Page 5 of Dead Man's Alibi

And thendidcommit a murder once he got out because all that jail time had broken something inside of him.

“It’s not the same, Sam.You’re overreacting.”Nate’s tone was conciliatory, but even Cal knew telling someone in a panic that they wereoverreactingwas a bad idea.

“I hope so.I fucking hope so.”With that, she whirled away, out the door, down the stairs, and into the front offices.

A door slammed somewhere, likely the one between front and back rooms.

Nate didn’t follow her, but he watched her go.He let out a sigh but didn’t have a similar outburst.

“You’re handling this better than she is,” Cal noted with some surprise.

Nate had no love lost for Jake, and if Jake had been the one questioning him, Cal would have expected his brother to be more offended and riled up.

“Jules told me she was in danger.I didn’t listen.”Nate raked fingers through his hair, and Cal wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his brother look so unsure, so without his usual ex-soldier stoicism.“I didn’t kill her, but damn if I’m not partially to blame.”

A little of Sam’s temper must have rubbed off on Cal.“Oh, fuck that, Nate.That woman was a nuisance.”

Nate’s mouth firmed.“Doesn’t mean she deserved to die.”

“I didn’t say that.I said she was a nuisance, and she made it difficult to damn near impossible for you to help her.That’s not on you.”

Nate said nothing.

Cal wanted to scowl at him.Self-blame wasn’t going to help.Because while Cal had enough faith in Jake’s detective abilities for this not to turn out the way Sam was worried about, that didn’t mean care shouldn’t be taken.

“The one thing Sam is right about?Don’t talk to Hayes again without me there.That’s just common sense.”

“Becauseyou’llhelp the situation?”Nate replied incredulously.

Cal grinned.“I’m alawyer, brother.”

“Exactly.”

Cal wanted to laugh, but the situation was just a little too serious, and Nate didn’t seem to be taking the right notes away from it.

“Look, Jake hates you.There’s no bones about it.I don’t think he’d let that color his investigation on purpose, whatever Sam thinks.He’s a good detective.”Cal couldn’t go so far as to call him agood guy.

He had started to count Jake as almost a friend, but there was still something vaguely…otherabout the guy.Buttoned up and kept separate.A bit like Nate himself.

Cal couldn’t quite get a full read on him, which Cal supposed was why he’d started to consider him a friend.Cal didn’t trust anyone he could see throughthateasily.

Still, just because Jake was a good detective didn’t mean he was perfect.

No one was.

“But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that his feelings about you subconsciously color things.”It wasn’t more than a month or two ago when Cal and Jake had sat in a fast-food restaurant outside of Kalispell and Jake had demanded to know if Cal really thought Nate was a good guy.

Cal didn’t just think it, he knew it, but he wasn’t so sure he’d convinced Jake that night.Especially if Jake was showing up to Nate’s house last night when it would have made more sense to wait until this morning.

“So, we’ll just play this by the book, huh?You don’t talk to the cops without a lawyer present.You want to hire someone besides me, be my guest.But you need a lawyer.”

Nate said nothing.His hands were in his pockets.He was still looking at the door where Sam had disappeared.Then he took a deep breath and let it out, looked at Cal.“I was going to grab my case notes and head down to the station this morning.”

Cal shook his head.“No.This morning you’re going to get those case notes,andevery last scrap of paperwork, emails, whatever that had to do with the Hyatt case.”Cal glanced at his watch.“I’ve got a meeting at the diner at nine.I’ll come back here after, see what you’ve got, thenwe’llgo down to the station.Together.”

Nate sighed.“I guess that might keep Sam from kicking my ass after.”

Cal nodded, but he thought that was abigmight.