Forgotten Pieces. Tyler Anne Snell

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СКАЧАТЬ hand was itching to run along it before stopping just below his lips. For all she cared the rest of the man could have been a stick figure and she’d still rate him at an easy eleven. But it certainly didn’t hurt his cause that he was tall and had muscles peeking through his button-down. That was a change from the last time she’d seen him in person. He’d been more lean and less toned. Then again, she wasn’t surprised.

      Everyone worked through grief differently.

      Some people started a new hobby; some people threw themselves into the gym.

      Others investigated unsolved murders in secret.

      “And why, of all people, would you need me here?” Matt asked, cutting through her mental breakdown of him.

      Instead of stepping backward, utilizing the large open space of her front porch, she chanced a step forward.

      “I found something,” she started, straining out any excess enthusiasm that might make her seem coarse. Still, she knew the detective was a keen observer. Which is why his frown was already doubling in on itself before she explained herself.

      “I don’t want to hear this,” he interrupted, voice like ice. “I’m warning you, Carson.”

      “And it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done so,” she countered, skipping over the fact he’d said her last name like a teacher readying to send her to detention. “But right now I’m telling you I found a lead. A real, honest-to-God lead!”

      The detective’s frown affected all of his body. It pinched his expression and pulled his posture taut. Through gritted teeth, he rumbled out his thoughts with disdain clear in his words.

      “Why do you keep doing this? What gives you the right?” He took a step away from her. That didn’t stop Maggie.

      “It wasn’t an accident,” she implored. “I can prove it now.”

      Matt shook his head. He skipped frustrated and flew right into angry. This time Maggie faltered.

      “You have no right digging into this,” he growled. “You didn’t even know Erin.”

      “But don’t you want to hear what I found?”

      Matt made a stop motion with his hands. The jaw she’d been admiring was set. Hard. “I don’t want to ever talk to you again. Especially about this.” He turned and was off the front porch in one fluid motion. Before he got into his truck he paused. “And next time you call me out here, I won’t hesitate to arrest you.”

      And then he was gone.

      * * *

      THE RIKER COUNTY Sheriff’s Department was quiet. Not that that was a bad thing but after the morning he’d had, Matt was itching to work a case. Anything to distract him from the storm of emotions raging through him. If he was being objective, he knew he’d be surprised at how one woman could affect him so completely. Then again, that woman was Maggie Carson. If she was good at anything it was leaving lasting impressions.

      Without opening the bottom drawer, he imagined the picture within it. Erin Walker, smiling up at him. His beautiful wife. Unaware that a year later she’d be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

      Matt fisted his hands on the top of his desk.

      “So you’re ticked off, huh?” A knock pulled his attention to the doorway and the man standing inside it. Sheriff Billy Reed wasn’t frowning but he wasn’t smiling, either. “I heard you answered a suspicious persons call on your way in this morning. A potential breaking and entering?”

      Matt opened his hands slowly. He sighed.

      Billy wasn’t just his sheriff, he was also one of Matt’s closest friends. There wasn’t any use trying to hedge around the truth. Or flat out lie.

      “The only suspicious person was the woman who called in the false report to get me there in the first place. I should have let a deputy handle it but she asked specifically for me. It was a trap,” he admitted, earning an eyebrow raise from his boss, “set by Maggie Carson.”

      Billy’s demeanor shifted to understanding. He might not have been sheriff five years ago but that didn’t mean he’d missed what had happened. Or why Matt had such an issue with Maggie.

      “What did she want? I thought she hasn’t tried to talk to you in years.”

      Matt tried to keep his rising anger in check.

      “She said she had a lead that proves Erin’s death wasn’t an accident.”

      Billy scowled, disapproval shrouding his expression.

      “What’s the lead?”

      “Hell if I know. I didn’t give her the chance to tell me,” he admitted. “She doesn’t have the best track record with me.”

      “I thought she would have moved on from the case,” Billy said. “I wonder what it was she thought she found.” Behind his words was a new curiosity. And, if Matt hadn’t been so close to the situation, he would have listened to his own need to know. However, he was too close. And apparently, unlike Maggie, he had moved on.

      “Maybe she’s tired of writing magazine fluff pieces,” Matt offered. “And now she’s trying to claw her way back to the news spotlight by digging up the past she has no business digging up.”

      Billy stepped into the office. It was small and the bull pen of deputies started a few feet away. The sheriff must not have wanted them to hear what he was about to say, though. He lowered his voice.

      “But what about the anonymous tip we got six months ago? Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hear her out?”

      Matt started to bristle. He’d been completely blindsided when he’d received a call from a man who claimed the same thing Maggie had. That the car accident that had killed Erin and one other pedestrian, hadn’t been an accident at all. At the time the anonymous caller refused to identify himself unless Matt drove to Georgia to meet him. He’d only told Billy and the chief deputy, Suzy Simmons. They’d gone to the meet location together, only to find a note left with a waitress that read “I’m sorry.” Matt and Suzy had stuck around to try to track down the man but they hadn’t had any luck.

      “That man could have been unstable or bored or both,” he said. “For all we know Maggie could have orchestrated the whole thing.” Even as he said it, Matt doubted his words. Whatever his issues with Maggie, he didn’t think she was that malicious. He let out another long breath. “I just—I’ve finally gotten to a good place with what happened to Erin,” Matt admitted. “And until I find some hard evidence that the accident that killed my wife wasn’t an accident at all, then I’d prefer to not start up and drag another investigation along.”

      Billy nodded.

      “And I don’t blame you for that,” he said. “If Maggie gives you any more trouble, let me know.” He cracked a smile and tapped the badge on his belt. “I’m not afraid to use this thing.”

      Matt thanked him and spent the rest of the day avoiding any and all thoughts of Maggie, anonymous tips that led nowhere and an investigation he had drowned himself in years before. It wasn’t until he had left the department СКАЧАТЬ