Page 56 of Long Road Home

The receptionist blushed. “Anytime. Keep me posted on that thing.”

“Right.” Kenna pushed the front door open. “The thing.”

She walked out, grinning. Let Kobrinsky think there had been some kind of noteworthy happening while he was out. In reality, she’d been given the runaround by Marion. Or so she would assume until she could prove otherwise. There was no concrete connection between Marion and J.Pierce, and as far as she knew, no one had even ID’d the legendary killer most folks considered to be dead.

Kenna needed to regroup and figure all this out. But first, she was going to check out Pastor Bruce’s untimelydemise and figure out if there was more to it than health issues.

She dragged out her phone and discovered the missed call had been from Forrest. Kenna called the other woman back while she walked to her car, constantly watching for Stan Tilley.

For a while there, she’d nearly forgotten all about him.

That would be nice.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” Kenna said. “How’s things?”

“Casual. That’s good.” Forrest chuckled. “When you’re really dying to know where I’ve been.”

“Did I give you the third degree?” Kenna unlocked her car and checked the back seat before getting in the driver’s seat. “Did I interrogate you?”

“I’ll explain later where I was.”

“I would come home now, but?—”

“Pastor Bruce died in the diner, and since he left that note, it’s suspicious, and you think the two are connected.”

Kenna winced. “Yes.”

“Catch me up when you get home.”

“What’s for dinner?”

“Nothing is defrosted, and I have three hours. Could be anything at this point.”

Kenna grinned. She’d heard the amusement in Forrest’s tone. “Whatever you’re in the mood for is fine by me.”

Forrest actually laughed. “Risky move, but we already know you have guts.” She hung up, still laughing.

Kenna turned up the radio, singing along with the local contemporary Christian music station where she knew the words and humming along when she didn’t. If Stan Tilley wanted to make a move again, that was on him. If the sheriff wanted her to do a job, that would come soonenough. Right now she had to work the scene in front of her and not worry about how things would turn out.

A block later she caught a tail.

Kenna didn’t bother with her blinker and took a right turn. Not overly fast or at the last second, but close enough the person in the silver Mercedes behind her had to react quick to keep behind her.

The next stop light, she hung around an extra second after it turned green. The car pursuing her stopped behind her, and she saw who was in the front seat.

Kenna drove straight to the church after that, since it was closer than the diner. She parked out front, and when they pulled into the space beside her, she waited by her door. Hips against the car, arms folded. She checked her phone. No new calls or messages. Then sent a text to Maizie.

I have things for you to do when you’re free.

The teen didn’t technically work for Kenna, except that she kind of did at the same time. Kenna just tried not to treat her friends like “staff” if she could help it. Maybe one day she would build a whole team. She might not want to be out on the road solving cases forever, and if she found good people, maybe she could have a base of operations and skilled people to do the leg work.

Is that Your idea? Because it never would’ve been mine.

The chill in the air made her nose cold, and clouds hung low and thick in the sky.

Theo climbed out of the driver’s side, though she was pretty sure this was Alonzo’s car.

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