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Shaking his head, he explained, “She was in tears at the mention of Archie. There was devastation written all over her, and it wasn’t about remorse for killing him. My guess was she learned about his murder not long before we arrived. Granted, I don’t know much about the relationship she had with Xavier Pope, since I didn’t press her on it, but she did have a motive when it came to Jimmy Moss.”
Cocking an eyebrow, I asked, “What motive?”
“I don’t know. But she was angry when I questioned her about him, and she admitted he wasn’t a nice man when he was alive,” he replied.
I didn’t like this.
There wasn’t anything about what was happening that I liked, but I was particularly troubled by the fact that Hanna had ended things between us while she was going through this, and I was standing here learning things about her life that I should have been learning from her.
“Did she explain what she meant by that?” I wondered.
Brock shook his head. “No.”
“What are your next steps?”
After taking in a deep breath and letting out a sigh of frustration, he revealed, “I’ve got a fire to put out in my department right now. My guys aren’t exactly thrilled I let her walk out of here, and there’s a media frenzy brewing. I’ve got a disaster on my hands, and if I don’t find who is responsible, there’s not much I’m going to be able to do to protect this woman.”
“I’ll figure it out,” I promised him. “Give me some time, but now that we’ve got a motive, there’s something to work with.”
“Motive? What motive?” he asked.
“I don’t know the extent of her relationship with any of the victims yet, but someone is going around killing people that were or are in Hanna’s life,” I started. “The motive is revenge. Everything inside me is telling me that whoever is doing this wants to frame Hanna for it.”
Brock stared at me for several long moments before he returned, “And we fed right into it.”
I nodded.
“You’ve got to get me what you can as soon as possible,” he urged. “We’ll keep looking for possible suspects. In the meantime, I’ve got to deal with all the outrage we’re going to be facing.”
I felt marginally better knowing he was going to do what he could to keep the heat off Hanna by having his team try to locate other possible suspects, but I knew this couldn’t take forever.
We needed some answers, and we needed them fast.
“Sorry about how I came in here with guns blazing,” I apologized.
His lips twitched. “I get it, man. I’d have been the same way if the roles were reversed with Chloe. No harm done.”
I dipped my chin, feeling a mutual respect pass between us. “I’ve got to get to work,” I said.
“Yeah. Same here.”
With that, I turned toward the door in his office and moved in that direction. Just as I got there, he called my name. I stopped, turned around, and answered, “Yeah?”
“Whatever’s going on between you and her… I hope it all works out,” he stated.
“Yeah. Same here.”
Without another word, I opened the door and walked out. I had to get to work, because there was not a minute to waste. I had to do what I could do to clear Hanna’s name. I had to prove to her that she hadn’t been wrong to open up her heart to me. If I couldn’t, I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive without her.
NINETEEN
Hanna
Two days.
Two whole days of nothing but pure agony.
Grief was consuming me for a whole slew of reasons, not the least of which was that I no longer had Leo.
