Page 42 of Stay in Your Lane!

I had to start giving Everett more credit—he was seriously fucking smart.

“Wow,” I breathed. “Okay, so we definitely—” I lost my train of thought when I turned to Everett and realized we’d both leaned in—like, way in—to look at the images.

Now is so not the time, but oh my God, you have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever?—

My phone shrieked to life on the end table startling us apart.

“Dammit,” I muttered, and snatched off the table.

But then I saw the caller ID—Colin.

Oh, maybe he had an update?

“It’s my brother,” I told Everett, then took the call. “Hey, what’s?—”

“Are you at home?” Colin sounded edgy. Nervous, even.

“Uh. Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”

“Stay put. I’m on my way over.”

Then he ended the call.

I stared at my phone for a moment, trying to make sense of that brief call. This wasn’t like Colin. Not in the least. And not just the part where it was after midnight.

“Uh.” Everett cleared his throat. “What did he say?”

“Just that he’s on his way over.” I lifted my gaze to meet him. “I have a feeling he found something.”

I’d seen my brother after some harrowing calls during his early patrol days when we both still lived at home. I’d seen him get that thousand-mile stare—the same one our dad could get sometimes—when someone brought up some of the awful things he’d seen. I’d seen him rattled after testifying in a case where he’d not only had to relive his own trauma, he’d walked away from the courtroom thinking someone just might get away with murder. All of those came with the territory of being a cop.

What I’d never seen in my brother’s face was fear.

Actual, bone-deep, white-facedfear.

Sitting here in my living room, my brother wrung his unsteady hands, and oh, yeah, something had spooked him. Badly.

I exchanged uneasy glances with Everett, who was on the couch beside me. Finally, I asked Colin, “So, did you find something out?”

He sat back and drummed his fingers on the recliner’s armrest. “I did. And you guys… You’re right to investigate this as a murder. Because I’m convinced—it’s not a suicide. It’sblatantlynot a suicide.”

“So it’s a cover-up,” Everett said.

“Yes,” Colin agreed without hesitation. “And the more I dig into it, the more I can see how much work is being put into covering it up.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered. “What does that mean?”

“Well… Okay, for starters, there’s the M.E.” His eyes lost focus for a moment. “I’m not sure what’s happening there, but I think he’s either being bribed or blackmailed. Or… something.”

“How do you figure?”

“He ruled the case a suicide and seemed really wound up about that. When I said a witness on-scene was concerned about some irregularities…” Colin’s brow furrowed and he gnawed his lip. Then he shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve talked to him before, and he’s always really straightforward. Totally on the up-and-up. I’ve always thought he’s a little too blunt sometimes, honestly. And he’s the kind of guy who will look you right in the eyes the whole time, which is one of the reasons I hate talking to him. But this time? He was real nervous. Kept looking around instead of at me. He… wasn’t himself, you know?”

“So you think someone’s blackmailing him or something?” Everett asked.

“I thinksomethingis up,” Colin said. “He was defensive, but in that way people get when they’re legit scared. Not just scared you’re going to figure out what they’re hiding, but likescaredscared.”

I exhaled. “Fuck. That’s not suspicious or anything.”

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