The Closer He Gets

Hayes pushed his girlfriend away and took a step toward Zach, his hands curling into fists. “You think you’re hot shit, but you’re nothin’. You hear me? You got Stokes mouthing crap he doesn’t mean, but the rank and file, they’re behind me. Sure as hell, nobody will ever call you for backup. I got a right to defend myself and my girl, too. Neither of you saw that stupid Mexican go for my gun.”

Zach only shook his head. “Didn’t know your girl was there and needed defending,” he said mildly.

Tess tugged urgently at his pocket. And she was right. It was time to wind this up.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us?” He nodded. “Enjoy your movie.”

Hayes’s mean eyes narrowed. “Run along. Your time will come.”

Zach tensed. “Guess you know how to issue threats, after all.”

Hayes took a step closer, his girlfriend obviously reluctant at being dragged along. “When I threaten you, you’ll know, asshole.”

Zach nodded politely then took a chance and turned his back, steering Tess to his pickup. He unlocked it with the remote before glancing back to see the four walking toward the theater. An angry voice carried across the lot. Easy to guess which of the two men was mad.

Neither he nor Tess said a word until they were locked in the cab of the pickup. Then she expelled a breath.

“Well. Stay in, go out—end result is pretty much the same.”

“We can’t get away from it, can we?” His hand was steady when he started the engine, but inside he was at a full, roiling boil. What had he been thinking, going unarmed tonight? What if Hayes and his brother had attacked him and Tess?

Last time I go anywhere without my backup piece, he vowed.

“Could have been worse,” he said after a minute. “What if we’d known they were sitting two rows behind us throughout the movie?”

“I think I’d have suggested we change theaters. Some blood and gore on the screen might have seemed way more appealing.”

Surprising himself, Zach laughed.

* * *

ZACH DOGGEDLY MADE time to keep digging into Sheila’s murder despite everything else going on. Maybe, if he was honest with himself, because of everything else.

He hated being excluded from the ongoing investigation into Alvarez’s death. Being out of the loop so he didn’t know what, if anything, the detectives had learned, grated at him.

And then there was Tess. If he hadn’t already discovered the limitations of his ability to protect her, the softball whistling by within an inch of her head had been an eye opener. Now he had to add the confrontation in the parking lot, with him stupidly having gone unarmed.

Too much was happening that left him feeling helpless and he detested it.

At least, by God, he was making progress toward finding Sheila’s killer. He already knew considerably more than the detectives at the time had.

Shelby Womack finally took one of his phone calls, but only to insist he leave their mother out of this. Then she’d hung up on him.

He and Bran were talking regularly. Bran shared what he’d learned from a couple of their father’s other friends. He’d set out to determine whether they might be possible suspects, as well as to pick up more names of anyone who might have been around the Murphy household back then.

What Zach couldn’t figure out was why Bran was helping when he hadn’t tried very hard in all these years to find Sheila’s killer. Zach wanted to feel a brotherly accord. Sometimes he actually did. But then a niggle of suspicion would surface. What if Bran had taken on Dad’s friends as part of an effort to steer Zach away from Dad?

What if he hadn’t investigated because the killer’s identity wasn’t a mystery to him?

Zach instinctively rejected that option. Bran might have a suspicion he didn’t want to acknowledge. But if he’d known Dad was guilty, he wouldn’t still be defending him. Zach didn’t doubt Bran had loved Sheila too much to close his eyes to that.

Tess surprised him a little when she suggested they invite his brother and Paige to dinner on Sunday night. He’d had the impression she didn’t much like Bran, although she hadn’t said as much. She had obviously guessed that Zach hadn’t been seeing his brother in his off hours because he didn’t want to leave her alone.