Cowboy Truth: Cowboy Justice Association #3 (6 page)

He sounded like he really meant it.

“All women? Even old lady Cartwright? She’s about a hundred years old.”

He turned and smiled. “Even her. She has a wisdom about her. She showed me pictures from her youth once. Man, she was hot back in the day. She must have had every man in Corville panting after her.”

“Maybe you should have used her to make Christina jealous.”

“I think she’s already in a relationship with Malcolm Sweeney.”

“My pizza’s getting cold.” Ava turned on her heel and went back into the kitchen, sitting down at the island. For some reason, she felt uncomfortable talking with Logan about relationships.

He followed her and settled back into his chair, watching her closely. “So will you help me?”

“Help you with what?” she asked evasively.

He chuckled. “I’m not letting you off the hook, good girl. Help me discourage Christina. Be seen with me. Come out with me and some friends on Tuesday night. It will help both of us.”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. He was a smooth talker but she was wise to his game.

“How will this help both of us?”

“Christina will see me with another woman and you’ll get out of your ivory tower. It might help your writing.” He gave her a charming smile she was certain worked on women young and old. She felt her resolve starting to waver. It was tempting to give in. She was tired of her good girl image and being seen with Logan Wright was a sure way to destroy it. “I’m talking about going out on the town as friends. Have a few beers and some laughs. We’ll go to the roadhouse and dance.”

Oh hell no. Temptation withered and died there and then. He wanted her to be in a crowd of people. Those were situations she avoided like the plague. She had a small band of friends in Portland who enjoyed quiet evenings.

Boring evenings.

“I think I’ll pass. That sounds like Dante’s third circle of hell, honestly. I don’t like crowds.”

“I think you’ll go.” He grinned the patented Logan Wright smile.

“Why would I do that?” she asked, exasperated. Being around Logan was a little exhausting. He poked and prodded and asked way too many questions.

“Because you want to help me with this case so you can be a better writer.”

“You’re blackmailing me,” she said flatly.

“You blackmailed me,” he countered. “I let you help me with this case, and you let me help you learn how to wake the hell up, with the added bonus that Christina gets the gentle hint to move on. You’re walking through life half asleep, Ava. I don’t know why, but for some reason that bothers me.”

There was a teeny tiny part of her that knew he was right. A big part of her, however, didn’t like giving in too easily.

“I get to help you question people.”

“No way.” Logan shook his head. “No can do. You are an honorary deputy. Not a real one.”

“No questioning, no dancing. No deal.” She crossed her arms across her chest and tried to look tough.

“Your call.” He shrugged. “Looks like you won’t be helping me with this case at all.”

She grabbed his hand. “I thought we were negotiating.”

“What do you have that I need, good girl? I have all the resources I require to solve the case. What can you offer me to let you be part of the investigation?”

He looked like an immovable wall. An amused one. He had her over a barrel and he damn well knew it.

“You win. I’ll go. But I won’t have fun.”

Laughing, he shook his head. “I bet you will. You just need to relax a little. Have some fun.” He balled up his napkin and tossed it and the paper plate in the trash. “Are you done?”

She looked down at her plate and nodded. Just the thought of a loud night out with a bunch of people made her nauseous. She’d rather be looking at crime scene photos of dead bodies. “Yes. I’m full.”

“Good. Let’s get back to work then.” He threw away her trash and they went back to combing through statements. Each one gave them a clearer picture of the whereabouts of all the guests, but there was still a long way to go.

And Logan wasn’t going to take away her opportunity to help. She’d go dancing with him, discourage Christina, and he’d see what a stick in the mud she was. From then on, he’d give up on trying to get her to change.

Change sucked.

Chapter Five

A
va stood in the doorway of the Bryson house, hesitant to enter. The foyer and living room were packed with people and she didn’t like crowds. It wasn’t that she was shy. She could talk someone’s ear off on the right occasion. She simply didn’t like the closed in feeling of a room full of people. She was used to being alone most of the time and it suited her. She enjoyed the peace and quiet.

She looked right and left trying to find an alcove she could melt into and spied an unoccupied area behind a large wing back chair. She hurried toward it and tried to blend into the wallpaper, hoping to escape anyone’s notice.

It was amazing how quickly a funeral could be arranged. Saturday, Bill Bryson was a proud father watching his son get married. Monday afternoon, they’d lowered his casket into the ground and he was being toasted by his earthly friends.

The entire town appeared to be here, with even more people than the wedding. Ava had attended the service in the local church, but had skipped the graveside ritual, much to her parents’ chagrin. Her father especially had been disapproving, saying her absence would be noted.

How they would have been able to tell she wasn’t there in this mass of people was a complete mystery. The crowd of bodies ruled out being able to catalog each and every attendee. She’d paid her respects to the family at the church already so her appearance here was simply to appease her parents who had to live in this town after she left.

She’d thought she’d found a good hiding place but clearly she was mistaken. Her sister, Mary, was heading right for her and there was no time to duck down behind the chair.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Mary got right to the point.

“Why?” asked Ava. She couldn’t think of a single reason Mary would want to talk to her. They’d barely spoken since Saturday.

“You gave Sheriff Wright the guest list from the wedding.” Her sister looked less than happy, but that wasn’t all that unusual. Mary could be moody at times and the ruination of her wedding hadn’t helped her disposition. Her mother had been on the phone with Mary for two days trying to calm her down.

There was no point in pretending. “Yes. Was it a secret? I’m helping Logan find your father-in-law’s killer. I thought you’d be happy about that. Don’t you want to bring him to justice?”

Her sister had the decency to blush slightly. “Of course, but Uncle George told them it couldn’t be retrieved. Then you produced it. It makes George look like a liar.”

“Isn’t he?” Ava challenged. “What made him say that to begin with?”

“I don’t know,” Mary admitted, looking uncomfortable. “I think he didn’t like the way Sheriff Wright was questioning everyone like they were suspects or something.”

“They are suspects,” Ava argued. “We all are. Everyone at the wedding had opportunity. Now we have to find out who would have had motive as well.”

“Are you really helping the sheriff? Mom said you were.” Mary frowned. “That seems strange.”

If her sister only knew.

“He’s very open-minded.” She couldn’t think of much else to say. Confiding in her sister was not a habit Ava indulged in. She certainly wasn’t going to tell her how she’d practically had to blackmail him into it. Or that he had blackmailed her as well.

Mary’s eyebrows went up. “Really? Well, I hope you don’t do anything stupid and get in his way.”

“I’ll try not to,” Ava answered dryly. Her sister thought she was an air-headed nitwit. Some things never changed. “Excuse me, but I think I need something to drink.”

Ava managed to dart away before Mary could reply or ask another question. Ending up in the dining room, Ava accepted a glass of wine from the bartender, sipping at the fruity liquid. She wasn’t much of a drinker but needed the fortification for some reason today. Now the only question left was how long she needed to stay here to be polite.

“Drinking before five?”

Logan’s deep, masculine voice in her ear jarred her out of her thoughts and she almost spilled her drink down the front of her staid black dress. She spun around and had to crane her neck to look up at him. He was easily over six feet tall and she was five-four in stocking feet. He was wearing another dark suit today but this one had a sedate navy tie instead of the bolo tie he’d worn on Saturday night. He looked every inch a Hollywood star instead of a small town sheriff. She could literally feel the gazes of several women on them at this very moment.

Pushing those disturbing thoughts away, she looked down at her wine glass. “I’m only sipping at it.”

Logan held up a beer bottle for her inspection. “There’s nothing wrong with having a drink on a day like today.” He looked around the room. “I fucking hate funerals.”

“I don’t know anyone that likes them.”

“When I die, just cremate me and spread my ashes up in the mountains somewhere. No services with people pretending to be sad. No emotional blackmail for my friends. Just peace.”

She nodded to Wade, Aaron, Lyle, and George huddled together in a corner talking. “Do you think they’re pretending to be sad? Isn’t Wade your best friend?”

Logan’s eyes narrowed at her question. “He is a good friend. As for pretending, the answer is no. The family seems genuinely distraught at Bill’s death.”

“So they’re not suspects?”

“You know better than that. Everyone is a suspect until we can remove them.” He leaned closer. “Even you, good girl.”

He smelled really good, and she had to swallow hard to speak. “I had opportunity, but I think you’ll find I lacked motive.”

“That would make it the perfect crime. No motive.” He smiled but kept looking around the room speculatively. “But I doubt you’d use a gun if you were going to kill someone. Nope. You’d want to kill them up close and personal. Maybe a knife or a blunt object.”

“Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick,” she said sarcastically. She didn’t like the fact that Logan was so perceptive. It was what probably made him such a good lawmen but it was damn annoying too.

Logan chuckled. “I always liked that game when I was a kid.” His smile fell. “Wade and I used to play it with his brothers.”

She quickly changed the subject. “Mary’s not happy with me. She found out I was the one who gave you the guest list.”

“Then she guessed it. I didn’t say where I received it, but it probably wasn’t hard to figure out.”

Ava peered around Logan to where her sister was talking to George Bryson. Their heads were bent close and the conversation appeared to be intense.

“She was upset because it made George look like a liar.”

“He was a liar,” Logan countered. “The question now is why did he lie? Why is he obstructing my investigation at every turn?”

“What else has he done?” George was looking back and forth between Logan and his nephews.

“He raised holy hell yesterday and this morning about releasing the crime scene. He also refused to turn over financial records for Bryson Development.”

“Can he do that?” Ava watched George stride out of the living room and disappear into the back of the house.

“No, he can’t. Wade agreed to open the records. Looks like you and I will be busy tonight and tomorrow.”

She dragged her gaze away from the place George exited and back to Logan. “You mean it? You’re going to let me continue to help?”

Logan’s lips twisted. “Damned if I know why, but yes. I kind of like the way you think actually. You’re logical and unbiased. You also don’t shirk from boring, mind-numbing investigative work. You’re detail-oriented and there is no way I would have plowed through those statements that fast without you. I’d be working on them for days.”

His praise made her feel warm inside and it had nothing to do with the wine she was sipping.

“I do a lot of boring research for my books. I’m used to it.”

“They’re delivering boxes of paperwork for us to look through.”

“So much for the digital age. Haven’t they ever heard of computers?”