Page 111 of Diamonds in the Mud

The women looked at me with curiosity.

“What’s wrong?” Aria asked.

“Nothing’s wrong. I have…”—I glanced at my watch—“five hours to pick out an engagement ring for Rayne and figure out how in the hell I’m going to ask her to marry me tonight at the fair.”

Both women rushed me as they cheered. I was hugged and then pushed out the door as they dragged me down the street. To my surprise, we walked into an old antique shop instead of a jewelry store.

“This is what she wants,” Aria said, pointing to the glass case.

I looked down at a vintage yellow-gold ring with an oval diamond settled in the middle of more than two dozen smaller diamonds.

It was so perfectly Rayne that my heart leaped in my chest.

“This is hers,” I said softly.

“Oh! You should ask her on the Ferris wheel,” Sabrina added with a little jump.

“She loves that ride,” Aria added as they both hugged me again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“You are a diamond dear,

they can’t break you.”

–Unknown

Rayne

Sitting in my office scanning over the pages and pages of data I had on the cases I was still working, I wanted to throw something. Or better yet, hit something.

There was nothing here. Nothing that would tie Declan to any of the murders, including Evelyn’s hit-and-run. Declan didn’t even own a working vehicle, just a motorcycle.

From what I’d been told, when he’d found out about Evelyn’s death, he’d been shattered. Word was, he’d spent a week binge drinking and doing as many drugs as he could.

Which was either a sign of a guilty conscience or a grieving man. The fact was, I wanted him to be guilty. I wanted the man to be locked up.

Even if he wasn’t guilty of running down and killing Evelyn, he still had her blood on his hands.

Through my mother, I’d learned that Evelyn’s son had received a very large donation, enough to care for the child for the rest of his life.

At least Felix had done that for Evelyn. I stood up to pace for a moment.

Today the office was practically empty. Most of the officers were out at the fairground on parking and traffic duty. Only a handful remained in the office.

Since that day a few weeks back, I’d avoided the bullpen. Now, my eyes landed on Quincy’s desk, which had gone untouched since the agents had taken away his computer and anything else they thought might hold clues.

Deciding to take one last look around, I slowly made my way over to his desk. My eyes avoided the spot where he’d taken his own life.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, but when I saw a picture frame lying face down on his desk, I remembered Jameson telling me he had found the gambling ledger in a picture frame.

I picked it up and turned it over and saw the image of Quincy and me at the creek the previous summer. My heart sank.

I hadn’t had feelings for him other than friendship since that day I’d caught him cheating almost a year ago, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead. Tears burned my eyes as I flipped it back over and removed the back.

There were three things stuck between the image of our smiling faces and the cardboard stand.

The first was a receipt from the county. Why was that in there? The second was a handwritten note. I’d seen this handwriting before.