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Authors: Rachel Brimble

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Her voice cracked and she put her hand over her mouth. It was
too much. He couldn’t leave her standing there when he’d tipped her entire world
on its axis. Jay stepped forward with his arms outstretched. She hesitated,
tears streaking silver down her cheeks before coming forward. She reached her
arms around him and the breath left his lungs. Her warm tears soaked into his
shirt and Jay stood immobile as her anger and disappointment joined those of so
many other people he hurt. It spread a pool deep in his soul that he hoped one
day he’d be ready to lift the plug from and let drain away, drop by drop.

“Will you take me in?” Her voice broke the silence.

He pressed a kiss to her crown. “Sure. We’ll talk more
tomorrow.”

She straightened in the circle of his arms and cupped her hand
to his jaw. Gratitude pushed the air from his lungs. She smiled softly.

“I’m not turning away from you. You do know that, right? I’ll
still be here in the morning and we’ll find Sarah’s killer. This is just a lot
for me to deal with...”

Her words trailed off and turning his head, Jay kissed her
palm, eased down her hand and held it tightly.

“I know. It’s a lot. I’ve done a lot, but doing that to Sarah
was probably the worst. I tried to apologize, tried to make it up to her, but
she never forgave me.”

She shook her head. “She did. She called you right before she
died. She needed you. Don’t you see what that means?”

His eyes scanned her face, her beauty, her fire, and hope burst
behind his rib cage. “Whatever was going on with her was serious enough to
forgive me and get me back in her life. Quickly.”

She nodded. “Exactly. She was into something so bad it got her
killed. Whatever both of us have or haven’t done in the last seven years, from
now on that’s our only focus, okay? Once we get whoever killed Sarah behind
bars—”

“You’ll go home.”

She closed her eyes. “Jay—”

“So I have to talk about this, Cat. I want you to know. I don’t
want any secrets between us.”

Her eyes snapped open and something akin to panic shot across
them before she took her hand from his and focused on the cabin. “I need to
sleep. We’ll talk in the morning...after I’ve had my visit with Bennett.”

Surprise catapulted him upright. “You’ve managed to get an
appointment with Bennett?”

She nodded. “Nine o’clock. I need to sleep.”

She took off before he could stop her, but Jay followed,
marveling at her ability to make anything possible—and wondering what inside her
caused such fear to appear in her eyes when he’d said he wanted no more
secrets.

CHAPTER SIX

T
HE
TAXI
PULLED
UP
outside the front double doors of the Templeton Cove police station and
Cat delved into her bag for her wallet. She extracted a ten-pound note and
handed it to the driver.

“Keep the change.”

She got out of the car and slammed the door. The facade of the
tiny station looked almost quaint compared to the city station back in Reading.
Yet it wasn’t quaint. It was a place that dealt with the same crimes, murders
and thefts as anywhere else. She drew in a deep breath and tried to clear her
mind.

Still vibrating from the shock of Jay’s revelation last night,
it was an impossible task. First the drugs and then his cruel breaking of
Sarah’s trust.

Cat had woken at seven and gone around the cabin like a
burglar, tiptoeing around his house, desperately trying not to wake him. She’d
snuck downstairs, trying and failing to avoid creaking floorboards as she’d
walked to the kitchen. Once there, she’d taken a glass from the cupboard and
then fumbled with it, thankfully finally managing to catch it like a clown at a
kids’ circus, before it crashed to the floor.

Jay. Her Jay. Sarah’s Jay.

Aware of cops and civilians walking around her, Cat wandered
away from the entrance. She was half an hour early despite killing time asking
fruitless questions about Sarah at the convenience store and coffee shop. She
pulled her cell from her bag and feigned interest in the blackened screen. Jay
and what he’d done bounced around inside her head like a Ping-Pong ball.

The reality of his going to Sarah’s school while high on drugs
told her just how tightly his addiction had gripped him. The worst Julia had
done was to turn up at police headquarters carrying a dilapidated bunch of
daffodils, demanding she see her sergeant daughter on her birthday.

Cat’s birthday had been a month before.

She looked at the ground and waited for the memory to abate.
Humiliation and fear of what her mother would do next had been paramount that
day. No doubt the same emotions swept through Sarah at a more terrifying rate
than Cat could contemplate. How could Jay have done that to her?

She shook her head. No. Jay wasn’t Jay that day. She had to
remember that and find the strength to listen to him. Jay was in recovery and
had shared the explanation she demanded from him almost as soon as she’d see
him. Instead of listening and acting like a friend and professional, she’d run
like a coward because it was too painful, too close to her existence.

Hitching her bag onto her shoulder, Cat tilted her chin. She
wouldn’t do that again. Turning, she marched back toward the station entrance,
continuing resolutely forward until she pushed open the door and headed for the
reception desk. The duty sergeant greeted her with a smile warm enough to melt
an ice-cream sundae and once more, Cat remembered she was no longer in the
city.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

She smiled back. “I have a nine o’clock appointment with
Inspector Bennett. I’m Sergeant Cat Forrester visiting from Reading.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Sergeant. Take a seat. I’ll go let him
know you’re here.”

She sat down on one of the four plastic chairs lining the wall
behind her and waited. She was impatient to get started, anticipation and hope
jumped along her nerve endings. The early-morning sun shone through the vertical
blinds beside her, lighting parallel lines across the gray tiled floor. The pale
beige walls were scattered with posters telling Templeton residents to Stay
Safe, Be Aware of Stranger Danger and Not All Visitors Are Nice Visitors. It was
friendly, safe, trustworthy and Cat guessed Sarah’s murder was the first one the
Cove had seen for years...possibly ever.

The click of a side door opening turned her head and she
immediately stood. The man coming toward her was tall, around six-three, maybe
four, with short sandy-colored hair, pleasant, shining eyes and a nice smile. He
held out his hand.

“Sergeant Forrester, Inspector Bennett. Welcome to Templeton
Cove.”

She took his hand and his fingers clasped around hers firmly
and with just the right amount of expected authority. She dipped her head and
smiled. “Thank you, sir. I wish the circumstances were happier, but it’s nice to
meet you.”

His smile faltered as his eyes wandered over her face. Cop
eyes. She knew what he was doing and instantly liked him for it. A new face was
always one to be learned about. Who was the person behind the mask?

After a moment, he gestured her toward the open door. “Shall
we?”

He led her through the busy but not particularly bustling
station, past walnut-veneer desks scattered with loose papers and neatly stacked
trays. As they walked, they passed several uniformed and non-uniformed officers
who eyed her with curiosity before resuming their conversations or telephone
calls. They reached his corner office and Bennett shut the door behind them,
providing some semblance of quiet.

“Have a seat, Sergeant.”

The sudden and colder change in his tone alerted Cat to the
reality of Bennett’s feelings about her being there. His friendly greeting
appeared to have been little more than a smokescreen when they were in
reception. Smiling inwardly, Cat sat down. That was fine. They could play this
however he wanted, but she would definitely leave knowing more than when she
arrived.

“Thank you, sir.”

He lowered his admirably fit and athletic physique, considering
he must have been in his late forties, into the seat behind his desk. He stared
at her expectantly. “So I understand you knew our victim and want in on the
investigation?”

Cat sat up straighter. “I’m not here to step on anyone’s toes,
sir. I’m here to help.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I’ve known Sarah since—”

“Yes, you said on the phone. You came here for how many
summers?”

“Eight. I was twelve the first time.”

“You spent a lot of time with Miss Cole every year?”

Cat smiled. “All the time.”

“I see.”

He stood and Cat turned in her swivel chair to watch him walk
to the windowed wall of his office. He stared out at his team. Her gaze slid
past his shoulder to the incident board of Sarah’s murder pinned up in the far
corner. Impatience hitched up a notch inside her. Now she’d seen it, Cat could
barely sit still for wanting to tear out of the office and devour what
information his team had accumulated.

When it appeared that Bennett wasn’t going to add anything
else, Cat cleared her throat. “A close friend of Sarah’s rang me asking for my
help, sir, and I couldn’t ignore it.” She hesitated. Should she tell him that
close friend was also one of his suspects? Not yet. Deciding to wait to see how
this meeting panned out, Cat continued. “I knew Sarah. I know I can offer
something to this investigation others can’t. If you’re willing to let me see
what you have, I’ll do everything I can to help solve the case.”

He turned and one eyebrow arched in blatant disbelief. “You
really expect me to give you free reign to start poking about in an
investigation you have zero authority to be a part of?”

She swallowed as Mr. Friendly Inspector well and truly
disappeared under the cheap carpet tiles at her feet. She raised her hand as
though taking an oath. “You have my word I will work entirely
with
you. Anything I find out, no matter how small,
you’ll be the first to know.”

With his gaze still locked on hers, Bennett walked back to his
desk and sat down. “If you came here for eight years since you were twelve,
pardon me, Sergeant, but you’re knocking the wrong side of twenty-five, so I’m
guessing you hadn’t seen our victim for a while.”

Ignoring the jibe at her appearance, Cat lifted her shoulders.
“I hadn’t seen Sarah for seven years, but that doesn’t make my involvement
obsolete. The mutual friend who called me for help knew her forever and Sarah
rang him the day she died.”

His color darkened and his gaze darted over her face. “Is that
so?”

Cat tilted her chin at his belligerent tone. “Yes.”

He leaned his elbows on the desk and threaded his fingers.
“Well, that’s very interesting because we checked her land and cell records and
spoke to everyone she rang that day. There are no friends unaccounted for. So
who is this friend exactly?”

Here goes nothing.
“Jay Garrett, he
lives—”

“At the top of Clover Point, at the top of the place where the
victim drew her last breath. You’ve been talking to a bloody suspect.”

Cat flinched. “But surely if you had reason to still suspect
him—”

“He was the first person we paid a personal visit to,
Sergeant...and for your information, he failed to mention any phone call.”

Why hadn’t Jay told them about the phone call? She struggled to
keep her expression impassive. “The only reason I can think of that might
explain why he did that is because he feels he could’ve saved her life.”

Bennett huffed out a laugh. “Oh, that’s why he’d keep the
information from me, is it?”

Cat straightened her spine. She’d deal with Jay’s failure to
tell the police everything he knew the minute she left the station, but there
was no way in hell Bennett was going to dismiss her from Sarah’s case. “She
never showed up at the place she asked Jay to meet her and he didn’t follow up
with her. He didn’t do everything possible to contact her because it was the
first time she’d gotten in touch with him in years and he assumed she changed
her mind. He didn’t see it as important.” Cat swallowed the horrible taste in
her mouth.

Another eyebrow lift. “Didn’t see it as important? Even when
her body turned up at the bottom of his damn garden?”

Unease rippled through Cat’s bloodstream. “No.”

He shook his head. “Unbelievable. Then enlighten me, Sergeant.
Give me a reason why I shouldn’t get one of my officers to track Garrett down
right now and drag his ass into custody.”

What have you done, Jay? Why the hell
didn’t you tell him?
Cat steadfastly met his gaze. “Sarah said she
needed his help and asked him to meet her at a bakery on the beachfront.”

“Marian’s?”

Cat nodded, marveling once again at the small-town intimacy.
She couldn’t decide if it was nice or just plain creepy. “When he got there,
Sarah never turned up. Now, of course, we know she was in trouble and maybe felt
Jay was the only person to trust. He couldn’t do anything then, but he can now.
He called me to help you with the investigation, sir, because he had no idea
what else to do. So, I’d appreciate you letting me prove to you he’s
innocent.”

“Innocent? So you want in on this case having already written
off your friend as a suspect without evidence?” He smiled. “Well, of course
you’re in. Why would I think it’s a bad idea you working on the case?”

Irritation at his sarcasm mixed with the harsh truth of his
words. She wasn’t giving him the best first impression. She wasn’t acting like a
damn cop. She closed her eyes. “Look, maybe I want to think him innocent but
that will not undermine my determination to find the true killer. If it turns
out to be Jay...I’ll prove it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

“They were best friends, I’m finding it hard to picture Jay
choking the life out of her, but that doesn’t mean I won’t arrest him if he did.
I’ll want him serving life behind bars as you will, believe me.” The horror of
that reality beat through Cat’s blood turning it icy-cold.

“You never come across a friendship gone wrong in your career,
Sergeant? A domestic dispute that ended in murder? Until I have cause to think
otherwise, your friend Mr. Garrett will remain a suspect.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

He narrowed his eyes, carefully watching her. “How do you
explain him not telling us about Miss Cole’s phone call? Doesn’t that strike you
as unusual?”

Defensiveness for Jay rose up in Cat’s heart. Innocent until
proven guilty. Whether misplaced or not was yet to be proven, but belief for
him, in him, burned like fire in her blood. She tilted her chin. “I wonder
whether you’d have believed anything he had to say considering his drug use.
Maybe he assumed the same.”

Their gazes locked. After a long moment, Bennett turned his
concentration to some papers on his desk. “Well, apart from the friendship
blinding you to reality, you’re not giving me any reason to let you in. You
didn’t know the victim when she died, you don’t know who she was seeing, what
the drug connection is or what the hell she was doing at Clover Point that
day.”

“Drug connection?” Cat’s gut twisted as a shot of adrenaline
rushed through her. Jay mentioned the drugs as a possible rumor, nothing more.
Now here was Bennett... “What drugs, sir? Sarah wouldn’t have taken drugs.”

He stared at her and a faint flush stained his cheeks. He
brought his hands together on the desk. “Nothing was found in her system, but
we’ve had mention of Sarah possibly handling drug money.”

“Handling...but that’s crazy.”

He leaned back in his chair and stared at her. “How would you
know after a seven-year absence? You didn’t know Sarah at all anymore.”

Cat’s hackles rose like the hair along a dog’s back. “Excuse
me, sir, but—”

“But nothing. Bloody hell, even I knew Sarah better than you.
This is my case, my jurisdiction. Why—”

“You knew her?”

He met her eyes and something akin to loss or distress flashed
across his face before he pulled it back into professional place. “Yes, I knew
her. Who didn’t in Templeton? She was a lovely girl, one who should have been
looking forward to getting married one day, not lying in a morgue waiting for
someone to catch the bastard who did this.”

Cat closed her eyes. “I didn’t think.”

“Clearly. You come in here expecting us to be some kind of
second-class police force because we’re close to the damn sea rather than in an
office block. You’re not the first to make that mistake and you won’t be the
last.”

BOOK: Finding Justice
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