My eyebrows shoot into my hairline, and Jackie chokes on air.
“The weed?” Jackie snorts. “Good god.”
“Who said anything about weed, Mother?” I say, smirking.
She blusters for several minutes, turning as red as a beet. “Nobody. I just meant…”
It’s my turn to mimic her. I wave a hand in the air and purse my lips. “Oh, Carol, nobody said you were smoking it.” I glance at my sister, who’s two seconds from bursting into a fit of laughter. “Did we?” I ask.
Jackie’s head moves back and forth. “But I’m not so sure you didn’t have a contact high.” She taps her chin. “That’s likely what’s wrong with Nick.”
I clap my hands, mocking my sister. “Good one, Jack.”
She bows low, popping into a curtsy.
“You two are not funny,” Mom says, shaking her head. “And don’t think for one second this discussion about Alyssa is over. You will tell us everything over dinner.”
I slam my lips together and smile wide. “Great. Can’t wait.”
And this right here is one of the very reasons I didn’t even consider asking Alyssa to join me. There is no way in hell she’s ready for Caroline West and all her probing questions.
My dad might be a former special agent, but he has nothing on my mom. Her interrogation skills are topnotch.
Scary, even.
She’ll have your entire history spilling from you within minutes. Tears falling as she gets you to open up about every pain point in your life. She’s the mastermind of the West family, keeping us all on our toes and in line.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I excuse myself to take it. Mom half rolls her eyes, not at all pleased with the interruption. She grumbles about it to Jackie until I’m out of earshot.
“This is West,” I say, answering the unknown call.
“Nick?” I recognize the voice, vaguely, but can’t place who the woman is.
“Yes.”
“It’s Lanie. Anderson,” she says to clarify. “Thank god you answered. Someone broke into my house. I need you to investigate.”
Lanie lives in downtown Knox Harbor, not an area prone to crime. It’s a small town with lots of eyes and ears. Criminals don’t stand a chance of going undiscovered because there isn’t a camera in the world that’s better at providing details and timelines than the people who reside in town.
The Red Hats might as well be part of the sovereign citizen movement. On many occasions, they’ve taken it upon themselves to conduct citizen’s arrests in the name of keeping Knox Harbor “safe from riffraff”—their words. They have been helpful a time or two, but mostly, they’re a giant pain in my ass and the captain’s. They tend to think that age and the amount of time they’ve lived in Knox Harbor give them special privileges. I’ve had to remind Nan Jenkins on several occasions that wearing a red hat and living in town does not make her exempt from the laws. That conversation has never gone over well.
“Do you have cameras?” I ask, jumping right into detective mode.
“They were disabled,” she grits out. “We’re dealing with professionals. I need you.”
I pinch the base of my nose. “You do know that I’m a homicide detective, right?”
She huffs. “Which is ridiculous. I’m sorry, Nick, but this town doesn’t have enough homicides to justify your job.”
My head tilts to the side, and my eyes roll. “Considering your best friend’s husband is in jail for multiple murders, you might want to rethink that stance.”
She snarls. “He’s an idiot. But my stance remains. You might want to consider a career change. Something with stability.”
“Noted, but for the time being, it is…my job…which means I don’t handle break-ins. I can make a call to Malone and—”
“No,” she says, cutting me off. “This requires discretion, and Malone is a tireless flirt who blabs his mouth if I flutter my eyelashes at him. I need someone who can solve a crime and be quiet about the details.”
Malone is a lot of things, but he doesn’t talk about cases. I’m not about to fight Lanie on that, though. She’ll have me on the phone forever, and based on the stink eye my mom is hurling in my direction, I’d be smart to wrap this convo up.
