“I gotta make a phone call,” he said, taking his cell and heading outside.
“Personal?” Verbena asked. It wasn’t like Cooper to seek privacy for a call when it was police business.
“Yeah.”
He phoned Jamie from outside the station’s back door. She answered immediately, as if she’d had her phone in hand.
“Think we can get together, depending on how my day goes? Maybe we could make that dinner tonight.”
“Sure,” she said, brightly.
He could feel himself relax a bit. He yearned to be in her company. “I’ll call or text this afternoon.”
“Okay.”
* * *
If Cooper came through on his dinner invitation—which she’d learned could change with the weather—that was more than okay. She’d fallen on Gwen as a possible babysitter, but hadn’t called her yet. Now that it was only dinner, she could probably leave Emma and Harley for a while. Probably . . . or maybe Theo could stay late.
She looked up Gwen’s number on her phone and called her before she could change her mind. She hadn’t talked to her since she’d had her session with Emma and wanted to touch base anyway.
Gwen’s number went to voice mail. Both disappointed and somewhat relieved, Jamie left a message asking her to call her back. “No big message,” she told her. “Just checking in.”
Harley cruised into the kitchen. She was dressed and her hair was drying following a shower. After her heartfelt confession to Jamie the night before, she was being extremely quiet and circumspect.
“Everything okay?” Jamie asked, watching as Harley pulled down a bowl for cereal.
“Did you tell anybody what Greer said?” She poured Frosted Flakes into the bowl and turned to the refrigerator for milk.
When Jamie didn’t answer immediately, Harley poured the milk on the cereal, set the half-empty plastic carton on the counter, slammed open the silverware drawer for a spoon, then sat down heavily in the chair and looked at Jamie accusingly.
“I told Cooper.”
“Jesus Christ!” She waved around her spoon. “Go ahead. Tell me not to swear. And I’ll tell you not to tell a secret!”
“What about this person who went after your friend with a knife? Don’t you want to get him? Don’t you want Greer and Troy and whoever out of the way, exonerated, removed from the picture, so that real detective work on this guy can be made?”
Harley jerked back as Jamie’s torrent of pent-up frustration came at her like a fire hose. “You said you wouldn’t—”
“I said I would try another angle before you told me about the breaking in and stealing,” she cut in.
Harley lapsed into silence, spooning up her cereal in a kind of glum funk.
Emma, who’d been getting ready for Saturday at the Thrift Shop, came downstairs with Duchess at her heels. “Somebody’s yelling,” she said.
“I wonder who,” muttered Harley.
“Jamie.” Emma stated.
“Are you all ready?” Jamie asked her as she picked up her purse and headed toward the back door. She paused, looking back. Emma was in her line of sight, still standing in the kitchen. She seemed to be staring at Harley. Feeling Jamie’s eyes on her, she finally turned and headed down the hallway after her sister.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jamie was the first one at the Coffee Club. She’d never been to the coffee shop before and liked the greenery and throwback feel to the place. She chose a table with a fern hanging in a skylight above her head. A waitress came by with menus and Jamie asked for a latte. The woman left the menus and was just returning with Jamie’s drink when Vicky came through the door. The real estate agent looked like hell. Her hair was out of its usual chignon and tangled by the fitful wind that had flung spatterings of rain at Jamie when she’d raced from her car to the interior of the café.
“Where’s Jill?” Vicky frowned as she pulled out a chair across from Jamie and shrugged out of her coat. Her blue blouse and slacks looked pressed, but her makeup seemed only half-on.
“I’m the first one here,” Jamie said.
“We won the game last night. Did you hear?”
“Um, no. Good. Go team,” Jamie added.
“Tyler wasn’t there.” She sighed and snapped up one of the menus. Jamie watched her eyes and realized she wasn’t even reading it.
“I think Harley wanted to go to the game, she just wasn’t able to.” This was a bit of a lie. Harley had made it clear that she had no interest in going unless Marissa did, and Marissa was staying home.
“Can you believe what happened to Bette?” Vicky set down the menu. “I’m just in shock. It was terrible. Yesterday was surreal. I think I’m still processing. I guess we all are.”
“It was good you could pick up when she called.”
“Right? I mean, I could have had my phone off, or who knows what.” She shuddered. She then eyed Jamie in a more calculated way. “I was glad you had Cooper’s number. You two have been hanging out together.”
“Talking on the phone,” Jamie clarified.
Vicky seemed to take that in, but then she looked past Jamie and said heavily, “I think I have a commission going sideways. Laura Haynes and David Musgrave.”
“The house they’re building?” Jamie asked in surprise. She’d thought that was a done deal.
“The builder still owns it. We’ve just been working to get their loan in place. But . . . oh, I can’t really talk about it. I don’t even really know; it’s just sometimes you get that feeling. Has Cooper talked to Laura recently, or have you?”
Jamie realized things must be bad if Vicky couldn’t even get through to them. “It’s been a rough week for Laura.”
“Absolutely. Nobody’s concentrating on the house. I get that. It’s just . . . oh, it’ll
