Page 45 of Rebels and Roses

“Even the woman he was cheating on?”

“There were two of them, actually, that I know of. But they’re not here.”

“It should be pretty easy to prove that they weren’t in town at the time of death. I will talk to them, though. I’d like to ask them if Kemp had any enemies. Those sorts of questions. I’d also like to talk to the parents.”

“I’ll warn you now that Joyce and Andrew Kemp make Fiona look downright reasonable and helpful.”

“Noted. I think you and I are done here,” Finn said. “If I need anything else, I’ll let you know. I’ve asked Ms. Kemp to stay in town until the coroner makes his report. She wasn’t happy about that. She wants to leave as soon as possible.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

Cooper wasn’t sure it would do any good, but he’d give it a shot.

When Fiona saw Finn walk away from Cooper, she ran over and threw herself at his chest as her tears began to flow again.

“I should have stayed with him all night.”

“Tom wasn’t going to let you babysit him,” Cooper said, trying to soothe his ex who was beside herself with grief after seeing her brother’s dead body.

Not a pretty sight.

“I should have been more forceful. I should have made him stay with me.”

It wasn’t the time to point out that Fiona had been three sheets to the wind last night, and she hadn’t been in shape to do much other than pass out on her hotel room bed. She could have hardly dealt with her brother, too.

“Tom was a grown man. He made his own decisions.”

“All of them wrong,” Fiona sobbed, grabbing his t-shirt and burying her face in the cotton. “But I still loved him. He was my little brother. Why on earth did this happen? How did it happen?”

Both were good questions.

“Finn and the coroner are going to figure out how Tom died.”

“A couple of hick public servants in a hick town,” Fiona scoffed. “I bet Daddy is going to want to hire a real investigator.”

The Kemp patriarch would have to notice that he had children first.

“What did your parents say when you talked to them? Are they flying in to claim the body?”

A strange expression crossed Fiona’s face - part guilt and part deception. He’d seen it before. She was about to either lie to him or tell him something that she wasn’t proud of.

“I haven’t called them yet.”

Fiona’s gaze was somewhere over his shoulder, deliberately not meeting his eyes.

“I understand that you’re upset. When are you planning to call them? Do you want me to take you to the inn so you can have some privacy to do it?”

“About that…I was hoping that you could do it.”

She still wasn’t meeting his eyes, but her tone had been casual as if asking such a request was completely and totally no big deal. Ten years ago, Cooper would have done it, too. Now, he was older and hopefully wiser.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. They’ll want to hear it from you.”

His denial caught Fiona by surprise. Her eyes widened and she took a step back and then stopped, seemingly unsure as to how to react.

“I—I don’t think I can tell them.”

“I’m sure you can,” Cooper replied, not budging an inch.

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