He was going to make her say it, the dumbass. She knew some men preferred that. Forced the woman to do the nasty tasks and then they looked like the mean ones. “You want your house back.”
“Okay, let’s get this subject out of the way.” He reached a hand across the table. Didn’t quite touch her but came close. “I want you here. In fact, the idea of you leaving makes me want to have your building condemned so you have to stay with me.”
The stiffness across the top of her back vanished. So did the need to throw up. “That’s not weird or anything.”
“The fact that I want you here?”
“The idea that you’d make me homeless to do it.” Before he could move away, she put her hand over his. Caressed his fingers with hers. “And please don’t. You don’t need to do anything drastic because I don’t want to leave.”
“Then why are we having this conversation?”
“Because you’re acting weirder than usual.” A low chime sounded a “dong” that sounded more like a gong than anything else. “Is that your doorbell? It’s kind of extreme.”
He dropped her hand and stood up. “Who the hell can that be?”
She thought about the layers of security. The key, the alarm and the number pad. You had to nail all three or you probably got shocked or shot or something equally awful. She made up the last part, but she wouldn’t be surprised.
Following him, she saw him stop to look at the video screen that showed the small landing outside. Saw a very familiar face.
Wren unlocked the massive front door and stared at Garrett. “Why didn’t you call first?’
“I did.” Garrett took out his cell and shook it in front of Wren. Then he looked at her. “Am I interrupting?”
“Come in.” She figured she should say it because Wren didn’t seem to be doing much of anything other than standing there.
They walked in silence back to the kitchen. Wren and Emery retook their seats. Garrett picked the one in front of the platter with the roast.
Wren didn’t offer him a plate or even a fork. “What’s going on?”
“If it’s about Tiffany’s case, you can say it in front of me.” Emery decided to make that clear before anyone tried the embarrassing clear-the-room thing and she had to yell.
Wren nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Tyler is on a leave of absence.” Garrett took out the folder he had tucked under his arm and put it on the table next to Wren’s plate. “He didn’t just happen to show up in town. He’s been struggling, not going into work. He said he had a family issue and had to come back here for a few weeks.”
Wren didn’t reach for the file and it killed her not to. She almost dove for it. She settled for asking a question instead. “What’s wrong in his family?”
“Nothing. His parents are overseas.”
Emery looked from Garrett to Wren. “You two think this is about Tiffany.”
“Hard to believe it’s not,” Wren said in a monotone voice.
Her brain crashed to a halt. All the arguments piled up in there as the anger started to bubble in her stomach. “There’s no way.”
She knew Tyler. He’d been there. They’d all been friends.
“Did you talk to him about restarting the investigation?” Garrett asked her.
That was the point. There was no restart. Not really. “It never really ended.”
“Emery, you know what he means.”
She hated when Wren used that tone. It happened less frequently lately, but it still snuck in. Each time she felt more like his employee than the woman he was dating.
“We talked on the phone a few weeks ago and I told him I found a note in Gavin’s file.”
Garret tapped the closed file. “A few weeks ago is when he started having trouble at work.”
When Wren started to talk, she talked over him. “To be clear, I didn’t tell him your name, or mention the specifics of the note, but I said I had a new lead. A promising one.” She knew she sounded defensive and tried to rein it in. “He had a right to know. He was her friend, too.”
Wren kept watching her. “More than a friend.”
This wasn’t a secret and she refused to act like it was. “Tiffany had a crush. I had a crush. They kissed and Tiffany decided she didn’t feel anything. We were kids. It was no big deal.”
“Have you ever watched a true crime show?” Wren sighed at her. “That’s the basic fact pattern in about fifty percent of them.”
She shook her head. She wanted to shake everything. “I don’t believe it.”
“Okay. Look, this is just information.” Wren reached out his hand again. This time he held it palm up until she put her hand in his. “Now we analyze it. Compare it to the facts, talk to him.”
He made it all sound so easy. So reasonable. “Tyler kind of hates you.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Garrett said as he popped a carrot in his mouth.
Wren scoffed. “The feeling is mutual.”
Which meant trouble. She had enough of that right now. Her life had been turned upside down. Wren stormed in. She was still fighting for equilibrium. “I’ll go alone and—”
“No.” Wren’s tone suggested this issue had been settled.
Wrong. “You don’t get to say no.”
“But I am.”