“It suits you.” At least it suited the new Kieran, the mysterious, closed-off one.
“Are you ready?” He swept some change from the counter and shoved it into the pocket of a pair of cami cargo shorts. “Sorry you have to drive all the time. I guess I need to look into what it takes to get a driver’s license when you have one functioning eye.”
“I guess you need to look into a lot of things.”
She ignored his dark, piercing gaze and grabbed her purse. “The police station first and then Michael. What do you suppose Chief Evans wants to question us about?”
“Probably wants to find out why you have a target on your back and why you’ve led a killer to his cozy little town.”
“That makes three of us.”
Fifteen minutes later Devon pulled into a parking space at the police station. As Kieran opened the door to the station for her, she blinked back tears.
This building had been like a second home to her and Dylan when her dad was chief. It had a different vibe without him. Maybe if Dylan got the job of Coral Cove Police Chief, the atmosphere would change.
She waved at the officer manning the front desk. “Hey, Clark, we’re here to see Chief Evans.”
“I know that. Are you okay? Most people come to Coral Cove to get away from it all. You seemed to have brought it with you.”
She snorted. “Is that what the chief’s worried about? He’s winding down his illustrious, if short, career with a serial killer and now a crazy bomb-throwing stalker. He didn’t catch the former. Is he concerned he won’t catch the latter?”
Clark reddened up to the roots of his hair. “I’m keeping my mouth shut. What happened to you, Devon? You used to be so sweet.”
She slid a glance toward Kieran, pretending to study flyers on the bulletin board, and she put her finger to her lips.
“Devon, Roarke, glad you could make it.” Chief Evans strode from the lunchroom in the back of the station.
Devon bit her lip, hoping he hadn’t heard her. She wanted to carry her tough-girl image only so far. “I’ll tell you as much as I know, Chief, but I’m afraid I’m in the dark.”
“Anything might help, Devon.” Tyler Davis, the mayor of Coral Cove, moseyed from the lunchroom in Chief
Evans’s wake.
“Oh, hi, Tyler. Are you in on this, too?”
“Anything that threatens the serenity of Coral Cove is my business.” Tyler turned to Kieran. “I heard you were back in town, Roarke. Coral Cove should hold a parade in your honor.”
Kieran held up his hands. “I’m good.”
Tyler brushed his hands together. “Well, then, shall we get started?”
“We?”
The chief grunted. “I invited the mayor to this meeting, too. We have a lot of tourists in town at the moment. Exploding bathrooms are in nobody’s best interests.”
“Especially when you’re in one. Lead the way.” Devon spread her arms. She had a feeling the chief and the mayor were none too happy to see her return. One menace to the serenity of Coral Cove had just been vanquished. Would it take another Roarke to vanquish this one?
As Chief Evans and Tyler returned to the back of the station, Devon hooked her arm in Kieran’s and stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “Do you remember Tyler Davis?”
“No. Should I?”
“I’ll tell you later.” She rolled her eyes.
The chief led them to an interrogation room where he crossed his arms and wedged a shoulder against the wall. Mayor Davis took a seat at the table, and Devon and Kieran sat across from him.
The chief cleared his throat. “Why don’t you tell us about this murder you witnessed in the city?”
“I already told you. I didn’t witness the murder.”
“You found the body.”
“Yes, but I didn’t see anything or anyone.”
“Maybe the killer thinks you did.”
Kieran placed his hands flat on the table and hunched his shoulders. “That’s what I’m beginning to think, especially after last night.”
“If I’d seen something, I would’ve told the police. Why can’t the killer figure that out? He’d know if the detectives were already following up on any leads. I didn’t give them any leads.”
Tyler tapped the table with the eraser side of a pencil bearing teeth marks. “Maybe the killer thinks you’re too scared to talk.”
“Oh, and throwing homemade bombs at me and shooting at me are going to make me feel better?”
They spent several more minutes debating the plausibility of Mrs. Del Vecchio’s killer coming after Devon until the chief pushed off the wall and took a seat at the table.
“I took the liberty of contacting the detective on the case, Detective Marquette. He’s heading down here to talk with you again, Devon.”
“Thanks…I think. I already told him everything about that day.”
“And what about you, Roarke?” The chief studied his own entwined fingers. “You were with Devon both times. Can this have anything to do with your mission in Afghanistan and subsequent imprisonment?”
“I don’t know.” A muscle twitched in Kieran’s jaw.
Tyler blinked rapidly. “Do you really think your captors would come after you here?”
Kieran pinned Tyler with one dark eye. “If that particular terrorist group thought I had some information, it’s not completely out of the realm. But my captors? Impossible.”
“Why is that?” The chief scribbled something on a pad of paper he’d flipped out of his pocket.
“They’re all dead.”
Devon’s heart jumped. Is that how Kieran had escaped? She held her breath. She didn’t want Mayor Davis or Chief Evans to ask him to clarify. Kieran didn’t want to talk about his escape.
Tyler sucked in a noisy breath, and the chief studied Kieran for a moment and then shrugged.
“I still think the most likely scenario is that the old lady’s killer thinks you know something, Devon. And he wants to shut you up before you can reveal it to the SFPD.”
Devon clamped her hands on her bouncing knees. “When did Detective Marquette say he was coming down?”
“I think he’s heading down already, but he’ll call you.” The chief pushed back from the table and brushed his hands together. “Maybe once he talks to you, you should leave town.”
“I think that’s a good idea.” Tyler slapped the table and then flushed under Kieran’s glittering stare. “I-I mean to keep safe.”
“I can’t go back to my apartment in San Francisco. That would be even more dangerous. I’m here because I can stay in my mom’s house for free. I can’t afford to run all over the country to keep one step ahead of a killer.”
“I’ll keep Devon safe.” Kieran scraped his chair back on the wood floor. “You just do your police work.”
They were both silent on the drive to the hospital. Devon glanced at him sideways through her lashes a few times. She wanted to ask him about his escape, but she didn’t think he’d tell her.
“We don’t need to tell Michael about the shooting at the house.”
He turned his head. “Of course not. So what’s that mayor’s story?”
“The Davis family is one of the most prominent in Coral Cove. Tyler’s grandfather bought up a lot of property, so Tyler has money and thinks he has influence with his little mayor’s job. He’s all about tourism and money for the town.”
“We went to school with him?”
“Oh, yeah. He was class president there, too.” She parked the car and sighed. “Okay, happy, smiley faces for Michael.”
“I think I can manage that.”
When they entered Michael’s room, he looked up from his coloring, the tip of his pink tongue lodged in the
