AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The man cleared his throat and straightened his glasses. “Is there, um… is there something I can help you with, officers?”
Yes.
Plenty.
Starting with whatever is going on here.
My curiosity about the man and Nora Statler would have to wait, though. We had a more pressing issue at hand.
“I hope you can help me,” I said, crossing my arms and relying on my height, my uniform, and my deputy by my side to provide a little intimidation. I didn’t want to scare the guy—or Nora, for that matter—but I didn’t want them asking a bunch of questions, either. “It seems we’re in need of your services. I need a test. And I need it done quickly.”
Isaac and Nora exchanged a look, then she excused herself. He waited until the sound of her high heels had faded from the stairs that led down to the real estate agency before he turned his attention back to me.
“Yes, sir,” he said, sighing as he rummaged through the papers on his desk. “Let me just get my notepad and I’ll be right with you. I’ll just need a few more details and—”
“I’m sorry,” I said, interrupting him. “There really isn’t time. We need you to test the water in a stream a few miles from here. Gather whatever you need to conduct your test and come with us, please. We can give you whatever other details you might need on the way.”
He paused, then blinked. I thought for a moment he might argue or try to refuse my order as he looked from me to Cole and back again. He must have thought better of it, though, because all he could muster was a tired nod and another long sigh.
This clearly wasn’t what Isaac had planned for his afternoon, but that wasn’t my problem. Whatever he had going on with Nora Statler would have to wait.
Right now, he was going for a ride with us.
* * *
It was a couple of hours past lunchtime when we finally made it back to the station. Our trip out to the Josephsons’ ranch with Isaac had taken a little longer than I’d anticipated, but at least the preliminary testing he’d done indicated that the town’s drinking water hadn’t been contaminated.
We’d have to wait until God only knew when to get the official results back from his lab, of course, but the immediate danger had passed.
“What a crazy fucking day,” Cole said as we got out of the car and walked into the station. “All these damn poisonings have me on edge. And what was that business between Nora and Isaac? That was just…weird.”
“Really weird,” I agreed. “I can’t picture Nora going for a guy like that, but…”
I thought back to her deceased husband, Zachary. He was quite a bit older than Nora—she had been what some people had unkindly referred to as his “trophy wife”—but they’d seemed to have a nice marriage. A loving marriage. And while this Isaac guy fit the bill as far as being older, he was certainly no Zachary Statler. Still, there was no accounting for taste.
People would probably think the same thing if I went out with a girl as young and pretty as Daisy Lynn.
But fuck those people.
And anyway, I wasn’t some scrawny pencil-pusher from the USGS. I might be almost twenty years older than Daisy Lynn, but I was still in good shape. Damn good shape, if I was being honest.
“You’re not thinking about Nora and Isaac anymore, are you?” Cole asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“What?” I snapped. “Why do you—oh, fuck it.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I don’t have the energy to go through this back and forth again. Not after this fucked up day.”
“No reason to go back and forth.” He shrugged. “I think we both know what you’re going to do.”
I considered denying it for a moment, then stopped myself. He was right. I had already made up my mind. “I’m going to ask her out,” I said, making it official. “I have to. I can’t get her off my mind.”
Was it a shitty thing to go after a girl my friend was interested in?
Yeah, probably.
Had he done the same damn thing to me before? More than once?
Yeah. It was something we’d both been guilty of a few times. Which was probably the only thing keeping him from objecting now.
And would I have tried to back off if hehadasked?
