Becoming Three (5 page)

“Jasper!” Sarah shot out of her seat as Jace guided Jasper into the station. “What is going on?”
“Not right now, Sarah.” Jace answered before Jasper could. “You can talk to him later.”
“It's okay,” Jasper added. “We're just talkin'.”
I think.
Jasper kept his eyes turned down to the floor as Jace led him down a hall and opened the door to an interview room. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong, yet he couldn't help feeling guilty or
dirty
in some way, just by being led to a room like this.
“Go on in and take a seat,” Jace said. “I'll be right with you.”
The door closed as soon as Jasper stepped inside, and a chill went through him.
God, what must Sarah think about me right now?
Jasper recalled the trouble in his past, and he wondered if Sarah had that on her mind too. He wanted to run back down that fluorescent-lit hallway and assure her he hadn't done anything wrong. He wasn't in trouble; he was here to help. If he walked out of this room after talking to Jace and saw doubt in Sarah's eyes, it would crush him. He had worked so hard to become a good person, someone Sarah could believe in and trust.
The doorknob turned, and Jace entered the room. “Do you mind if I tape this?” He held up a little recording device. He also had a spiral notepad tucked under his arm.
“Uhh…” Jasper's hands shook, and he shoved them under the table to his lap.
Damn it, Jace is just a regular guy. Get control of your nerves around him.
Easier thought than done. During the afternoon today, Jasper found his attention drifting time and again to Jace, and he had become unduly fascinated by the bigger man's focus and command of his job. Jasper had not once seen Jace cringe or turn green at the graphic crime scene, and while watching, Jasper had witnessed the respect Jace's coworkers and boss had for him.
“Mr. Simmons?” Jace rapped his knuckles on the table, jerking Jasper out of his own head. “Are you with me?”
“Yeah, no, sorry.” Flames of embarrassment crept up Jasper's neck. “It's fine to record what I say. I'm not hidin' anything. And you know my name is Jasper.” The flush rose the rest of the way up Jasper's face, but he forced himself to swallow the knot lodged in his throat and face Jace head-on. “It feels like you're mockin' me when you call me Mr. Simmons like that.”
Just a hint of a hitch marred Jace's stride midstep, and Jasper knew he hit the mark. “Fine,” Jace said. He took a seat across from Jasper and put the recorder on the table between them. Jace folded his hands on the table and looked right into Jasper's eyes. “Now, do you care to tell me what was so private about our victim that you couldn't speak about it out at the ranch?”
“It's not private so much as just tryin' to be respectful.” The hairs on Jasper's arms stood on end as he relived all those people staring at him back at the ranch. Discomfort didn't even begin to describe his reaction to such scrutiny and attention. Sitting across from Jace right now intimidated him nearly as much. Jasper cleared his throat and picked at a hangnail on his thumb but, with determination, held Jace's gaze. “It didn't feel right talkin' about Ginger with her body lyin' right there and all those people around her.”
Jace dipped his head. “Okay. I respect that.”
“You do?”
Jace's pupils flared, nearly drowning out the circle of pale green. “I'm not an animal, Jasper, despite what you might view as evidence to the contrary.” Jace thumbed a button on the recording device, and the green light at the top changed to flashing red. “I apologized to Sarah. Just so you know. I'm not proud of that moment you witnessed this morning. I don't treat women that way; I don't treat
people
that way.” Jace's lips narrowed to a thin line, mirroring the natural hardness of his face. “Most of the time anyway.”
Empathy welled in Jasper, as well as an almost overwhelming urge to reach across the table and hold Jace's hand.
What the hell?
Clasping his hands together to keep them from moving, Jasper murmured, “I guess we all make bad choices sometimes. Even a guy like you.”
“A guy like me?”
“Yeah. You know, strong, capable, respected.”
Handsome
. Feeling sick to his stomach, Jasper added quickly, “Sarah thinks all that, I mean. She talks about you all the time. She says she wouldn't have gotten through all these years without you there to understand and listen about her brother. That's why I went after you this mornin' like I did. I know what you said probably hurt her feelings, and that pissed me off just as much as the meanness of your tone.”
With his eyes pinpointed on Jasper, Jace opened his mouth. “I wanted—” Abruptly, he clamped his jaw and curled his hand into a fist against the table. “Never mind. You were right to defend Sarah, and I don't hold any hard feelings. Now that we're clear on that…” Jace put his finger back on the recorder. “Shall we?”
“Right. Of course.” Jasper sat up straight. His thoughts drifted to the scene at the ranch, unlike anything he had ever witnessed. His chest hurt with awareness that, beneath all that mess, he knew the murdered woman. “Ask me whatever you want about Ginger. If I know the answer, I'll tell you. I want to help.”
Jace pressed the button that got the recording device going again, and leaned back in his chair. “All right. Let's start again with how and when you knew the victim.”
“Okay, um, we went out for maybe a month around four years ago. It was right after Caleb hired me back on at the ranch.” Jasper shot forward to the edge of his seat. “But that was before I knew Sarah, even when we was just friends.”
A half smile quirked Jace's mouth up at the corner, and his eyes lit for a moment too. “Noted. Tell me about this woman.” Jace rubbed his hand around the back of his neck. “Paint me a picture the sheriff is not likely to get from her family when he speaks to them.”
Heat swept through Jasper, and he rocketed to his feet. “It ain't like that. She's ain't—
isn't
”—he dug his knuckles into his thigh—“
wasn't
a bad person.”
“Let me explain something to you, Jasper. Everyone's real life is an amalgamation of family, friends, relationships, work… The list goes on. There are always secrets. What you see in one area is rarely a complete picture of the individual. I'm not asking you to defame anyone; I just need all the pieces. It might lead us to her killer.”
The wind left his sails, and Jasper sat back down. “All right. Here's the thing: I get tonguetied a lot, and I don't make that many first moves with dates. With Ginger, it wasn't really a problem.”
“How is that?”
“She was not shy,” Jasper answered. “Not back then anyway. She made offers without any kind of pretendin'. I was twenty, not datin' anyone, and I knew I was out of my league with her, but I didn't say no.” Shrugging, Jasper pushed down the monumental discomfort living inside him that talking about this subject,
with this man
, inflamed in him. “I'm a guy, and she was pretty and nice and fun. We had sex a couple of times. That's how I know about the tattoo on her backside. I asked her about it once; she said she liked cowboys.”
“But you only saw her for a month,” Jace said, possessing a driving focus that stirred Jasper's blood. Uncomfortably so. “Why didn't it work out?”
“Couple of reasons. First, I didn't have that much money, and she liked to go out every time we got together. Not anywhere fancy necessarily, but just out a lot. She wasn't askin' me to pay; I just couldn't afford my half all the time like that. Second, I was working a ton, even more than I do now. I could only see her about twice a week, and I gave up some extra shut-eye just to do that. It wasn't enough time to get to know her real well.”
Swallowing down the nasty taste that came with telling tales out of school, Jasper forced himself to get everything said. “But mostly it was that one of the guys told me she was seein' a couple of other cowboys too. My buddy didn't have nothin' in it for him to lie, and when I asked her about it, Ginger was honest. She liked to have fun; she never told me otherwise. I didn't realize that meant she was seein' other people at the same time she was goin' out with me.” It left Jasper cold to think this woman he used to know might have slept with her murderer. “It was her choice, but that ain't my style, so I broke it off with her.”
“And she was okay with your ending the relationship?”
“Yep.”
“What's the name of the friend who told you about Ginger?”
“Ahh, a guy named Bruce Arnold. He works for the Hawkinses too.”
“Okay.” Jace made more scribbles on his notepad. “And do you know the names of the other men she was dating while going out with you?”
“No. I didn't ask, and she didn't tell me.”
“What about friends?” Jace asked, as he lifted his attention back up to Jasper. “Did you ever go out as a group? Any names you can give me that might be helpful?”
“Not really.” Jasper drummed his fingers on the table and let the repetitious beat focus his thoughts. “I never met her family, but she said she was real close with them. She had tons of pictures in her apartment; I think mostly of them. She talked about a girl named Beth a lot. I think she worked with Ginger out at the call service center.” A national telephone company employed a large number of Quinten residents in their customer-service business right outside of town. “Ginger liked to write too. I spent the night with her once, and I saw her writin' some stuff in a book. A journal. Don't know if she still keeps one, but she used to.”
“We'll see if we can find something like that. Could prove very helpful. If she has a computer, we'll take a thorough look at that too. We'll search everything in her apartment where she might have left personal information.” Jace put his pencil down and smoothed his hands across the table. “I'm not asking you to gossip here, but I'd like you to be honest with me. Did you continue to hear stories about Ginger after you stopped seeing her? You said she liked cowboys, and you just happen to work with a bunch of them. Some guys brag, and we both know it. If you have something more, you need to tell me.”
God, Ginger hadn't done anything mean to him, and here Jasper was talking about her when she couldn't defend herself. His stomach roiled, and his hands grew clammy. “If you can believe what the big mouths say, she dated a lot more cowboys after me. I don't feel like I listened to enough of that kind of talk to say anythin' more without just speculatin'.”
Jace poised his pencil above his notebook. “Can you give me some names?”
Jasper hesitated, and Jace looked up at him. “It could prove helpful, Jasper. Some of these men are going to get spooked and automatically think they're on our suspect list as soon as they hear a girl they dated is dead. They're going to clam right up on us. If I don't know which guys to press for more information, I might never get that little nugget every law officer needs to help solve a crime.”
God, I'm gonna lose the trust of every guy in the bunkhouse.
“Give me your notebook.” Jasper held his hand out anyway. “I'll give you the ones I remember.”
Jasper started jotting down names. After a moment, Jace broke in, his voice gentle. “I'll be discreet. You don't have to worry.”
“Doesn't matter. They'll know it was me anyway.” Jasper tucked the pencil into the spiral at the top of the notebook and slid it back across the table. “Just so you know, I don't think I'm bunkin' with a murderer. I just hope one of them knows somethin' I didn't that can help.”
Jace talked as he glanced down the list of names Jasper had provided. “Let's hope you're right. I believe that's it for now. Can you think of anything else I need to know?”
Shaking his head, Jasper stood. “No.” His stomach still churned, and he had a hard time facing Jace. “I'd really like to go now. Maybe it's pussy of me, but after today, I feel like I need a shower.”
“That's understandable.” Jace got up, crossed the small room, and held the door open for Jasper. “I appreciate your being cooperative. I'm going to ask that you keep everything you saw and heard today to yourself.” Jace walked down the hallway with Jasper, this time side by side. “The sheriff needs to inform the family first. With all the people out at the scene, the gossip will fly fast. We don't want the Carltons to hear speculation about who we believe the victim to be from anyone but us.”
Jasper cursed and slapped his hand against the hallway wall. “I shouldn't have just blurted out her name in front of all those people like I did. Nobody woulda had a name if I didn't. I'm sorry.”
“It was a natural reaction.” Jace's voice was surprisingly soothing. “Don't spend too much time beating yourself up over it. Once you recognized the tattoo, you were able to say that the hair color, height, and general type of body was consistent with the girl you knew. The sheriff feels confident we have the right identification, or he would be saying something very different to the family than what I imagine he's doing right now.”
“Thanks for sayin'…” Jasper noticed Sarah still sitting at her desk. His breath caught, and his heart raced with returning fear.
Sarah looked up, and when she found his gaze, a smile lifted her lips and lit her entire face. “Are you all right?” She rushed across the bull pen, threw her arms around him, and held him tight.
Sinking into her warmth, Jasper wrapped his arms around Sarah and pulled her in close. She rubbed his back and murmured things into his neck that he couldn't really understand, but he didn't care. Her tone and actions held only acceptance and concern, and strength returned to Jasper's legs.
“I was worried about you,” Sarah said.
Jasper whispered roughly, “Everythin' is fine. I promise.” He pulled back and brushed his hand across her smooth cheek. “It was good to see you still sittin' here when I came out, though.”
She pecked a kiss against his cheek. “Of course I was still here. I wouldn't leave without you.” Sarah turned to Jace. “Can I take him home? I'm finished working. I was just waiting to find out what the heck was going on.”
Jace looked at Sarah and shifted to a relaxed military stance. “Jasper had some helpful information, and we needed to speak about it privately. He's free to leave.”
Sarah backed up to Jasper's side and put her hand on the small of his back, but her attention remained on Jace. “What about you?” she asked. “Will you be here all night?”
“For a good while longer anyway.” Jace nodded. “Don't wait up.”
He looked to Jasper and stuck out his hand. “Thank you again,” he said. Jasper offered his hand in return, and Jace took hold of it in a strong clasp. A jolt of awareness shot through Jasper's hand, up into his arm, and raced throughout his body. Including his cock.