Never mind the remaining cold cases that had never been solved even once.
It was why the unit Kenneth headed, and solely ran for the time being, had been created.
The Dawn County Sheriff’s Department was still understaffed almost three years after The Flood.
It needed someone with singular focus and drive. Someone to help without distraction. Someone who had a unique motivation to find justice for those no longer around to seek it themselves.
“Does he make a habit of attacking women in their homes during broad daylight?” Kenneth’s voice came out in a low growl.
Deputy Park sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“If he does, it didn’t show up in any reports or complaints,” he answered. “His track record in Kelby Creek over the last decade has been burglary. Unarmed at that. He went into offices, cars and residential homes when no one was around, grabbed the most valuable things he could, and then was gone. The only way we even knew it was him half of the time was through security or home cameras and eyewitnesses after he left. He might seem sloppy while he’s doing his thing, but after he leaves a place, it’s like he simply disappears into thin air. Poof.”
“But he has a record.”
Deputy Park nodded. “Before he went poof, he was caught twice within three years. Spent some time in prison for it.”
“And now he’s strangling women and carrying a gun,” Kenneth said with a snarl.
“It seems like it.”
They took a moment of silence to think on that. A few deputies who had responded to his call for backup were behind them, chatting and enjoying their break. A few doors down, Willa and the sheriff were finishing up her official statement in the department’s meeting room.
He wished he had a way to erase the last few hours from her memory, but knew trauma wasn’t something one could just wish away. Instead, he focused on what he could.
“The car they found a few blocks away, which they think is his, you said it had several items in it that were stolen?”
Deputy Park nodded again. “It’s looking like he broke into two other houses up and down the same street before he got to Miss Tate. Some of the items were in the car when we found it.”
“Do you have a catalog of the items? Or a picture?” Kenneth wondered if the fabric from the box had been inside, even though Willa had been adamant that there was no way Leonard would have had the time to get it while she was there.
Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt to look.
“Yeah, we have some pictures that Gordon took. Want to see them?”
Kenneth said he would.
It didn’t take long after that to start wrapping the day up. He went to his office and finished what he could before grabbing his things and heading to the meeting room. It was good timing; the sheriff was coming out.
He wasn’t in a good mood at all. No one was a fan of what had happened that afternoon. He was quick to give his recap of his thoughts but then patted Kenneth on the shoulder and said he had to deal with the press.
“The whole town will know by tomorrow about what happened. I better get prepared.”
Kenneth didn’t envy that side of the job and told the sheriff good luck.
He popped his head inside the meeting room as soon as the man was gone and locked eyes with the woman he’d been worrying about since that morning.
Willa was standing, cell phone in her hand.
She looked lost.
“Everything all right?” Kenneth knew it wasn’t, but he had to say the words.
A strained smile righted itself across her lips.
“Just tired, I think. Maybe a little overwhelmed, too.”
Kenneth didn’t like the way she sounded. He didn’t like the mark around her neck. He didn’t like the way she was putting up a front of smiles and being accommodating when she was the one who had been attacked.
It made him feel...protective.
And he hadn’t felt that in a long time.
“Do you need a ride home?”
Willa nodded but held up her phone. “Kimball told me to call when I was finished here.”
Kimball Smith, Kenneth knew, was Willa’s brother-in-law. He’d been the first to arrive on scene outside of law enforcement back at the apartment. Without announcing who he was, he had picked Willa up in a hug and spun her in a half circle. It was only after Willa returned the embrace with several assurances that she was okay that she introduced the two of them. Before she’d done so, Kenneth couldn’t get around the fact that he hadn’t known if Willa Tate was seeing anyone. Sure, her online profiles might have said “single,” but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been dating anyone.
Now he didn’t have to guess on it. She all but told him the only people who would be calling after her were her sister, her brother-in-law, her friend Ebony, and the people she worked with. Anyone else would be after gossip.
“My shift just ended,” Kenneth surprised himself by saying. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to give you a ride.”
It might have been his imagination, but Willa’s shoulders dropped a little, like the tension in them had lessened.
“That would really be nice,” she said. “I think Kimball and Martha are actually out buying a new security system right now. So, yeah, if you don’t mind, that would be great.”
“I promise I don’t. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Eight
It had already started raining in some parts of Kelby Creek.
Willa could smell it in the air.
Normally, that would have been a topic of conversation. An easy one to make with someone you barely knew, especially while in the car with them. Yet she kept quiet about it. The urge to dish out her Southern niceties was gone.
A rare occurrence for her.
Instead, she’d remained silent after the detective had finished his quick call before leaving the parking lot.
Kenneth, however, didn’t seem to like the silence. He spoke the moment he started driving. “So, did the sheriff tell you about Leonard Bartow?”
Willa fought the urge to touch her neck. An EMT had told her in her driveway that she was lucky her attacker hadn’t been stronger and that Kenneth had showed up when he had. A bruise was much preferable than more extensive damage that could be caused in that area. At least she could talk without it hurting. Apparently, that wasn’t always the case.
The thought made Willa wholly uncomfortable just thinking about the what-ifs.
“Yes,” she answered. “He said that Leonard has a history of breaking into people’s houses and stealing. He also said that today’s stop at my apartment was his third break-in. Leonard must have expected me to be in the main house and not the garage apartment, which is why he attacked.”
Out of her periphery, Willa saw Kenneth turn toward her.
“But you don’t believe that.” It was a statement. One that was true.
“I stand by what I said. There is no way Leonard got that fabric when he broke into my place. He couldn’t have. I was literally pressed up against the box. But I don’t think him being there was a coincidence. He was in my apartment for almost half an hour. Why? It’s not that big a space and all of my valuables? They were just out in the open, ready to be taken. So what was he doing?”
“Do think he was waiting for you?” Kenneth’s voice had gone flat.
Willa was glad to shake her head.
“If he was waiting for me, he picked a weird time to do it. My normal workday is until five and going to my house before I was supposed to meet you was a last-minute decision.” Willa looked down at her sundress. It seemed so silly now that she’d gone through so much all because of wanting to wear a dress to impress the man next to her.
She shook her head again. “He had to be there about the box, right? It’s too much of a coincidence not to be.”
Kenneth was thoughtful when he responded.
“The timing of it all does make it more suspect. He put himself at a lot of risk to seemingly do nothing. Just breaking into a place that has a car parked outside is dangerous. Even if he might have thought the car belonged to someone in the main house. Not only did he do that, he did it during the day and then he stayed. I can’t tell if he had a plan or if he’s not the brightest tool in the toolshed. Either way, it’s all definitely suspicious.”
“It also makes it slightly terrifying.” They slowed to stop at a light. She shared a glance with him before looking down at her hands. “Let’s say Leonard didn’t know about the box at all... Then who took the cloth?”
Kenneth didn’t have an answer. Not that Willa had expected one. In fact, she hadn’t expected anything from the man after their meeting on Monday.
“You called today because you wanted to talk. Does that mean you found something about Josiah?”
Kenneth’s eyes were back on the road. They didn’t stray her way as she studied his profile. His jaw was hard, his brow pronounced with concentration, and his lips were warm. At least they had been when she’d kissed him.
But that was part of a different conversation Willa wanted to have with the man. Not the one she needed at the moment.
“I didn’t find anything on Josiah but, after talking to the sheriff and thinking on it some more, I wanted to see if you could walk me through what you’ve done since finding the box.”
“You mean my investigation?”
Willa saw the corner of his lips twitch like he was holding in a smile.
“Yeah. I want to make sure I’m on the same page with you before I go any further.”
Hope sprang eternal in Willa’s chest. “So, you’re officially taking on Josiah’s case?”
“More like I’m going to try to figure out what’s going on with that box.”
Willa was pleased as punch about that. She smiled wide.
“Either way, I’m glad to hear it. I was starting to feel like one of those killers on a TV show. You know, the ones who have like a weird shrine of pictures or a bulletin board with tons of strings attached to it.”
“Believe me, you’re no killer.”
Embarrassment took heat from Willa’s stomach and pushed it up into her cheeks.
She hadn’t met Kenneth before yet, as a local, she knew about the murder of his wife. There might have been the odd homicide in Kelby Creek and Dawn County but the killing of a young woman out jogging with no leads? That had been on repeat on the news.
And, if she had somehow managed to miss that, then Kenneth taking the job as the head of the cold case unit had put the story back into circulation.
Willa’s heart squeezed at her poor choice of words.
“I... I’m sorry,” she tried to rectify by saying. “I didn’t mean to—”
Kenneth held up his hand to stop her. “It’s okay. No harm done.”
Willa wasn’t sure it hadn’t been, but she didn’t say so. She quieted while the rain picked up and blurred the world around them. It helped her thoughts from sticking where they shouldn’t.
That didn’t last long.
Willa glanced over at the man’s hand. She’d already noted his lack of wedding band on his ring finger when she’d first met him. Still, she felt the need to check again. Instead, her eyes stopped at the holster on his hip.
She must have made a noise.
Kenneth turned to her in a flash. “What?”
Willa had already blushed twice since being in the SUV with Kenneth. And for different reasons. Now she did it a third time.
Not for embarrassment or the prickling desire she suspected she was starting to have for the detective. But for the shame of overlooking the most important detail from the mystery she was trying to solve.
She gave Kenneth a long look.
“You’re probably not going to like this.”
* * *
THANKFULLY, THE CAR ride had been over quickly after Willa’s ominous statement.
That didn’t mean that Kenneth had parked the SUV in her driveway and then led the way to the garage apartment without apprehension. It was there when they walked inside of the living space that he noted that the apartment had been straightened and cleaned since earlier. When Willa turned around to face him her gaze never wavered from his as she bottom-lined why they were there.
“There used to be a gun in the box.”
Kenneth ran his hand over the stubble along his jaw. He repeated her words to make sure he’d heard them right. Willa nodded.
He would have sighed in exasperation, maybe even anger, had it been anyone else who had just dropped a bombshell like that.
Instead he kept his cool. Though he had some questions.
“Why didn’t you tell me when you first came to the department? That’s a pretty big detail to leave out. A gun would’ve certainly gotten my attention a lot faster.”
Willa rung her hands together. Her cheeks had turned a rosy shade again. Just as they had in his SUV. It only made part of him feel even more protective of her. Being in the room where she’d been attacked was only making that feeling stronger.
“Well, I was trying to figure out this whole situation before coming to the department in first place, since I didn’t know who to trust. I mean, I know that the sheriff’s department isn’t like the one before The Flood, but there’s just so much water that hasn’t actually gone under that bridge for us locals. And... I don’t know, I just didn’t want to chance missing out on getting some kind of justice or answers for Josiah’s family.”
“So you didn’t tell me about the gun because you didn’t know if you could trust us. Trust me.”
Willa shrugged. Those rosy cheeks became rosier.
“Well, yeah,” she said. “That and the fact I didn’t exactly want to bring a gun, even if it wasn’t loaded, into a sheriff’s department. So I decided to kind of feel you out first.”
He put his hands on his hips and slid his eyebrow up question.
“You decided to feel me out first,” he repeated, slightly humored.
A quick smile passed over her lips before deepening into a frown.
“Yes. But then you kind of dismissed me, so I decided not to bring up the gun. When you called me today to meet, I was going to tell you then. Or, at least, I think I would’ve. The day kind of got away from me, and not in the best way, as you know.”
Kenneth noted the way her hand flexed. He bet she was keeping it at waist level with thoughtful intention. He’d already caught her several times lightly brushing the bruised skin of her neck.
The sight of her trying to control the reflex made his disbelief that she hadn’t told him about the weapon soften. He let out a breath, purposely loosening his shoulders.
“So you found the gun and then you hid the gun,” he stated. “Where is it now?”
Before they had gone into the department for Willa to give her official statement, she and Kenneth had decided to find a different place to put the box. At first, he’d suggested taking it to the department. But with Willa’s adamant insistence about keeping it, despite the break-in, he’d relented. There was just something about the tear tracks down her cheeks and her bloodshot eyes that made him want to give her everything she wanted. Or, at a minimum, not add to her current stress.
They’d moved the box from the window seat to, of all places, the refrigerator. He had laughed at the suggestion but realized in hindsight that it had been a pretty good place to hide something. How many people with bad intentions broke into a home and went through the fridge?
He chuckled to himself as she went to the freezer portion of the refrigerator and opened the door. She looked inside and breathed a sigh of relief so loudly that Kenneth found another bit of tension fall away from his shoulders.
“It’s in there?”
He walked over and stopped at her shoulder.
Willa actually clapped. “Yes. Thank goodness!”
She moved aside as Kenneth pulled on the latex gloves he’d taken from the trunk of his vehicle. No matter what he drove, he always carried them around everywhere.
“Is...is that it?”
At the back of the freezer, next to a box of Toaster Strudel, sat a large Tupperware container. Through its clear sides, he saw something black inside.
Willa crossed her arms over her chest, defensive.
“Hey, watch that tone. I wasn’t going to put a gun willy-nilly in my freezer. What do you take me for? An amateur?”
Kenneth was going to comment that that’s exactly what she was, but glanced over in time to see her smirk. She was teasing him.
When she saw that he understood she was playing with him, she shrugged again.
“Plus, I’m a good Southern woman. One thing we have in spades are plastic containers. I’ve used them for leftovers, sewing needles and thread, chocolate-covered whatevers, and one time to catch a lizard and use it to put him outside. Why not add hiding a gun in the freezer to the list?”
Kenneth reached inside and gently pulled the Tupperware out.
“You know, I’ve heard and seen a lot of things during my time in law enforcement,” he said. “But I can tell you with certainty that’s the first time I’ve heard, and the first time I’ve seen, this.”
Kenneth decided not to inspect the gun then and there. By her own admission, Willa had already done her own investigation, at least, as much as she could. He also decided, even if she wouldn’t admit it, that Willa was exhausted. He didn’t want to keep her from eating with her family and getting some rest.
He walked her downstairs to the side door that led into her sister’s house, promising that he would look into the gun.
“My house is currently being worked on, so I have to take off tomorrow to meet with the contractor. But I can still look into this—” he tapped the lid of the container “—from home. I’d also like to talk to you about what you already know in more detail. If you don’t mind waiting until Friday or, if you do, I can get you in with Detective Lovett or—”
Surviving the Truth Page 7