Page 99 of His Wounded Heart

“That sounds great.”

“Dex, I let it slide on Saturday because I was with Trenda but tell me who or what you’re checking into.”

“The older of the two sons, as well as Brantley Harris Sr. I’m checking into the whole clan. I just need another day and I should have what I need.”

“I don’t want to wait another day. I’ve thought about it, and I can buy that this woman might call Trenda a sinner, and say something like, stay away, or you’ll regret it. I can even believe she’d call her a whore on the next one, but I’m having a tough time believing she’d say that Trenda and her daughter would die if they don’t stay away.”

“You’d be surprised, Simon. I have to troll the internet, it’s part of my job. When people get behind their screen they feel both anonymous, and free and inflated enough to say whatever the hell they want without repercussions. That’s a lot of the reason we have such a vile stew out there.”

I consider what he’s saying.

“Okay, I see your point, but there isn’t any damn way that she took a picture of Trenda and Bella when they’re here in Jasper Creek and she lives in Nashville.”

“She’s rich, she pays to have it done,” Dex answers.

Again, I consider it. But it still doesn’t feel right.

“Why are you checking out the other two sons?” I ask.

“Because they have as much motive as the widow to not want Bella to get her share. I want to find out what kind of life they live, and if anything pops up that makes them plausible suspects for sending the emails.”

I relax. “Dex, that’s excellent.”

“And that’s precisely why you’re calling, isn’t it, Commander? You were going to tell me to do that exact same thing, weren’t you?”

I grin. “Yes, I was.”

“Captain Hale is going to have a hell of a time finding a replacement for you, Sir.”

“Cut that out, I told you to call me Simon.”

“Got it. I’ll get back to you as fast as I can.”

“I appreciate it.”

When I get to the rec center, Harvey Sadowski grabs me before I can get to the gymnasium.

“Yeah? Is Arthur acting up? I thought if I got here at six a.m. I’d have three hours of peace,” I laugh.

“I wanted to talk to you about Renzo Drakos. Do you have any pull with him?”

“Nope. Why?”

“The man is a machine. Not only does he put in the effort, he can run circles around me when it comes to planning. You know that normally for something like this we should have called in architects and engineers, instead we’re going off the original plans. Renzo is making changes on the fly that are genius, and he’s doing it in such a way that the inspectors won’t notice, but will make the structure stronger.”

I frown. This is not good. “Harvey, you should be getting the plans modified and stamped off by the engineer and then approved by the city.”

“Jerry, over at city planning, is going through a divorce. We’d be lucky to get those plans approved by next fall. Renzo has a degree in architectural engineering from University College London. Back in Texas he was working on getting certified to work here in the US, but something sidetracked him, he’s not saying what.”

“Harvey, get to the point.”

“I want to hire him.”

“Let me get this straight. You have a guy who has a master’s in architectural engineering from a school in London and you think you can tempt him to go to work for you in Jasper Creek, Tennessee?” I can’t stop the sarcasm coloring my words.

“Hey, I know it’s a bit of a longshot. But my construction company is three generations old, same as Dave Draper’s hardware store. I do business all the way into Knoxville, and Nashville is knocking on my door. I can meet or exceed anything Texas might want to pay him; I just need a hook to get him to move to Jasper Creek. That’s where you come in. You’re looking hooked into this town, so how can we hook him?”

“Harvey, I’ve only had two cups of coffee this morning. Trying to figure out a way to convince a guy I really don’t know all that well to change his life’s trajectory is too much for me right now. Talk to me tomorrow morning, maybe I might have an idea.”