Chapter Sixteen
“I asked Jared to check out the girlfriend,” Logan said in a whisper as he watched the mourners file out of the church. It was Lyle’s funeral and the whole town appeared to have shown up to pay their respects. Or get a good look at the possible murderer – Mary.
Or perhaps to give Ava and Logan dirty looks. That seemed to be the favorite pastime of many townsfolk. To their credit, they weren’t bothering to hide their disdain. At least they were honest. Logan respected that.
Drake craned his neck to see Mary who was standing at the front of the church by the coffin, looking sad and devastated. She’d sobbed through the entire eulogy and then some.
“Should I arrest her? With the life insurance policy and all she had motive.”
Logan shook his head. “No, not yet. We’re still in the early stages of the investigation and we don’t want to tip our hand. Besides, she’s not a flight risk. We know where she is and what she’s doing pretty much every minute of the day thanks to Corville’s gossip mill. She’s not going anywhere.”
And hopefully that life insurance policy was simply a terrible coincidence. He didn’t want to see his sister in law arrested.
“What if Jared can’t find the girlfriend?”
“He’ll find her,” Logan replied with confidence. “Wherever she’s hiding, he’ll find her. It just takes time.”
Drake had sent a deputy to the girlfriend’s residence this morning but it was empty. A neighbor had said that the woman had been seen loading a suitcase into the trunk of her car and driving away.
She was on the run. The question was why. Guilty conscience or just scared?
Drake eyed the stream of people as they exited the church. “Do you think someone local did it?”
“I know you’re hoping that it’s some random stranger but that’s a rarity. People generally aren’t killed by strangers. I wish I had better news for you. It’s probably a Corville resident. You’re going to be as popular as I am when this is all over. If you’re smart, you’ll blame it all on me. After all, you have to live and work in this town.”
“They’re just being stubborn.” Drake shook his head sadly. “There is no way they didn’t want you to catch a killer. They were screaming about the vigilante killer and how he needed to be stopped but the minute it was someone who employed a third of the town, they weren’t so upset any more. Acting like a bunch of children, if you ask me.”
Logan felt the same way but he didn’t often express his frustration. The situation was out of his control. He just didn’t like that Ava was guilty by association. She didn’t deserve their shit. All she’d been doing was learning how to investigate so she could be a better writer. He’d been the one that had arrested Wade and put him in prison.
Speaking of his lovely wife…she was trapped next to her sister, mother, and father. Bruce Hayworth was waving his arms animatedly and probably speaking loudly – although Logan couldn’t hear him. It was simply that Bruce always spoke a little too loudly. He seemed to think that everything he said was important.
“Time to rescue Ava,” Logan said. “Just give me a minute and I’ll be right back.”
Drake’s eyes were wide and he backed toward the door. “Good luck, man. I’ll be waiting outside.”
Logan would need all of that luck and more. He wasn’t exactly popular with his father-in-law and he’d already had a lecture from the older man about how Logan’s profession was going to get him killed at a young age. Logan hadn’t bothered to remind Bruce that Lyle had a boring desk job and had managed to get himself dead without a badge. Besides, people rarely pointed a gun at Logan anymore. With his new position at the consulting firm, it would be considerably less. He’d be home more, too. At least that was the plan.
Striding down the aisle between the pews, he didn’t give any of the stragglers a glance, his gaze trained on his beautiful wife. Her face was red and tearstained and she kept dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. The service had been a lovely tribute to a good and kind man. Hell, even Logan had been choked up at one point. No one deserved to go out the way Lyle had.
“Ava, are you ready to go? We need to check on the kids.”
Drake’s wife had helpfully offered to watch Colt and Brianna today along with her own children. Both Logan and Ava agreed that they were too young to really understand what was going on and they hadn’t spent much time with Mary and Lyle. Plus, they both hated to have their children witness the stares and whispers from the people around them.
“You’re coming to the house, aren’t you?” Carol asked anxiously, her arm around her weeping daughter. “Everyone will be there.”
That was why Logan didn’t want to go but he couldn’t think of a good excuse. It was expected and it was polite, so he would be there whether the lovely citizens of Corville wanted him to be or not.
“Of course we will, Mom,” Ava said, giving her mother a hug and then a kiss on the cheek. “We just need to check on the kids first, and then we’ll be there.”
“Just bring them.” Bruce’s voice boomed and bounced around the now empty church. “They should be with family today.”
“Dad, they’re six.”
“No better time to learn about the circle of life.”
Logan was of the opinion that they could learn about the circle of life with a hamster or a guinea pig and save the humans for a later date.
Placing an arm around Ava, he urged her toward the door. “Well, we’ll see you at the house. Send a text if you need us to stop anywhere or pick up something.”
They hurried up the aisle and out of the church where Drake was leaning against the SUV and talking on the phone. Logan pointed to his car and waved to his friend as he helped Ava into the passenger seat. He slid behind the wheel and started the vehicle.
“I talked Drake out of arresting Mary.”
Ava’s head jerked around, her mouth hanging open. “Is that an option? I mean…we’ve barely started here.”
“That’s what I told him.” Logan pulled out into traffic. “He was fine with it. We really need to talk to that girlfriend. We need to know what she knows.”
“Hopefully Jared can find her.”
Logan grinned at the thought of his friend and partner not being able to track down their person of interest. “He’ll find her. He always does. How did I do back there?”
He’d tried to be sensitive and supportive of Mary even though they didn’t get along. She might not be nice to him but she was still a widow burying her husband today. He wasn’t unsympathetic.
Unless she had shot Lyle, of course. But he really honestly didn’t think she was the one. It didn’t fit her personality. Everything he knew about her didn’t point to killer.
“You did fine,” Ava assured him. “Even Daddy was impressed.”
Snorting, Logan didn’t believe that for a second. “Bullshit, baby. He hates my guts more than ever. I’m a continual reminder that the big bad womanizing sheriff defiled his baby girl. He’ll never forgive me for that one.”
“He liked Lyle.”
“It’s not the same and you know it. Lyle was a pillar of the community.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “You were the sheriff. It doesn’t get more pillar-like than that.”
“My job meant getting my hands dirty,” Logan replied in a mocking tone. “Lyle got to push paper from one side of his desk to the other. Very different. But at least your mom likes me.”
The corners of Ava’s lips turned down. “They’re definitely getting a divorce.”
Reaching for her hand, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Hey, one family problem at a time, okay? They might work this all out.”
Though he doubted it. Bruce had become increasingly difficult these last few years. Angrier and quick to temper. Poor Carol was at the end of her rope, frankly. How she’d put up with it for so many years Logan had no idea.
“Somehow I don’t think they will.” Ava’s voice was soft and a little trembly. “If I ask you a question will you answer me honestly?”
He already knew what she was going to ask.
“Always.”
“Do you think she did it?”
“No,” he answered with no hesitation. “I don’t. But we have to keep an open mind and look at all the angles. We have to eliminate Mary as a suspect, and the first step to doing that is to talk to the girlfriend.”
“But Jared has to find her first.”
As if on cue, Logan’s phone chirped in his pocket. “I bet that’s him. He might have found her already.”
They were due for some good news.