Finding Justice (11 page)

“Hey, dreamy-eyed boy. I asked you a question.”

Jay started and dipped his head to meet Marian’s unwavering
gaze. At five foot two, it went against human nature just how intimidating
Marian could be. Her deep brown eyes should reflect the softness of her homely
figure, but when she wanted answers, Marian’s stare belonged in a prison cell
eyeing up her roommate.

“She’s a friend.” Jay folded his arms.

“Friend, my backside. Complete rubbish.” She walked around the
counter, wiping her floury hands on her apron. Once she stood in front of him,
she opened her arms and Jay wrapped his around her. “Do you know something?”

Jay pulled back and held her hands at arm’s length. “What?”

She stared at Cat. “I predict that girl’s going to knock you
right into shape, Jay Garrett.”

He darted an anxious glance toward Cat who was now busy
pretending to read the menu as if it was the spiritual guide to eternal peace
rather than a list of buns, brownies and beverages.

“Look, do me a favor and let her get settled in before you
start with any matchmaking. She only arrived a couple of days ago.”

“So? Love is love. Sex is sex. You’re a fool if you wait around
and let someone else swoop in to take that beautiful girl away.”

She might as well have punched him in the gut. The wind left
his lungs in a rush. “No one is going to swoop in—”

She grinned. “Got you worried now, haven’t I? So this is the
girl George hasn’t stopped talking about?”

Jay smiled. “Yep.”

“George loves the bones of her. Says she’s everything to him.”
She cocked her eyebrow. “Maybe you should stop working 24/7 and concentrate on
things a bit more personal.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I have stopped. Sarah’s death woke me
up.”

Her smile slipped and her eyes turned glassy. “Well, that’s
good to hear. Life’s too short. No one could have predicted that poor girl was
in so much trouble. If only I’d known...” Her voice cracked and she quickly
tilted her head in Cat’s direction. “You going to introduce me to this young
lady, or not?”

“If you promise to behave.” He took Marian’s hand and squeezed.
“I wasn’t lying when I said she’s not my girlfriend. Cat’s here in a
professional capacity so don’t be surprised if she has a few questions for
you.”

“What sort of professional capacity?”

“She’s a detective. She’s going to help me find Sarah’s
killer.”

Marian stared at him, her brown eyes wide. “A detective? From
out of Templeton? This murder must be messier than we thought if the police are
bringing in outside help.”

Jay sighed. “They didn’t. I did.”

“You? Why?”

“Because I had to do something to prove my innocence, that’s
why.”

She frowned. “They still think you’ve got something to do with
this? Even after they questioned you?”

Jay shrugged and exhaled a long breath. “I don’t know. I
haven’t heard anything from them since, but there was something about the way
one of the cops looked at me...like he didn’t believe a word I said.”

She rubbed her hand up and down his arm. “Hey, I believe you.
You’d never hurt that girl, not ever.”

Jay gave a halfhearted smile. “Maybe you do, but I went through
this town on a mission for drugs and little else. Lots of people wouldn’t put
murder past a guy like that. You know it, the police know it and—” he looked at
Cat “—others are most likely thinking it. I’ve got a horrible feeling the police
aren’t going to get to the bottom of this for a long time. That isn’t good
enough. Sarah was a special lady who deserves the best. That’s exactly what Cat
is.”

“The best, huh?”

He turned. “The best. She’s a friend from way back. Her family
came here every summer and the three of us hung out together all summer long.
She’s...”

“I see. And now you’re grown-up playmates.” Marian winked.

“Will you stop?”

Marian turned to study Cat, her eyes narrowed. “A detective.
Well, now I’m more intrigued than ever.” She walked toward her.

Jay uttered a curse before following, managing to reach the
booth in synch with a now-beaming Marian. He held out his hand. “Cat Forrester,
please meet the lovely, if incredibly pushy, Marian Cohen, baker and cake-maker
extraordinaire.”

When Cat lifted her head from the menu, her smile was in place,
but it didn’t light her eyes the way it usually did. Her gaze screamed an
unexpected insecurity that completely threw Jay off. Whatever Cat meant by
referring to Julia earlier, Marian was the catalyst to the new emotion storming
in her green gaze now.

“Nice to meet you, Marian.” She held out her hand.

Marian brushed the offered hand aside and gestured for Cat to
stand. “Come out of that booth, young lady. A handshake is not the way for me to
meet one of Jay’s new friends.”

Cat’s gaze darted to Jay’s to Marian’s and back again as she
slid out of the booth. The moment she was out of the booth, Marian enveloped her
in a bear hug. Jay grimaced. Cat stood ramrod straight in Marian’s arms, her
eyes closed.

Jay’s mind whirled with questions of what she thought and felt
in that moment. Another second or two passed before Marian released her.

“So.” Marian gripped Cat’s shoulders. “Jay says you’re a
detective. But knowing him, he’s just saying that because he doesn’t want me to
know you two are courting so I won’t tell you what he’s really like.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, there will be plenty of time for
that another day. Right now, we’re in and out of here. Coffee needed
pronto.”

Dropping Cat’s shoulders like they were burning rocks, Marian
turned on him and fisted her hands on her hips. Jay noticed Cat took the
opportunity to slide back into the booth quicker than Marian could blink.

“Excuse me, Jay Garrett?” Marian glared.

He raised his hands. “Fine.” He looked past her to Cat. “If
we’ve got any chance of getting out of here this side of Christmas, you need to
tell her your national insurance number, address and bra size. Now.”

Cat laughed and Jay grinned...until he looked at Marian. Her
expression could frighten the birds from the trees. His smiled dissolved. “Cat
lives in Reading with her mother. She has one brother and worked her way up the
police force faster than anyone else ever could.”

Marian turned. “Is that right?”

Cat nodded. “Not so sure I’m the fastest. It’s nice of Jay to
say so... But for the record, Jay and I are not courting.”

“And your father?”

Jay didn’t miss the shift of Cat’s throat or the flicker of
surprise that swept across her eyes. Part of him wanted to stop the
interrogation, but he wouldn’t. He wanted to hear what she’d say.

“He was killed by a drunk driver seven years ago.”

The clang of trays and the hum of conversation surrounding them
faded into the background. Jay’s heart twisted. Cat had idolized her father.
Despite the steady way she held Marian’s gaze, the hurt, loss and anguish
stormed like an eddy in her eyes. The sudden strike at his gut hitched the
instinctive feeling that Cat’s pain went deeper than natural bereavement. He
sensed much more going on inside her.

Leaning forward, Marian squeezed Cat’s hand, which lay frozen
on the table. “Well, I’m sorry to hear you’ve lost your dad, sweetheart. It
explains that big old burden you’re carrying around.”

Cat glanced at Jay before she huffed out a nervous laugh and
sat straighter in her seat. “Burden?”

Marian nodded. “All hunched over with it, you are. Oh, you
stand tall like Jay but you’re both carrying stuff that will end up breaking you
down and burying you alive if you’re not careful.”

A rush of color leaped from the neckline of Cat’s T-shirt all
the way up her neck. She looked panicked. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Jay cleared his throat and pulled back his shoulders. Cat
needed him and needed him right now. “Marian, come on now. Enough with the
questions. What’s a man got to do to get a couple of frothy coffees and two
honeycomb muffins around here, huh?”

Marian looked at him and arched an eyebrow. “Well, some manners
might be a start.”

“Please, may we have two of both...to go?”

Cat sprang to her feet as if a bomb had gone off under her
perfect behind. “Yes, to go. Perfect.”

Marian looked from one to the other, her eyes narrowed. “I’ll
get your muffins. Hell, I’ll get your coffees, but if you two ain’t courting,
I’m a damn supermodel.”

Cat choked out a laugh, her eyes shining. Jay’s heart warmed
for the first time since they stepped inside the bakery. He fought the urge to
smooth the fallen hair back from her face. After a long moment, he turned.
Marian still stood right beside them, watching their every move like a tabloid
reporter. Jay frowned.

“Coffees?”

Marian sniffed. “In a minute.”

Cat laughed again and touched Marian’s arm. “I promise you
we’re not courting. I’m here to investigate Sarah Cole’s murder.”

“Hmm. That detective inspector what’s-his-name is heading up
the investigation, isn’t he? George and I saw him talking about Sarah on the
news last night.”

“Detective Inspector Bennett, yes,” Cat said.

Marian nodded. “That’s right. Bennett. Don’t trust him. Beady
eyes.”

Cat smiled.

“Are you going to find the man who did this?”

The pain on Marian’s face scratched at Jay’s heart. Sarah had
come into the bakery as much as everyone else in the Cove, and when he’d worked
the counter, they’d spoken a bare minimum of words, but Sarah and Marian had
talked and laughed for half an hour at a time, regardless of the waiting
customers.

He slipped his arm around Marian’s shoulders and pulled her
close. “I brought Cat in to get the job done, remember?”

“Shouldn’t you being letting our police deal with it?” She
tipped her head back, her worried gaze darted over his face. “Do you know
something they don’t?”

“No, it’s just...” It was just what? Gut instinct? Stupidity?
Guilt? He shook his head. “I just know Sarah would’ve wanted Cat here. We were
friends. Close friends. If I couldn’t be there for her when someone was choking
her life away, maybe both of us can now.”

Marian’s eyes glazed with tears and she clutched Jay’s hand.
“You’re a good boy. Getting better every day. I knew to keep the faith in you
even if everyone else said different. I knew you wouldn’t always be such a
selfish son of a gun.”

Cat’s burst of laughter did nothing to appease Jay’s affront.
He lifted his arm from Marian’s shoulders and raised it in surrender.

“Marian, please, can we just have the coffees so I can leave
here with at least an inch of male pride left?”

“What? All I’m saying—”

“I know exactly what you’re saying and I can’t hang around here
listening to it all day. Do you know what? I give up. Don’t worry about the
coffees.”

He gripped Cat’s hand.

She sucked in a breath. “Jay, what are you doing? Wait.”

Jay ignored Cat’s protest and marched toward the door. He was
trying his hardest to change, to make up for all the mistakes he made and didn’t
need Marian reminding him of everything he’d done wrong. He wanted a better
future for himself, for the Cove, but more than anything, he hated the way the
barbed wire ripping through his chest felt strangely like fear. Fear that he
hadn’t changed. Despite wanting Sarah’s death avenged, the truth was he wanted
Cat to stay with him like he wanted air to breathe.

Didn’t that make him the same selfish man he’d always been?

Anger coursed through him, ignited by panic that Cat would turn
away from him like she had last night. His inability to stop that from happening
did nothing to lessen his shame.

CHAPTER EIGHT

C
AT
FLINCHED
WHEN
J
AY
slammed
her door shut with such force the car vibrated its indignation. She had no idea
what just happened but certainly intended to find out the cause of Jay’s
uncharacteristic U-turn. The driver’s door opened and he sank into the seat,
exhaling a heavy breath.

“She doesn’t know when to stop talking. Never has. Never
will.”

Cat stared. His jaw was set so tight it could’ve been sculpted
from marble and his shoulders almost reached his earlobes. “What was all that
about?”

His eyes stormed with anger. “She never lets me forget the
mistakes I’ve made and despite loving her, it really pisses me off.”

“She didn’t mean—”

“You don’t know her. She means plenty.” He glared out the
windshield. “She’s like that with me and she was like that with Sarah.”

He gunned the engine and they pulled away from the curb. Cat
frowned. The afternoon was bright and sunny but the atmosphere inside the car
was Icelandic. She drew in a breath and released it.

“So that was more about Sarah than you? Is that what you’re
saying?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He shot her a glare. “Then don’t, but I’m telling you.”

Cat laughed. “What’s gotten into you? The poor woman was
teasing you, that’s all. She didn’t deserve to have you drag me out of the
bakery midconversation. You were singing her praises until five minutes
ago.”

“Mistake number one, don’t think there’s anything poor womanish
about Marian. She knows everyone in this town inside out, despite only living
here five years. She turned that bakery around from making barely enough to
warrant it being open to making a damn fortune. She is comfortable and
clever.”

Cat raised her eyebrows. “Okay...and the place is yours, right?
So I’m guessing you should love the lady for making you a nice cut of the
profits. What I don’t understand is why you just bit her head clean off when all
she was doing was trying to find out if we’re a couple or not.”

“That’s not all she was doing.” He curled his fingers around
the steering wheel. His knuckles turned white. “Later on, I’m going to tell you
every damn dirty detail of what I’ve been up to since coming out of rehab in
case someone else gets there first, because they will, believe me. I’ve upset
enough people that as soon as they see me happy, they’ll no doubt take acute
pleasure in ripping me back down to size.”

“I don’t understand. What have you done wrong since getting
clean?”
What did he mean since?
Unease prickled
along the surface of her skin. “You have a great house, drive a flashy car and
earned thousands of pounds in profit for your family business. I’d say that’s
pretty admirable.”

“Yeah, but it’s business that has taken over my life. I’ve
worked nonstop to the point it could have helped in killing one of my best
friends.”

Cat stared. Suspicion about the man Jay was now rose up inside
her once again. Dark and unwelcome, her instincts turned to red alert. “What do
you mean?”

He glanced at her. “You don’t have to look at me like that. I
know what I’ve done. That’s not the problem.”

Cat swallowed as her blood ran cold. Was he going to confess?
Tell her he wasn’t entirely honest with Bennett? That there was so much more
going on here than a missed assignation? “What have you done, Jay?”

His jaw set as he glared through the windshield. “I let her
down. Not once, several times. The last time was the worst. If I’d been at the
bakery when she asked—”

“What?” Cat’s heart leaped into her throat and lodged
there.

His cheeks darkened. “I mean—”

“You said you were there. You said she didn’t turn up.” Her
heart beat hard and her throat drained dry. “Did you lie to me?”

“Yes...no...”

She curled her hands into fists. “Which is it? Yes or no?”

“Look, you’re not the only one struggling with the knowledge
you should be sharing things, okay?”

“This isn’t about me. Don’t try to turn this around—”

His jaw tightened. “You’ve talked about your mum twice and not
in the ‘I love Julia’ kind of way. I want to know what that’s about, too, but
you haven’t expanded on it, have you? Well, I’m having the same trouble with
admitting that until the day I found out about Sarah’s murder, I was a
money-hungry, cold and determined workaholic. I went from drugs to work. Once an
addict, always an addict.”

“So you thought you’d lie to me about it instead?”

He pulled to a sharp stop at a red light and turned to face
her. His eyes were glazed and his jaw set. “Yes. But now, goddamn it, I’ll tell
you the truth. I’ll tell you everything. The question is, Cat, will you do the
same?”

She opened her mouth to protest but then slammed it shut as Jay
shot the car forward. Emotions waged a war inside her. He’d lied. To her face.
In the middle of a murder investigation. Bennett still suspected him. Cat
pressed her hand to her stomach. What next? How could she believe a word that
came out of his mouth from there on in?

“You lied to me. Actually lied.”

“I was scared, okay? Scared you wouldn’t come. I’m innocent. I
didn’t hurt her. I promise.”

Cat stared, her heart beating fast. “You tell me absolutely
everything you know. Do you hear me? Everything.”

He glanced at her, his gaze wandering over her face. “I will.
But I want you to do the same. What’s going on with Julia?”

His gaze caught hers for a long moment before she snapped her
head to the window. “Nothing.”

“Right.”

The derision in his tone was rife. If she knew Jay at all, he’d
find a way of making her talk—like looking at her with those gorgeous brown eyes
of his until she told him every damn thing about the mess of her home life.
Wait. Gorgeous brown eyes? The guy was a suspect in their best friend’s murder
and she was thinking about his damn eyes? What was wrong with her? This was
Jay’s fault. He’d always been able to glide his way into her mind...and
body.

Well, not anymore. She was a cop. A detective. There was no way
he would slide under her radar if he was guilty. No matter how much she wanted
him to be innocent.

The tension inside the car grew. Silence stretched like an
invisible blanket, covering them with its heavy weight. Cat sensed Jay was
waiting for her to say something. She would not tell him about her mum. It was
none of his business. Sarah was their business. The only business they would
ever share. She’d find the killer and then go home. Case closed.

“What’s going on, Cat? Talk to me.”

She turned, prayed to God her face was impassive. “Mum’s fine.
I don’t know why you think she isn’t.”

Their gazes locked. The dangerous intensity of Jay’s eyes
burned into her, pinning her with accusation. He turned back to the road. “Fine.
Later I’ll tell you about Sarah’s phone call and you can tell me about
Julia...or not. Entirely up to you.”

Cat snapped her gaze back to the side window, hating him for
making her afraid to talk, loving him for wanting to listen. “This is about
Sarah, not me. You should tell me everything because it’s morally right that you
do. What I choose to tell you is entirely my decision because it’s
personal.”

Silence burned as distrust grew. How was he supposed to
understand that to tell him anything about her mum would mean betraying her?
Jay’s memories of Julia would be forever tarnished. He still remembered her as
the beautiful, generous and model-happy mum who came to the Cove each year. A
big part of Cat didn’t want that to change, not after everything he’d done to
reclaim his life after the horror of addiction. It wouldn’t be right to thrust
him back into that world.

Sitting straighter in her seat, she cleared her throat. “Let’s
go to the forest. I want to see where she was found.”
And
your reaction to being there.

They traveled the rest of the way to Clover Point in silence.
The journey gave Cat the time she needed to get her emotions under control and
refocus on the professional challenges ahead. They were about to see where their
friend was killed. Would it help the case or just stir up bigger and deeper
pain? Either way, she needed to see what Sarah saw, try to get a feeling or a
theory about what brought her friend there that fatal day.

Fifteen minutes later, Jay pulled to a stop outside the cabin
and they got out of the car. His gaze met hers over the roof.

“Do you want to go straight down there?”

Cat looked down the hill toward the forest and the location of
Sarah’s murder. “Probably best. No part of me wants to do this, so delaying it
will only make it worse.”

He gave a sympathetic smile and gestured her to come around the
car. “Come on. I’ll hold your hand.”

She glared. “I don’t want you to hold my hand.”

“Well, I do, so too bad.” He frowned. “Let’s get through this
part together and then we’ll talk about the phone call. No more lies. But, for
God’s sake, let me be here for you when we do this.”

Need for his strength pressed down traitorously on Cat as she
walked around the car. She slid her hand into his and it fit like it always did.
Their gazes met and as much as she wanted to hold on to her anger, Cat felt it
falter. He had to be innocent. He just had to.

Together they began the descent toward the forest. The heat of
his skin against hers and the warmth of familiarity hitched her heart. She was
walking to the site of her friend’s murder with the only man she’d ever loved.
The cruelty of it prickled at the back of her eyes.

They walked on, the only sounds the crunch of grass beneath
their feet and the cry of the occasional seagull overhead. All too soon they
came to a stile separating the edge of Jay’s land and the publicly owned forest
at its edges. Cat’s mind rushed with images of Sarah as a young girl chasing
waves and screaming happily along the Cove’s sandy beach. Another of them
sitting side by side toasting marshmallows on the veranda of the holiday home
Cat’s family rented every year. Another with Sarah leaning close to her ear and
asking if she thought one of them would end up marrying their hunky friend, Jay
Garrett.

Sadness threatened and Cat blinked, forcing herself to refocus.
“How far in was she found?” Her gaze centered on the thicket of trees in front
of them, darker than night and twice as cold.

“A good way,” he said, quietly. “I couldn’t have seen anything
from the house.”

She squeezed his fingers. He squeezed back. Drawing in a long
breath, she pushed the hair back from her face with a trembling hand. She was
angry with him and he with her. More and more, Cat’s emotional resources drained
away and if Jay was innocent in all this, he deserved so much more than she had
to give. Whatever happened, she and he would never work.

“Once we find her killer, we’ll both feel stronger.”

His quiet confidence whispered between them and Cat met his
somber gaze. Her fingers itched to touch his face and her lips suddenly wanted
to feel his, warm and soft against hers. She closed her eyes.

“I just wish I’d come back to the Cove before this. Come back
to see Sarah...and you. To have you both near me again. Time is so
precious.”

“Then stay.”

She snapped her eyes wide open. “What?”

“Stay after we nail the bastard who did this. Take some time
off and spend it with me. I want you here.”

She slid her hand from his and turned her back to him to stare
at the forest. “How can you say that to me now? After everything...” Cat crossed
her arms and the view blurred as injustice bounced from the trees surrounding
them. “I might have wanted you to be more than my one-time lover once upon a
time, but that was over seven years ago. Even without Sarah’s death, things are
so different now. For both of us.”

“And because of that, it’s wrong to explore what might or might
not have happened if you had come back after your dad died? Or if I had come
after you?”

She shook her head and prayed the tears in her eyes didn’t
spill over. “We’re both in an emotionally raw state and any attraction either of
us might be feeling has a lot more to do with a longing for a time gone by than
with anything real or lasting. Our friend has been murdered, it’s understandable
that we would look to each other—”

“How can you say that?” He came behind her and cupped her
elbows. “It’s always been us. Time got in the way. The tragedy of your father’s
death meant you never came back, but neither of us wanted what happened to stop
at one night. We’re meant to be...”

He stopped and the weight of his chin rested on the top of her
head. Cat closed her eyes. A lone tear escaped over her cheek. “We’re meant to
be what?”

“We’re meant to be Cat and Jay. Jay and Cat.”

She smiled and swiped at a fallen tear, her heart aching.
“That’s not enough, and you know it.” She turned around and tipped her head back
to look into his eyes. She touched her fingertips to his jaw. “Right now is
Sarah’s time. When this investigation is over, we’re going to say our goodbyes
and go back to our normal lives, content in the knowledge Sarah can rest in
peace, okay?”

His gaze bore into hers before dropping to her lips. “If you
think we can really do that, kiss me.”

She pulled her fingers from his face and stepped back.
“What?”

“I didn’t think so. You’re more scared of what could happen if
we kissed than you are of going in that forest. You’re more scared of this
feeling between us than you are of catching a killer. I’m innocent, and I don’t
believe you really think what is between us is so unfounded it can be
ignored.”

“Jay—”

He held up his hand and nodded toward the forest. “So, let’s do
this. Let’s take this next step to finding justice for a girl who meant so much
to both of us. Then maybe you’ll be ready to talk about you and me.”