Page 13 of First Date: Divorce
Grainger added an approving grunt.
“About the back story—” she started.
“Already told Eric,” Grainger cut her off, “that we’re leaving details to you two.You’ll need to fill me in so the few of us around here who know Eric get it right if we’re in a situation that requires that.First time I’ve been glad he’s been so anti-social here,” he added under his breath.
Back to his official voice, he said, “Once you’re there, you two will have to play things by ear about how to report.Like I said before, you can get messages to me through my wife, Jessa, at Nearly Everything on Big Horn Avenue.Guests from Marriage-Save are often in her store, so that won’t raise any eyebrows.Most important is keeping your cover while you’re there because we want Gail Bledsoe to contact you after.”
He looked at the other man.“You have anything to add, Tal?You’ve done a lot more undercover than me.”
Tal glanced at her, then returned his attention to the road before he spoke.
“Like I said, keep it close to the truth.It’s a lot easier to persuade people you’re telling the truth when you mostly are.Also easier to remember.One lie leads to twenty others.Gets complicated fast.”
They dropped off Cully Grainger a few minutes later, she handed over her keys, and he led the way out of the sheriff’s department parking area, Bennett’s vehicle following.
If she’d been one of those women who knew how to draw things out of a man, she’d use this opportunity to hear all about Tal’s exploits, from Cabot County to the FBI and now to running his own company.
But she’d never learned that.Deliberately.She’d refused to learn the ways her mother expounded on how to give a man what he most wanted — the opportunity to talk about himself.That’s what Janeece Hamilton Brown used to say through all the years of K.D.’s growing up, as she’d prepared for yet another date, yet another chance this was the man she’d been looking for.The one who’d take care of them.The one who’d love her for herself — how many times had she said that as she’d spent an hour or more on the primping so shewouldn’tlook like herself?
At a ranch with a B&B sign, Sheriff Grainger waved in greeting to an older couple sitting on the porch as evening slid toward the long summer twilight that softened the edges of day and night in this part of the world.
Grainger drove on to the back of an old barn and pulled in beside a rental SUV.
He pulled her suitcase out of her vehicle and put it on the floor of the rental’s passenger seat.“Anything else?”
She already had the backpack tote she used and transferred it to the passenger seat.
“Your new ride.”Tal Bennett held out the keys to her, with a fob that identified the rental agency.
“Tal and I’ll say good-bye for now.Glad to have you onboard, K.D.”As Cully Grainger shook her hand, he added, “Tal’s gotta get rid of me back in Bardville, so he can go do secret PI stuff, making the big bucks.”
Tal snorted before saying.“I second that about glad to have you onboard.”
“Thank you, sir, Sheriff.Where will I be staying until we go to Marriage-Save Friday?My chief didn’t remember the name of the—”
“Change of plan,” Grainger said easily.“We had a reservation for you, but we talked it over and decided you should spend these days at Eric’s house.Closer.And, like you said, you need to know each other.This’ll give you the max prep time.He’s got plenty of room and Pauline — his assistant — already knows what’s what, so it’s not spreading the circle any wider.”
“But—”
“Here’s his address.He’s expecting you.”Sothat’swhat the exchange had been about before Eric left Far Hills Ranch.The sheriff giving the order that she’d be staying at Eric’s house, and him accepting it — eventually.Grainger added, “It wouldn’t hurt if you two get out and get seen together, too.Remind him I said so.It’ll get you used to being around each other.After all, you’re supposed to have been married for four years.”
“Good point,” Bennett said.The private investigator kept going with, “If things are stilted between you that’s good.Adds to the illusion of a strained marriage.”
She and her suitcase were going to Eric Larkin’s house.
“One last thing,” Grainger said, “donotget on Pauline Ohlrich’s bad side.And don’t let her fool you.She can give Eric a hard time, but nobody else better.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Without getting out of her rental SUV, K.D.Hamilton studied his two-story brick house like it was a crime scene.Eric could see her thanks to a combination of the last vestiges of daylight and the yard lights he’d installed.
It wasn’tthatbad.
True, the artificial light highlighted what still needed to be done outside.His priorities had been the operational guts, then the inside.The outside would come next.
Eric turned away from the window as she continued to sit in the bland rental Tal Bennett arranged.
Maybe, he thought as he headed for the front door to greet her, he could slip herbeforepictures to prove how much better it looked than when he’d bought the hundred-plus-year-old property.But, yeah, it still had a way to go and didn’t stand up well in comparison to the Far Hills home ranch.
