If I Should Die_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [63]
I weighed my options. She couldn’t be an agent—not after only three months—but she definitely knew Feds. If she went missing or turned up dead, others would start snooping.
For all I knew, she’d already called in her buddies.
And if the Feds identified the dead bitch, everything would come tumbling down. All I needed was two more days.
Ian pulled into the Potsdam town limits. “Let’s do this quick,” I told him. “I need to get back to Spruce Lake. It’s time everyone knows I’m back.”
TWENTY-ONE
“I’m not quite sure what you hope to accomplish tonight,” Tim told Sean as they sat in the truck outside the Lock & Barrel.
Sean was barely listening. He wanted to go back and set things right with Lucy, but he didn’t know how to explain it to her.
It wasn’t her fault that Sean had a flash of jealousy whenever Noah Armstrong’s name was mentioned. Lucy had never said or implied or even hinted that she was more than a friend and colleague to Noah. She had done nothing to make Sean believe she wasn’t committed to him alone—except she’d never said I love you.
Foolish, really, for him to come back to that. For years he’d cringed when he heard his ex-girlfriends declare their love, because he didn’t believe it and he didn’t feel it. And since he’d never stuck with any of them for long, he couldn’t imagine that they were being honest with him, or themselves.
But Sean had known he loved Lucy almost from the beginning. And his feelings had only deepened since.
Maybe it was the methodical way Noah had insinuated himself in Lucy’s life. Like quietly cutting through red tape when Lucy’s FBI application was held up. And there was no way Sean believed for a minute that Noah didn’t have everything to do with Lucy being assigned to him while she waited for a slot to open at the FBI training academy.
However, when it came right down to it, Patrick was the problem. Patrick thought Noah was better for Lucy than Sean, and had made that clear in more ways than one. He’d said as much, and it had festered in Sean’s head like a tumor. Growing darker and blacker until just the mention of Noah—the by-the-book G-man—made Sean see red. He had to shut down, otherwise he’d explode and say something that could jeopardize his relationship with Lucy. He had to get his reaction under control before he tried to explain it to her.
If he even could.
He put all of it aside to focus on the task at hand.
“Sorry,” he said to Tim, dismissing his preoccupation. “Just thinking things through. We go in, observe, see who’s talking to whom. Make a point of discussing what’s been happening. Make it clear you’re not going to be scared off, but that maybe holding off on the grand opening is a good idea.”
“Do you really think we’re going to learn anything?”
“Someone here knows something. Hell, maybe the whole town is in on it.” He paused. “Do you know James Benson?”
Tim shook his head. “It doesn’t ring a bell.”
“He worked for Fire and Rescue. He is missing and presumed dead.”
“What does that have to do with the lodge?”
“He’s the brother-in-law of Paul Swain. His nephew is the one who set fire to the lodge.”
Tim straightened his spine and glared at Sean. “Nephew?”
“Swain’s son.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“Not yet.”
“Why the hell not?”
Sean should have approached this differently. “I don’t trust that deputy,” he said cautiously. “His reactions were atypical, and I find it suspicious that there aren’t more cops in and out of that mine.”
“You don’t trust many people, do you?”
“I suppose not.”
“I’ll grant you Weddle—I don’t know what to make of him—but he’s not the only cop in St. Lawrence County.”
“I’ve already put in a request to meet with the detective-sergeant assigned to the case. His secretary called to set up an appointment first thing tomorrow morning. Let’s go inside. I’ll buy you a beer. Anybody asks, you’re postponing the resort.”
“But I thought—”
“That was yesterday. Today, let’s play their game. Callahan wanted us to postpone. We give them what they want and see where it leads.”
They walked in and like last night, conversation