street was a familiar black truck parked in front of Brandi’s white bungalow. For a couple of seconds Jill considered calling the woman instead. But she wanted to take a walk around Brandi’s property. Jill suspected that Mrs. Burnett’s early morning visitor was none other than Steve Dawson.
As she pulled into Brandi’s driveway, Jill decided superstitious folklore was for the birds. There was nothing about Sawyer’s being at Brandi’s that said “This is your lucky day, Jill!”
She turned off the engine and pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. She was moving on. She shouldn’t care that Sawyer was here or why he was or how long he’d been or what they were doing together. It was none of her business. Not anymore, not that it had ever been. Even though she’d wanted it to be. At least a week ago she did. But right now she was here to do her job.
On that thought she got out of the cruiser, wincing when the door slammed behind her. That had nothing to do with Sawyer, she assured herself. Except, indirectly, she supposed that it did. She was afraid Brandi would bring up Sawyer’s rejection in front of him. Her neck started to itch, and she stopped on the walkway, about to turn around. But she reminded herself why she was here and headed to the front door and knocked. No turning back now.
Brandi opened the door, her brow furrowed. Like Mrs. Burnett, she wore a pink robe. Unlike Mrs. Burnett’s pink robe, Brandi’s was silky and sexy and half opened to reveal a matching camisole and sleep pants. And she didn’t have curlers in her hair. Her long, blond locks had a bedhead-thing going on. “Jill, is there a problem?”
“Hey, Brandi, I need to talk…” She leaned past the other woman to see if Trent was around. She didn’t want to worry the kid for no reason.
Brandi sighed. “Really, Jill, didn’t you get the picture last week? I don’t know how Sawyer could have made it any clearer that he’s not interested. You have to—”
Jill gave her a what-the-hell look. “I’m not here to see Sawyer. Sheesh. I want to talk to you about Steve’s visit last night. And I wanted to be sure Trent wasn’t around before I did. Okay?”
“Oh, I didn’t…Sorry. Trent’s in the kitchen.” She glanced over her shoulder, a soft smile turning up her lips. “Sawyer’s making him pancakes. He’s amazing with him.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he is. Sawyer’s great with kids. So…do you want to talk out here or—” She broke off when Sawyer sauntered to the door wearing a white T-shirt and faded jeans. He had the same sexy bedhead going on as Brandi and his feet were bare. Lucky Brandi.
“If it isn’t the girl of the hour,” he said with a smile, holding on to the door above Brandi’s head, a spatula in his hand. “Come on in and I’ll make you a couple flapjacks. You can tell me how it feels to be a hero.”
“Jill’s here in an official capacity,” Brandi said, lowering her voice. “She wants to talk to me about Steve.”
Sawyer lost the easy smile. He handed Brandi the spatula and took her by the shoulders, turning her around. “I’ll talk to Jill.”
“But I—” she began, glancing at Jill before Sawyer interrupted her.
“Trent will wonder what’s going on if you’re talking to her. Go on,” he said, then stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. He rubbed his hand along his jaw. “Gage send you?”
“No, Mrs. Burnett called in a—”
“You didn’t cut down another tree, did you?” he asked, amusement lightening the tension she’d seen in his face only seconds ago.
“No, me and Mrs. Burnett are BFFs now.”
He laughed. “What did it cost you?”
“A tree,” she admitted, then lifted her chin. “She saw someone in her backyard this morning. A guy in a black hoodie.”
“You think it might’ve been Dawson?”
“I wondered. Whoever was back there had been hanging out around the fence. They’d have a clear view into Brandi’s place. You happen to see anyone fitting that description?”
“No, but I just got up about thirty minutes ago.” He cleared his throat. “Long night.”
“Oh, I…You stayed here last night?”
He shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, looking beyond her at the neighboring yard. “Yeah, she was upset. She called me after Dawson left. I didn’t want to leave her on her own.”
“Understandable. I haven’t read Brad’s report, but Suze said Steve wasn’t drunk or combative. Did Brandi feel otherwise?”
“No. But there’s a lot of past history there, Jill. You know what the guy put her through. I don’t think it’s surprising that she’d—”
She held up a hand. “No need to get defensive. I’m not passing judgment. I’m here to make sure Brandi and Trent feel safe, and that Brad didn’t miss anything.”
“Sorry, like I said, going on a lack of sleep. According to Brandi, Dawson says he’s cleaned up his act. He wants to see his son, reestablish a
relationship with him. Trent was over at a friend’s place. He doesn’t know anything about it.”
“I take it Brandi’s not exactly thrilled with the idea. I can’t say I blame her. But Trent’s almost sixteen, old enough to make the call. Either that or they’ll have to work it out through their lawyers, I guess. We’ll keep an eye on Steve. Suze is getting in touch with his parole officer. We’ll make our presence felt on the street.” She frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
His mouth twitched. “Citizens of Christmas are safer with you on the job, Shortstop.”
Heat rose to her cheeks. “Are you being sarcastic?”
He laughed and hooked an arm around her neck, looking like he was about to kiss the top of her head, but he gave her a noogie instead. Like he used to when she was twelve. “No. I’m proud of you. You did real good yesterday. Saw the pictures on Facebook. Especially liked the one Ty posted.”
She lightly punched him in the stomach. “You would,” she said, looking up when someone cleared their throat.
“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay,” Brandi said, standing in the open doorway.
Sawyer removed his arm from Jill’s neck and stepped back. “Everything’s good. Jill’s got it covered.”
“If you can keep Trent occupied, I’d like to do a walkthrough of the backyard. Ten minutes tops.” She caught a flicker of panic cross Brandi’s face. “It’s nothing to worry about. Sawyer will fill you in.”
* * *
Jill responded to several calls after checking out Brandi’s backyard and made a quick stop at Mountainview. By the time she got back to the station and wrote up her reports, her shift was almost over. She looked up from her computer when Suze let out a gusty sigh. “Let me guess, you’re on Facebook again.”
“What can I say, it’s Man Candy Monday.”
“And you don’t see anything wrong with objectifying men? Talk about a double standard. If men started up a Woman Candy Wednesday, I can just imagine the uproar.”
“Whatever. You should see this guy. I’d sell my firstborn, secondborn, too, for ten minutes alone with him.”