Page 14 of Seducing the Sheriff
“No, I brought my truck. And Sergeant Raynes just called. I can go home this afternoon.”
“Is everything all right. You didn’t look happy with the call.”
He huffed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I think my house has been left more like a warzone than when I moved in. From the sounds of it, I’m starting from scratch again.”
“Let me know if I can help. I can about use power tools.” I made the offer on impulse, but it was worth it to see the smile that lit up his face.
“I might take you up on that.”
I caught a glimpse of my watch and yelped. Rosie was going to kill me if I didn’t get to the mayor’s office on time.
“Go. Go.” Greg waved his hands, shooing me away. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
As I pulled out of the parking lot, I caught Greg staring at my taillights again.
“I think, Mom. I might have made a new friend,” I said into the silence of the car.
MindMom was very smug.
Liam Sandell, the mayor of Charming Butte, leaned back in his huge leather chair and grinned at me over the desk, his deep brown eyes sparkling with mischief. “So what did I hear about you having breakfast with our handsome murder suspect?”
I scowled at him. “The diner was full. I had a seat at my table, and he’s not a murder suspect.”
I wasn’t going near the handsome comment. Nowhere near!
“It was unlikely,” Liam agreed, “as he hadn’t been born when our Jane Doe died.”
I sighed and he chuckled.
“Come on, sheriff, this is Charming. You know the news travels fast here.”
En route to the meeting, I’d gotten a call from the coroner’s office to tell me the body had died at least ninety years ago. They didn’t need to date the bones. The young woman had been holding a scrap of newspaper dated January 9, 1936 in her clenched hand. They didn’t know how she’d died yet. I was still waiting on the autopsy results, but I appreciated the Bureau keeping me in the loop.
“You get the news before I do.”
“Probably,” he agreed, not even trying to deny it.
I held back a sigh.
Charming’s current mayor was a dynamic man who’d turned a shabby small town barely remembered on the map as the highway bypassed it, to a thriving tourist town, open for hikers, horseback riders, and alien enthusiasts. In the process, he’d ruffled more than a few feathers, but even his detractors admitted he was good for Charming. I knew he was a city boy, and I couldn’t understand why he’d relocated here with his wife a few years back, until he told me she was from Charming and had moved back to be with her parents. I liked him, even when we were arguing about the law enforcement budget.
“Greg’s had a rough start to his life in Charming,” I muttered over another cup of coffee.
Liam nodded. “I did some investigating this morning.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to know who was in my town. I looked at his Yelp reviews.”
“You looked at his Yelp reviews?” I stared at the mayor, not sure I could believe what I was hearing, and I certainly wasn’t sure I appreciated the mayor’s interference in this case.
“And I talked to the sheriffs in a couple of towns where he flipped houses.”
“You did what?”
Liam didn’t look remotely apologetic. “Stand down, sheriff. I asked about him and if he’d turned up on any of the jail rosters. Turns out Mr. Harding is squeaky clean. Not even a parking ticket. The guy gets his permits and keeps everyone happy.”
I grunted. It was good to hear, and I couldn’t help a warm and fuzzy feeling that my instincts were right about Greg. “Stay away from investigating Greg, Liam. Law enforcement tends to get annoyed when civilians poke their nose into an active case. And it’s not my case,” I added, when Liam opened his mouth to interrupt.
