Page 59 of Seducing the Sheriff
“That sounds perfect.”
Greg leaned over to kiss me, and his tongue slid over mine. He tasted of wine and good food, and I prolonged the kiss, not wanting to move away from him.
He sighed as our lips parted. “I love you, Cash.”
I swallowed and maybe I found it difficult to speak for a moment. “I love you too. Don’t ever think I don’t love you, even when I’m a pain in the butt and working all hours.”
Greg brushed our mouths together again. “Next time I’m going to come find you sooner and drag you back to my lair. I want to sleep with you in my arms and take care of you.”
“I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Disturb me,” he insisted. “That’s what boyfriends are for.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Make sure you do.”
Greg cupped my neck and hauled me into another kiss, and I went with him, like I planned to do for the rest of my life.
Then I pulled back, remembering something I’d been meaning to tell him since I arrived.
His brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“I got a call this afternoon.” I beamed at him. “We found our girl.”
“We did?”
“And you’ll never guess who she is. I meant to call you, but it got busy again.”
“That’s good to hear. You can tell me all about it. Tomorrow.”
I squinted at him; not sure I’d heard him right. I’m not sure I’d have the patience to wait.
“You don’t want to know now?”
Greg smiled so sweetly, my heart melted. “She waited eighty years, Cash. She can wait one more night. This night is for us.”
“Just for us.”
Greg leaned against me as we stared at the old black lacquer box on my desk. I returned the lean, appreciating his solid weight against me. Fortunately, most of the crowd around my small office were also focused on the box and not on the two of us. The box and the jewelry had been released to me and now I could return it to the family.
“I wonder if she’s happy now,” he murmured in my ear.
“I think so. We gave her a name and her history.”
Now everyone knew the story of Lily Benning, murdered by her husband, Thomas Benning in 1936. The medical examiner believed from the blunt force trauma on her skull that Lily was dead when she was walled up. It made me shiver to think about it and I was grateful for small mercies.
No one knew why he’d hidden her in the closet rather than taking her out to the desert. But, in the end, his motivation wasn’t important. Lily was the victim and her story mattered.
We knew also why she’d been murdered. The small scrap of paper in her hand had been the key to the whole affair.
On the back had been a short paragraph about a missing butcher from Townsville, Thomas James Benning. Not a pharmacist at all. His wife was frantic to know where he was. Lily had discovered her husband was a bigamist and a fraud. She must have confronted him, and he killed her, whether in panic or cold-blooded murder, no one would ever know.
“If Lily had never read the paper, she would never have known.” Greg said.
“Her sliding doors moment,” I agreed. Everyone apart from Greg looked confused.
Poor woman. She deserved better than to be hidden behind a dark closet wall.
