AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I did. Robinson and Cook did a good job on that case. It’s not a slam dunk because the asshole already has a team of expensive lawyers, but it’s solid.”
“Good. But it was Kit who got the case reopened.” The man’s pride was clear and softened Sam’s remaining resentment. “You take care of little Rita,” Baz went on, his voice gruff. “She found her mama. Kids never get over something like that, no matter how good the McKittricks are to them.”
“I know,” Joel said quietly. “I’ll do my very best. Take care, Baz.” Joel ended the call and stood up. “Give me two minutes to change my clothes and we’ll go.”
Sam followed him, standing outside Joel’s closet as his friend’s exercise clothes came flying out the door, hitting the floor. “Go where?”
“To the McKittricks’ house. I have their phone numbers in Rita’s mother’s case file, but I don’t have that with me. I do, however, know where they live.”
“How?” Sam asked warily.
Joel left the closet wearing a pair of dress slacks and buttoning up a shirt. “I go there for holiday dinners sometimes. Kit invited me when she found out that my folks were gone.”
“Oh.” Sam wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “I thought she said no to dating.”
“She did, but she said that friends didn’t let other friends spend Thanksgiving alone. You were in Scottsdale with your parents or I’d have tried to get you an invite, too. That was a few years ago.” He pulled on his socks and shoved his feet into another pair of very expensive shoes. “Since then, I have an open invitation to their house. You can talk to Kit and I’ll chat with Harlan. I need to arrange for them to bring Rita to my office so I can get her statement.”
“Rita’s the girl whose mother was murdered.”
Joel grabbed his wallet and keys. “Yeah. Thirteen years old now, but she was only eleven when she found her mother’s body.”
Sam’s heart clenched. “Poor kid.”
“Yeah, but at this point there’s no better place for her than the McKittricks’.”
Sam followed Joel to his car, waiting until they were on the interstate before asking the question that wouldn’t leave his mind.
“You’re sure you’re just friends?”
Joel smirked. “Why, Sammy? You got plans you want to share?”
“No.” But he knew that he’d said it too quickly and with too much force because Joel’s smirk widened into a knowing grin. Dammit. But he’d replayed that moment in front of the Epsteins’ house a thousand times since it had happened. She’d blushed.
And fled.
He’d felt a spark and he thought she had, too. He’d caught her staring at him before she’d run away. There had been interest in her eyes. He was sure of it.
“Sam?” Joel prompted.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I don’t think she trusts me.”
“Give her time. But if she says no, don’t take it personally. I mean, she resisted me, after all.”
Sam laughed. “She must have a will of steel.”
“What else could it be? We’ll be at the McKittricks’ in about twenty. Go over what you found out today again. In detail.”
So Sam did, and if he took special care to remember the route to the McKittricks’ house, he was only filing it away for future reference. In case he came across a kid who needed a good foster home.
It was a nice place, he thought as Joel drove them up the country road leading to the family farm. It looked like a farmhouse out of a painting, warm and inviting, with lights burning in most of the windows and a lit porch light. There was a barn a short distance from the house and fenced pastures, clear and sharp in the moonlight.
“This seems like a perfect place for kids,” Sam murmured.
“It is. And Harlan and Betsy are the whole package. But be careful of Betsy. She’ll mother you with food.”
Sam smiled. “As long as she cooks better than my mother, that’s cool.”
Joel grimaced. “She couldn’t cook much worse.”
