Page 44 of Sadie's Guarded Harbor

He squeezed his eyes shut for a beat, knowing what she said was true. But after living through the nightmare of losing not one, but two women he loved…the idea that it wouldn’t happen again was hard to believe. Keeping women at arm’s length was easier. “What does any of this have to do with what happened between me and Sadie last night?”

Katherine slid back her hand and grabbed a cookie from the pastry bag. “If Sadie has worked as hard as you to keep up her guard, you should understand why she’d say or do something ridiculous to stop someone from breaking through her walls.”

Katherine’s words rang true, but it didn’t make it easier to hear or ease his injured pride at being thrown out of Sadie’s house. “Can we talk about the case now? I want to pick your brain before I have to get back to the station.”

Katherine smiled. “Fine. What’s on your mind?”

“The lab called today. They gave me the make and model of the tires on the truck that rammed me onto the train tracks.”

Katherine’s smile disappeared. “Good. Any idea who it is?”

He shook his head. “The tire’s pretty standard and used on a ton of vehicles. I want to look into autobody shops and track their sales. See if anyone local or on our radar purchased this brand or had them put onto a truck.”

“Good idea. Is Owen helping you? It’s gotta be driving him nuts to sit on the sidelines with this.”

Tommy flicked a glance around the noisy room before speaking. “He actually hasn’t overstepped at all. Has waited for me to approach him. I asked him to look into Melissa Downs. I don’t have the skills he has, and Taylor is already busy.”

Her frown deepened. “The judge? Why?”

Tommy rubbed a hand over his face. “She inherits all of Shawn’s money. That’s enough right there to shine a spotlight on her. Then there’s their strange marriage. No one knows why they never divorced.”

Leaning forward, Katherine rested her crossed arms on the table. “I always assumed Shawn was the one who refused to cooperate with the divorce. Maybe I was wrong, especially if large sums of money are involved.”

“I talked to Patsy at the judge’s office, and she mentioned everyone knew Melissa wasn’t in love with Shawn. That she doesn’t grieve his death. That doesn’t jive with the behavior she displayed with Sadie at his trailer the night we told her Shawn was murdered. Something doesn’t add up.”

“I can poke around. Find out about their relationship. Shouldn’t be too hard in this town.”

Adingalerted him to a new text. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen.

“Everything okay?” Katherine asked.

“Yeah. Sadie’s heading to the courthouse to look for files on Shawn.”

“Do you need to go?”

He placed his device on the table. “No. I’ll meet up with her when we’re done.” Digging through old, dusty files wasn’t his idea of fun.

He’d let Sadie handle that while he finished talking with Katherine. Hopefully by then his subsiding headache would be gone and he’d have a better handle on how to move forward with Sadie. Regardless of how badly she’d hurt him the night before, he couldn’t let it affect their working relationship.

They needed to focus on finding Shawn’s killer. Then he could mull over Katherine’s words and decided if he was ready to finally break down his own walls before he even tried to get through Sadie’s.

A cold drizzlebordering between sleet and snow fell from the gray sky. Sadie wrapped a scarf around her neck, zipped up her jacket, and jumped out of her car. The station might be only a block away, but she didn’t want to be outside in this mess any longer than necessary.

Hell, if she had a choice she’d pick up Amelia from the shelter and spend the day curled on the couch with hot chocolate and movies. She made a mental note to plan that for her next day off.

Bundling into the warm fleece, she lifted a gloved hand in greeting to Patsy. The judge’s secretary was just stepping out of her car parked a few spaces down, but Sadie couldn’t waste time getting sucked into a conversation.

And after witnessing Patsy and Tommy’s relationship, she had no desire for the older woman to ask any questions about the partner she hoped to avoid for the rest of the day. He hadn’t responded to her text, and she despised the disappointment that burrowed in her chest.

Pushing the unreturned text from her mind, she made a beeline for the front of the courthouse. She opened the door and a blast of warm air engulfed her, but it couldn’t stop the shiver shaking her limbs. Peeling her wool hat from her head, she stuffed it in her pocket and hurried down the stairs that led to the basement. No one lingered in the wide hallway. She spied the room Owen had told her about and ducked inside.

The faint hum of the overhead lights filled the otherwise quiet room. Rows of metal filing cabinets occupied the space. Blasts of heat shot from overhead vents. Sadie shrugged out of her winter gear and draped it over one of the cabinets. She studied the front of the drawer. A small keyhole was in the middle of the drawer even though the cabinets were unlocked. A large cream-colored card labeled what was inside. As assumed, the first cabinet she’d come across contained files with citizens whose last names started with the letter A.

Following along the path of chin-high cabinets, she read each label and stopped when she reached the one that should house Shawn Downs’ criminal record. She yanked open the drawer and flipped through, searching for the right one.

It wasn’t there.

She started from the front and worked backward again, making sure none stuck together.

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