Page 43 of Lead Me On
“Sure.” Chase’s heart sank as he stepped out of the truck, but he kept his smile in place anyway. It wasn’t her problem. Still, he was relieved when his dad answered the door on his best behavior. He’d showered and put on clean clothes. The living room of the trailer looked decent.
“Hey, Dad. This is Jane Morgan. Jane, this is my father, Peter Chase.”
He could see Jane’s pleasant surprise as they exchanged handshakes and small talk. His dad even got her a glass of lemonade before he got out a notebook and pen and they each took a seat around the kitchen table. It was cozy and normal. Chase watched her laugh at one of his dad’s jokes, and it was a little like a slow-motion scene in a movie. He wanted to pause the video and leave it stopped for a moment.
But the scene kept playing out, and the shaking of his dad’s hands betrayed a flaw in the story. So did the circles under Jane’s eyes and the stack of police records set before her.
“Mr. Chase, I’ll pay you for your time, of course. Is fifty dollars an hour fair?”
His eyes lit up. “It’s more than fair, Ms. Morgan. But let’s be sure I can help you first. Why don’t you tell me what you know, and we’ll take it from there.”
Jane told him the whole story, with some details that Chase hadn’t heard before, and when she got to the part about the women whose names had come up during the investigation, his dad sat up straight.
He asked questions about who’d said what, and where she’d seen the names, and what she’d found out about the women.
Chase hadn’t seen him this interested in anything besides beer in years.
“How sure are you?” his dad asked Jane. “How sure are you that your brother had nothing to do with this?”
Jane sat forward, all her coolness vanishing. Her mouth tightened with fierceness. “I know he didn’t do it. Not because I see him through rose-colored glasses, but because I don’t. He’s a pothead and he’s lazy, and apparently he’s a thief, as well. But Jessie has never been mean. He’s not cruel. He’s not an angry person. When he was twelve, my dad found a dead dog behind the garage, and Jessie threw up before he got within five feet of it. Killing someone or something…it’s not in his nature. He was always the kid bringing stray cats home, even if he wasn’t interested in taking care of them afterward.”
Chase wanted to touch her, put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but this was more important than what he wanted. He watched his dad nod thoughtfully. He’d opened a beer when he sat down, but Chase suddenly realized he hadn’t touched it during the conversation.
“All right,” his dad finally said. “All right. You’ve got my attention. I’ll be happy to look over the file after I get in touch with your brother’s attorney.”
“Thank you.” She sighed, a long breath leaving her deflated. She drew a white envelope from her purse and slid it across the table. “Here’s your first payment. Please let me know if there’s anything else you need. I put the attorney’s card in there, too, and my phone number, just in case. Thank you, Mr. Chase.”
“Call me Peter. I’ll be in touch.”
Chase cast a worried eye at the envelope, wondering how much money was in it and how long it would take his dad to spend it. But this was part of what he’d taken on when he’d decided to introduce Jane to his father. He couldn’t protest now.
CHAPTER TEN
“YOUR DAD WASreally sweet.”
Chase nodded. Yeah, his dad was a nice guy. He always had been. “Thanks. He seemed really excited about the files.”
“He’s not convinced Jessie didn’t do it.”
“He’s still a cop.”
“Good. That’s good.”
She stared out the window at the creek that ran alongside the road. Her face had that distance it had when she was sitting behind her desk.
Chase screwed up his courage. “Should we go to dinner?”
He glanced away from the road again and found her still staring out the window. Clutching the steering wheel, he looked back to the highway. Ah, well. Meaningless sex was all it would be. A guy couldn’t get too upset about that.
“Chase…” she started, just as her phone began to beep. “Crud.” She snatched it up and flipped it open to read the text message. “Oh, no!”
“What? What is it?”
“Grandma Olive. Mac says she’s in the county hospital. I’ve got to go.”
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “He just said he can’t use his cell phone in the emergency room and she’s okay. I don’t know what’s wrong. Will you take me?”
