by Eryn Scott
Hadley swallowed the uncomfortable lump which formed in her throat hearing him call Tyler hers. Back when they were in high school, the townspeople often referred to him as your Tyler or that Henley boy of yours. As they grew up and got married, it became that husband of yours along with many other variations. It was an odd sense of deja vu to hear him called as such again.
Catching sight of her expression, Leo tsked. “Oh dear. I’m so sorry, Hadley. Of course he’s not yours anymore. The past few weeks have my mind all in a jumble. Seeing him back here again just brought back old memories of the two of you together, is all.” His light-blue eyes caught hers.
“Yeah,” Hadley said. “You’re not the only one.” She groaned.
“Ah. I’ve heard there was a bit of drama this morning.”
She chuckled. “A bit? They’re acting like teenagers. Worse, actually. I’m pretty sure Jessie hasn’t ever done something so irrational and immature.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He shook his head. “She has her days.”
“She’s still young. Give her time. Heck, I got married at nineteen.” Hadley shook her head. “I mean, Jessie’s not doing anything that impulsive.”
Leo clutched at his heart playfully, feigning a heart attack. “That would give me a fair shock, I have to admit. Though, she does have a new boyfriend I have yet to meet.”
“Oh?” Hadley raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t heard a thing about Jessie dating anyone. Normally that kind of news was front and center in the gossip rotation.
Smiling in that way fathers only can when getting to talk about their kids, Leo added, “Told me they’re getting serious, and she wants me to have dinner with him next week. I suppose this is what it’s like watching your kids grow up, though. They stop needing you so much.”
“Yeah, Deborah said she was staying at the rental property while she’s home.”
Leo waved a hand at Hadley. “Oh, it’s not what Deborah thinks. I ripped out the flooring in her room a few months ago when we had a bit of a flooding problem with the laundry machine, but I’m not the handiest around, and I haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet. It was either she stay out there or she crash on my couch all summer.” He shrugged.
The lightness Hadley felt at hearing Leo talk about his daughter quickly dissipated when she caught sight of the half-empty jar of honey sitting on the counter top behind Leo. Charlie flirting with Jessie after threatening Leo’s livelihood could’ve sent the normally rational man over the edge. It was all here. The honey behind him, the bees on his property, and his inability to provide an alibi.
Here she was, quite possibly standing alone with a murderer who knew her brother was closing in. What had she done? Blindly trusted someone, yet again, that’s what. She needed to get out of there, and fast.
Leo must’ve noticed the way her expression had hardened. He followed her gaze behind him to the honey.
Trying to cover up why she’d been so interested, she asked, “Is that from the rental property? I noticed the beehive you had on the property when I was there.”
Laughing, Leo shook his head. “Jessie got those bees for a project in middle school. We’ve never been brave enough to harvest any of the honey. Heck, I’m not even sure there are any still in there. This is Barry’s honey. Jessie’s been taking it to try to help with her allergies. Got me hooked on it too, in fact.”
Hadley nodded and began backing away. Coming here alone had been a terrible idea. Nice as Leo seemed, every bit of evidence still pointed toward him. Thoughts scrambling, she came up with a lie.
“Well, it was actually Jessie I was hoping to talk to, but since she’s not here…” She took one more step back.
“You might have more luck finding her than me, honestly.” He sighed. “She’s not answering my calls. I can’t seem to find any of the supplies she picked up at the wholesale warehouse on her last trip.” He opened a drawer and then closed it, the slam seeming to vent most of his frustration. “Sorry.” His shoulders slumped forward. “I’m completely out of my normal wire card holders, and all I can find is this darn plastic one.” He faked a shiver.
Hadley couldn’t speak. But instead of her words being tangled in fear, they were wholly consumed with fitting together what Leo had just told her. No supplies? Had Paul or the other deputies even checked Jessie’s warehouse alibi?
Her throat tightened further. What if it hadn’t been Leo standing up to Charlie for the way he treated his daughter, but the daughter standing up for herself?
“Thanks, Leo. I’ll see you around.” Hadley croaked the words out before turning on her heel and heading outside. Her phone was in her grasp even before she hit the sidewalk. “Paul,” she said when he answered on the first ring. “Did you guys get confirmation about Jessie being at that floral supply shop on the morning of Charlie’s murder?”
He was silent for a moment. “From Stuart.”
“Call right now and find out if they have a record of her coming in between eight and ten that morning,” Hadley said, hoping they had security cameras.
24
Hadley paced back and forth in the jam kitchen, tapping her fingernails on the stainless-steel worktables as she passed by each time.
She stared at her phone sitting on the edge of one of the tables and willed Paul to call.
Come on. Please let there be a record of her there. Please let it just be a case of misplaced supplies.
A bell sound made her jump. But it wasn’t the electronic ding of a text message or phone call. It was the jangling of the silver bells she kept on the back kitchen door. Looking behind her, Hadley suppressed a groan.
Luke walked into the kitchen.
Unlike Tyler, his face was unharmed, but her gaze flitted down to his fists, both slightly red—turning a bit blue—the left one sporting a nasty cut along the knuckles. So Tyler had been telling the truth—the man really had attacked him.
Hadley sighed. “Luke, I don’t have—”
He put a bruised hand up. “Hazel Smith just called me and berated me for ten minutes about the nerve I had to jeopardize Tyler’s pretty face when he was only standing up for you. I came over right away to set things straight, because if that’s the story Hazel has, it’s the story everyone has.”
“Story?” Hadley cocked an eyebrow, deciding to ignore how Hazel had definitely not followed her order to change the story she was telling folks.
“That’s not what happened. At all.” Luke’s blue eyes held hers. They were the crisp, bright color of a perfect, cloudless, summer sky. He cleared his throat.
Hadley swallowed. She owed it to him to hear him out. After all, she had felt there was something off about Tyler’s story. “So what happened?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and pushed back his shoulders. “He was running his mouth, and I socked him.” Luke shrugged.
Hadley dropped her head to one side. “Oh, thank you for that detailed description. I feel so much better trusting you now.”
She could see the muscles in his jaw clench together tight. He must’ve been gritting his teeth.
“Had, he was talking about you.”
Blinking, she waited, signaling she needed more. When he didn’t offer it up, she replied, “Okay… the man is allowed to talk about me without being assaulted.”
He stiffened. “Not the stuff he was saying.” Luke’s eyebrows furrowed.
“What was he saying?” The question was smaller than she wanted it to come out, but her heart was beating too quickly, too loudly for anything stronger to come out.
Luke shook his head. “I don’t want to repeat it.”
Hadley reached out and grabbed Luke’s arm. “I can handle it.”
The man swallowed again. “I asked if you were getting back together after seeing you two at the house the other day. He was adamant that you weren’t, but said that he didn’t cheat on you because you were bad in bed.” Luke paused, discomfort twisting his features. “And he knew he’d be able to get you in the sack one last time
, especially seeing how sentimental you were about selling the house.”
Hadley’s chest tightened. “So you punched him,” she said, not a question this time.
“Not my best moment, but yeah.” Luke hung his head, looking down at his bruised knuckles.
“So he didn’t tell you to back off from Leo’s place?”
“No. I hadn’t even put in an offer. I called Deborah this morning before I even talked to Tyler to tell her I was out. I’m going to go with new construction on the other side of the lot from the tenant house.”
Hadley blinked. “Well, that’s news to me, Luke.” She swatted at him. “I’ve been sitting here scared to death that you were going to blow me out of the water with your offer. You could’ve communicated a little better, you know.”
He nodded. “I could’ve communicated a lot a little better. I’m not sure what came over me that day, why I felt the need to compete with you. I stopped by to tell you I wasn’t going to fight you for it, but you were busy.”
There was no time for her to respond because the door jingled again as Jessie walked into the kitchen.
“Hey,” she said, beaming a bright smile in their direction. “Dad said you were looking for me.” She noticed Luke and waved, her smile brightening even more at the sight of the handsome man.
Hadley could just about feel the adrenaline pulsing through her veins. Should she and Luke run? The girl didn’t seem like a killer. She appeared as sweet and innocent as always.
“Um… yeah. I was looking for…” She stalled as she thought through something, anything to say which might make sense.
Hadley’s phone rang out from the table behind her, saving her. “Hold on just one second,” she said, jumping to retrieve her phone.
It was Paul. Finally. In her excitement, she swiped to answer the call. Her gaze flicked up to Jessie, then to Luke who was watching her. In that moment, she realized this was not the time nor the audience with which to answer this call.
She tried to hang up, but in her nervous fumbling it felt as if her fingers would only mash against the screen as the phone almost slipped from her grip.
“Hey, Paul. Hold on,” she yelled at the screen, hoping she could cut him off, tell him it wasn’t a good time.
But her clumsy screen mashing must’ve somehow engaged the speakerphone function, because when Paul’s voice came through, it was loud enough to echo through the kitchen.
“We’ve checked the cameras and the transaction history for the only floral warehouse within three hours of here. There’s no record of Jessie or Stuart,” Paul said quickly, before she could hit the button again.
Her neck and face felt on fire as she turned slowly to look at Jessie and Luke. Jessie’s eyes were wild and her body tensed. But in that moment Hadley’s mind focused on someone other than Jessie.
Stuart! She’d forgotten about Stuart. If Jessie’s alibi was false, so was Charlie’s assistant manager’s.
“I think it’s gotta be Stuart, Had. I just can’t figure out why Jessie would’ve lied for him.” Paul continued to talk, unaware of the problem on the other end of the line.
Hadley’s finger hovered over the speaker-phone button, but it didn’t seem necessary anymore. Jessie had heard everything. The girl’s face turned pale, scared. That didn’t seem to be the correct reaction for someone who claimed to hate Stuart.
Unless…
Stuart had mentioned he had a girlfriend, one who was constantly making him hold her belongings because her purse was too small. Hadley glanced at the tiny, just-bigger-than-a-phone bag that Jessie wore across her body, the small bag landing just at her hip.
Understanding came crashing down on Hadley like a whole box of jam jars falling off the shelf, startling and disturbing. Hadley’s mind tried to organize the mess. Stuart hated Charlie for the way he’d treated him as a worker, knew everything about the man, had access to the van and his medication, and would’ve cared—a lot—when Charlie hit on Jessie.
“Had? You there?” Paul’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“Because she’s dating him. And together, they killed Charlie Lloyd.” Hadley’s voice shook as her mind flashed back to the drawer Stuart had shown her. There had been two pens in one place there. Stuart had said Charlie had the things spread out. Why double up two in one spot?
Because Stuart had been the one to move it from the van.
And the pink lipstick under the Bloom van must’ve been Jessie’s.
Before Hadley could blink, Jessie’s sneakers squeaked on the linoleum of the kitchen. She took off, slamming the door behind her. Luke followed a split second later.
“Paul, get McKay on the phone and tell him to arrest Stuart. Luke and I are in pursuit of Jessie.” Hadley threw her phone onto the counter as she chased after them into the alley.
The screeching of tires and the heart-wrenching sound of someone screaming echoed off the brick buildings as Hadley ran down the alley and out onto Main Street.
Her eyes couldn’t seem to take everything in at once when she emerged. People ran into the street. Tyler’s shiny, black sedan was stopped in the middle of the road. Black rubber marking the concrete in lines a few feet behind the car.
And then there was Luke, clutching someone to his chest in the middle of it all.
“Give her space!” Luke commanded, holding out one hand as the other held Jessie tight.
Hadley ran in their direction. Jessie was standing—Hadley sent a thank you up into the heavens—and had her face buried in Luke’s chest. She was sobbing, hitting him with one arm as she held the other one close to her body; it was scraped up, bleeding something fierce. Her jeans seemed to have saved her leg from similar road rash.
Tyler climbed out of the car and rubbed the back of his neck, obviously dumbstruck.
“She—she came out of nowhere!” He looked around as if hoping others would agree.
Hadley had no doubt she had with the hurry she’d been in to escape. She just hoped the girl hadn’t broken any bones in the impact, with the car or the street.
The crowd parted as sirens blared from down the block by the town hall building. Paul’s truck pulled up seconds later. He jumped out and ran over to Luke and Jessie. Hadley noticed the pair of handcuffs his hand rested on as he approached the two, but by the way Jessie looked up at him, tears and mascara staining her face, it didn’t appear he would need them.
Especially when Leo ran out from the flower shop, having noticed the commotion. Jessie broke down into a whole new set of sobs.
Luke stood next to Hadley as Dr. Hall arrived on the scene to check out Jessie. Her father stood, talking to Paul, shaking his head the whole time, hand covering his mouth.
Hadley, overwhelmed by—well, everything—sank down to sit on the curb. She couldn’t bear to watch as the paramedics finished their bandages, and Paul led Jessie to his truck. Luke sat next to her. The two of them were silent for a few moments. And while he didn’t seem to know what to say any better than her, Luke’s presence next to her did make her feel better.
She glanced up just in time to see Tyler narrow his gaze in their direction, or maybe the narrowing was more about the swelling in his bruised eye. Regardless, Hadley looked back down at her hands. Then she leaned into Luke until they were sitting shoulder to shoulder, like they used to when they were younger.
25
One week later…
Hadley opened the doors to Ansel and Marmalade’s cat carriers. The difference between the two was almost laughable. Ansel, poked a pink nose out first, followed by a white-tipped paw. But Marmalade bounded out, racing in a circle around her bigger buddy, ready to play.
“Well, what do you two think of your new home?” she asked, smiling as she took in the mountain views and the sound of the rushing river.
The cats sniffed and walked the perimeter of the room in response. While she wasn’t technically the owner of the house yet, Leo had let Hadley rent the place for the month until her closing date.
The sound of shoes scuffing on the wood floor behind her made Hadley turn to see Paul and Suze carrying in Hadley’s queen-sized mattress, making it look almost effortless.
“You two make a pretty good team.” She nodded in approval, watching the two of them for any sign of discomfort, remorse, or even deceit. They simply smiled and disappeared into the master bedroom with the mattress.
Hadley had tried to create similar situations over the past few days, where it would be natural for them to come clean about their relationship, finally let her in on their secret. But they hadn’t taken advantage of any of them.
At yet another failed attempt, Hadley’s spirits sank. Since her discovery of Suze’s hair stick in Paul’s truck, Hadley had only become more convinced that they were hiding a relationship. What she wasn’t able to figure out was why they were keeping it from her.
But today was moving day; she needed to focus on getting the last of her stuff moved into the house.
With one more glance back at the cats to make sure they were fine, she headed out to the moving van to help grab another box, feeling guilty for standing there when her family and friends were doing all of the heavy lifting.
She smiled as she passed by the small desk she had positioned at the front door for her purse and keys. A vase of sweet peas sat there with a congratulatory note from her parents saying they were sad to miss helping her move into her new home, but they would be home soon.
The moving van creaked and swayed as she approached. Hadley scaled the ramp and stopped herself as she almost ran smack into Luke, who was pulling out the largest piece of the bed frame and headboard her father had made for her.
“Whoops. Sorry.” She sidestepped to get out of his way.
Luke winked at her before exiting down the ramp. The man had been in an exceptionally good mood, smiling, laughing, and even whistling. Hadley guessed it probably had to do with the fact that Tyler had left for Seattle a few days earlier.
Even though many eyewitnesses had concurred that Jessie had jumped in front of Tyler’s car and he’d done everything he could to stop, she knew Tyler still felt guilty. He’d barely spoken to her when he’d pulled his rental truck up to the old house and loaded his belongings. And he hadn’t brought up his fight with Luke again.