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He just stared at her. She dumped her bag and turned to sit on the edge of her desk so he could say what he wanted to. Which he did, sitting across from her the same way. “Because you were in a car accident last night?”
“It wasn’t an accident, but I know what you mean.” She pointed at herself. “Marine, plus seven hours of sleep, plus coffee, equals work.”
Peter chuckled. “I figured it was something like that.”
“So what have you got since we last touched base?”
“Quite a lot, actually.” He turned to his computer, and she sat, then slid her chair across the floor to his desk. He glanced at her. “You walked a little stiff, but other than that, I wouldn’t even know.”
“It’s not about pretending. It’s about doing the job until I can finish the mission.”
Peter hesitated.
“What?”
He lifted his coffee cup, realized it was empty, and set it back down.
“Spit it out.”
He grinned. “Fine. Clare pulled Bob and I into a meeting at seven this morning.”
It was just after nine now, and she had only just arrived for work. “About what?”
“She ran down the whole investigation into Mills’ wife’s disappearance and what you had figured out. Good work, by the way, following the trail here and putting together that this was where it all started.”
She nodded. More coffee beckoned, but that was an avoidance tactic for facing reality. “He grew up in Seattle, but his family had a cabin over here. They spent a good chunk of summers in Benson, and Mark’s father had business ties here.”
“I’ve been looking into that. Have you, at all?”
“No.” She shook her head. “What did you find?”
“A few bankrupt companies, failed startups. Even some investments into one of those multilevel marketing schemes that folded pretty spectacularly.”
“I didn’t get that deep. Did Mark have connections to any of it?” She’d never found a job he’d worked other than the Marines and figured he worked for cash as he said he’d done construction jobs around the northwest.
“Not on paper.”
“What about the case we’re supposed to be working?” She grinned. “The one the boss gave us?”
He chuckled. “Sure, sure.” Peter clicked his mouse.
“Please tell me we get to go kick a door in today. I need to burn some energy.” Her entire body ached from whiplash, but she’d told the truth about the amount of sleep she got. Being in Liam’s room had been odd at first, then familiar in its scents and style. She’d fallen quickly into a deep sleep that felt like twice as long as it was, and she’d woken up to hot coffee and pain meds. The man was a dream come true, but all that did was make her regret the way her life had gone.
She could argue she hadn’t thought herself worthy of a man like Liam O’Connell. That it would’ve been too comfortably easy. She wouldn’t have been able to handle it without doubting every second if she deserved to be on the receiving end of what he could give her.
The truth was, she’d made the absolute wrong choice and turned her life in a direction that nearly killed her. Like anyone in an abusive situation, it had been too late when she realized what had become of her life.
“Sadly, this may not end in door-kicking.”
“Darn.” Roxie went over and filled two mugs with coffee.
When she returned, Peter had pulled up a bunch of documents on her computer.
“Should I be worried you did that without my login?”
“Admin credentials.” He grinned. “I took a look at the board of Hurstwhile and started to run each of the members—also all the other heads of departments. We’re looking at every single person who works for them now or has worked for them over the past fifteen years.”
“That’s a lot of people.”
