“You don’t know that for sure unless you’re cheating,” Brinley answered with a teasing smile. “So hit me.”
A slow grin spread across Logan’s face. “I like your style, Brinley Snow. Fearless. I’m not too fond of rules myself. You want a card, you got it.”
Holding her breath, she waited as his hand seemed to move in slow motion. She was far from fearless. Stupid was probably a better word for it.
Three of spades. Logan laughed and shook his head.
“You have the luck with you today. Let’s see if I do.”
Logan dealt himself a king of clubs. Busted. She’d won. It was…unexpected.
“You looked shocked,” Logan observed, gathering the cards up to reshuffle the deck. “If you thought you were going to lose why did you do it?”
That was an excellent question. One she wasn’t sure she could explain but she’d try without going into all the gory details of her personal life.
“I was tired of playing it safe, following the rules,” she said finally after a long pause. “It’s what I’ve done my whole life and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. And a card game with nothing riding on it seemed like a good time to try it out.”
“You kind of remind me of my wife Ava,” Logan said, rubbing his chin. “She got tired of that too. Her family had put her in a neat little box of who they thought she should be.”
That sounded very familiar. “So what did she do?”
Logan flashed a wicked grin that probably melted the panties off of most women. “Took a ride on my motorcycle.”
I just bet she did. The hotter than firecrackers lawman probably had to beat them off with a broom before he was married.
Brinley cleared her throat and tried to hold in her laughter. “Is that some sort of euphemism?”
Logan gave her a blank look and then realization dawned along with amusement. “Nope, it was a real Harley. She said it felt like flying and she was right. There’s nothing like the feeling of freedom. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking about starting to color outside the lines.”
Brinley liked the way he phrased it. Coloring outside the lines. It wasn’t that she wanted to go on a crime spree and knock over a bank; she just wanted to take a few chances for a change. Stay up late. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Show up late to a movie and miss the previews.
Take a chance with a sexy wounded lawman named Jason Anderson.
“Hmmmm… A Harley riding second grade teacher. I would certainly make an impression on the parents.”
“If you’re going to take chances you have to stop worrying about what other people think about your decisions.” Logan leaned forward, a smile playing on his lips. “I’m going to tell you a secret. Most people are so damn worried about themselves they don’t have time to worry about what you’re doing. And the few that do? They’re not worth worrying about, always with their noses in other people’s business. It’d be a better world if we stopped judging everybody by what they drive or how they’re dressed. That’s just my two cents, of course.”
“I haven’t taken many chances in my life,” Brinley sighed, knowing Logan was right. “I’m a big fraidy-cat.”
“Funny, but you don’t act like one. You’ve taken this entire murder thing in stride. Most people would have started drinking or curled up into a ball and watched twenty hours of television straight. You, on the other hand, stood up and told my stubborn partner that you wanted to help find the killer. That, my new friend, takes guts. No fraidy-cat would do that.”
“You’re a nice man, Logan Wright.”
“Don’t let that get around. I have a reputation to protect.” He began to shuffle the cards. “Are we still playing?”
Brinley grinned and slapped the table. “Absolutely. I’m going to play like there are no rules.”
Words to live by.
Chapter Fifteen
‡
“We’ve had this all wrong,” Jason groaned as he, West, and Seth paged through Anita’s notes. They were sitting in the interrogation room at Seth’s station and what they were learning turned everything upside down.
“It’s the house. Roger and Anita were investigating Brinley’s house,” West said, rubbing his temple. “Or at least what happened in that house. How did I not know about this? I’m the damn lead detective in Tremont.”
“I don’t go through our cold cases very often,” Seth shrugged. “I don’t have the manpower, to be honest. Unless something comes up with one of them the chances of getting any resources is slim. It’s sad but it’s the truth. Presley scanned all our files in so if we do have a murder or missing person we can run a query in the database and look for crimes with a similar MO.”
“That would be heaven.” West tossed back the last of his soda. “Can I borrow Presley for a few months? I’d pay her well. If that crazy mayor will let me.”
Seth grinned but shook his head. “She’d love the challenge but she’s been pretty wore out these days being pregnant, having a toddler plus helping out here a couple of days a week. But she’s always happy to train someone on how to do it. A few months ago she worked with Griffin’s admin assistant.”
“I may take you up on that,” West promised, holding up a piece of paper. “But in the meantime I need to pull everything we can about the Barnes murder twenty years ago. This is the best motive we’ve found so far.”
Jason slumped in his chair, his mind whirling with what they’d discovered. “This is not going to go over very well with Brinley. She bought that place as her dream house. I doubt the real estate agent revealed that there had been an unsolved murder there.”
“You didn’t know when you moved in next door?” Seth asked with a frown. “I thought you’d lived in Tremont your entire life.”
“I would have been in college.” Jason stroked his chin. “You too, West. If anyone mentioned a murder there I sure as hell don’t remember it. Gail never talked about it. I admit she and I only had a few conversations when she lived there but she never mentioned that her sister was killed.”
West pushed a piece of paper toward Jason. “Maybe no one mentioned it because they thought they had it solved. According to Anita’s notes the cops always thought Linda Barnes was shot by her husband Wendell, but they could never prove it.”
“Was he arrested?” Seth paged through the notes.
“No, and they never found the weapon. I saw that…here.” Jason pulled out a copy of what appeared to be the original police report. “They picked him up the night of the murder by Tremont Lake. He said he was fishing. At night. They think he was getting rid of the gun. They didn’t have much on this guy except a theory that Linda was spending him into the poor house so he shot her. If that was his only option he doesn’t have great problem solving skills.”
“Murderers rarely do. In a domestic situation we always look at the spouse first,” Seth pointed out. “It looks like Roger and Anita were on to something that might prove his guilt. More motive and opportunity evidence. I guess we know who to talk to next.”
“There’s good news out of all of this.” West nodded to Jason. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Brinley personally. She doesn’t need to fear for her life.”
That fact was already making breathing a hell of a lot easier for Jason. She didn’t need to be babysat every moment of the day but he was still planning to keep a close eye on her.
But now for purely personal reasons.
One thing still bugged him though.
“Someone did try to break into her house when she wasn’t there. Was it the killer? Or was it completely random? I know what my vote is so I think I’ll keep her at my house until we solve this.”
West’s lips twitched. “Better safe than sorry. I’m sure you’ll take real good care of Ms. Snow.”