Page 36 of Silent Threat
He waited until Annie nodded before getting into the car and responding to the call. Since he had his back to them, Cole couldn’t read what he said.
After Finnegan left, Cole turned to Annie. “Is this a small-town thing? Everyone knowing everyone?”
“I don’t really.”
“You knew Ed.”
“Everybody knows Ed.”
“You know Leila.”
“Leila is the dispatcher at the police station. I met her at the Christmas bazaar last year. We both volunteered.”
Of course they did.
“You knew Harper Finnegan.”
“I know most of the cops. Murphy Dolan, my boss, used to be a cop at the PD. Then he and Kate, his girlfriend, moved away. When they moved back, they decided to build the rehab center. She’s a therapist too. She won some kind of a grant, and they started with one building. The town did most of the other fund-raising, I think. All that happened before I came back. But since Murph used to be a cop, the guys in the PD helped out a lot. They still stop by sometimes to talk with Murph.”
“Is Finnegan one of your exes? He responded to the call pretty fast.”
“What? No. We just have a good police department.”
The shoulder tension Cole hadn’t been aware of relaxed. He chose not to examine the reasons behind that.
“Esmeralda wants to go out,” Annie said. At his raised eyebrow she added, “She’s rattling the garage door.”
He stilled. Listened. Couldn’t hear a damn thing.
She kept talking. “They all need to get out. They usually spend the day outside. But the donkey is the troublemaker.”
She had a one-eyed donkey, named Esmeralda, who was a troublemaker. For some reason that made Cole want to smile. For the last couple of months, his default mood had been teeth-grinding frustration. Annie Murray was definitely softening him.
In some ways. Certainly not in others.
She might look all innocent, but he was beginning to think she was as dangerous as naval combat.
He stepped toward his truck. “Let’s go get what you need for the fence.”
She tilted her head, exposing her graceful neck. He made himself look at her lips so he could read when she said, “Don’t you have any appointments?”
Looking at her full lips made him want to—
Patient—therapist. Keep your head straight, Sailor.“Not until after lunch.”
She still hesitated. “You don’t have to do this.”
Abandoning someone in trouble went against everything he was. “True. I could be lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking dark thoughts. Or I could be outside, with another person, being social, enjoying some physical exercise. And restoring something, which, as we know, also restores one’s soul. As my therapist, which one would you say is better?”
She got into the truck without another word.
At the farm store, Maddie behind the counter looked like she’d been expecting them. “Harper was here.” She stopped to fan herself. “We had a shoplifter. He said ... I mean Harper, not that good-for-nothing Miller kid ... that your fence was down. We have everything in the back.”
“Thanks, Maddie.” Annie headed that way like a woman on a mission, focusing on the fix instead of on her problems.
Maddie stopped her and said, “If you don’t mind used ... Harry Ormuz was here for nails when Harper came in. Anyway, Harry said he’d just pulled out a perfectly good split-rail fence at a job over on Ridge Road. They’re putting in a pool, so they need a full four-foot fence. He hated throwing out all that good wood. It’s all in his backyard. He said he won’t be home, but you can swing by and take as much as you want. You know where he lives.”
So they ended up buying only a roll of chain link and renting the hole digger. Annie spent only half of what Cole figured she would.
