Page 39 of Lead Me On
“Chase…thank you. Thank you for helping me.”
He hung up and swiped a hand over his brow. His dad wouldn’t be up before ten, so Chase had at least another hour to convince himself this was a good idea. Maybe he could fool himself by then.
* * *
AS SHE HURRIED OUTof the police station, Jane was sure she could feel people staring at her. Ridiculous, of course, but it didn’t stop her neck from burning. She breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped outside and hurried down the steps.
“Jane!” a man called. Her pulse leaped with fear that a police officer was about to pull her back in and click on a pair of handcuffs. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she was associated with a murder suspect, after all.
Just as she started to look over her shoulder at the glass doors of the station, a hand clasped her elbow. “Oh!”
“Jane, how are you?”
She found herself face-to-face with a man she hadn’t seen in months. “Oh, Mitch. Hi.”
The wind blew his blond hair over his forehead and Mitch pushed it back, offering her a sheepish grin. “I was just thinking about you, Jane. How’ve you been?”
“Great!” She said too brightly, fighting the feeling that she’d been caught. “Wonderful.”
Apparently he’d gotten to know her well in the weeks they’d dated, because he frowned at the tone of her voice and glanced up to the building behind her. “What are you doing here?”
“Traffic ticket,” she blurted out.
His gaze dropped to her hands, and she realized she was holding a thick sheaf of papers. Not exactly the paper trail associated with traffic tickets. Mitch was a dentist, not a lawyer, but that didn’t stop the doubt from darkening his eyes. “What—”
“I’ve got to go!” She started to turn.
“Wait, I wanted to ask… I thought we could grab dinner sometime. Spend a little time catching up.”
“Oh, Mitch, I don’t think I can.”
His brown eyes crinkled when he smiled. “Think about it?”
“I’m sorry, Mitch. I appreciate the offer, really. But I just started seeing someone else.” She was using Chase for sex—she might as well use him as an excuse, too.
“Darn. All right. Well, let me know if it doesn’t work out.”
“I will. Thank you.” As she walked away, Jane fought the urge to break into a run. Her panic made no sense. He had no idea why she’d been in the police station. He wasn’t a danger to her. Mitch was a great guy. So great that she couldn’t figure out why she’d broken it off in the first place.
When faced with the perfect man—the perfect man looking for a real relationship—Jane ran. She ran as if her life were in danger, even though these were the men she sought out for dating. But when talk turned to kids or marriage or a trip home to meet the parents, panic spun her down.
Yet that was what she had alwayswanted. A successful, stable husband. A beautiful home in a perfect neighborhood. Children playing in a green yard.
No trailers. No visits to jail. No revolving door of felon stepfathers. No moving from prison town to prison town. No secondhand clothes or old cars or parents you were embarrassed to let your teachers meet.
Jane took a deep breath and kept her pace slow and steady. Mitch was just the kind of man she meant to marry, so why did the sight of him wrap a tight band around her chest?
When her phone rang and she saw Chase’s number, that band snapped free with such suddenness that breath flew into her lungs. Because she was waiting to hear about his dad, obviously. Not because he was thinking about her as that phone chirped. Not because he was waiting for her to pick up, wondering if she was there.
“Hello?”
“Jane. Hi. My dad’s on board.”
“Oh, good. I’m so glad. I’ll pay him. Is that all right? The lawyer said that hiring an investigator is pretty common, so I want to be sure your dad is compensated.”
“Sure. He wants you to get copies of the arrest report, and any reports the women might have filed when their purses were stolen. Also, any evidence about their deaths, of course. Do you need help? This sounds like a lot.”
“No, I just got his arrest report, and his lawyer has already filed motions to release all the information about evidence. I’ll go back and see if I can find anything on the women.”
