“Yeah, I know, but good luck in getting them.” She crossed her arms. “Now let’s get going.”
He got the truck moving in the spitting morning rain, the windshield wipers scraping over the misty window. Typical May weather. Not enough rain to keep the wipers on, too much to turn them off. He’d love to be back at Sam’s cabin in front of her fireplace, having an honest-to-goodness discussion for once, hammering out why she dumped him out of the blue. But he doubted she wanted to be anywhere near a fire after yesterday, and—as she just pointed out—not anywhere near the topic of their breakup.
He stowed his thoughts and trained his full attention to the road. Someone tried to kill Sam yesterday, and he needed to focus on their surroundings every minute. He mentally switched into his SEAL operator mode when every second of every mission required exact focus and ensured he brought the team home alive and without serious injury.
He checked the mirrors for a tail. Searched the roadside for vehicles lying in wait. Kept checking for the thirty-minute drive and safely entered the quaint town of Rugged Point located on the coast. The rain intensified and the temps dropped a bit, leaving the windshield foggy.
“It’s good to be home. At least I think it is.” She sighed and rested a hand on his. “I’m sorry. I was rude. I’m just not in a place where I can talk about my mom or our breakup.”
“I’ll accept that for now.” He met her gaze and held it for a moment. “But will you agree to explain before we part ways again?”
She removed her hand. “I’ll try.”
He wanted to push. To prod. But he wanted her to respect his privacy regarding Stretch, so he had to do the same thing for her. “Then that’s all I can ask.”
She shifted to fully face him. “We’ve done a whole lot of talking about my past and my career change and injury, but not a word about why you left Bravo.”
“No. Not a word about that.” He stopped at a light near the high school that had been remodeled over the years, and the exterior looked almost new.
“Now who’s being evasive?” she asked.
He took a breath and turned into the Hollis’ driveway. “Let’s just say that we had an incident, and I knew it was time to move on.”
“But that’s so unlike you.” She clutched his arm as he reached for the key. “You never stayed on the team for yourself. Not really. You always said you liked it…loved it, sure, but once you commanded the team, you stayed because they needed you. Not because of what you might want.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I wanted to serve others.”
“Exactly. So how did that change?”
He wasn’t about to answer that. “I’m still serving other people. Just in a different capacity.”
She watched him carefully like she was drilling for information with her eyes. “But the team was your family. How could you leave them?”
“How have you not seen your mom for so long?” he fired back. “She’s family, too.”
She didn’t answer for a long moment. He was about to apologize, but Mr. Hollis opened the front door and stared out at them.
“We’re going to keep going in circles with this, right?” She sounded so disappointed.
“Sorry, yeah. Not talking about it now.”
He felt that gaze still mining for information. “Okay. Fine. Then when we have the big powwow about me, you better be prepared to share, too.”
“That’s fair,” he said, but didn’t think he could talk about Stretch beyond the basic facts. She probably wouldn’t want to give him much, either. But…if she finally told him the whole truth about why she’d left, could he counter it, and they might have another chance together? Or would it be so terrible he wouldn’t want to be with her?
Painful secrets could go any number of ways. Actually, he was in such a bad place right now it didn’t matter if she decided she still loved him and they were meant for each other. He couldn’t—no, wouldn’t put anyone through his continued agony over Stretch. Griff had to get his head on right before he’d ever let a woman in. Especially a woman as amazing as Sam.
The Hollises reacted to the news of Andy’s potential murder in exactly the way Sam expected. She would do anything to take back the information. To ease their pain. To prevent Andy from being killed. She could do none of those things, but she could and would do her best to make this easier for them.
“How could anyone kill my Andy?” Mrs. Hollis took off her wire-rimmed glasses and buried her chubby face in her hands, wailing in deep body-wracking sobs.
A stoic look tightened Mr. Hollis’ wrinkled face, and he patted his wife’s back. “There, there, Betsy. We’ll get through this. The police will find out who did it, and we’ll—” He stopped and clenched his jaw.
Sam remembered a very similar response when she’d walked Andy home in third grade, the week his family moved to town. He was a scrawny kid with thick glasses, and the other kids teased him, calling him Glass Face—even stealing his glasses on the playground and breaking them.
Sam never liked bullies and stood up to them. And so she’d stepped in. Got the glasses back then walked home with him to make sure no one bothered him. He was terrified of telling his parents, and he begged her to come with him to this very house—still decorated in the same mauve, beige, and black colors and still smelling like fried fish—to help him explain that he’d done nothing wrong. They became friends that day, and she’d spent countless hours at this house all through their school days. His mom and dad were like her second set of parents back then.
His dad was a fisherman, hearty and hale, and he wanted Andy to toughen up. But Andy tended toward the meek side. As their only child, his mother babied him even more. If only he’d taken a path somewhere between their wishes, maybe he would be alive, but he remained pretty fragile and awkward even in adulthood.
Griff moved to town in middle school, all tough and macho. He instantly became popular with a rowdy faction that Sam was a bit afraid of and avoided. She didn’t see him much, but one day he stood up for Andy in another spat, this time in the lunch room, and she gained respect for him.
Still, she’d been a jock through and through and didn’t run with Griff’s rowdy crowd. They shared Andy as a friend, but she didn’t get to know Griff. Andy talked about Griff a lot, but she thought it was more hero worship than fact. Turned out, that all those great things were true, but she didn’t learn about that until she met him while breaking up a fight at the American Legion post when she was a local cop.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Hollis.” Griff’s expression filled with sorrow before a determined look took over. “You know Sam and I will find the person who did this to Andy and make them pay, don’t you?”
She looked up and locked her tear-filled gaze on Griff. “You both were always so wonderful to Andy. Being his champion and helping him through so many battles that he didn’t have the courage to face himself.” She shuddered. “My fault. I shouldn’t have babied him when he was young. But he had a heart condition, you see, and I worried about it killing him.”
“I never knew about that,” Sam said.
“Me neither.” Griff planted his feet firmly on the blue carpet and scrubbed his hands over his black tactical pants.
“He wouldn’t let me tell anyone. Said people would treat him like a freak. He was already bullied. I didn’t want to make it worse and didn’t say a word.” She gave Griff a tight smile. “He wanted to be big and strong like you, Griff.”
“Not every guy is like Griff,” Sam said. “Andy was a gentle soul, and you let him be who he wanted to be. If you’d told people about his condition, I’m sure the kids at school would have been even harder on him.”
She clutched Sam’s hand. “Thank you, sweetheart. You always know how to make things better. You’re a special girl. Always were.”
Right. Until she didn’t make things better. Like when she broke up with Griff, giving him no explanation or when she had the big blowout with her mom. Sam fought back tears that begged t
o be released. She wanted to give Mrs. Hollis a hug. Sure, she wanted to comfort the sweet woman, but it was probably also because Sam missed her own mom.
“Your mom and dad must be so proud of you.” Mrs. Hollis squeezed then let go. “Make sure you spend as much time with them as you can because you never know.”
She was right. And Sam wished it was that simple to mend things with her mother. But it wasn’t that easy. Not after her mom kicked her dad out of the house. Sure, he cheated on her mom, but how could she throw forty years of marriage away so easily?
“Are you up to answering a few questions?” Griff asked.
Mr. Hollis pulled his shoulders back. “If it’ll find my boy’s killer, then I’ll sit here all day answering your questions.”
“Do you have Andy’s phone or know where it is?”
Mr. Hollis shook his head. “Doesn’t the medical examiner have it with his possessions?”
“We’ll follow up and ask,” Sam said, though if the ME had it, Blake would have mentioned it.
“I hate to ask this,” Sam said. “But can you think of anyone who might want to kill Andy?”
Mrs. Hollis clutched her chest. “Not my boy. He didn’t hurt anyone. Didn’t have any enemies. Just people who were intolerant of him as a boy, but they’re all grown up now and that’s over.”
“What about the cannery where he died?” Griff sat back, his tactical shirt in a deep gray stretching taut across his broad shoulders. “Any ideas why he might have gone there?”
“No to that, too,” Mrs. Hollis said. “I have no idea why he would go there.”
“It could have been about a job interview I suppose,” Mr. Hollis chimed in. “Though I don’t know how. Maybe someone planned to redevelop or reopen the old place, and he was going to do the books for them.”
“Could be,” Griff said, but he sounded like he didn’t believe his own statement.
“When did you last see Andy?” Sam asked moving them along so they could get finished with the questions and leave these sad parents to mourn in peace.
“He came over for lunch two days ago,” Mr. Hollis answered.
“I’d invited him to dinner and planned to make his favorite meatloaf and mashed potatoes. And garden peas.” Mrs. Hollis smiled at Sam. “You two loved to run out to the garden and eat all my peas right out of the shells. Remember?”
Sam did. So well. Those tears finally brimmed in her eyes, and she could barely control them. “Andy and I joked about it for years. I still love peas, too.”
“I always tried to fatten him up, but he loved vegetables above everything, and he just burned off everything he ate.” She sniffled. “But that day was odd. He showed up for lunch bringing takeout from that new pricey seafood restaurant in town.”
Mr. Hollis rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought buying us food, much less such an expensive meal, was foolish what with him being out of work. And I told him as much. But Andy just smiled and said his fortunes were about to change. I figured he’d gotten a job, but when I asked about that, his mood changed. He seemed like that was a long shot.”
Griff fired Sam a questioning look. Obviously, Andy didn’t mention to Griff that his fortunes were about to change either.
“Not that he should have any real worries about finding work,” Mr. Hollis said. “He did a bang-up job in Portland.”
“He didn’t have any issues on the job, then?” Griff asked.
Mr. Hollis tapped his chin. “He did mention one time that his boss wasn’t overly fond of him and didn’t know what kind of reference he might get. This Brad guy who took over the company when his dad died just didn’t like Andy as much as the old Mr. Flint did.”
“From what I could tell, he had a bunch of interviews,” Griff said.
“Actually, he told us that the market was kind of tight right now, and there weren’t a lot of local openings,” Mrs. Hollis said.
“I must’ve been mistaken then,” Griff said quickly, but Sam knew he wasn’t. Griff didn’t miss details. Andy had to have been making it seem like he was going on interviews.
“Did he talk about any friends in Portland?” Sam asked.
“Oh, gosh, yes.” Mrs. Hollis smiled. “He dated quite a bit and had a few good friends. All people from his work.” She sighed. “He was so happy there. Made me wonder why he came home when he did. If he hadn’t…” She lifted the tissue to her eyes.
“Don’t go there, Betsy.” Mr. Hollis patted the other hand resting on her plump knee. “This is God’s will. It was Andy’s time.”
“I know, but…”
“Do you know the names of the women he dated or his friends?” Sam asked, to keep Mrs. Hollis from going down that trail.
“Well, we never met them, but let’s see…” Mrs. Hollis looked up and tapped her chin. “Kaitlyn was the woman he dated for the longest time, but they broke up a year or more ago. Then Rachel and Tina were two others he went out with this past year. I begged him to bring the women home, but he said they weren’t at that point yet.”
“And the friends?” Sam asked.
“Oh that’s easy. Oscar is one. I remember because Andy used to like Oscar the Grouch when he was young.” Mrs. Hollis smiled at the memory and grasped her hands together. “I suppose they’ll want to come to the funeral, but I don’t know how to contact them.”
“Why don’t you leave that to us?” Sam offered. “We’re going to visit Flint Accounting, and we’ll let them know about it.”
Mrs. Hollis shook her head. “It’s a shame that this is the way we might finally meet his friends. If that ME ever releases his body and there is a funeral, that is. I suppose with this news, it will be even longer.”
“Now, Betsy.” Mr. Hollis took her hand again. “The medical examiner said he’ll finish the autopsy as soon as he can, and then we can plan the service.”
“He had friends here in town, too, right?” Sam asked to keep from dwelling on the autopsy.
“There’s that Nick fella.” Mr. Hollis frowned. “But I never liked the way he behaved. And now he’s divorced because of carousing is the way we heard it. We can be thankful our Andy never made that mistake.”
“Anyone else?” Sam pushed on. “Maybe a woman he was seeing?”
Mr. Hollis shook his head hard. “He was too busy looking for that job. And he said he wouldn’t start dating again until he could support a wife.”
Sam couldn’t help but wonder about the difference in Griff’s take on things versus Andy’s parents. Obviously, Andy was telling different people different stories, and Sam needed to figure out the truth and if it had anything to do with his death.
8
Griff parked on Main Street in Rugged Point in front of Hal’s Hangout. The fifties retro diner had been on the same corner since the fifties when it was a true diner and not retro in the least. The owners retired in the nineties, and the new owners remodeled the place, but it looked exactly the same except with reproduction furnishings.
Sam sighed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Parking here reminds me of high school after track meets.” She smiled fondly. “I’d come here with my boyfriend. He had a ratty old truck. We’d sit out here and talk forever about all the things we wanted to do in life. Traveling was on the top of our list. But Danny still lives here, and I only made it as far as Portland.”
Sam with another guy? Griff didn’t like the thought. Not at all. Even if it was just Danny French who Griff knew she wouldn’t have any interest in now. But maybe he was wrong and that’s why she broke up with him. “Sounds like you miss him.”
“Danny? No. No way. It was just the memory of a simpler time, I guess. You know, when I didn’t know the harsh realities of life. Didn’t know that people killed each other for no good reason.” She released a long breath.
“Yeah,” he said, though with eight years’ service as a SEAL he could barely call up a memory of a time when people didn’t kill, including himself. His part was honorable—for his co
untry—but it changed him. Still, if called to serve his country again, he’d do it in a heartbeat. What he wouldn’t do was be in a position to lose men he was responsible for. Not ever again.
“What did you think about our interview with the Hollises?” he asked to change the subject.
“Andy was definitely telling his parents a different story than he told you.”
“Yeah, I caught that.”
“What about the friends and girlfriends? You ever hear anything about them?”
“No, the only female he mentioned was Emily, and she said last night that she hadn’t heard from him at all.”
“So he was trying to make his parents think he had a perfect life in Portland. But why?”
“Maybe because it was far from perfect.”
She put a hand to her chest. “Do you think he was unhappy, and that’s why he came back here?”
“If so, he never let on, but I suppose he could’ve been.”
She sighed again. “I know we need to go to Flint Accounting, but I sure don’t want to find out he was miserable and we didn’t know about it.”
“Let’s not jump the gun,” he said, when he was starting to think he failed another friend. This friend died, too. Could that have been Griff’s fault as well? He removed the keys and shoved that thought to the back of his mind. It was tough enough thinking of Stretch. He couldn’t handle another failure.
“There’s Nick now.” He pointed at the slender guy rushing from a pricey Tesla and into the restaurant.
Griff opened his door and hurried around the front to open Sam’s door, too. She could’ve climbed out, but she probably remembered he liked to do this for her. How could she forget? They’d fought about it the first time he tried. She gave him this I’m a strong woman and can open my own door speech, her hands on her hips, fire in her eyes. The memory made him smile.
“What’s so funny?” She slid out.
“You yelling at me the first time I opened your car door.”
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