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“Why do you assume something is?” Other than the fact a new crisis did seem to pop up every two seconds. Holt had been stomping out fires since the moment he arrived.
“Your expression, both of you.” She turned on Holt. “The fact you just answered a question with a question, which seems like a stall tactic.”
The woman did know how to read him. Holt didn’t know if that was good or bad, but he knew he couldn’t put this off. He shoved the newspaper in her general direction. “Here.”
Shane shook his head. “You could warn her first.”
“She can take it.” Man, he hoped he was right about that. Holt had come to assume she could take anything. She listened to bad news and lived through attacks without so much as blinking. He had to hope this didn’t derail her.
She scanned the page, then flipped to read the photo caption below the fold. The whole exercise took about two minutes. She glanced up with a stark look in her eyes. “I am being set up.”
And she understood the facts without having them spelled out to her. That made Holt’s job easier, but the reality didn’t change. Her life and all she knew were about to be turned upside down. “No question.”
“I warned you,” Shane said.
“Who would feed this information to the paper?” She crumpled the page in her hand as she waved it around.
“Someone at the camp, likely Simon Falls. Not on his own but through someone, so he had cover.” The news might implicate others, but Holt knew the intel could be traced back to Simon. He’d keep his hands clean and his name away from the story, but he’d pulled the strings. People had been planting stories this way forever.
“It’s rubbish.” She threw the paper down and stalked around the table and headed for the cabinets. “Certainly people will know that.”
Shane shot Holt a quick look of concern before answering, “People can be fickle in cases like this.”
She turned around with an empty mug in her hands. Held it like a shield in front of her. “What exactly does that mean?”
Shane winced. “Expect the town to turn on you.”
She had to know that was coming. She might not have been raised in the usual way, but small towns had an energy to them. When news spread, it raced around, hitting everyone and then circling back again with new details.
In a place as tiny as Justice, a story like this could feed the gossip mill for weeks. And as more details emerged, and Holt feared they would, the days would get longer and harder for her.
He wanted to spare her. To make things easier, but she deserved the truth. “We think he’s trying to make it difficult for you to live and operate here.”
Her fingers clenched around the sides of the mug. “Fine, I’ll move a few towns away and do my work.”
That might solve some of the immediate social pressure, but she still ignored the bigger picture. “Even without the law enforcement issues, which are very real but can be guided somewhat by Corcoran, I think it’s deeper than that. Simon wants you to come to him.”
She made a face as if she’d tasted something sour. “Why?”
“To stop you. To confront you.” Those were only some of the angles. Holt could think of others. Worse ones. “I have no idea, but this is all too planned. It has the feel of him laying out bread crumbs and waiting for you to follow.”
Shane snorted. “Only in this case the bread crumbs are dead bodies.”
The comment brought the conversation to a slamming halt. Lindsey looked from Shane to Holt. “Is it wrong that part of me wants you guys to shoot this Simon Falls in the head and be done with this?”
Holt shook his head. “No.”
“Not at all,” Shane said at the same time.
Her grip on the mug eased and she set it down on the table. “That’s why I like you two.”
Some of the tension had left her voice, and her mouth no longer fell into a flat line. Holt hoped that meant they were moving in the right direction. Maybe flirting could push her the rest of the way. “Is that the only reason?”
“If so, that’s kind of sad for you,” Shane mumbled under his breath.
“That’s enough of that discussion.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but the ringing stopped her. With a sigh she reached for her cell. “The phone. And it’s work. Why do I think this is bad news?”
Because she was smart. It was one of the many things Holt liked about her. “This could be the start of a series of nasty calls. Be prepared.”
“Let’s see.” She pushed the button and said hello.
The rest of the conversation consisted of her listening and frowning. She tried to break in a few times but seemed to get cut off. She ended with a “fine” and hung up. “Well, it was nasty all right. I just got fired.”
