A COLD CASE REUNION IGNITES ROMANCE IN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLA CASSIDY’S NEW SCENE OF THE CRIME

Sheriff Olivia Bradford has a corrupt police department to clean up and an unsolved murder case to crack. But her new employee, Daniel Carson, isn’t some subordinate she can brush off. Unbeknownst to him, he fathered her young daughter five years ago. Now she needs him to get close enough to solve Shelly Sinclair’s untimely death without letting him get too close to learn her secret.

Daniel never forgot Olivia or the sizzling night of passion they shared. But with a killer targeting her, he must keep his elusive boss alive if he’s ever going to learn the truth...

“Did you forget something?” Olivia asked.

“No, I just figured I’d see a lady to her door,” Daniel replied.

“I’m not a lady, I’m your boss,” she retorted with a smile.

“I have a terrible confession to make,” he said as they reached her small front porch.

She pulled her house key from her purse and looked at him cautiously. “A confession?”

He nodded. “I have to confess that from the moment my new boss showed up I’ve wanted to kiss her.”

“You kissed me last night on the forehead.” Warmth filled her cheeks as she thought of that tender kiss.

“That’s not the kind of kiss I’m thinking about,” he replied, and took a step closer to her.

She was playing with fire and she knew it but was unable to help herself. “Then what kind of kiss have you been thinking about?” she asked, her heartbeat speeding up.

“This kind.” He pulled her into his arms and slanted his lips down to hers.

Scene of

the Crime:

Who Killed

Shelly Sinclair?

New York Times Bestselling Author

Carla Cassidy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CARLA CASSIDY is a New York Times bestselling author who has written more than one hundred books for Harlequin. Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Sheriff Olivia Bradford—She’s come to Lost Lagoon to ferret out corruption and is stunned to find herself boss to a man she’d had a one-night stand with five years before.

Deputy Daniel Carson—He’s never forgotten that night he’d spent with Olivia. But now that she’s reopened the Shelly Sinclair murder case, she’s been threatened, and he’s determined to keep her safe from the danger closing in.

Eric Baptiste—He’d fallen in love with Shelly and made plans to leave town with her. Had she decided to stay in Lost Lagoon and he killed her?

Neil Sampson—Did the handsome, charismatic city councilman have a secret that he was willing to kill to keep?

Mac Sinclair—Shelly’s older brother had hated Bo McBride. Had his hatred for his sister’s boyfriend boiled over into an accidental death of Shelly?

Bo McBride—Shelly’s boyfriend at the time of her murder. Had he killed her in a fit of passion because she’d decided to leave him and Lost Lagoon behind?

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Daniel Carson sat at the small desk in the Lost Lagoon sheriff station. The blinds at the windows were pulled shut, giving the office complete privacy. Outside the small glass-enclosed room, the sound of the other men in the squad room created a low buzz of constant conversation.

They would all be discussing the arrival of the new sheriff, one appointed by the state attorney to take over and root out any corruption in the department until new elections could be held in the small town.

It had been almost a month since the former sheriff, Trey Walker, and Mayor Jim Burns had been arrested for drug trafficking and attempted murder. They had been moving their product from the swamp lagoon through underground tunnels to Trey’s house where it was trucked out of the state. The scandal had rocked the tiny Mississippi swamp town.

As deputy sheriff, Daniel had stepped into the position of interim acting sheriff, a job he’d never wanted and couldn’t wait to end.

She should be arriving at any moment. Sheriff Olivia Bradford, sent here from Natchez. Daniel knew nothing about her, but he expected a pit bull, a woman who not only had the ability to fire anyone at will, but who also had the power of the bigwigs of the state behind her.

It was no wonder the men were anxious to meet their new boss—anxious and more than a little bit apprehensive. Heads would roll if she found anything or anyone she didn’t deem appropriate for the department. Everyone was concerned about their jobs.

Daniel checked his watch. Ten minutes after ten. He’d been told she would arrive around ten. He was probably the only one in the building who couldn’t wait for her to arrive.

He leaned forward in the chair, unfastened the sheriff badge from his shirt and placed it on the top of the desk. He whirled it like a top. The spinning motion mirrored the dizzying chaos the drug scandal and the near murder of Savannah Sinclair and Daniel’s best friend, Deputy Josh Griffin, had unleashed inside his head for the past month.

The newly discovered tunnels that ran beneath the entire town were still being mapped and explored by a team of volunteers under the supervision of Frank Kean, a former mayor who had stepped back into the official position when Jim Burns had been arrested. Eventually a special election would vote in a new mayor and sheriff, but not until Sheriff Olivia Bradford conducted a full investigation.

Daniel stared down at the sheriff badge. He’d be glad to give up his position of authority and return to the squad room as just another deputy. He much preferred being in the field rather than stuck behind a desk.

He became aware of the absence of conversation through the closed office door. The men in the squad room had apparently fallen silent and that could only mean one thing. Sheriff Olivia Bradford had arrived.

A firm knock fell on the office door and then it opened and she stepped in. His mind refused to work properly as he got his first look at the woman.

Lily. His head exploded with memories of a woman he’d met five years ago at a crime conference in New Orleans, a woman he’d wound up in bed with for a single night of explosive sex.

Her dark chocolate eyes widened as she gazed at him. She froze, as still as a sleeping gator on a log. It was obvious she recognized him, too.

She cleared her throat, turned and closed the door behind her and when she faced him again, her pretty features were schooled in a business-like coolness. “Sheriff Daniel Carson?” she asked.

“Former sheriff now that you’ve arrived,” he replied and got up from the desk. Okay, so they were going to pretend that they didn’t know each other. They were going to act as if that night five years ago hadn’t happened.

“I’m Sheriff Olivia Bradford,” she replied, a statement that was unnecessary.

“And you’re here to take over for me.” He pointed to the badge on the desk. He walked around the desk and she made her way behind it and sank down.

She hadn’t changed much in the time since he’d last seen her. Her dark brown eyes were still pools of mystery and her long black hair was caught in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck.

That night it had been loose and silky in his fingers and her eyes had glowed with desire. The khaki uniform she wore couldn’t hide the thrust of her breasts, her slender waist or her long shapely legs.

Tangled sheets, soft skin against his and low, husky moans, the memories tumbled over themselves in his brain and he desperately tried to shove them away.

She sat down and motioned him into one of the two straight-backed chairs in front of the desk. As he sat, she grabbed the badge from the top of the desk and pinned it onto her breast pocket.

When she looked at him once again her eyes were flat and cool. She appeared the consummate professional. “I’ve been filled in about the issues with the former sheriff and mayor. I’m sure you have heard that my job here is to clean up any further corruption that might linger in the department. I also would like to go through any crime records for the past five years or so, since Trey Walker was sheriff.”

“I’ll see to it that you get whatever you need,” he replied. It was as if he was having a little bit of an out-of-body experience as he tried to process the woman he’d known intimately and briefly before and the woman who now sat across from him.

“I hope my taking over doesn’t stir up any resentment with you.”

He laughed drily. “Trust me, I couldn’t wait to get rid of this position. I never had any desire to be sheriff. It was just something that got thrust on me due to unforeseen circumstances.”

“Good, although my job here isn’t to make friends with anyone.” She spoke the words with a slight upthrust of her chin. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but my basic job is an internal investigation into both the way crimes were handled under Sheriff Walker and to look at the current employees and see if there are more bad players in the department.”

“I’m sure you’ll find that most of us are all working on the same page,” he replied. Throughout the years, had she ever thought about that night with him? He’d certainly been haunted off and on with memories and wondering whatever happened to the passionate woman he’d met in a bar.

He noticed the gold wedding band on her finger. So, she was married. A faint disappointment winged through him, surprising him. He had no interest in marriage, and certainly that single night they had shared hadn’t grown into any kind of a relationship with her.

She was his boss now, and both the wedding ring on her finger and the coolness in her eyes let him know the brief encounter he’d shared with her wouldn’t absolve him from intense scrutiny in her investigation. Not that he would ever mess around with a married woman and not that he expected to be treated any differently from any of the other men.

They’d had a one-night hookup years ago and hadn’t seen each other again. Hell, he hadn’t even known her real full name. He’d only known her as Lily.

“I’d like to have a meeting with all the deputies at two this afternoon. Could you arrange that for me?” she asked, breaking into his wayward thoughts.

“Yes, I’ll see to it that all of the men are here at that time. We have a nineteen-man work force. In the meantime, do you want me to start gathering the crime files? I’m assuming the employment records are in there.” He gestured to a nearby file cabinet.

“Yes, please get me the files. I don’t want to waste any time.” She stood and walked to the file cabinet and Daniel took that as a dismissal.

He left the office and closed the door behind him. Half a dozen pairs of eyes were staring at him. He ignored them all and walked over to the desk where he had sat a month ago as a deputy.

As he eased down in his chair, several of the other deputies surrounded him. “What’s she like?” Deputy Josh Griffin asked.

“She looked like a mean witch when she walked in,” Ray McClure exclaimed. “A great-looking mean witch,” he added with a smirk.

Daniel held up a hand to silence any further questioning from any of them. “If you thought she was going to be a soft touch because she’s a woman, get that thought right out of your head. I suggest you all be on your toes and conduct yourselves as professionals. My gut feeling is that she’s going to be tough as nails and none of us are secure in our jobs.”

It was a sober group of men who returned to their desks. Daniel stared down at his blotter, still trying to process that Olivia Bradford was the young woman he’d known for a night as hot, sexy Lily.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He had calls to make to the men who weren’t in to let them know a full staff meeting had been called for two that afternoon.

After that he would be busy pulling files from the small room dedicated to files and evidence in the back of the building.

While he was completing these tasks, he had to figure out a way to forget that he’d ever known, even briefly, a sexy, passionate woman named Lily.

* * *

OLIVIA GRABBED THE employment files for the men on the force and then sank back down at the desk. She’d nearly lost it when she’d walked into the office and seen that man again.

Daniel. She’d never expected to run into him after all these years. Shock still washed over her as she thought of the handsome dark-haired, green-eyed man.

That night in New Orleans she’d been a twenty-five-year-old deputy who had lost her partner and good friend in a shoot-out the week before. She hadn’t wanted to attend the conference but her boss had insisted that it would be good for her to get away from Natchez and her grief.

She’d kept to herself during the four-day event, venturing out to a bar near the hotel only on the final night in town. She hadn’t been looking for company. She’d wanted only to drown her grief in margaritas and then return to the hotel to pack and prepare to leave early the next morning.

She hadn’t expected Daniel to sit next to her, and she certainly hadn’t anticipated finding succor for her grief in his arms. It had been a foolish, impulsive night, and hopefully he had no idea how the unexpected sight of him had shaken her to her very core.

She shoved away thoughts of Daniel and instead spent the next hour focused on the employment records for the eighteen men and one woman who comprised the law enforcement in Lost Lagoon, Mississippi.

Most of the deputies had been born and raised in Lost Lagoon, although there were a few who had been hired in from other towns. There were no disciplinary notes, nothing to indicate that Trey Walker had endured any issues with any of them.

But Trey Walker had proven himself to be a crook and a lowlife, and she didn’t trust his record keeping. At noon she pulled out a chicken salad sandwich that her mother had made for her before she’d left their rental home that morning.

Although Olivia had arrived in town two days earlier, she’d spent those days turning a renovated shanty on the swamp side of town into a livable space for the duration of her stay.

The place had come partially furnished, but Olivia had pulled a trailer behind her car, which had carried the extra furnishing and personal items to make their stay here as comfortable as possible.

She’d just finished her sandwich when a knock sounded on the door. She called for the person to come in and Daniel entered carrying a box. He set it on her desk.

“That’s the files on all the crimes that have occurred for the last five years,” he said.

She eyed the box dubiously. “That’s it?”

He cast her a smile that instantly shot a spark of heat in her. She’d forgotten about that sexy smile of his. “We’re a small town. Except for the last couple of months, there’s been very little crime in Lost Lagoon.”

She looked back at the box, unwilling to hold eye contact with him while that smile still lingered on his features. “That would be a daily box for Natchez.”

“You aren’t in Natchez anymore. I got hold of all the officers and they will be here at two for a meeting.”

She finally glanced back up at him. “Thank you, I appreciate the cooperation.”

He nodded and then left the office. She stared at the box and then set it down next to the desk. She’d take it home with her to look at thoroughly that evening. In the meantime, she had to gather her thoughts for the meeting that was to take place in a little more than an hour.

The responsibility that had been placed on her shoulders was heavy, and she was aware that many eyes would be on her work here. She wasn’t afraid of hard work and she didn’t worry about the scrutiny.

She had worked long and hard to climb the ranks in the Natchez Sheriff Department. She’d taken on cases nobody else wanted, worked harder and longer than anyone one else and had garnered not only a stellar reputation, but also dozens of honors and awards.

She wasn’t about to let this temporary stint in Lost Lagoon ruin her reputation. She would do her job here and do it well.

It was exactly two o’clock when she stood in the front of a conference room where nineteen deputies sat in chairs before her. She wasn’t nervous—rather, she was determined that all of the men would not only respect her, but also fear her just a little bit.

There was only one female deputy and she sat in the front row. According to the employment records she was forty-three-year-old Emma Carpenter and had worked as a deputy for the past ten years.

“Good afternoon,” Olivia began briskly. “As all of you probably know by now, I’m Sheriff Olivia Bradford and I’m here to ferret out any further corruption that might be in this department. Consider yourself on notice that I’ll be looking not only at your work performance here but potentially investigating your personal lives, as well.”

Her words were met with a grumble of discontent. She ignored it. As she had told Daniel earlier, she wasn’t here to make friends.

“Over the next couple of days, I’ll be meeting with each of you individually,” she continued.

“Looking for snitches,” a voice in the back muttered.

She identified the man who had spoken as a small, wiry officer with ferret-like features. She stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment, until he broke eye contact with her and looked down at the floor.

“I’m not looking for snitches. I’ll be getting input from each of you on how to make this department run more efficiently and I’ll also be looking for anyone who isn’t working in the best interest of law enforcement.” She was aware of the warning in her voice and she also knew her tough words wouldn’t make her the most popular person in the room.

Her gaze fell on Daniel in the second row. As deputy sheriff he would have worked closely with Trey Walker. Was he the upright, moral man she’d like him to be, or did he hide secrets that would put them at odds?

Time would tell. She’d already identified ferret-face as a potential troublemaker, and she had a feeling by reading Emma Carpenter’s body language that the woman was potentially a suck-up, probably assuming since they were both women they’d share some kind of special relationship.

When Olivia put on her badge, she was neither male nor female, she was simply an officer of the law. She didn’t like suck-ups and she definitely didn’t like troublemakers.

She finished the meeting by instructing everyone to go about their business as usual and then returned to her office and closed the door.

For the next couple of hours, Olivia continued to study the background checks and any other pertinent information that was in the files about the men and the one woman who would be working for her.

It was her task to find out if any of those lawmen had also been involved in the drug-trafficking scheme. It was hard to believe that Trey Walker and Jim Burns had acted all alone, but it was possible nobody in the sheriff’s department had known anything about it. She hoped that was the case. There was nothing she hated worse than a dirty deputy.

Even as she tried to stay focused on the paperwork in front of her, visions of Daniel intruded again and again, breaking her concentration.

She was still stunned that fate had brought them together again. Thankfully, he hadn’t mentioned the night in New Orleans when they’d sat in the bar and talked about jazz music and Mardi Gras. She’d seen him before at the conference, so she knew he was a lawman somewhere, but neither of them had talked about where they worked or where they were from.

They’d had drink after drink and hadn’t mentioned crime or their work. Their conversation had been superficial and flirtatious, just what she’d needed to escape the grip of nearly overwhelming grief.

What happened after they’d left the bar and gone to his hotel room had been crazy and wild and wonderful, but she’d left town early the next morning never dreaming that she’d ever see him again.

It was just after five when she decided to call it a day. She wanted to spend most of the evening going through the box of files that should hold not only information about the recent arrests of Trey Walker and Jim Burns, but also any crime investigations that had occurred under Walker’s watch.

She grabbed her purse and the box and headed out of the office. She had only taken a couple of steps into the squad room when Daniel jumped up from his desk and took the box from her. “I’ll carry it to your car,” he said.

“Thanks,” she replied. Tension filled her. Did he intend to mention that night once they stepped out of the station and were all alone? She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t even want it mentioned. It had been an anomaly and had nothing to do with who she was or had been.

He led her to the back door of the building that would open up on the parking lot. “Have you gotten settled in okay here in town?” he asked as they stepped outside and into the late August heat.

“I’ve rented one of the renovated places along the swamp, and, yes, I’m settled in just fine.” She walked briskly toward her car.

“Have you had a chance to look around town?”

“Not really, although I did meet with Mayor Frank Kean yesterday and he assured me his full cooperation while I’m here. I’m hoping to do some sightseeing in the next day or two.” They reached her car and she opened the passenger door to allow him to set the box inside.

“The Lost Lagoon Café is a great place to eat, but I’d stay away from the diner. George’s Diner is actually just a hamburger joint, but if you want really good food then I’d recommend Jimmy’s Place. It’s a bar and grill that serves great food.”

“Thanks for the information, but I will probably eat at home most of the time.”

He placed the box in the passenger seat and she closed the door and hurried around to the driver door. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said and before he could say anything else she slid into the seat and closed the door.

As she pulled away, she glanced in her rearview mirror. He stood in the same place, a tall, ridiculously handsome man watching her leave.

She’d been instantly attracted to him when they’d met in the bar and she was surprised to realize that after all this time she was still attracted to him.

She squeezed the steering wheel more tightly. No matter how attracted she was to Daniel and he to her, nothing would come of it. There was too much to lose.

Her tension eased the moment she pulled into the short driveway in front of the small bungalow-type house. It was painted a bright yellow, not only setting it off from the green of the swamp land behind it, but also making for a bit of cheer among the row of ramshackle and deserted shanties that lined the street. Only a few of the shanties had been renovated and appeared like gems among the others.

She got out of the car and went around and grabbed the box from the passenger seat. She hadn’t even made it to the door when it opened and her mother smiled at her.

Rose Christie had been a godsend over the last couple of years. Olivia had always been close to her mother, but their relationship had deepened when Olivia’s father had died of an unexpected heart attack seven years ago.

Rose opened the door wider to allow Olivia to walk into the tiny living room that held the futon where Olivia slept, an upholstered rocking chair and a small television.

The kitchen area was little more than a row of the necessary appliances with room for a small round table and chairs.

Olivia had just set the box of files on the top of the table and taken off her gun belt, which went on the top of one of the kitchen cabinets, when a squeal came from one of the two bedrooms. Olivia crouched down and braced herself as a dark-haired, green-eyed four-year-old came barreling toward her.

“Mommy, you’re home!” She threw herself into Olivia’s awaiting arms.

Olivia pulled her daughter close enough that she could nuzzle her sweet little neck. “Ah, nothing smells better than my Lily flower.”

Lily giggled and hugged Olivia tight. “Silly Mommy, Nanny’s sugar cookies smell better than a flower.”

“Not better than my Lily flower,” Olivia said as the two broke apart. “Come sit and tell me what you did today.”

Olivia and Lily sat side by side on the futon while Rose bustled in the kitchen to prepare dinner. “I played dolls and then Nanny and I watched a movie.”

As Olivia watched and listened to her beautiful daughter relay the events of her day, her heart swelled with love.

Unexpected and unplanned, Lily had added a richness, a joy in Olivia’s life that she’d never expected to have. She was bright and more than a little precocious, and now Olivia couldn’t imagine her life without Lily.

By eight thirty dinner had been eaten, Lily’s bath was complete and she was in bed in one of the two bedrooms. Olivia’s mother had retired to the other bedroom, leaving Olivia alone with a box of files and conflicting thoughts she’d never believed she’d have to entertain.

She’d never thought the day would come when she’d meet the man who had fathered Lily. She’d never considered what she might do if she did run into him again.

Daniel.

She was his boss and he was the father of her child. Should she tell him about Lily or should she keep the secret to herself? What was the right thing to do for everyone involved?

She didn’t know the answer.

Hoping the right answer would eventually present itself to her, she opened the box of files and pulled out the first one.

Chapter Two

Daniel had spent a restless night plagued by dreams of New Orleans and the passionate woman who’d come with him back to his hotel room from the bar. He’d finally awakened before dawn and after a shower and two cups of coffee, he thought he was prepared to face the woman who was now his boss.

Lily had only been a dream, but Olivia Bradford had already shown herself to be a formidable figure. Daniel wasn’t afraid of her digging into his professional or personal life. He’d never even taken a free cup of coffee from the café in his position as deputy and as temporary sheriff. He had nothing to hide, but there were several deputies he knew who didn’t hold themselves to the same standards.

Olivia appeared to be the type who would leave no stone unturned both in her internal investigation and any others that might present themselves, due to Trey Walker’s dictatorial style and lack of real investigations during his reign as sheriff.

Daniel arrived at the station at six forty-five ready for roll call at seven o’clock. He was unsurprised that Olivia was already in the office. He had a feeling that she was the type of woman who wouldn’t abide anything but strict punctuality.

Apparently, the men knew that, too. Even the deputies who had often been stragglers to roll call were all present, uniforms neat and eyes clear.

Five deputies worked the day shift and then five worked the evening shift until midnight, then five more were on duty from midnight until eight in the morning. The extra four worked shifts when the others had days off.

Daniel had worked the night shift until he’d become sheriff and then had changed to the day shift. He assumed he would continue his day shift even now that Olivia was here.

At precisely seven the five men working the day shift were in the conference room and Olivia walked in. Today she was clad in a pair of black slacks, a crisp white short-sleeved blouse with her badge pinned to the blouse’s pocket and her gun belt around her waist.

Her hair was pulled back and her makeup minimal. She held a file in her hand. “Good morning,” she said. “The first thing I’d like for you to do is stand up one at a time and state your name.”

Daniel stood up first, followed by Josh Griffin, Wes Stiller, Ray McClure and Malcolm Appleton. Daniel and Josh were particularly close, having been friends for years, and they had worked together to bring down Trey and Jim.

Once they had all introduced themselves, Olivia held up the file in her hand into the air. “I spent most of the night going through criminal file records for the last five years and one in particular captured my attention.”

Daniel knew immediately which file she held in her hand. It was woefully thin and unsolved. Guilt immediately pooled in his gut as he and Josh exchanged a quick glance.

“Who killed Shelly Sinclair?” Olivia’s question hung in the air for a long, pregnant moment before she continued. “This is a two-year-old unsolved murder case and as far as I can tell, very little was done at the time of her murder in the way of an investigation.” She placed the file down on the table in front of her.

“That’s because at the time of the murder we knew who had committed it,” Ray said. “Bo McBride killed Shelly. He was her boyfriend at the time.”

Olivia frowned. “Then why isn’t the case closed?”

“We couldn’t find the evidence necessary to make the arrest,” Wes said.

“Is there another file someplace? What I have here surely doesn’t contain all of the interviews and statements of people who might have been involved in the case.” Olivia’s dark eyes radiated confusion as she looked at each of the men.

“A good solid investigation was never done,” Daniel said as the guilt knot in his gut twisted tighter.

“I don’t understand,” Olivia replied.

“That’s because you weren’t working for Trey Walker,” Josh added. Daniel knew Josh had suffered just as much guilt as Daniel had with the way the case had been shunted aside. “Trey had made up his mind that Bo was guilty and he made it clear that any of us who wanted to investigate further did so at the risk of our jobs.”

Olivia’s lush lips pressed together in a sign of obvious disapproval. “You have an unsolved murder that’s now become a cold case and a shoddy investigation at best at the time the murder occurred. We’re going to reopen this case and get it solved. Daniel, I’d like to see you in my office and the rest of you get back to your usual duties.”

“What a waste of time,” Ray grumbled when Olivia had left the room. “Everyone knows that Bo did it. It’s not our fault that we couldn’t prove it.”

“Not everyone is so certain that Bo was responsible,” Josh replied.

That’s the last of the conversation Daniel heard as he left the room to head to Olivia’s office. He was glad that she was being proactive in the case of Shelly’s murder. The unsolved case had been like a stain on Daniel’s soul for far too long.

He knocked on the door and then entered the office where she gestured him into one of the chairs in front of her desk.

“I read what little was in the file, but I want you to tell me about Shelly Sinclair and her death,” she said.

Daniel nodded and tried to school his thoughts. The scent of a lilac-based perfume filled the air. He hadn’t noticed it yesterday, but he remembered it from the night they had hooked up in New Orleans. He had found it dizzyingly intoxicating then and it still affected him on some primal level.

“Daniel?”

Her voice yanked him out of the past and to the present.

“Sorry...yes, about Shelly. She was found floating in the lagoon at the south end of town. She’d been strangled. The area has a bench and some bushes, and from the scene it appeared some kind of a struggle had ensued. Her purse and phone was found on the bench, but her engagement ring was missing and has never been found.”

“Now tell me about Bo McBride.”

Daniel shifted positions in his chair, oddly disappointed that her eyes held nothing but professional curiosity about a crime. Of course, that was how it should be. A married woman shouldn’t be interested in the five years that had passed since a hot hookup had occurred.

“At the time of the murder, Bo owned the place that is now Jimmy’s Place. Bo and Shelly had been a couple since junior high school and it was just assumed that eventually they’d get married. They often met at the bench by the lagoon late at night before Shelly started her night shift working as the clerk in The Pirate’s Inn. When Shelly wound up dead it was only natural that Bo would be one of the prime suspects.”

“And from what I read in the file, his alibi was that he was at home sick with the flu on the night that Shelly was murdered.”

“And the last text message on Shelly’s phone was from Bo telling her he was ill and couldn’t meet her that night,” Daniel replied.

Olivia shuffled through the few papers that were in the file. “And no other suspects were pursued? All I see in here are interviews of Shelly’s sister, Savannah, her brother, Mac, their parents and a couple of Shelly’s friends. Is there anything more you can tell me that isn’t in this file?”

“Several things have come to light in the last couple of months. Shelly told some of her friends that she was in a sticky situation, but we never managed to figure out what that meant. While we were investigating the attacks on Shelly’s sister, Savannah, we discovered that Eric Baptiste had become friendly with Shelly right before her death, a detail we never knew during the initial investigation.”

Olivia held up her hand to stop him. “I’m already confused by names and incidents I know nothing about. Obviously you can’t completely update me in a brief talk right now.” She frowned thoughtfully. “What I’d like you to do is head up a four-man task force and focus efforts on starting this investigation all over again from the very beginning.”

“I’d be glad to do that. I always felt like Bo was an easy scapegoat and the crime wasn’t investigated right from the start. Is there anyone in particular you want on the task force?” he asked.

She shook her head, her dark hair shining richly in the light flooding in from the windows behind her desk. “You know the men better than I do and you know who you’ll work best with. I just want go-getters, men who want to work hard and close this case with a killer behind bars.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I want this cleaned up before I leave here.”

There was nothing of Lily in the hard-eyed woman seated across from him. “We’ll get it cleaned up,” he said, hoping his words of confidence would somehow soften her features.

They didn’t. Instead, in an effort to get a small glimpse of the woman he’d briefly known, he changed the subject. “I couldn’t help but notice the wedding ring on your finger. I’m glad that you found somebody important in your life.”

She stared down at the band for a long moment and then looked back at him, her eyes shuttered and unreadable. “I got married to a wonderful man, had a daughter and then last year he died. It’s just my mother, my daughter and me now.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” That’s what you get for trying to take the conversation to a personal level, he thought.

She frowned. “I’m not the first young widow and I won’t be the last. What’s important to me now is my family’s well-being and my work. And now, don’t you have a task force to pull together?” She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and glanced toward the door.

Daniel beat feet to the door and it was only when he was back at his desk that he processed what he’d just learned about her. She wasn’t married. She was a widow.

Although he was sorry that she’d lost her husband, he wasn’t sorry that she was single. Right now the night they had spent together was like a white elephant in the room whenever they were alone together.

Sooner or later he was going to bring it up. He was going to have to talk about it. Sooner or later, as crazy as he might be, he hoped that just maybe there might be a repeat of that night in their future.

* * *

OVER THE NEXT two days, the task force was pulled together and assigned to work from a small conference room in the back of the building.

Daniel had chosen Josh Griffin, Wes Stiller and Derrick Bream as his team. It was obvious the men had a good relationship and equally obvious, as Olivia had observed the deputies over the last two days, that Daniel was a natural-born leader. All of the men respected and looked up to him.

Olivia had spent most of the two days interviewing the deputies who worked for her and finishing up going through case files of crimes that had been handled by Trey Walker.

Daniel had been right; for the most part other than during the last couple of months, Lost Lagoon had been relatively free of any serious crimes. Oh, there had been the usual domestic calls and shoplifting... Petty crimes that had been resolved immediately.

She’d arrived in her official capacity on Monday morning and by Wednesday evening she had learned that everyone in Lost Lagoon seemed to move at a slower pace than anywhere else in the world. She’d discovered that the town was rich in pirate lore and that a new amusement park being built on a ridge just above the town had the business owners excited about new commerce.

It was after seven when she packed up to leave to go home. She’d already called her mother to tell her to go ahead and feed Lily and get her ready for bed.

She was surprised to leave the office and see Daniel at his desk. She’d assumed he’d gone home at four when he was off duty.

“I thought you’d have left by now. Don’t you have a family to get home to?” she asked.

He reared back in his chair, looking as fresh and alert as he had that morning. “No wife, no family and no desire for either. I’m a confirmed bachelor,” he said. “I assume you’re headed home?”

“Eventually, but before that I want to go to the scene of Shelly’s murder. I haven’t really gotten out and about town much and I just want to get a feel for where the crime took place.”

Daniel frowned. “I’d rather you not go there by yourself. How about I drive there and you follow me? I can give you a better idea of what things looked like on that night.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” she protested.

“You didn’t. I offered. Besides, it’s my job to assist you.” He stood as if it were settled. “I was ready to knock off for the night anyway.”

Minutes later Olivia followed behind Daniel’s patrol car toward the south end of town. They traveled on Main Street, and as she drove she glanced at the various businesses that lined the streets.

So far she’d only gone from the station to her home on the west side of town. She hadn’t ventured into the heart of Lost Lagoon. On one side of the street she noticed an ice cream parlor and made a note to be sure and visit it with her mother and Lily. Lily loved ice cream.

Lily. If she’d been conflicted at all about telling Daniel that their night of passion had resulted in a daughter for him, her conflict had been resolved when he’d said he had no desire for a wife or a family and that he was a confirmed bachelor.

She focused back on her surroundings. On one corner a shop held a large sign that indicated it was Mama Baptiste’s Apothecary and Gift Shop and further down the road was a two-story hotel named The Pirate’s Inn. In between were shops catering to tourists, a dress boutique and Jimmy’s Place where the parking spaces in front of the three-story building were filled with various makes and models of vehicles.

Olivia’s stomach rumbled as she thought of all the people inside enjoying a meal. She’d skipped lunch that day and although she knew Rose would have kept something for her to zap in the microwave for dinner, her stomach was ready to be fed as soon as possible.

While they continued on, the buildings ended and Main Street joined an outer road that she knew circled around the entire town.

Olivia followed him onto the outer road and then when he stopped and pulled to the curb, she did the same. On the opposite side of the road in the near distance was a row of bushes broken only by a stone bench.

Daniel got out of his car and she followed suit. Here the smell of the swamp was thick in the humid air. The scent of tangled musty foliage battled with a fishy smell, and the humidity was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Daniel joined her by the side of her car. “Bo worked the night shift at Bo’s Place and Shelly worked the night shift at The Pirate’s Inn. Before she went into work, Bo often sneaked away and the two of them would meet here for a few minutes before they each returned to work.”

“So Shelly showed up that night, but according to the message that she got from Bo, he didn’t come.” Olivia stared at the bench where a young, beautiful woman had spent the last minutes of her life. Who had met Shelly here in the middle of the night and strangled her to death then threw her body in the nearby lagoon?

They crossed the street. Beyond the bushes and the stone bench was a grassy area that ran from one edge of the swampy growth to the other side, and beyond that the lagoon water sparkled darkly in the waning sunlight.

“No evidence was found?” Olivia asked.

“The bushes on the left side of the bench were trampled down, indicating that the struggle occurred there, but we didn’t find anything in the way of evidence.” His voice held a wealth of frustration.

“From the minute I read this file, I’ve been haunted by her,” Olivia said softly.

“You aren’t the only one. I’ve spent two years with her ghost haunting my dreams, begging for justice. In the last year, Shelly’s sister, Savannah, kept her sister relevant by dressing up like a ghost and walking on the grassy area just in front of the lagoon.”

Olivia looked at him in surprise. “Really?”

“On Friday nights teenagers would gather and hide behind the bushes, waiting for the ghost of Shelly to appear. Savannah used a tunnel that runs from her backyard to the base of a tree.” He pointed to the right of the grassy area where a cypress tree rose up. “She’d wear some gauzy white dress with a flashlight tied to her waist beneath to give her a ghostly glow. She’d walk across to the other side where a cave led back to the tunnel that would take her home.”

“Why would she do such a thing?” Olivia asked, wanting to know all the ins and outs of this case.

Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the dark lagoon water. He appeared haunted, his eyes fixed in the distance and his posture one of faint defeat.

“When Shelly was buried, Savannah’s parents moved away and left her and her brother, Mac, the family house. Mac married and moved out soon after that. According to Shelly, she wasn’t allowed to speak of her sister, either to her parents or to her brother. She did her ghostly walks to hear the teenagers behind the bushes gasp and shout out Shelly’s name. It was her way of keeping her sister alive.”

He pulled his hands from his pockets and turned back to gaze at Olivia. “Thankfully, Josh caught on to what she was doing and with his love she’s healing. But she needs closure. She needs her sister’s killer behind bars to fully embrace the life she’s building with Josh.”

“Tomorrow I’d like you to go with me to interview Bo McBride. I know small towns and that often people are hostile or suspicious of strangers. I think I’ll get more answers if you’re with me.”

Daniel nodded. “Just tell me when and I’ll be glad to go with you.”

Olivia walked forward and sat on the bench, as if she could somehow pick up something from the horror of the crime that had happened so long ago.

It was darker here, the sinking sun unable to penetrate the shadows formed by the swamp vegetation and the trees with thick Spanish moss dripping from their branches.

Daniel sat next to her. His spicy cologne was familiar as it wafted to her. It wasn’t just a familiar scent she’d noticed over the last couple of days, but one she remembered from a night that shouldn’t have happened. It was a night that should have been erased from her memory bank long ago.

“Tell me about Bo McBride,” she said in an effort to keep away memories that had no place in her head.

“Bo was one of the golden boys in town. He was liked and respected by everyone. He was handsome and had a beautiful girlfriend. His business was extremely successful and at least on the surface it appeared he had the world by the tail.”

“Do you think he killed Shelly?”

His features were dappled by shadows and his eyes glowed silvery green in the falling of twilight. They had glowed like that when he’d taken possession of her body. Darn it, she had to stop remembering him naked and filled with desire for her.

He raked a hand through his thick short hair and leaned back against the bench. “Do I think Bo killed Shelly? My gut instinct is that he didn’t.”

“And how good is your gut instinct?”

He grinned at her, his perfect white teeth flashing bright. “Better than most, but in this case I guess time and more investigation will tell us if it’s on the money.”

“Who found her body? I didn’t see anything in the report.”

“An early morning jogger named Tom Dempsey. Tom is sixty-seven years old and jogs at odd times of the day and night. It was four in the morning when he saw Shelly floating in the swamp and called it in. Thankfully, we managed to retrieve her before any gators or other wildlife got to her.”

Olivia had been involved in many homicide cases in Natchez, but for some reason the case of Shelly Sinclair was hitting her hard. She rose from the bench, not wanting to sit another minute in this place of death.

Daniel stood, as well. “I have a favor to ask you,” she said as they walked back to their cars. She paused and gazed up at him. “I’ve been watching the way you interact among the men and it’s obvious they look up to you. What I need to know is if I can trust you completely?”

She held his gaze steadily. She might be making a mistake, but she needed somebody on the inside, somebody who had worked closely with the other men in the department.

She had no real reason to trust Daniel. A single night in bed certainly wasn’t the basis to build trust on, but her gut instinct told her he was the one man in the department who was an upright, by-the-book lawman.

“Of course you can trust me completely,” he replied. The earnestness in his eyes comforted her.

“Then what I’d like to do is meet you for coffee one evening soon at the café and have a talk about some of your fellow officers,” she said.

He frowned. “I’d really rather not do that at the café where people can see us together or might overhear the conversation. I don’t want the men to think I’m being a snitch.”

“Of course, I didn’t think about that.”

“Why don’t you follow me to my place now and we can talk privately there?”

Olivia thought about all the questions she had about some of the deputies. “Okay,” she agreed a bit reluctantly.

It was only when she was back in her car and following him to his place that she thought this might be a bad idea. First and foremost she was running only on a gut instinct and his word that he was trustworthy.

More important, she feared that in the privacy of his home he might bring up that night they’d shared five years ago, a night she’d spent the last five years trying desperately to forget.

Chapter Three

He’d been vaguely surprised when Olivia had agreed to come to his home to talk, but as he pulled into the driveway he punched the garage door opener that would open both sides of the double garage and she apparently understood that he intended for her to pull in next to him.

No need for anyone to see her car parked outside his house. It was one thing for them to be seen together in an official capacity, but another altogether for them to be together in their off-duty hours.

The last thing she would want was any kind of gossip to start up about her, and there was no reason to invite it by being careless at this point in time.

When she was parked inside and out of her car, he punched the button to close the doors behind them. “Call me paranoid,” he said when they were both out of the cars. “I just think it best if people don’t know we have any kind of a relationship outside of work hours.”

“I appreciate it and I agree.”

When he opened the door that led from the garage into the kitchen, he was grateful that by nature he was a neat and tidy man. He didn’t have to worry about errant boxers dangling off light fixtures or beer bottles lined up like soldiers awaiting a trip to the trash. He gestured her to the round oak kitchen table and then moved to the counter to make a pot of coffee.

“Nice house,” she said as she sat. “Big for a man who told me he has no desire for a wife or a family.”

“Thanks, it really is more than I need but it was a foreclosure and I couldn’t resist the great price. It needed a little cosmetic TLC, and I’ve managed to finish it all up.”

The coffee began to brew and he turned and leaned against the cabinet to face her. “Don’t worry, I didn’t buy it with ill-gotten gains.”

“That never crossed my mind. From reading the records, I know that you and Josh Griffin were instrumental in the arrest of Trey Walker and Jim Burns.”

“It was mostly Josh. Savannah had been attacked and Josh hunted through the underground tunnels to see if he could find any evidence. What he found was an entrance that led up to Walker’s garage filled with meth.”

“So you trust Josh.”

“With my life,” he replied easily. “He and I are not only fellow deputies, we’re also close friends.” He had the ridiculous impulse to walk over to her and pull off the clasp from the nape of her neck that held her beautiful long hair captive.

He turned back to the cabinet and pulled out two cups. “Cream or sugar or both?” he asked.

“Just black is fine,” she replied. “What about Emma Carpenter? Is she a good deputy?”

It was obvious this private meeting was just as she’d indicated it would be, an opportunity for her to pick his brains about his coworkers. He poured their coffee and then joined her at the table.

“Emma is a hard worker. She’s thoughtful and meticulous and I’d trust her under any circumstances.”

Olivia cupped her hands around her coffee mug. “I’m just trying to get an idea of the people who work here for the department. The employment files were relatively inadequate as far as any notes of discipline or commendations anyone might have received.”

“For the most part we’re a good team,” he said.

“For the most part...” she echoed with a raise of a dark brow.

Daniel sighed. “I don’t want to believe that any of the other officers had anything to do with the drug-trafficking issue.”

“I sense a but on the end of that sentence.”

He smiled ruefully. “But there are a couple of men I don’t completely trust.”

She leaned forward and he caught a whiff of that lilac fresh spring scent that had once driven him half-mad with desire for her. It still affected him on a visceral level, evoking unwanted memories of the night they’d shared.

“Who don’t you trust?” she asked.

He watched her lips move and remembered the fiery kisses they’d shared. He mentally shook himself and focused on the topic at hand. “I don’t want you to think that I’m some kind of snitch, but you do have a right to know potential problems within the department.”

She took a sip of her coffee, her eyes dark and unfathomable over the rim of the cup. “Give me names,” she said as she lowered her cup back to the table.

“Ray McClure. He was very close to Walker, but insists he had no idea what was going on when it came to the drugs flowing in and out of town. He also seemed particularly eager to point a finger at Bo for the murder of Shelly.”

“I’d already identified him as an issue,” she admitted. “He’s lazy and borders on insubordination. Do you think he might have had something to do with Shelly’s murder?”

“I doubt it. I think he was just following Trey’s lead in proclaiming Bo guilty in order to please Trey and to not have to do the work of a real investigation.”

“Who else?”

Daniel thought of all the men he worked with on a daily basis. “Randy Fowler isn’t somebody I’d trust to have my back. He works the night shift and he recently moved his mother into a fairly pricey nursing home in Jackson. He’d bitched about the cost for months before he moved her, but now suddenly he’s not complaining anymore.”

“Was he particularly close to Walker?”

Daniel shook his head. “Not that any of us noticed, but he and his wife were friendly with Jim Burns.”

“Is there anyone else that you can think of?”

“Not really. I’ve worked with these men for years, and in most cases I grew up with them. Ray McClure is a local. He was a surly and lazy kid who never changed. As far as Randy Fowler goes, he isn’t a local, but was hired in from Tupelo about six years ago. He keeps himself a bit distant from the other men.”

He took a drink of his coffee and eyed her intently. “Are we ever going to talk about that night in New Orleans?”

She froze and a faint pink color filled her cheeks. “I was hoping we wouldn’t.”

“I think we need to. I feel like there’s a snapping gator between us in the room every time we’re together,” he replied.

She took another sip from her cup and carefully set it back down on the table. “That night in New Orleans was completely out of character for me. I had recently lost my partner to a domestic altercation gone bad. I didn’t want to be at the conference in the first place. I went to the bar to be alone and drown my grief in booze.”

“And then I showed up.”

For the first time since the day she’d arrived at the station in her official capacity, she smiled. The beauty, the memory of that smile punched him in the stomach.

“Yes, and then you showed up and you were charming and easy to talk to and suddenly you looked better than the booze.” Her cheeks flamed a deeper pink. “It was a wild, crazy night that shouldn’t have happened.”

“Why did you use the name Lily?” he asked.

“My mother called me Lily from the time I was a little girl. Mom’s name is Rose and she always told my father he had two beautiful flowers in the family. But it didn’t take me long working in law enforcement to realize that people took me far more seriously as Olivia, which is my legal name. So I stopped being Lily and became Olivia and I named my daughter Lily.”

“I have to admit I thought about you over the years. I wondered what had happened to you, if your career had taken off and if you’d found love.”

Her eyes radiated surprise that was quickly masked. “It was only a month after that conference that I married and then got pregnant immediately. Phil was a great husband and father.”

“Tell me more about him.” Daniel said, wanting to know what kind of a man had captured her heart.

She leaned back in her chair and her features softened. An irrational stab of jealousy raced through Daniel. “Phil owned a small but successful restaurant. He had a huge heart and he loved me beyond reason. Even after my daughter, Lily, was born, he encouraged me to pursue my career. Along with my mother’s help, we made a good team, me working law enforcement and him running his restaurant, and then he had a heart attack and died.”

“Are you hoping to marry again?”

“I’m open to the possibility. I had a great husband and I know how good marriage can be, but if it doesn’t happen I’m good alone with my mother helping me raise Lily and my career that consumes me.”

“How old is your daughter?”

“She just turned four.”

“I’m still attracted to you.” The words fell from his mouth before his brain had fully formed them.

She cast her gaze away from him and out the nearby window where darkness had fallen. “I’m only here temporarily and I’m your boss. Any kind of a personal relationship between us would be completely out of line.”

She looked at her wristwatch and then grabbed her purse. “Speaking of my mother and my daughter, I need to get home.” She stood and looked toward the garage door. Daniel had a feeling she was escaping from the conversation rather than simply deciding it was time to go home.

Daniel got up to walk her to the door. “If it’s any comfort, nobody knows about that night. I never mentioned it to anyone and have no intention of ever talking about it.” He opened the door and punched the button inside to raise the garage door on the side where she had parked.

“I appreciate that. I’m here to do my job, Daniel, and nothing more.” She stepped down the stairs to the garage floor and hurried to her car.

When she’d driven out and away, Daniel closed the door and returned to his chair at the table to finish his coffee. At least they’d talked about it, he thought.

However, she’d said nothing to tamp down a simmering desire that had grown inside him from the moment he’d seen her again.

More importantly, she’d told him all the reasons why they couldn’t and shouldn’t get involved again, but she hadn’t said the one thing that would have shut him down permanently.

She hadn’t said she wasn’t attracted to him and in the omission of those words, he held on to just a little bit of hope that he would have her in his bed once again.

* * *

OLIVIA HAD A restless night. Both Lily and her mother had been asleep when she’d finally gotten in. She’d gone into Lily’s room and kissed her sweet, sleeping daughter on the cheek and then had zapped a plate of leftover meat loaf that her mother had made for dinner.

By ten thirty she was on the futon, but sleep remained elusive as she played and replayed her conversation with Daniel in her head.

She hadn’t wanted to talk about that night. She hadn’t even wanted to think about it. She had spent far too many nights while married to Phil thinking about that single night of madness with Daniel.

Phil had been in love with her and she had loved Phil, but she hadn’t been in love with him. He was a good, solid man and she’d been the best wife she could possibly be to him during their marriage. But it had been the one-night stand with Daniel that had haunted her dreams.

She was awakened the next morning to kisses being rained on her face and the scent of bacon filling the air. “Mommy, you didn’t kiss me good-night last night and so you have to kiss me a zillion times this morning,” Lily said. She was a vision of little-girl innocence in her pink cotton nightgown and with her dark hair sleep tousled around her head.

“I think I can manage that,” Olivia replied. She grabbed Lily and pulled her onto the futon with her and then proceeded to deliver kisses all over her daughter’s face and neck.

Lily’s giggles rang out, sweet music to Olivia’s ears.

“Okay you two...breakfast in fifteen minutes,” Rose said. “Lily, you can help me set the table while your mother gets ready for work.”

Olivia took a fast shower, dressed in a pair of tailored black slacks and a white blouse and then joined her mother and daughter at the table for bacon and pancakes.

Breakfast was always a joy when the three of them shared it together. Rose had been a loving, nurturing mother to Olivia and once Lily was born, she’d become beloved Nanny and had watched Lily whenever Olivia and Phil were at work.

Rose was a wonderful mix of common sense and naïveté. She had a good sense of humor and a fierce love of her little family. She believed the world was a good and happy place, and Olivia never brought the evil she worked with home to share with her mother.

Many times over the years Olivia had downplayed the danger she’d faced at work in an effort to protect her mother from worry.

“As usual, a great breakfast, Mom,” Olivia said.

“It’s always good if it’s got syrup,” Lily quipped and used her tongue to capture an errant dollop of the sweet goo that had escaped onto her lower lip.

“Are you going to be late tonight?” Rose asked.

“You’d better be here to kiss me good-night,” Lily exclaimed.

“I kissed you while you were sleeping last night. Besides, you know how it works. If I’m not here to kiss you good-night, then Nanny gives you double kisses,” Olivia replied.

“And I think I gave her triple kisses last night,” Rose exclaimed.

Minutes later Olivia left the house and headed for the station. She hoped the issue of her and Daniel’s previous encounter had been laid to rest, for she was depending on him to accompany her as she interviewed some of the key players in the two-year-old murder case of Shelly Sinclair.

So he’d thought about her over the years. His words had surprised her. She’d always figured she’d been nothing more than a slight blip on his radar. A sexy guy like him had to have had plenty of hookups before and after that night they’d shared.

Of course it didn’t matter if he’d thought about her or her about him. It didn’t matter if he was still attracted to her and she was attracted to him. Nothing would ever come of it.

She wasn’t a young, vulnerable woman anymore. In fact, she rarely thought of herself as a woman. She was a mother, but she was also a law enforcement official. She wore those titles much more easily than that of simply a woman.

It was nine o’clock when she and Daniel left the station and got into her car to drive to Claire Silver’s small house on the swamp side of town where she lived with her new husband, Bo.

“Bo moved in with Claire when his family home was burned down by the high school coach who had become Claire’s frightening stalker. They got married a couple of weeks ago,” Daniel said.

“I read the file on Claire’s stalker, Roger Cantor,” Olivia replied. She’d been grateful that there was no awkwardness between her and Daniel. It was as if their conversation the night before had never happened, and that was the way she wanted it. In fact, the tension between them that had been apparent since they’d first seen each other had dissipated.

Daniel guided her to a renovated shanty much like where Olivia was staying. “They’re my neighbors,” she said as she pulled her car to a halt in front of the house. “I’m staying five houses down in the bright yellow place.”

Daniel had called ahead to let Bo and Claire know they were coming, and Bo opened the door before they reached it. “Daniel,” he said in greeting and then held out a hand to Olivia. “Sheriff Bradford, it’s nice to meet you.”

Bo McBride had a firm handshake and clear blue eyes that appeared as if they wouldn’t know how to hide a secret. His dark hair was long and slightly shaggy and his features were well-defined and handsome. “Please, come in,” he said and gestured them into a small living room where a petite curly-haired blonde woman stood at their appearance.

Further introductions were made and then the four of them sat at the kitchen table where Claire offered them something to drink and they declined.

“I’m glad you’re reopening the case into Shelly’s murder,” Bo said.

“News travels fast around here,” Olivia replied drily.

“The small town gossip mill is alive and well,” Bo replied and then frowned. “I was basically run out of town on a rail in the weeks after her death because of nothing but gossip. Sheriff Walker made it clear that I was guilty and it was only because they couldn’t find evidence that I was still walking around free. It destroyed the life I’d had here.”

Claire placed a hand on Bo’s arm. “Bo couldn’t kill anyone, especially not Shelly, who he loved with all his heart.”

Olivia pulled out a small pad and pen from her purse. “I need you to tell me everything you can about that time. I want names of the people Shelly was close to, ideas you might have as to who might have wanted her dead...anything that will guide us as we dig into this case.”

For the next hour, Bo talked about his long-term relationship with Shelly. He was honest about the fact that he wasn’t sure if Shelly ever would have married him, that she had longed for a life away from Lost Lagoon. But, Bo’s successful business was here, along with his mother, and he had no desire to leave the small town.

Both Olivia and Daniel asked questions and not once did Olivia get the feeling that Bo was hiding anything from them. He confessed to them that he still owned Jimmy’s Place, that at the time of the murder many of his customers had turned away and that was when he suggested to his best friend, Jimmy Tambor, that he take over as manager and rename the place.

For almost two years following Shelly’s murder, Bo had built a new life for himself in Jackson, coming back to Lost Lagoon only in the dead of night on the weekends to visit his mother, whose house Jimmy had moved into to help care take of her.

“I came back a couple of months ago when my mother passed away and while I was here I met Claire.” He covered her petite hand with his and smiled at her lovingly. “She convinced me to stay in town and fight for my innocence, but then her life was in danger and my sole concern became keeping her safe.”

“So, you haven’t done much investigating on your own into Shelly’s murder,” Olivia said.

“If you’re asking me if I know who killed Shelly, then the answer is no. I’m no closer to knowing today than I was on the night she was murdered,” he replied. “All I know is I didn’t do it and I’m as eager as anyone to get the killer arrested.” His eyes blazed fervently.

“So, what did you think?” Daniel asked Olivia once they were back in her car.

“I’m mostly a facts-only kind of person, but my gut instinct says that he’s being truthful,” she replied.

“How about we grab a hamburger at George’s Diner before we head back to the station?” he suggested. “It’s not too far down the road from here.”

Olivia glanced at her watch. It was just after eleven. “All right,” she agreed. She’d eat a quick lunch and be back in her office by noon to check in on things there and to write up a complete report on the interview with Bo and Claire.

Daniel pointed the way, and before long she was parked in front of the small building with a huge sign on top that read George’s Diner.

“It doesn’t look big enough to be a diner,” she said as they got out of the car.

“I told you it’s really just a glorified hamburger joint. Most people order and take out. There are only five stools at a counter inside. George has everything from fried gator to shrimp scampi on his menu, but most people come here for the burgers. It’s a dive but he makes the best burgers you’ll ever wrap your mouth around.”

The interior of the small establishment was empty and held the gamy odor of the swamp and hot grease. “We’ll eat in the car,” Olivia whispered, finding the variety of cooking smells unpleasant.

At that moment a big man lumbered out of what she assumed was the kitchen. Jowls bounced as he greeted them with a smile and slapped two menus in front of them.

“I heard there was a new sheriff in town.” His deep voice resembled that of a croaking bullfrog. “George King,” he said. He swiped a hand on his dirty white apron and held it across the counter to her.

Olivia shook his hand and mentally thought of the small bottle of hand sanitizer she kept in her purse. “Sheriff Bradford,” she replied as she shook his thick, meaty hand.

“So, what can I get for you two? I got some fresh gator meat in this morning,” George said.

“No gator,” Daniel replied. “We’ll take two of your special burgers and a couple of sodas to go.”

“Got it.” George disappeared back into the kitchen area.

“Did he know Shelly?” Olivia asked.

Daniel smiled. “Everyone knew Shelly. Why?”

“George is a big man with big hands. It would have been easy for him to strangle a young woman and then toss her into the lagoon.”

Daniel’s grin widened. “Once a lawman, always a lawman.”

“Exactly,” she replied, wishing his smile didn’t create a ball of heat in the pit of her stomach.

Minutes later they were back in her car. She used her hand sanitizer, placed a couple of napkins on her lap and then took the gigantic burger wrapped in foil from Daniel. Daniel, too, had placed a napkin across his lap.

Two beef patties, two kinds of cheeses, tomato and lettuce, bacon and barbecue sauce, the first bite created an explosion of flavor in her mouth.

“Tell the truth, it’s the best you’ve ever tasted,” Daniel said with a knowing smile.

She finished chewing and swallowed. “Okay, I admit it.”

They ate in silence and when they were finished, Daniel took their trash to a nearby bin and disposed of it and then they were back on the road headed back to the station.

“Still listen to blues music?” he asked.

It had been part of their conversation at the bar, the fact that they both loved old blues classics. “These days my music list mostly exists of ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider,’ ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and any songs from kids’ shows. What about you?”

“Still love my Billie Holiday and of course B.B. King,” he replied.

They spent the rest of the ride talking about the old masters of blues music. Once they returned to the station, Olivia headed to her office and Daniel returned to his desk.

It sat in the middle of her desk, a brown-wrapped package addressed to her. It didn’t belong there and she had no idea how it had gotten there.

She opened her office door and saw Daniel and Josh talking together. “Josh... Daniel, could you come in here?” She hoped her voice didn’t betray a faint whisper of fear the presence of the unexpected package had wrought inside her.

Both men got up and when they entered her office she pointed to a brown-wrapped box on her desk.

“That was here when I came in. I didn’t touch it, but it doesn’t have any postage and it’s addressed to me.”

Daniel frowned in obvious concern. “How did it get here?”

“I don’t know. It was just here,” she replied.

“I’ll go get Betsy,” Josh said. He left the office. Betsy Rogers was the dispatcher/receptionist.

“You weren’t expecting any deliveries of any kind?” Daniel asked.

She gave a curt shake of her head. “No, nothing.”

“I’ll grab my fingerprint kit,” Daniel said.

By the time he returned to the office, Josh and Betsy were also there. “It was left just outside of the front entrance,” Betsy said. “I don’t know how long it was there. Ray noticed it when he came back from lunch and gave it to me and I brought it in here.”

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