Chapter Three
The aggravating sound of Logan’s ringtone pierced the air, ending their morning of sex and quiet. Ava knew that sound all too well. It was work. So much for having a few days off. With her luck lately, he’d be back on the road before dinnertime.
Rolling over on the bed, he grimaced and then grabbed his cell from the side table.
“Sorry, baby.”
The problem was he really was truly sorry. He didn’t want to leave any more than she wanted him to but when duty called he had to answer it. They’d made a deal, after all. No more guns pointed at him. It was hard to be pissed off when he didn’t appear any happier about this phone call than she did. She pondered rolling over and taking a nap before the kids returned home but her own cell phone was ringing on the other nightstand. Levering up and wrapping a robe around her rapidly cooling body, she checked the screen display.
Her mother.
At least it wasn’t a Skype call. One look at Ava’s flushed cheeks and tumbled hair and Carole Hayworth would know exactly what her youngest daughter had been doing.
To give Logan his privacy for a business call, Ava quickly exited the bedroom and headed for the kitchen. A glass of iced tea sounded like the perfect after-sex cocktail on a Tuesday morning.
“Hey, Mom. What’s going on?”
“Thank heavens you answered.” Carol sounded agitated and out of breath, as if she’d been running up and down the stairs, which would be unusual behavior for the doting mother and grandmother. “You need to come here right away.”
Ava hadn’t been back to Corville since she and Logan had moved to the outskirts of Seattle. They were closer to his partner Jared and the Seattle office. At least that’s what they’d told themselves when they’d made the move. Her parents normally visited them, not the other way around.
“Okay, Mom. Calm down. What’s happening? Why do I need to come home?”
There was a pause and then an audible deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m just so upset. Lyle is dead, Ava. They found his body this morning.”
Lyle Bryson. Ava’s brother-in-law.
“Wait…he’s…dead?”
The last time she’d seen Lyle, which admittedly had been quite a while ago, he’d been in perfect health. He ran five miles a day.
They found his body this morning.
That sounded ominous, but it was probably just her murder mystery mind.
“Yes, he’s gone,” Carol announced loudly, her voice rising higher with emotion. “And the police are here asking questions. Your sister is beside herself with grief. She needs her family here. We need you.”
One word jumped out to Ava’s sluggish brain. Police.
“The police are there? What are they asking about?”
It was probably just routine and her sister Mary was being overly dramatic as she often was. No one could play the victim more than Ava’s sister, although this time she had a good reason.
“Lyle’s death, of course.”
This conversation was beginning to go around in circles.
“Mom, just where did they find Lyle’s body?”
“On the jogging trail in the park. Another runner found him.”
Geez, maybe running really did kill him.
“Then I’m sure the cops are just asking the usual questions. Nothing to be concerned with. But as soon as Logan gets off the phone I’ll talk to him about coming home for the funeral. Of course, we’ll be there to support Mary.”
Another noisy exhale from her mother. “I’m rattled and I’m not making myself clear here. They’re asking Mary questions about Lyle because of the way he died. He was shot.”
Shot? Lyle was shot? This was beginning to look like déjà vu all over again. Bill Bryson – Lyle’s father – had been shot a little more than eight years ago at a wedding reception.
Despite that being the case that brought Ava and Logan together, it had also been a cluster in a myriad of other ways, ruining many lives. Lyle’s was one of them. In the end, Ava and Logan had decided to move out of Corville.
“Ava?”
Logan’s voice penetrated her thoughts of the past and she looked up to see him standing in the kitchen doorway wearing an extremely unhappy expression. He didn’t know the half of it yet. The last thing he wanted to do was go back to his hometown.
Logan held up his phone. “It’s Jason. Drake in Corville is asking for our help in a murder investigation.”
I know exactly what murder they’re talking about. Do you?
“Mom, I’m going to have to call you back.”
* * * *
What a fucking mess.
Logan had Jason in one ear begging him to go back to Corville to help his former deputy – now sheriff – Drake with a murder investigation and Ava in the other telling him that her mother had called panicked and upset. Both of them were explaining just who the victim was.
Lyle.
Ava’s brother-in-law. Or Logan’s half-brother, depending on how one looked at it. The day Logan had found out that the late Bill Bryson was his real father the news hadn’t been welcomed. It had changed everything and had led to finding out hard truths that the town of Corville had never wanted to know. When Logan had resigned as sheriff and moved his family away there had been a collective sigh of relief. He was a constant reminder of the tiny hamlet’s sins. He’d uncovered the bodies – literally – and they couldn’t forgive that.
“I’m going to need to discuss this with Ava.” Logan wanted to put an end to the call with Jason. “This isn’t just my decision. I’ll call you back.”
He didn’t let Jason try to persuade him further, quickly disconnecting the call before his friend could say anything else. At this point, there wasn’t much to say. Logan already knew what he had to do but it didn’t mean that he had to go quietly with a goddamn smile on his face.
“That was Jason.”
Ava nodded, opening the fridge and retrieving two bottles of water, one of which she handed to him. “You said that.”
“He wants me to go to Corville to help Drake out with Lyle’s murder.”
“You said that, too.”
His wife normally didn’t hide how she was feeling about things, at least not with him. But right now, she could have been holding a pair of deuces or a royal flush.
“We have to go,” he heard himself saying out loud. “I mean…it’s family. We have to go if only for the funeral.”
He wasn’t looking forward to it, though. Lots of people looking at him, staring and whispering when he walked by. When he’d left, he hadn’t thought about what it would be like to return. Somehow he’d fooled himself into thinking he’d never have to.
I’m a fucking idiot.
“Agreed. As much as Mary and I have issues, I can’t let her go through this alone.”
“I bet your sister is being insufferable now.”
Shit, he shouldn’t have said that. Jesus, she was a widow. He should be saying nice things about her and Lyle. He should want to be loving and supportive, but it was difficult when Mary hated his guts. She was damn vocal about it, too. She still blamed him for the Bryson family losing their business and a large chunk of the family fortune. Never mind that it was the oldest brother Wade who had turned into a serial killer. Somehow Logan was worse.
“I think…I think she really loved him. For all of Mary’s faults, she was sweet to Lyle.”
Leave it to his wonderful wife to find the good in a person. Mary had been a royal bitch to Ava as well, but somehow she always seemed to rise above her sister’s behavior and simply smile in response.
Logan sighed and fell down into a kitchen chair, his head lolling back. He was supposed to be getting a few well-deserved days off and now he had to deal with this shit.
“I feel sorry for her, I truly do. It’s just not easy because I wouldn’t say she and I have ever been close.”
Or even nice to one another. Mary had done her damnedest to talk Ava out of marrying Logan and that was something he couldn’t forget.
Then there was the whole issue he hadn’t even begun to deal with, still numb after hearing the news. His half-brother had been shot in cold blood. The Bryson family had many faults, but Lyle hadn’t been one of them. A truly good guy, Lyle had worked hard and given back to the community. He sure as hell hadn’t deserved to come to a bloody end like that.
It didn’t matter whether Mary liked Logan or not. Helping Drake find Lyle’s killer wouldn’t necessarily be for her. It would be for Lyle.
“I’m going to tell Jason I’ll do it.”
“I know.”
His wife was currently making another pot of coffee. What he really needed was a shot of whiskey, but it was a little early in the day.
“You think you know everything about me.”
Chuckling, she pressed the start button and turned to him, her hands massaging his tense shoulders. He rested his head on her belly and sighed when her fingers found a particularly tight spot at the base of his neck.
“I don’t think I know everything, but I have observed a few things in our years of marriage. One, you would never turn down a friend that asked you for help. Drake is a friend. Two, you liked Lyle, although he was angry with you after you put Wade behind bars. Let’s just say it was an educated guess and leave it at that.”
Her fingers smoothed over his cheeks, her thumbs gently sweeping over his closed eyes. Everything was as shitty as could be but when he was like this with Ava it was all okay. She made his whole life better. So many people had been shocked when he’d married her, but he couldn’t imagine his life without her. He’d do anything for her.
Even accept a new position at the consulting firm. It was more management and much less hands on, but it meant that he would be home almost all the time. Very little travel. It wasn’t his dream job, but it meant that he could be home with his family more. He could help Ava and be there when times were tough. He could watch his children grow up for a change. Hell, they might even get a dog.
All he had to do was finish training his replacement Kim. She was doing a good job, but they were all afraid she was going to miss working in a big city police station. Hopefully it would all work out, but he hadn’t mentioned it to Ava yet. He didn’t want to get her hopes up when it was all still up in the air.
With any luck this would be his last field case. One more. Go to Corville, find a killer, and then give Ava the good news that he was going to be home every night for supper.
If only he didn’t have to go back there. It was literally the last thing he wanted to do.