Page 32 of Seducing the Sheriff
“Enough for just about anything.”
Cash’s eyebrows shot up, but this time, I hoped he took it the wrong way. Or was it the right way? Maybe I could salvage the day in more ways than one.
His lips pulled into an easy smile. “I guess we’d better get moving then.”
As I’d hoped, the drive back to Charming returned us to the natural connection we’d been forming earlier, before my big mouth put a wrench in the proceedings. In between funny stories from his early years in law enforcement, peppered with my own on-the-job anecdotes, I mentally formulated a plan.
It wasn’t a great plan. Not even a good one. But it was better than climbing out of Cash’s car at the end of the day, waving goodbye as he drove off, then trudging my way into my lonely as fuck house.
Nope. I was going to quit being a big chicken and stop second-guessing every little moment between us. Even if I made a complete ass of myself, I couldn’t live the rest of my life wondering what might have been. I’d done enough of that already.
Once we reached Charming, Cash drove past Main St. to a section on the other side of downtown. Of the few times I’d ventured into town, I’d never gone this far. It was clearly an older section of Charming. The homes sat on larger lots and were an eclectic mixture of classic adobe and cute, post-war bungalows. It made perfect sense that this area was where the historical society would be located.
Case drove up the dusty, gravel driveway that led to a small patch of concrete that boasted six parking spaces between the fire station and a much older building. Three were taken, and we nabbed the fourth. Right as we both exited the car, a tall older man approached with a smile and a wave.
I sidled up alongside Cash. “The ex-Chief Brannigan, I presume?”
Cash smiled and waved in Jim’s direction. “Yup. He said he’d let us in. I think he’s as curious about our little mystery as we are.”
I liked the sound of ‘our’. “Awesome. We get the star treatment.”
Cash gave me a playful jostle with his elbow. “Stick with me and I’ll get you into all the trendiest places.”
I snorted out a laugh. “I’m impressed.”
The more Cash played, the more emboldened I became. Maybe my brazen plan for later wasn’t as fraught with danger as I feared.
“Hello, Cash.” Jim gave his hand a hearty shake, then turned to me and did the same. “And you must be Greg. I hear you had quite the surprise the other night at the Jenkins’ place.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “In all my many years in Charming, I’ve never come across anything like that.” He rubbed his palms together with a grin. “Let’s see what we can dig up, so to speak.”
Jim had barely come up for breath, so I nodded and followed him as he quickly made his way to the front of the old station. Cash leaned in and whispered as we walked, “If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it’s Jim. I can already tell how invested he is.”
I’d just met the guy, and I could tell. Fellow history geeks unite.
After letting us in and turning on a few of the overhead lights, Jim beckoned for us to keep following him. I tried to keep from getting distracted by all the vintage coolness surrounding me, but it was a losing battle. Every time I dragged my heels to take a quick peek at old firefighting apparatus or black and white photos of famous local emergency incidents, Cash would take a step back and nudge me along. I even spotted several pics of the old mine Cash had told me about, and a display case filled with artifacts.
“There’s too much to look at,” I whispered to Cash.
“Come on, boys,” said Jim. “You can sight-see another time. I’ve got to pick up Lindy in about an hour. We’re headed to Dex and Meyer’s place for dinner tonight.”
That’s them, Dex and Meyer. I mentally repeated their names over and over in my head, an attempt to cement them in memory.
Cash leaned in. “You’re gonna get me into trouble, you bad boy.”
I almost choked on my spit. His low, husky growl was doing terrible, wonderful things to me. Although my dick was only interested in the wonderful parts.
We followed Jim into a large office that I imagined had once been the administrative heart of the old firehouse.
“Let’s see…” Jim muttered to himself as he flipped through files in one of the mismatched five-drawer, standing metal cabinets. They lined the two walls that didn’t have half windows, and I imagined they’d been brought in from various sources over the decades.
The chief yanked a thick accordion file from the top of one of the cabinets and brought it over to the large oak desk.
“Grab a chair, fellas.” He gestured to a small group of folding chairs. “This contains a list of prominent families who settled in Charming early on.” Jim removed several individual manila files, then spread them around the desktop, as if we were about to play a bizarre game of cards. “Based on the age of the Jenkins property, it must have originally been owned by one of these families.” He tapped his index finger on the pile. “I think this is where we start.”
“Should we each take a file?” I asked.
Jim shuffled them around, his bushy eyebrows dipping low as he examined them. “How about we each take four? There are thirteen, but whoever finishes going through their four can grab that one.”
We each took randomly selected files, and as soon as I opened my first one, I realized what we were up against. Not that I’d expected to find all the answers to a murder mystery in one afternoon, but this was shaping up to be a considerable undertaking.
