Except for Zach Carter, of course, who’d made it clear he’d be keeping his distance.
She was a little bit sorry about that. He was a sexy man who also had integrity and construction skills. It was hard not to wonder whether he might have been interested in her under other circumstances.
Well, chances were she wouldn’t see him again until they both appeared in court—if that happened.
* * *
MONDAY MORNING SHE had parked in her usual spot in the alley behind the store and rounded the Dumpster before seeing the piece of paper pinned to the plain back door of Fabulous Interiors. That was odd. A message from one of their installers?
Ten feet away, she froze, clenching the straps of her handbag in a white-knuckled grip. In livid red marker, someone had printed BACK OFF BITCH OR ELSE.
Deep breaths, she told herself. Sticks and stones. Really, as threats went, this was high-school caliber. Immature and not specific.
But when she blinked, she saw Andrew Hayes’s face, flushed with uncontrollable rage. His fists flew. Blood spattered. Antonio’s head snapped back and he fell.
Deputy Hayes might be immature, but he was big and muscular and violent. And she was a threat to him.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
Fear seized her until she shook, but a rising anger gradually enabled her to move again. What she should do was call 911, wait for a Clear Creek PD officer to arrive and then let him talk to Detective Delancy.
What she did was take the piece of paper between her thumb and forefinger and carefully peel it off the door along with the packing tape that had been used to hold it in place. She then returned to her car. The sheriff’s department wasn’t ten minutes away. Before she put the car in gear she called Greg, told him she would be about half an hour late and asked if he could open.
“I might be five minutes late, but no more,” he said. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes, but I’ll tell you about it when I get there.”
She parked in a visitor spot in front of the sheriff’s department that, along with county offices like the assessor’s, was attached to the county courthouse. After carefully picking up the piece of paper with the same two fingers in the same place, she stalked inside.
Going straight to the counter, she glared at the officer behind it. “I want to see Detective Delancy. Now.”
He looked twitchy, so her glare must have been effective. “Uh... I don’t know if he’s in or free to speak with you right now, but I’ll find out. Your name?”
She told him.
“Thank you, ma’am. If he isn’t in yet, I’m sure another detective is—”
“I want him.” She must have looked as mad as she felt, because he hurriedly picked up his phone and held a low-voiced conversation coupled with darted glances at her and the piece of paper she was holding in front of her as if it was a soiled diaper.
“You can go on back,” he told her, indicating a door at the end of the counter.
Just as she reached it, she heard a lock disengage.
She wasn’t impressed by the detective bullpen, if that’s what this was, she thought as she stepped through the door.
There was something like ten desks, each with a computer. A bank of file cabinets suggested not all records were computerized. Besides Delancy, the only other two people present were a middle-aged man and a younger one half a head taller. Both turned to look at her when she entered, but her eyes never left Detective Delancy’s as he rose from behind one of the desks.
“Ms. Granath.”
Gee, he’d gotten it right.
“This—” she thrust the paper at him “—was waiting for me when I arrived at work this morning.”
He grabbed her wrist and turned it so he could read the threat. “It would have been better if you hadn’t touched it.”
“I was very careful to touch it only on the one corner. But, really, what idiot doesn’t know how not to leave fingerprints? Especially since this was very likely left by a police officer.” Her voice had been rising. She let the paper flutter onto his desktop.
“That’s a serious allegation...”
“Yes, it is. Murder is a serious crime, Detective. It does not seem unreasonable of me to assume Deputy Hayes or one of his friends is responsible for this.”