Chapter 5

“Police,” she announced before taking a step back, pulling Justice with her away from the door. In the tense seconds that followed, she listened, wanting a warning if the woman behind the closed door was trying to slip out of the window or—much, much worse—racking a shotgun. The only sound was the creak of the floor and hurried, light footsteps.

The door swung open slightly, and a woman peeked out. She was tiny. There weren’t many adults that Kit had to look down at, but Elena was one of them. Kit guessed that the woman was no taller than five feet and probably weighed ninety pounds. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, with straight, brown hair and big doe eyes framed by about a mile of dark lashes. Kit understood why Jules felt so protective. The woman sent a worried look toward Justice, who’d plopped down next to Kit in an unusual display of self-control.

“Hello. Elena?” Her voice was gentle, but the woman still flinched, even as she nodded slightly.

“I’m Officer Kit Jernigan. Is anyone else in your room with you?”

“No?” Her unsure response didn’t inspire confidence in Kit that she was telling the truth.

“Mind if we come in?” She moved forward, and Elena yielded, stepping back and opening the door all the way. As Kit walked into the small bedroom, she quickly checked for possible spots where someone could be hiding. The bi-fold closet door was open, and the quilt covering the bed barely came down to the bottom of the mattress, giving a clear view of the space under the bed. Shifting to the side, Kit glanced between the open door and the wall, but no one was there, and she relaxed slightly. “It’s clear.”

“What’s this about?” Elena asked, wrapping her arms around her stomach.

Kit gave her a small, reassuring smile. “We just need to ask you a few questions.” Without a digital recorder or even a notebook, Kit felt woefully unprepared for this interview. She glanced at Theo and Hugh, who’d moved into Elena’s line of sight but stayed in the hall. Although Elena darted a look their way, her attention quickly returned to Kit. Widening her eyes, Kit tried to send a silent message, but neither reached toward the recorders on their belts. She hid a grimace. It appeared that she was on her own. “What’s your last name?”

Elena’s gaze dropped to her feet before returning to Kit’s. “Dahl.”

“You’re new to town?”

“Yes.” Her mile-long eyelashes fluttered down and back up again before she continued. “I’m visiting my old friend Jules.”

Hugh cleared his throat, making Kit glance over to see him exchange a partially amused but mostly exasperated look with Theo. Making a mental note to ask them what that was all about, she waited a few moments. Instead of interjecting a question, he silently waved for her to continue.

“When did you arrive?” Kit asked, her tone losing some of its sympathy and becoming more matter-of-fact. Despite Elena’s dropped glances and Bambi eyes, her voice was steady, and her hands didn’t tremble. Either the woman was excellent at hiding her nervousness, or she wasn’t as fazed by the sight of the police as she wanted Kit to think she was.

“This morning.”

“What time?”

Elena dropped her gaze again, this time peering up at Kit through her lashes. If her little sister hadn’t perfected the innocent-angel look, Kit might’ve softened. Instead, it had the opposite effect. This woman was trying to play her, and she didn’t allow anyone—except that same little sister—to play her. “Um…” Elena hesitated. “I’m not sure exactly. Early?”

“Have you been here since then?” When Elena just blinked at her, either confused by the question or surprised that her damsel-in-distress act wasn’t working, Kit forced some gentleness into her voice, rephrasing the question. “Have you left the house since you arrived?”

“No. I mean, I haven’t gone anywhere. Why?”

Kit studied her, wondering why Elena’s reactions seemed just a bit…off. “We’re just looking for possible witnesses. Has anyone else been in the house?”

“Grace and the kids were here when I arrived,” Elena said, biting the corner of her lip. “And Jules got home not too long ago.”

“Anyone else stop by?”

“Nooo.” The way she stretched out the word made her seem uncertain. “Not that I’ve seen. I’ve mostly been in my room, though.”

Kit started to ask her next question, but Hugh interrupted. “Thank you for your help…Elena.” When Kit gave him an I’m-not-finished look, he jerked his head toward the stairs in an unmistakable yes-you-are gesture. Turning back to Elena, she gave her a polite smile.

“Yes, thank you. If you think of anything else, or see anything suspicious, please give us a call.” Automatically, she reached for the pocket of her BDUs where she used to keep business cards, only to realize that she hadn’t even been able to fill out the card request form, much less have them printed. Hugh moved toward Elena, a card in his hand, and Kit gave him a nod of thanks.

“Okay.” Elena accepted the card with a shy smile. She followed Hugh and Kit to the doorway. As soon as they stepped into the hall, Elena closed the door behind her.

Biting the inside of her bottom lip to keep from demanding to know why Hugh had stopped the interview, Kit forced herself to wait until Theo did a quick search of the top floor and the three of them returned to the kitchen.

“All clear,” Theo told Jules with a slight, reassuring smile, and Jules let out an audible exhale, as if she’d been holding her breath the entire time. Theo wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into his side.

“Every time I think we can relax just a little, some new scary thing pops up,” she said, making Kit wonder what else had happened in this deceptively sleepy-looking town.

“Speaking of new scary things, should we expect the people your new roomie’s running from to show up soon?” Hugh asked, leaning against the wall by the table.

At the mention of Elena, Jules straightened, although she didn’t pull away from Theo’s hold. “No. Mr. Es—uh, the person who helped her get here said that he’d be surprised if anyone came chasing after Elena. She didn’t tell me the whole story, but it’s pretty clear that she’s a minor player, and finding her is not a priority for anyone, especially since the main crime families are in chaos right now. Having her disappear was just a precaution.”

“Uh-huh.” Although he didn’t say anything else, Theo didn’t sound convinced, and his concerned frown deepened as he looked at Jules. Reaching up, she took his hand where it rested on her shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Mr. S?” Hugh said. “What does the S stand for? Smith?”

Giving him a flat look, Jules said, “It stands for secret. As in, you’re never going to guess, and I’m never going to tell you, so you might as well give up and quit nagging me about it.”

“But nagging is one of my things,” Hugh said, not appearing to be fazed by her stern expression. “Most people find it to be one of my more endearing traits.”

Kit couldn’t hold back a laugh at that, even though she unsuccessfully tried to turn it into a cough at the last minute. The sound must’ve reminded the other three that she was listening—they exchanged warning glances and then dropped the subject.

Glancing at his watch, Theo said, “Do you have time before Dee gets home to give us a ride back to the scene?”

“Sure, if it’s in town.” Jules slipped out from under Theo’s arm and snagged the purse sitting on the table. “What scene are we talking about here?”

“There was a fire.”

The smile slipped away from Jules’s face. “Oh, no. Another one?”

“Well, technically, all the other fires were really bombings, so this is the first.” Although Hugh’s words were joking, they had a tense-sounding edge to them. Kit couldn’t blame him. From what she’d picked up, the town had been put through the wringer already.

“Was anyone hurt?” Jules asked.

“It was the Nailors’ place, and they head south for the winter,” Theo nonanswered. Kit was impressed by how neatly he sidestepped the question.

Jules looked relieved. “That’s something, at least. Not much, but something.” She waved at the back door as she headed for the hall. “Head on outside. I just need to talk to Theo for a moment. We’ll meet you at the car.”

As Kit headed back outside, Justice surging in front of her, she glanced back at Hugh, who was following her. “What was all that about?”

“All what?” His expression was pure innocent blankness, and Kit swallowed a grunt as she turned to face him head-on. She could already tell that she was going to have to work for every sliver of information she yanked out of him.

“Well, let’s start with why there’s a woman hiding from a crime family upstairs.” Irritation surged through her as she remembered her truncated interview. “And why you wouldn’t let me ask a possible suspect some basic questions.”

His eyebrows shot up in what appeared to be honest surprise. “Suspect?”

“Yes.” Justice slunk behind her, his belly low to the ground, and Kit tried to moderate her tone. She’d never managed to follow the “honey over vinegar” rule very well. Her true feelings were always written on her face or she simply announced them—loudly. Normally, she managed to stay relatively polite, but it had already been quite the day, and it wasn’t even over yet. Taking a deep breath, she forced her shoulders to lower and her hands to relax out of the fists she’d made. “A possible suspect. Justice led us right to her room. I’m just confused why you didn’t want me to interview her.”

“The women who live here”—Hugh jerked a thumb toward the house they’d just left—“Gracie, Jules, the kids, Sarah, and now Elena—they’re just trying to escape bad situations. I know you’re new, but you need to trust us on this. They’re the victims, not the criminals.”

Kit swallowed down a scoffing reply, knowing it wouldn’t help the situation. Still, though, it annoyed the heck out of her that Hugh was protecting a possible suspect. Kit’s instincts were screaming that Elena was hiding something, and it went almost painfully against the grain to not at least try to get the truth out of her.

Small town, Kit reminded herself, mentally counting to ten before she said anything out loud. Get used to it. This is your life now.

She had a bad feeling that her new life was going to suck.

They waited next to the car in stiff silence until Jules and Theo emerged from the house, hand-in-hand. The sight reminded Kit of how her partners had protected Jules’s new housemate from her, and her irritation flared again. She was a newcomer, true, but so was Elena. Hugh and Theo were treating Kit, a fellow officer, with more suspicion than a random stranger that Justice had trailed from a crime scene, merely because Elena had moved in with their girlfriends. It wasn’t right, and it was bad policing, and it was going to make Kit’s life a lot more uncomfortable than it had to be.

Looking at the two men’s closed expressions, though, she knew it wasn’t a fight she was going to win. She resolved to let it go for now, and to keep an open mind as the investigation continued. If she dug in and decided that Elena was involved without actual evidence, just because Hugh—and probably Theo—were determined to think the opposite, then no one would be doing any actual objective investigating. Taking in a deep, silent breath, she exhaled, trying to let go of her building resentment. It worked…sort of.

Jules waved at the passenger door in invitation, but Kit hesitated. “Do you mind having Justice in your car?” Kit asked. “He’s a hound, so he smells a little…well, hound-y. I could walk him back.”

Jules laughed. “Please. There is no dog that smells worse than three teenage boys, one who works at a kennel. Climb on in.”

“Thanks.” As she smiled back, Kit decided she liked Jules. Anyone who accepted her big, slightly smelly, occasionally drool-y hound went onto Kit’s good-person list. She opened the back hatch. “Load.”

Justice jumped in, settling on the blanket that covered the floor, and Kit carefully closed the door. To her surprise, Theo and Hugh had gotten into the back, immediately starting a low-voiced conversation and leaving the front seat for her. Frowning a little in puzzlement at the unexpectedly polite gesture, she got in the car. She almost wished they’d decide to either be nice or to be dicks, since this back-and-forth was messing with her head.

As the car bumped down the rutted driveway, evergreen branches slid along the sides of the car. The trees blocked most of the light, making the narrow, curving lane seem claustrophobic. They couldn’t be too far out of town, but it felt like the middle of nowhere to Kit, and the idea of being trapped in the wilderness with three almost-strangers made her tense. Her fear wasn’t logical—she knew that—but her gut still twisted with unease.

“So…” Jules’s voice made Kit start, and she gave an inward sigh at her jumpiness. If she was going to survive her new job, she was going to need to be better than this. “How do you like Monroe?”

“I haven’t seen much of it, yet,” she said, figuring that it was more tactful than to say that it seemed like a post-apocalyptic death-scape populated by unwelcoming cops and weird mountain people, at least one of which was an arson-loving murderer. “The pass has been closed, so I just managed to get through this morning. I only had time to drop the trailer holding all my things at my rental house before heading to the station—or what used to be the station.”

Jules winced as she turned onto the main road. “Poor thing. What a time to move here.”

Anything Kit could’ve said in response didn’t seem very tactful, so she settled on a noncommittal hum and a change of subject. “How many kids do you have?”

“Four. They’re my siblings, actually.” The nervous edge in Jules’s voice disappeared as she smiled with obvious fondness.

“Wow. Four? That’s a handful.” Kit had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea of having one dog dependent on her, much less four children. She loved kids and had volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club in her old town, but that wasn’t the same as parenting. Plus, with Justice, she could crate him when she couldn’t keep an eye on him. For Jules to take in her four siblings was impressive, and Kit found herself liking Jules even more.

“Sometimes it gets a little crazy, but Sam—he’s the oldest—is a huge help. You’ll probably meet him soon, since he works at Nan’s.” At Kit’s baffled look, Jules clarified. “Nan owns the kennel the K9 unit contracts with.”

That overwhelmed feeling hit Kit again at the reminder that the girlfriend of an officer knew more about her new department than Kit did. She did her best to shake it off. “I haven’t been there yet. It’s been a busy first day for me.”

Turning onto the street with the burned house, Jules laughed again. “I bet.” She sobered, peering at the blackened shell. “Oh no. That’s awful. Our old barn burned down, and that was hard enough. I can’t imagine losing our house like that.” She did a U-turn in front of Hugh’s squad car and stopped.

“Thank you for the ride,” Kit said, unfastening her seat belt and climbing out. “It’s a relief not to repeat that hike through the woods.”

“No problem.” Jules rolled her window down in order to accept a kiss from Theo, and Kit circled to the back of the car to retrieve Justice. After he hopped out and she closed the back hatch, she surveyed the scene. Although it felt as if their trek through the woods and the search of Jules’s house had taken hours, the situation hadn’t changed too much. There was another fire rescue, and a couple of cops and a man in street clothes had joined Steve by the remains.

Hugh headed toward the small group, and Kit hurried toward her car, intending to put Justice away. A sharp whistle made her stop and look over her shoulder at Hugh.

“Hang tight,” he called. “The coroner has a flat. Can Theo use your SUV to pick him up? We need his squad car to keep blocking traffic.”

“Sure.” She dug out her keys and tossed them to Theo, who gave her a nod of thanks.

“Give me one minute, and then I’ll give you a ride to the station,” Hugh said. “The chief should be able to hunt down a vehicle for you to use.”

Kit waited as Hugh exchanged a few words with another cop she hadn’t met yet. All the first responders on scene except for her were men, and she felt another rock join the stack already weighing down her belly. She knew it was a small department that shrank dramatically over the winter, but she was beginning to fear that she’d be the lone woman officer. Shoving the thought out of her head, she reminded herself not to borrow trouble. She didn’t know for sure if it was true. If it was, she’d deal with it.

Right now, she needed to concentrate on making it through her first day.

Hugh jogged back to where she was waiting next to his car. “How’s he with other dogs?” he asked, waving toward where Justice stood, his tail whipping back and forth in excitement at Hugh’s approach.

“He loves everyone.” Glancing down at the dog, Kit wondered what that was like, to be so happy and accepting. Even as a little girl, she’d never been so easy-going as Justice was.

“Good.” Opening the back door, he leashed his dog before letting her jump out of the car. She approached the hound, her head and tail up with wary interest. “Justice, meet Lexi. She likes long walks, rawhide treats, and beheading stuffed animals.”

Justice, being Justice, bounded over, his entire body wriggling with excitement as he play-bowed in front of Lexi, his back half swinging from side to side from the enthusiasm of his tail wags.

Grinning, Kit said, “Lexi, this is Justice. He’s into sleeping, eating, and smelling things. Peanut-butter-flavored treats are his favorite.”

After a thorough mutual sniffing, Justice was obviously deeply smitten, while Lexi was tolerant of his affection, albeit in a long-suffering way.

“This is the way it always goes.” Kit sighed as Justice rolled onto his back, waving his ungainly paws in an attempt to get Lexi to play. “He loves so deeply, and then he gets clingy, starts texting too often, and drives them away.”

“Justice. Buddy.” Hugh crouched down next to the hound. “You need to stop trying so hard. Desperation is never attractive.”

The dogs both cocked their heads at him, as if they could understand, and Kit laughed.

Straightening, Hugh loaded Lexi and then waved for Kit to do the same with Justice. They watched for a few moments to make sure that they wouldn’t have any issues with sharing the space, but the dogs were fine. Lexi sat by the door, staring out the window, and Justice flopped down next to her, rolling his eyes up at her worshipfully.

“I don’t think he took my advice,” Hugh said as he headed for the driver’s seat.

With another snort of laughter, Kit rounded the car and climbed in on the other side. “He just needs to learn these life lessons for himself, I think.”

Even as her laughter faded, her smile remained. Their banter, as silly as it was, lit a spark of hope that she could find that same sense of comradery that she’d had at her last department. Her move to a desolate, post-apocalyptic-esque deathscape might have been a good idea, after all.

Glancing out the window, she took in the first responders clustered around the human remains inside the burned shell of what used to be a house, and she grimaced. Or maybe not.