Page 18 of Forensics of a Fable

“No.” The sheriff smiled, and her brows pinched in confusion at his conspiratorial grin. She opened her mouth to ask why he was smirking like that when a gentleman in his late sixties stepped into view, rushing for her.

“Dad?”

The detectives briefedSheriff Griffin on the autopsy report, and then Bel joined her father in the station’s lobby.

“I can’t believe you’re here.” She wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck to hide her tears. She couldn’t help it. Seeing him unlocked the dam she had chained inside her chest, releasing the emotional flood.

“I told you I was coming.” He stroked her hair.

“I know. I just didn’t realize you meant immediately.” Bel discreetly wiped her eyes. “I’m so happy you’re here. I needed this.”

“I’m glad, sweetheart.” He studied her face carefully. “You look different. You look good. Healthy.”

“I’m sleeping,” she said, looping her arm through her dad’s. “Let’s go get lunch.”

“No more nightmares?”

“No.”

“They stopped just like that, even after that hell of a case you endured?” He eyed her suspiciously.

“Well, you know we caught who did this to me,” Bel said. “She’s dead now, and it was the unknown that terrified me.” She hadn’t mentioned Eamon to her father. Not even in passing. She could tell by his expression that he suspected part of her story was missing, but she wasn’t ready to disclose the unconventional relationship she shared with the millionaire. The only person she dared admit her feelings to had been Garrett when she visited his grave, his unhearing ears the only ones she trusted with her nerve-wracking reality.

“Whatever it is, I’m glad. You seem much healthier than you did when I last saw you,” her dad said as they piled into her car. “You always talk about that coffee place. Want to go there?”

“Sure. I can always use extra coffee, and I actually need to ask the owner a few questions.”

Her father laughed at her answer.

“What?” Bel stared at him from the corner of her eye.

“You look so much like your mother, but there’s no denying you’re one hundred percent my daughter.”

“I’m glad I took after you.” She tossed him a teasing smirk as she parked in front of The Espresso Shot. “But thank goodness, I look like Mom.”

Her dad grunted an amused sound as he got out of the car, glaring good-naturedly at her over the hood. “Make fun all you want, but I love that she left herself in you girls. I see her every day.”

Bel extended a hand and slipped her smaller fingers into her father’s larger fist. “Me too.”

They walked to the counter where she introduced her father to David Kaffe, and while he ordered coffee, sandwiches, and a pastry from the barista, Bel and David stepped into the office. She hadn’t been back there since she and Garrett had studied the surveillance footage after Emily’s murder, and she tried not to stare at where her former partner had sat, still alive and well.

“Can I ask you about the night of the fundraiser?” Bel started, shifting so she only saw the desk out of the corner of her eye.

“Of course. Anything I can do to help.”

“Alana Drie was still here when I went home. Do you recall what time she left?”

“Um…” David leaned back in the chair. “She was talking to Mr. Stone, but he left right after you did. Not much for social functions, that guy. Alana seemed disappointed he didn’t stick around, but it passed. She’s older than my daughters, but they remember her from when she worked here, so she stayed the rest of the night with them. She also asked to help us clean up. She wanted to do that for Emily.”

“So, she left late?”

“Yes, let me think… The fundraiser ended at 10:00 p.m., and then we cleaned. With my daughters and Alana helping, though, we made quick work of it. I locked the doors shortly after 11:00 p.m., but she left a few minutes before me and the girls.”

“Besides your daughters, did she talk to anyone? Did anyone hang around her?”

“Mr. Stone,” David said, “but other than him, I don’t think so. I was busy, but she mostly hung out with my daughters.”

“So, no strange men? No friends acting weird?”

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