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Smith smiles brightly at Tegan, but then his smile fades when he sees me. “Morning,” he says.
“Thank you for coming,” Tegan greets, stepping outside. She makes room for me to come out with her, and I shut the door behind us.
“How’s the house coming along?” he asks, making an attempt at small talk while trying to discretely shoot daggers at me with his eyes. Probably, in his tiny mind, he thinks I spent the night. I smirk back at him, letting him think that his assumption is right, even if it isn’t.
“Oh, um –” Tegan looks back at the house. “It’s coming along.”
“Good,” he says, bobbing his head. Slapping his thigh, he adds, “So, I heard you have something for me.”
“Right,” Tegan answers. She holds out the binder for him to take. “We found this. It’s legal information of Neil’s.”
He gently takes the binder. “In the house?”
“Yeah.” A guilty expression takes over Tegan’s face, and she pulls at her fingers nervously.
He weighs the binder in his hand as he looks at her suspiciously. “Did you look in it?”
She cringes, and I have the urge to escort this asshole back to his car. I don’t like his tone. “I may have. But not all of it. Just some of it.”
He raises an eyebrow at her. “And what did you find?”
Blowing out a breath, she looks at me for a second. I nod, urging her on. “Evidence that your stepbrother killed Neil.”
His eyes widen in shock. “Neil isn’t dead, Tegan.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “But there’s just too much evidence that he is.”
“Then where is the body?” he asks.
She fidgets a little. “I don’t know any of that information.”
“Then you don’t know he’s dead, but you took it upon yourself to play detective anyway?”
I grind my teeth. “Just look at the evidence, Smith.”
He points at me. “You’re the last person who should be looking into any murder.”
We stand there for a moment, glaring at each other, until Tegan breaks the silence. “Will you please just look at what we found?”
His curt nod only pisses me off further. The lack of respect for her shouldn’t surprise me but color me surprised anyway. She’s passing him evidence of what could close his stepbrother’s case, and he’s being an asshole about it because it might tell him how dead he really is. “I’ll take it in and have a look.”
“Thank you,” she breathes out.
“Tegan, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to Cole alone.”
My eyebrows raise, and though she looks at me for confirmation, I keep my focus solely on Smith. “Sure,” she eventually says.
As soon as she’s back inside, Smith takes a threatening step in my direction, which is humorous because he’s shorter than I am. I get some satisfaction that he has to look up at me as he growls, “I don’t want you anywhere near her.” He shakes the binder between us. “You put these ideas in her head, didn’t you?”
I raise an eyebrow. “She came to these conclusions all on her own.”
He chuffs. “And I’m supposed to believe the word of a killer?”
I only shrug, which turns his face a perfect shade of red.
“I hear the rumors, Garner. I know you two are together, and I’m warning you to stay away.”
“Because my happiness would only serve to piss you off? If you ask me, that’s an incentive to do the opposite.”
