Page 39 of Justice & Liberty

He finished turning the lights off and flipping off the open sign as Hunter made a call, and then...then, he went back to the espresso machine and returned to the front with cups for both Hunter and me.

Ducking his head, he handed me a paper cup with myname on it. “Flat white. And...sorry. I let the old man get into my head. He really was the biggest jerk ever.”

I waved him off, then lifted my coffee up to take a deep sniff of that perfect, rich scent as I explained my dismissal. “He used to threaten to sell the shop every time Sabrina annoyed him when we were kids, just because he knew how important it was to her. I’m well aware of him being an ass, and I shouldn’t be surprised he was concocting half-truths that involved me.” With the cup halfway to my lips, I paused, frowning. “Honestly, maybe it’s good we didn’t figure things out before he died. If I’d known about it, maybe I would have been a suspect. I don’t have a lot of patience for that crap, and everyone in town knows it.”

At that, Walter frowned back, drawing his shoulders in, almost hunching over. “If we’re looking for someone else, maybe I should be a suspect. I mean, maybe I only want to be with Sabrina for the money.”

Hunter turned back toward us, sliding her phone into her pocket and accepting the drink cup he handed her. “If that were true, you’d be catching the next greyhound out of this town right now, since like you said, she can’t inherit if she’s found guilty. Heck, you don’t even know if he left her anything. We should probably start the investigation there.”

Start the investigation, she said. Like there was no question the two of us would be looking into what had happened.

“The sheriff asked for my help,” I admitted. “I just hadn’t found anything yet. I’ll have to look for a new angle on what might have happened, I guess.”

Hunter nodded, interested, her eyes sharp.

Meanwhile, Walter was confused. “What did he think you could do?” he asked.

I shrugged, because the sheriff hadn’t said exactly, and I still didn’t know what was possible. “He didn’t say. I guess my mom used to help him with stuff.”

Even though it wasn’t a proper answer, he seemed to accept that, nodding.

Behind us, the door rattled, and rattled again a second later. Some random townsperson demanding to be let in, even though the open sign was off.

Hunter motioned to Walter. “You should put a paper on the door saying you’re closed today. Rita will be here this afternoon so you can meet her, and then you can make plans. For now, maybe...maybe we should go over to Tea, Book and Candle, so we don’t have to deal with door shakers and rubberneckers.”

Walter nodded, but motioned to the back. “I need to do dishes and stuff, but I’ll be here if you need me. Or if you think of anything. Or if, you know, I can help. I know I’m not a genius or even close to it. But if it helps Sabrina, I’ll do anything you want.” He glanced around, then ducked his head. “I know I’m lucky to have her.”

Hunter just smiled at him, then tucked one of her arms through mine and led me to the front door, unlocked it, and we went out onto the street.

“The coffee shop is supposed to be open,” a disgruntled voice said, but I didn’t really have the attention to pay someone who wasn’t even my customer. Not when Hunter Grant had her elbow hooked through mine and was looking down at me with those ice-blue eyes, smiling like I’d done something very right.

“Not today,” she said to the customer, without looking away from me.

20

We turnedto head down the sidewalk, and Hunter still didn’t move her arm away. Just the feel of it there gave me a warm fuzzy feeling in my middle.

Maybe it was nothing, and she was just being friendly. Or maybe, as Sabrina had implied to me, she was a bit of a player who’d sleep with anyone, and it didn’t mean anything.

But maybe it was something else.

“Hey Jo,” she called, raising her voice, and it took me a moment to spot Miss Joyce across the street, who had paused and turned to look at her, one brow raised over her ceramic coffee mug. “Yesterday, were you only fighting with the old man about how he shouldn’t be driving?”

“At first,” she said, nodding, then sipping from her cup. “Then of course, because he was an asshole who couldn’t resist taking a swipe, he made some comment about how his family was the real backbone of South Liberty, because money was always more important than politics.”

Hunter scoffed. “Which is exactly how his family got cut out of their own logging business. Too focused on the trees tosee the forest, and their own partners squeezed them out. Moneyispolitics.”

Miss Joyce spread her arms and lifted her shoulders. “Preaching to the choir, there. But it never mattered to him. He just liked picking fights. With anyone, about anything. I think it’s the only way he was capable of engaging with other human beings.”

Hunter laughed at that, and I could feel the vibrations of it all the way into my own chest. I couldn’t help smiling as well, because I suspected Miss Joyce was right. I’d never once seen Sabrina’s grandfather have a civil conversation with anyone. Even when I’d said hello to him when I was a child, he’d just humphed and turned away.

“He had been saying things like that to Jo since she babysat me when I was a kid,” Hunter told me as we continued toward the shop. “I remember him stopping us on the street once when I was six, and she’d just gotten me an ice cream. He started laying into her about how worthless her great-whatever grandfather was because he ‘brought the wrong element into this town,’ when the fact is that the guy literally founded the town. Just another argument on the same thing he’s been an ass to her about since she was a teenager isn’t a reason for her to kill him, assuming she’s telling the truth.”

“Do you think she’s lying?”

She considered for a moment, then shook her head. “No, not really. That’s the problem with this whole thing. I was surprised to hear he’d been killed at all. Sure, he died, he was old. But everyone in South Liberty has hated him for years, and the people who have the most motive have put up with a lot. But it’s not like people to break the status quo if they don’t have to. Sabrina was fine. She had no reason to suddenly kill him. Sure, he threatened to disinherit her weekly, but he was never going to actually do it unless sheleft town, in which case, she wouldn’t have cared. And Sabrina is smart enough to know that.”

“He liked Walter enough to talk to him,” I added. “He never said a word to me in the years I was his granddaughter’s best friend, not even the kind of douchey stuff he said to Walter.” I turned and unlocked the shop door when we got there, holding it open for Hunter then heading in myself and locking it behind us.

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