I thought back to the woman in the wheelchair at the funeral. “Or it was his mother’s.”
Sean leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “We checked. She said no. But the real question is, who was he going to give it to? We’ve checked around, but the guy was a real loner. The people who were acquainted with him didn’t know much about him. Even his own mother. Her memory’s bad, sure, but she didn’t seem to know anything about his current situation, his friends, whether he was seeing anyone. I got the impression they weren’t close. And there’s nothing in his apartment that gives us any clue. We’re running a check on all the calls to his cell, but so far that’s also been a dead end.”
I stared at the ring for a few more seconds before passing it back. Something about the ring . . . I just couldn’t place it. But I did know who might have been its recipient. I started to explain. “I was at Chuck’s funeral this morning. Lynn wanted to go.”
Sean nodded.
“You knew?”
“Yup. We had a guy there.”
My mind flashed back to one of the guests. I remembered a fellow across the aisle from us who looked familiar. That must have been why; he was one of Sean’s coworkers. Then something dawned on me and I felt a bit better. “You’re putting in a lot of time on a case that’s supposedly wrapped up. I mean, Jodi’s in jail, awaiting trial.”
He nodded. “I can’t seem to let it go. Too many loose ends. This is one of them. But my sergeant’s going to be ticked off when he realizes I’m spending so much time on this case.”
I smiled appreciatively. Sean was a good cop. There was no way he could ignore a loose end, no matter what his superior said. Maybe there was hope for Jodi after all. “Anyway, getting back to the funeral. I saw a woman there.”
He sat up and leaned forward, his brows furrowed.
I continued, “She stayed outside the room where the service was being held, so maybe the officer didn’t see her. I don’t know. But afterward, I ran into her in the restroom. She was really upset. Sobbing.”
“Did you get a name?’
I shook my head.
“Can you describe her?”
“Sure. And the car she was driving.”
He pulled out a legal pad and took down the details. Or at least as many details as I could muster. I realized that even though I’d spoken to the woman, I couldn’t recall anything particularly unique about her: brown hair, brown or maybe blue eyes, I couldn’t remember. Average height, a little plump, but not too much so. About like me actually. Although I liked to refer to myself as Rubenesque, not plump. She drove a car with mismatched paint. What model? I couldn’t remember, four doors, I thought.
“Okay, thanks,” Sean said, putting down his pen. Although I wasn’t even sure what he was thanking me for. It seemed I’d just described half the women in town, including myself.
“There’s something else, too,” I said, getting to the real reason I’d stopped by. He listened with interest as I proceeded to tell him about discovering the book in Oscar’s office. “It just seems strange that it would be there. He doesn’t seem like the type to read a romance novel,” I finished.
Sean shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe it doesn’t belong to him. You went in there to look for Trey’s keys, right?”
I nodded.
“Could be that a lot of the employees store stuff in the office. Maybe the book belongs to one of the waitresses.”
I suddenly felt silly. Of course, that was probably it. It made sense, after all, that one of the staff, maybe even Anna, his granddaughter, was reading the book on their break. They’d been selling like hotcakes at the expo. I sighed. “You’re right. I guess I’m jumping to conclusions.”
Sean cleared his throat and stood. I followed suit. “I’ve got to go to my meeting,” he said. Then he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Lila. It’s only natural for you to have doubts about any man your mother’s dating. Trey has had his fair share of doubts about me, too.”
He was right. Sean and Trey had gone through a difficult period last summer. Thankfully, all that was behind us now. Now my two men got along famously. Perhaps that was all this was. Me reading into the situation, jumping to conclusions, all because I couldn’t accept my mother’s interest in the man. I exhaled and nodded. “You’re right. I need to get a grip on this thing with Mama. Oscar seems to really care about her. Besides, she’s usually a good judge of character.”
He reached across and tipped up my chin, giving me a look that made me smile. “That’s better,” he said. “How about a late dinner again tonight? I could get some takeout from Wild Ginger.”
“Perfect,” I agreed. We said good-bye, but just before I walked away, my eyes were once again drawn back to his desk and the ring. I couldn’t shake the thought that I’d seen it before. But where?