Page 374 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

Addie pressed her lips together to keep from saying something she would regret.

“Spit it out, baby girl. This old man can take it.”

Maybe the point was that he shouldn’t have to, but she said it anyway. “I don’t want to get stuck here. I mean, how long is this assignment for, anyway?”

“Worried you’ll start to like it?”

Addie wasn’t worried about the location so much as her attachment to the people here. She preferred being somewhere that emotions didn’t need to be a factor. Like her entire relationship with Matt Zimmerman. It might’ve been a mistake or a diversion at best. A way to release the stress of the job. Even if she’d never admit that to Russ.

There were far too many feelings attached to the places here. The people. The church. The longer she was here, the less she’d be able to ignore that still small voice.

This case might take from her everything she’d tried to build in fifteen years. All her reserves and strength. Digging into this would break it all wide open. Instead of working past her history, she would wind up destroyed by it.

The whole assignment was going to be a nightmare.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Thankfully Naomi was still on the front desk when Jacob walked into the retirement home the next morning. Some of the snow outside had melted, and he’d been held up by construction on the freeway offramp. Ordinary things that weren’t inconveniences reminded him he lived as part of a community.

That was all he allowed to cross his mind. Not anything about a murder or a police investigation. After all, that had nothing to do with him. Jacob had plenty to do. And okay, his thing had abitto do with murder. But Mr. Harris and his issues weren’t something he wanted to take on board.

“Good morning.” Naomi smiled, but it didn’t illuminate the dark circles around her eyes.

“Morning.” Jacob slid over the sign in sheet.

“Mr. Harris?”

“Worth a try, right?” He wasn’t going to tell the man’s story in a book, but could he give someone closure?

“He’s doing better this morning. Sorry about yesterday. The doctor sedated him after what happened at breakfast.”

Jacob shrugged off the fact he’d asked for this yesterday. “No problem. Past couple of days have been busy anyway.”

She nodded. “The police sent over a list of people they want to talk to. They’re coming by after lunch is over.”

For a second, he thought she would say the police wanted to talk to him. Instead, they were coming to the retirement home. Not right away, but days after the body was found.

Jacob didn’t want to grumble out loud, but the victim’s coworkers were being interviewed later and yet the captain had brought the town’s new federal agent to his apartment on the same day she was discovered?

He didn’t want to be disgruntled, but what else was he supposed to do with that? It wasn’t like it was at all fair.

“Have you talked to them?” She tipped her head to the side. “Your name wasn’t on the list. But maybe they don’t know you were…what is it they say?” She frowned. “Like you’re acquainted with her, or whatever.”

Jacob shrugged. “I’m just praying they find whoever did it. No one wants a killer on the loose.”

Especially if the town, and the entire police department, thought it was him who did it.

She nodded again. “That’s the truth.”

If it got out that he was questioned his life would get even more difficult. He’d go from victim to possible perpetrator. Interviews he had scheduled would dry up. Clients would cancel. The cops were single minded in the pursuit of justice. It wasn’t a bad thing, except that they never considered the fallout to a person’s reputation when those in blue accused someone of a crime they hadn’t committed.

Sure, he wanted them to find out who had killed Celia. But did they have to destroy his business in the process?

He knew the chief had a problem with him. The guy had it stuck in his head that Ivan Damen had an accomplice all those years ago or an apprentice. Which was a completely terrifying thought.

All Jacob knew was that he’d never seen or heard of a second person there when he and Addie, along with Hank and Becca, had been taken. Neither had Hank. And it certainly wasn’t Jacob, as much as the chief might want to believe otherwise.

No matter how many times he told the chief that, the guy just wouldn’t let it go.

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