If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense (6 page)

Oh, yeah, Ezra wanted to think that Nia was paranoid, even waited a few seconds to give his brain a chance to conjure up the appropriate, noncondescending response.

It wouldn’t come.

As he stared into golden eyes, all he could feel was a faint, excited hum in his blood … one that was all too familiar.

“Exactly why do you think I need tools to find him?” he asked finally, leaning back in his chair, keeping his poker face on.

“Well, at least you’re not patting me on the head and reminding me that you guys buried somebody, somebody you think did it,” she muttered, more to herself than him.

Ezra chuckled. “I get the feeling that if some guy tried to pat you on the head, he might draw back a bloody stump, Ms. Hollister. And you haven’t answered me.”

“I’m still trying to figure out how to say it. I was prepared to come in here and have you throw me out on my ass, seeing as how you were probably involved in closing that case.”

“No.” He shrugged. “I just stepped into this slot at the beginning of the year. The deputy sheriff, Steven Mabry, took over the job temporarily, but he was only willing to do it until they found somebody else. It’s not a job he wanted for the long haul just yet.”

Nia lifted a brow. “I take it you’re the somebody else?”

“Yeah.” He grimaced, absently reaching down to rub his leg. “I’m the somebody else.”

“So maybe that’s why you’re not throwing me out on my ass. You haven’t been involved in this from the get-go.” She inclined her head as she spoke.

Ezra grinned at her. “Oh, no. Make no mistake. I couldn’t have been any more
involved
in this if I’d asked. And I didn’t ask—didn’t want it, either. Now that you’re done stalling, why don’t you tell me just why you think I need to find a killer when the record says he’s already been found … found dead, by the way?”

A straight shooter, Nia surmised.

A drop-dead gorgeous one, too. Under normal circumstances, she’d like to see him in front of her camera. Those deep green eyes, that wide, somewhat wicked smile.

But Nia’s life was so far from normal … Still trying to find the words, she looked around his office. Absently, she glanced down, saw the glint of gold on his hand. “You’re married.”

“Yep. Few months ago. And you’re still stalling.”

“Not … stalling. Formulating.” Nervously, she rose from the chair and started to pace. Her messenger bag bumped against her hip as she did and she rested a hand on it, on the files inside. “This … shit. I was out here before, back when Sheriff Nielson was trying to find my cousin’s killer. Did you hear about that?”

A faint grin curved Ezra’s mouth up. “Enough to hear that you’ve got a mean right hook.”

“I take it you and Reilly are friends.” She blushed hotly and looked away.

“Of a sort. Yeah, I guess. He’s one of my wife’s best friends. And because I love her, I try not to hate him.”

Curious, she glanced back at him. “Ah, why would you hate him for being friends with her?”

“Because he had a thing for her when I first moved here.” Then he scowled. “Shit, you got a way of making people tell you things, you know that.”

He glanced down, studying a picture frame on his desk.

Nia followed his gaze. “Is that your wife?”

He nodded.

Nia waited, but he didn’t hold it out to her. She lifted a brow. “May I see?”

“You don’t want to see.” There was something in his voice … something strained, she realized.

It made a shiver of cold race down her spine for reasons she couldn’t understand.

“Why not?” Nia asked, ignoring the voice that whispered,
Leave it alone
.

Ezra studied her face with narrowed eyes. “Did you come out here to talk about your cousin or study my wedding picture? I’m just curious.”

“The case. But now I’m curious why you think I shouldn’t see the picture.” She ambled up to the desk, reaching out, slowly, deliberately.

Ezra didn’t stop her as she traced a finger down the smooth crystal, then lifted it. It was the fancy sort of frame somebody would buy as a wedding gift—heavy and solid and expensive.

“It will hurt you,” Ezra said quietly. He reached out, wrapped his fingers around her wrist. “I promise you that.”

Then he shifted his gaze to hers, and once more, she saw the compassion there. Swallowing, she tugged away from his grasp, still holding the picture. At first, her brain couldn’t quite process what she was seeing. Not at first.

It was a trick—had to be. The framed picture was a collage. The largest image was like a punch straight to her gut and she almost doubled over from the pain.

The second image showed the woman with her back to the photographer, a pale, smooth back. That alone had Nia biting her lip, hard enough to draw blood.
It’s not her, girl. It’s not her, it’s not Joely … it’s not, it’s not …
Her back, long and slim, left bare by her wedding dress. Nia could see her shoulders, and they were unmarked, pale as porcelain.

No butterfly tattoo.

The strength drained out of Nia’s legs and if the sheriff hadn’t come around the desk, she might have ended up on her ass, right there on the floor.

He caught her arm, eased her back. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly, catching the frame as it slipped from her numb fingers.

“Who … who is that?”

“It’s my wife,” he said gently.

Nia lifted her head, staring at him, feeling so battered, so drained. “Your … your wife. She’s your wife.”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine how much it hurts. When I—when I first saw the picture of your cousin, I couldn’t quite get over it myself. That’s why I didn’t really want you seeing her picture.”

“She—I, well.” Nia nodded, pressed her lips together. “I can see the differences, but it’s spooky.”

“You’re telling me.” Ezra grimaced. Then he paused, studying her face. “Are you okay? Do you need a drink?”

“Fuck, no.” She winced and muttered, “Sorry. I can’t put anything in my stomach, though. I’d puke all over the floor.”

“Okay.” He leaned back against the desk, setting the picture down, angled away so Nia couldn’t see it.

Not that it mattered. She wasn’t likely to forget there was a woman out there who was almost her cousin’s twin. A woman who lived in this town where her cousin had died.

This was too much—She wanted out of here.
Now
.

But she wouldn’t do that. Not until she’d done what she came for. She’d come for a reason and Nia didn’t walk just because things got hard. She didn’t do it.

Taking a deep breath, she reached into her bag and pulled out the folder. “I know whoever took over after Sheriff Nielson died says they closed the case. But it doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t buy it. Something … shit. I don’t know, it’s like there are pieces missing from the puzzle and until I’ve got those pieces, I can’t find whatever so-called closure I’m supposed to find to get on with my life. So … well, I’ve been digging around.”

Ezra narrowed his eyes. “Digging around how?”

“Online, mostly. Phone calls, sometimes. People give me information—providing I don’t do anything with it.” She gave him a tight smile. “I know people. I’m a photojournalist. For a while, I thought I wanted to be an investigative reporter, but then I figured out I preferred to capture the story from behind the camera. And I’m better at it. Still, I’ve got decent instincts and I know people. Called in some favors.”

She licked her lips and looked down at the folder. The one holding the information on Kathleen Hughes. With a shaking hand, she held it out to the sheriff, watched as he took it. But as he flipped it open, she looked away, unable to watch his face. “I’ve been following up on missing persons reports and women who’ve been assaulted and murdered. Nothing really clicked with anybody until I saw her. She doesn’t really fit the profile right. She doesn’t look anything like my cousin. She was younger, into parties, living hard. If I had been looking to connect them, I never would have.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw him flipping through it.

“So why did you?” he asked, his voice absent, distracted.

She wasn’t fooled. When she shot a look at him, she could tell he was taking in everything. Everything about the victim—about the information in his hands.

She saw the exact moment he found what had jumped out at her—what had made
her
connect things. And then she waited for him to tell her she really needed to let go … to move on her with her life.

Instead, he cocked his head and plucked the report out, reading it over a second time.

“Her hair was cut,” he murmured. He flicked a glance at her.

She swallowed and nodded.

“Not all of it—the guy probably didn’t want to get anything on him. Looks like …”

“He messed her up good,” Nia said, shrugging. “I’m not delicate, Sheriff King. I’ve seen a number of dead bodies, more than I care to remember. But I’m not delicate. She would have had blood and brain tissue all over her. If he’d been found hauling
that
around …”

“Wouldn’t be wise,” Ezra murmured.

“There’s more,” she said quietly.

He flipped it over and when he came to the part where a roommate mentioned a bracelet missing, his eyes narrowed.

“She was wearing some pretty expensive bling—the bracelet was made custom for her, although it wouldn’t have been obvious at first—it was engraved on the inside with the words,
For my angel
,” Nia said.

She hadn’t known about that until she talked to the woman’s roommate a few days later. It had been inscribed with
For my angel
—it had been a gift from an old boyfriend, the doctor in Detroit. She’d dropped the boyfriend, kept the bling. Nia had gotten a few more details from the roommate as well—the bracelet
wasn’t
one of a kind, but there were two details that might as well make it that way.

It had been inscribed and set with a stone … on the inside. A sapphire, a small one.

Kathleen’s birthstone. Apparently the doctor had wanted her to have something unique—she’d wanted the bracelet, but he’d wanted it to be special for her. But Nia kept that bit of information quiet.

“You can see that she had on some pretty expensive jewelry. Some earrings worth two or three hundred, at least. A necklace that would have sold for three or four. A mess of rings. The only thing missing was the diamond bracelet.”

“She wasn’t mugged, then.” Ezra nodded absently, still studying the report.

“No.”

Slowly, Ezra blew out a breath and laid the report facedown on the folder. Then he looked at her. “I can’t say I blame you, still following up on this—if she’d been my cousin, I don’t know that I could let it go, either. And I can also see why this is screaming at you. But it might not mean anything. There was good,
solid
evidence on Joe Carson.”

Nia tilted her head, holding his gaze. “I’ve also been following things that have taken place around here. Law Reilly’s girlfriend was set up, made to look like she’d attacked him. Although that mouse couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Girlfriend … mouse …” Ezra shook his head. “You’re talking about Hope, I assume. She’s not his girlfriend, and Nia? That girl might be quiet, but she’s not a mouse.”

Nia shot him a scowl. “Keep up, okay? Somebody leaves my cousin’s body on Reilly’s property. It’s pretty clear to me that somebody is … or at least
was
screwing with law enforcement, doing whatever they could to
throw people off the trail. Who is to say this isn’t just more of that?”

Ezra stared at her. His green eyes were hard and flat.

And although he didn’t say it, she saw something in his eyes.

He had a good game face, but she could read people … and she knew what she saw in his eyes.

He was worried, all right—worried about just that.

E
DGY AND RESTLESS
, L
AW LEFT
L
ENA AND
R
OZ IN THE
café while he headed down to the post office. There was no real reason for him to go down there. Hope had already been out there this morning, but he couldn’t stay in the café, either. He needed to get out of the crush in there—seemed like half the damn town had shown up.

Roz was chattering on about a couple of weddings she had coming up, Lena was talking new menus. If he had to hear any more inane chatter about roses, champagne brunches, and the like, he was going to go stark, raving mad.

Or maybe he was already getting there.

Normally, he could tune them out, talk with Carter, or just zone, focus on one of the books, something, anything besides the chatter—hell, there had been a time when just being with Lena had been enough for him.

That had changed. Shit, everything had changed, and not just because she was married, and not just because he realized he wasn’t in love with her.

He was edgy and he didn’t really know why.

He was edgy and he couldn’t focus on writing, couldn’t focus on anything.

He was edgy … restless, like something was nipping at his heels.

As he passed by the sheriff’s department, he absently glanced toward it. Sometimes he still half-expected to see Nielson striding out of there—he didn’t know if he’d ever get used to not seeing that guy.

As he went to look away, though, he found himself freezing.

Doing a double take.

Shit.

It was
her
.

Nia.

Nia Hollister.

Fuck …

The air dwindled down out of his lungs. At the same time, he felt his heart start to race in his chest. Shit. Son of a bitch. What in the hell …

That was when he noticed Ezra, walking along beside her.

Ezra caught sight of him and then he glanced past him, toward the café. Something dark flashed through the other man’s eyes—something Law couldn’t quite define. Worry. Nerves.

What the fuck … he didn’t care about Ezra. She was here. What was she doing here?

As they came to a stop in front of Law, he stared at her, into those pale golden eyes.

“Hey, Law.” Ezra gave him a tight smile. “You heading back to the café?”