Page 27 of Every Deadly Suspicion

“I could never forget you, Hanna.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, a sheepish expression on his face, followed by the same crooked half smile she’d loved when they were in high school. “I guess I just had a lot of growing up to do.”

Hanna felt a twinge of old feelings bubbling up, and she pushed them down. “What did you do for ten years?”

“A lot of different stuff. Built houses, climbed mountains.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Not in doing any of that stuff. I found it after I heard about my dad’s death.”

“Sorry about your dad.”

“Thanks.”

So much awkwardness between them now.

“I found what I wasn’t looking for. I found faith.”

She stared at him. He’d changed physically, that was sure—he’d filled out and gotten ten years older, just like Hanna. Had he truly found the faith Hanna had prayed he would all those years ago?

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I believe now, Hanna. That’s why I came home. You were right. I wish I’d listened better to you, and to my dad. I wouldn’t have left.”

Hanna fidgeted, remembering how much she’d prayed for Jared to share her faith. How much different would life be now if he’d found faith all those years ago? She couldn’t go there.

“I’m happy for you Jared, really, I am. But I’ve moved on. Did you really expect me to wait? I’m dating someone.”

His smile was sad now. “I have no expectations. I just wanted you to know. I’m home for good. I’ve been hired by the fire department, and I’ve got a place out on the edge of my uncle’s land. I hope we’re still friends.”

“We’ll always be friends, Jared.”

After his visit, all Hanna could do was shake her head. Of all the times to come home, why did Jared pick now? She finally felt settled. Her relationship with Nathan was new and promising, and she’d landed her dream job. Hanna still had not processed all of her feelings for Jared.

“What is there to process?” her friend Mandy had asked. “He left. He deserted you. Why should you care that he’s back after all this time?”

Why indeed.

Hanna understood her friend’s argument. She shouldn’t care one whit that Jared was back. He’d forgotten her for ten years. So why, oh why, did it matter to her so much that he’d returned?

Hanna grudgingly admitted to herself that it mattered because she still did care for Jared.

CHAPTER 14

THE WAITING ROOM STAYED QUIET AND EMPTY.Hanna forced Jared from her mind and strove to concentrate on her job. She loved her hometown. Dry Oaks was safe, comfortable, and charming, and she loved being chief. Because she was bullied as a child and she’d been rescued by friends, people who were stronger than she was, she’d grown up with the desire to be the rescuer. That’s what police officers did: they rescued people, kept them safe. Being elected as chief was her lifelong dream, and she vowed to do it to the best of her ability. Hanna wanted her force to be the best. Crime here was the lowest in the county, and she credited her proactive people with that statistic.

While she waited for Everett, her thoughts stuck on the letter and her “father’s” predicament. It reminded her how hard Everett tried to be a good father, to Scott and Chase, to Devon, and now to Braden.

Chase came to town occasionally. She couldn’t say that she knew him. The few times she’d been around him, he hadn’t said much. He was a tragic figure, really—half of one leg gone, one eye gone, permanently disfigured. All she really knew about him was what she’d heard from her mother. That Chase was the black sheep of the family, a scary man, violent and unpredictable.

Was Joe Keyes also violent and unpredictable? There was a time when she’d wondered about him, a lot, but her attitude toward him had evolved over the years.

In the quiet, her thoughts wandered back to the first time she remembered seeing a photo of Joe. Paula had no photos in the house.

Hanna had been around nine and on a field trip to the library. Back then she read anything and everything. A lot of the books were way above her age level, but she slogged through them.

She made her way to the adult section of books—where she saw the book Marcus Marshall wrote. It was a bit scary. Her mother would not want Hanna to see this book, so she hid it under her arm and found a quiet, uncrowded area of the library to look through it.

A clump of pictures were in the middle. The book opened naturally to the first picture, and there stood Mom with Joe Keyes. She froze, almost in a kind of shock as she looked at him. He didn’t look like Satan; there were no horns. In fact, he was a handsome man, with a square jaw, brown hair with a bit of a wave in it, a pleasant half smile on his face.

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