Page 22 of Killer on the Homestead
He kind of wished she’d be really mean. It’d give him something to fight against.
But in the end, she just said, “…some guy.”
“Let me come with you,” he insisted. He could follow her, either way, but it’d be better if they worked together. “I’ve got todosomething.”
He didn’t know why it was that sentence that got through to her, but something about it had her relenting.
“Fine,” she muttered. “You need a ride?”
He nodded. “I came over with my parents. But I’ll let them know I’m hitching a ride with you. Unless you need to drop your sister off?”
Rosalie shook her head, even as her gaze darted over to where Audra stood next to a newer-looking stone.
“We came separately,” Rosalie said firmly. She turned her back on Audra. “I’ll meet you at my truck.”
Duncan wasn’t sure what was going on there, considering how close it seemed the sisters were when he’d dropped by their place. He made his way back to his parents so he could tell them he was heading into town. But before he made it to them, he took a little detour so he could see the name on the gravestone Audra had been standing next to before she and the cousin had moved over to talk to Mom.
Tim Youngwas carved clearly in stone.
Audra and Rosalie’s dad.
Duncan glanced back at the parking lot, where Rosalie stood outside her truck, her back to the graves.
It wasn’t any of his business, but he wondered what made one sister grieve and one sister turn her back on a memory.
Audra was still talking to his mother when he approached, but they both immediately stopped talking once he was in earshot and beamed similar smiles at him.
Why it felt suspicious, he couldn’t fathom.
“I’m going to head into town for a bit. I’ll be back at the ranch later,” he told his mother.
“You didn’t bring your truck.”
“I’m going with Rosalie,” he offered, somewhat reluctantly, because both Audra and Mom were already looking in Rosalie’s direction. He didn’t want to say it was about the investigation, because they were in a graveyard. He didn’t want them thinking it was something else, because clearly theywerethinking that.
Then he figured it would really annoy Rosalie if Mom and Audra thought that he and Rosalie were off doing somethingtogethertogether, so he just went with it. Let them think it. He sure hoped Audra asked Rosalie about it later today. Wished he could be there.
He said goodbye to his parents, then walked back to Rosalie. She climbed in the truck when she saw him coming, had the engine going by the time he managed to leverage himself up into the passenger seat.
“Here’s the deal. I’m going to the station to see what I can find out that Detective Beckett doesn’t want to tell me. So when we get into the detective’s office, you let me do the talking. We’ll use you as a potential distraction.”
“How would I be a distraction?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Hey, everyone, look, the famous baseball player is lurking about. Ask him for autographs while I take a tour of Beckett’s desk.”
He wriggled the hand hanging from his sling. “Not much on signing these days.”
“Fine. We’ll line the women up and you can smile at them. Maybe have a few swoon so Beckett has to do something.”
“Are you calling my smile distracting, Rosalie?”
She rolled her eyes, but there was some humor to it. And that felt like such a relief, he wanted to lean into it.
“I think my mom has some suspicions. Audra too.”
“Suspicions about what?” she asked, backing out of the cemetery parking lot.
“Why we’re headed off together.”
