Page 9 of Call Back

Chapter 3

When I reentered the shop, I thought I saw the guy with the baseball cap again, but this man was shorter and broader than the guy I’d seen in the crowd. I shook my head. I was getting paranoid.

Colt had left, but he’d sent a text asking me to let him know when I got off work. We’d drummed up a nice crowd for the store, and the effect had snowballed—people passing by kept stopping in to see why so many people were there. I ended up staying an hour past the end of my shift, not that I was complaining. I was flat broke. Again.

I called Colt as I walked out the back door.

“What did he want?” he asked without preamble.

“Don’t you want to know who he was?”

“I already do. Owen Frasier, the Franklin police detective who was with Bennett at the Kincaid Friday night. The guy in charge of Frey’s murder. Now what did he want?”

Sure, Colt had seen Owen and me together at the bar, but that didn’t explain why he knew him by name. “I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. I’m headed to my apartment to pick up some things.”

“So you’re gonna keep shacking up with Detective Hot Stuff?” he asked, sounding disgusted.

I decided to ignore his question, feeling guilty enough about staying with Brady. “Are you going to meet me there or not?”

“See you in ten minutes,” he said before he hung up.

My phone rang again before I could put it down. I cringed when I saw it was my sister-in-law Belinda.

Although we’d texted several times over the past few days, I hadn’t seen her since Saturday night, after my attack. Earlier that evening, she’d put on an Arts Council fundraiser. I’d helped cater the event for Momma’s business, and Steve Morrissey had confronted me there, angry that I’d sent a policeman to talk to him about Geraldo Lopez’s disappearance. For the rest of the evening, Belinda had stuck by my side like glue. She had given me a solid alibi around the time of Morrissey’s death, which seemed a little . . . convenient. Even stranger, she’d told me that my brother was at a dinner in downtown Nashville, but I was almost certain I’d seen him lurking in the shadows outside of the fundraiser. My gut told me that my sister-in-law knew something about Morrissey’s death and that my brother might be involved. I needed to talk to her about it, but I wasn’t quite sure how, and everything else had unfurled from there . . .

She’d texted earlier today, and I’d promised to call her when I finished at the store.

“Hey,” I answered, trying to sound breezy as I started my car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Sorry I haven’t called yet, but I just got off work. We had a huge crowd today.”

“I hear you and Colt put on a performance.” I wasn’t surprised to hear the disapproval in her voice. She’d made it clear that she thought I should steer clear of him.

“Alvin coerced us into it.”

“I heard you were a hit.”

Belinda’s wedding planner business was only a couple of blocks from the store, and word traveled fast downtown. “We drew a bit of a crowd.”

“How are you? I’ve been so worried about you,” she said. “Especially since Brady wouldn’t let me see you.”

“It wasn’t that he wouldn’t let you,” I said as I turned down the street of my apartment. “I was sleeping. Besides, I tried to call you later, but you were meeting with clients.”

“What are you doing tonight? Roy’s working late, so I thought maybe we could get dinner.”

“Oh,” I said. “Brady said he’d be home by six.”

She was silent for a beat. “So you’re still staying with Brady?”

“For the time being,” I said. “Detective Frasier came by the store earlier and told me that my apartment has been released as a crime scene. I’m headed there now to pick up some things to take to Brady’s.”

“Doesn’t it freak you out to go back there?”

Yes, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit that. “I’m only going up for a few minutes. Besides, Colt will be there.”

“For someone who’s living with Brady, you’re spending an awful lot of time with Colt.” From anyone else it would have sounded judgmental, but Belinda sounded more like she was worried I’d get hurt.

“I know how it looks, but I’m not sleeping with Brady. I’m just staying there.”

“I thought you liked him.”

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