Stranger in Town

CHAPTER 25





I saw Maddie and Lord Berkeley off and joined Cade at his father’s house. Cade wanted the meeting between the chief and I to take place outside of the police station, away from the scrutiny of the other members of the department, and I agreed. I hadn’t wanted to meet the chief at all, but Cade insisted. He felt the new developments in the case needed to come from me. I wasn’t so sure.

When I arrived, Chief Rollins was already there waiting. He said nothing to me when I entered the kitchen. Cade, his father, and the chief were huddled around the table arguing over a recent football game. Cade and his father smiled at me. The chief didn’t even look up.

Cade’s father didn’t look well. His skin had yellowed even more than the last time I saw him, and he was nothing but skin and bones. I couldn’t have been the only one to notice.

“Good, you’re here,” Cade said. “Chief Rollins, this is Sloane Monroe, the woman I was telling you about.”

The chief still hadn’t made any effort to look at me. I wasn’t sure what Cade thought would happen by throwing the two of us together, but it couldn’t have been this. I sat down and thought about getting up and leaving, but I didn’t. Cade looked at me like they were all waiting for me to say something, so I did.

“It’s nice to meet you, Chief Rollins,” I said.

He looked up, but he didn’t smile. He squinted at me through a pair of glasses that were too big for his narrow face. They had the thickest lenses I’d ever seen. And they were dusty, like they hadn’t been cleaned in ages. How he could see anything out of them was a mystery to me. The look on his face was neutral. I’d learned to read most people over the years, but I couldn’t read him.

Without saying a word, the chief reached into the front pocket of his blue flannel shirt. He pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen, flipped to the first page of the pad, and snapped the top of the pen. He then looked back at me and twirled his hand around as if to say, ‘Let’s get on with it.’

Cade sensed the obvious tension in the room and said, “Why don’t you tell him what you told me?”

The chief took notes as I relayed what little information I had that they didn’t. He seemed to find what I said interesting, but not enough to ask any questions.

When I finished talking, he said, “Anything else?”

I shook my head.

“Good, you can go now,” the chief said.

I could see this shocked Cade, from the look on his face, but I’d gotten used to it over the years. I didn’t want to be there any more than the chief wanted me there.

Cade placed a hand on my arm before I could go anywhere. “Wait a minute.”

The chief flicked his hand toward the door. “Let her go. We got what we needed.”

“That’s not why I asked her to come over,” Cade said. “Sloane’s good at what she does. She can help us. I don’t see why she needs a badge. We all have the same goal here.”

The words rolled off his tongue like he truly believed it, and maybe he did. But he was naïve to think he could put us in a room together and we’d get along.

“We don’t need her,” the chief said.

The sleep forced on me by Maddie had made me feel a lot more like myself again. And I didn’t intend to stand there and listen to him talk like I was already gone.

“Of course you don’t need me,” I said. “You were doing a great job before I came along.”

“Your sarcasm is unnecessary,” the chief said. “As are you.”

“Come on now, Harold,” Cade’s father said to the chief. “The girl’s just trying to help. I’m grateful for what she’s done.”

Detective McCoy’s eyes widened, and he gave me a look that said: He’s not always like this.

“You have a missing girl, a dead mother, and a father who wants nothing to do with any of you,” I said.

Cade and his father exchanged looks but said nothing. The chief didn’t take his eyes off the notebook.

“Best if you went back to your hotel, packed your things, and were on your way,” the chief said.

“I’m not leaving. I was hired to do a job, and I’ll stay here until I see it through.”

“Tate should be working with us, not with you,” the chief said. “Why he sought you out in the first place baffles me. I’ll make sure he corrects his mistake. He’s only to deal with us now.”

I leaned across the table until I was uncomfortably close to the chief’s face. “Don’t ever speak to me like I’m some second-class, second-rate person. You don’t own me, and you don’t own Mr. Tate.”

“I never—”

“You can’t even look me in the eye when you’re talking to me,” I said.

He closed the notebook and glared at me.

“You know nothing about me. Before I came here, you had no leads. I’m the one who tied the two cases together.” I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder. “I’m leaving. What I choose to do after I walk out the door is none of your business and none of your concern. And since you don’t ‘need me,’ you don’t have any reason to worry about it.”

The chief opened his mouth to reply, but I held my finger out. “Don’t.”

When I got to the door, I heard Cade say, “I want her help on this. If it bothers you, no one else has to know. You brought me here. You said you trusted me. I need you to trust me now.”

The chief replied, “It’s not your decision.”

“She stays, or I go,” Cade said.

“You don’t mean that, Cade,” the chief said.

But somehow, I knew he did.