“That’s what I meant. Geeze.” I gave her a whoa-buddy look.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt.” She turned the treadmill on.
“It’ll be fine. I won’t get in the middle of it. I promise.” How many times did I have to promise to stay out of it? It was as if they thought I liked being in the middle of these investigations.
“I can’t believe our season is almost over. Are you still going to apply for the full-time position?”
“If they ever post it. What about you?” I hated the thought of having to go against Shayla.
“Nah. I want you to get it. I’m really hoping I get accepted to the fall police academy.”
“Brock said he’s applying to the academy too.” I hit the punching bag hard feeling the shock waves move through the tension in my back.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we were in the same class?”
“I’d go with annoying or dangerous over funny,” I said spinning around and kicking the bag. “I still don’t think he should be given a gun.”
Shayla laughed. “He’s exactly like so many of the guys Mom used to work with. Minus Luke, of course.”
Luke. I hesitated mid-kick, my leg barely making contact with the bag.
“Sorry, let’s not talk about Luke.” Shayla turned the speed up. “Why don’t you tell me more about Garrett?”
Garrett. I’d almost forgotten about him between the dead bodies and Luke and Antonio and Tinder. “I forgot to tell you in the commotion, but he came back to the reservoir to ask a favor last night.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Ooh, a favor.”
“Not that kind of favor. He needed me to hold onto his mother’s birthday gift. He did kiss me though.”
“Like a real kiss?” She asked and tripped nearly falling off the end of the treadmill.
“Be careful,” I said. “And yes, like a real holy crap kiss. I didn’t know he had it in him. It may have been one of the best kisses I’ve ever had.”
“Presents for his mom, Broncos tickets, and a good kisser. It’s a trifecta of awesomeness. If only he wasn’t a heavy drinker.”
“He was nervous. He said he wouldn’t drink at the game.” The more I thought about it, the more he seemed like the type of guy I was looking for. As long as he kept his promise.
“Is he picking you up on Sunday?”
“No. I don’t really want him to know I live with my parents.” Hopefully, I’d get the full-time job and a place of my own before he needed to know where I lived. That is if the date went well.
“Any other hits on Tinder?” she asked.
“Not really.” The leather of the bag was becoming more malleable from the heat of my rapid punches. “There are a lot of sleazeballs out there.”
“Tell me about it.”
“That reminds me. Are you going to tell me about your date the other day?”
Shayla’s perfectly primped face turned pink. “I—I mean I would but—”
“You guys up there?” Luke’s voice came from the shop below. I stopped hitting the bag.
“Yep. Come on up,” Shayla said. I made a mental note to ask her about the date again.
Luke appeared on the spiral staircase looking like he’d just walked off the cover of Preppy-Prep Magazine.
“Whoa, were you having tea with the Queen?” I teased.
He glanced down at his blue polo and khakis complete with sweater draped over his shoulders and tied at the neck. “Can’t a guy look nice?”
“She has a point.” Shayla stepped off the treadmill completely sweat free. “You do look like you were at the—” Shayla’s eyes widened. “You were at the country club with Nikki weren’t you?”
Luke looked down at his brown loafers. “She wanted me to meet her family.”
I silently prayed my mother would never know he was spending time with another woman’s family. It would break her heart.
“And?” Shayla pried.
“And what?” He gave her a disinterested look. He and Shayla had more of a brother-sister relationship than Shayla wanted to admit. “It was fine, okay?”
“Fine?” I chimed in. “Fine isn’t good.”
“They’re . . . different. Not in a bad way,” he added quickly. “I have to step my game up with them.”
I steadied my face. I couldn’t let him see how much it hurt that he was making such an effort to impress Nikki’s family.
“Are we going to look at the pictures or not?” His patience had run out.
“Seamus isn’t here yet,” Shayla said not looking up at Luke.
“Did someone say my name?” Seamus’s voice came from the stairs.
Shayla’s head popped up, and she gave Seamus a huge smile.
Of course.
Why hadn’t I seen it before? Seamus was the guy she was hiding. The smile he gave her in return confirmed my suspicions.
Definitely an item.
It took everything in me not to squeal and tell her I knew.
“Before we look at the photos, I wanted to give you an update on what we know about the deceased,” Luke said.
“Perfect.” Shayla tore her eyes from Seamus’s, “Do you know the identity of the girl? Have you contacted her family?”
“We’ve notified both families. Apparently, the two of them were dating. We haven’t figured out why they were killed separately, but they went missing on the same day,” Luke said.
“Are they connected to Boy Boy?” I asked.
“Yes. At least, the man was. The woman was by association, but that’s all we know about her right now. The autopsies haven’t come back yet.”
“Shall we go look at the photos?” Seamus seemed far too excited for what we might see on that memory card.
“Maybe I should look at them alone first,” Luke said. “In case they contain sensitive material.”
“I can handle it,” I said.
“Are yeh kiddin’?” Seamus said. “I see terrible things all the time out there.”
Luke looked at Shayla. “You don’t have to be tough. I know how hard it was on you to see that woman’s body.”
“It was a bit of a shock.” She took a step away from Luke and towards Seamus.
