“No problem. Let me just grab my purse, and we can head out.” I smiled at him.
“Hi, Aurora.” He waved to my sister, who was standing by the bedroom looking thoroughly unimpressed.
She offered him a quick smile and a flick of her hand. “Have fun tonight,” she called to me.
“You too. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Well then, I wouldn’t be having any fun, would I?” she teased.
Eddie walked me out to his car, talking about the traffic to get into town. The warm air felt nice on my skin. The sun was already starting to set noticeably earlier, but that didn’t keep the heat at bay now that August had arrived. My apartmentdidn’t have any off-street parking, and with Aurora staying with me, as well as George downstairs, our vehicles took up most of the street in front of the building. Eddie had parked a little further down, directly next to the telephone pole. He rounded the car and got into the driver’s seat as I maneuvered around the pole, opening the passenger door as far as it would allow—the smallest of cracks—and shimmied my way inside.
“Good thing you’re thin, right?” he chuckled.
A forced smile played across my face. “What’s the plan tonight? I’m starving, so I hope dinner is on the agenda.”
“I heard a lot of good things about Millie’s Pizza. Have you ever been there?”
Millie’s was a staple in town. Brick oven pizzas and a liquor license. It was a no-brainer. “Millie’s is great,” I told him. “And maybe afterwards, we can walk the beach or something, if we’re staying in town. Unless you had other ideas.”
“Oh, um…” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking straight ahead as he drove us toward the restaurant. “I told some friends I would meet up with them later.”
“Oh, sure.”
His eyes rounded, and his Adam’s apple bobbed on a hard swallow.
Ah. He meant thathewas meeting some friends. Not us.
“It’s just, it’s in Braintree. And I would hate to drive down here, to drive back there, to drive back down here… you know.”
“Absolutely. That’s totally fine. We’ll have a nice dinner and call it an early night.” I smiled a genuine smile at him.
“Are you sure? I feel like an idiot right now,” he said. I could see the worry on his face that he was making himself look bad.
“Seriously. It’s fine.” I really did mean that, mostly. I had wanted to stay in with Aurora anyway, but a little voice inside my head was wondering why Eddie would make other plans the same night as our plans, an hour away.
Downtown Calla Bay was packed with locals and tourists alike, and Millie’s was no exception. The aroma of fire-baked bread tickled my senses as soon as we walked in. Despite the petite storefront from the street, Millie’s was more spacious than it appeared. Even still, every table was taken. Snippets of conversations floated past me while Eddie and I waited to place our order at the counter.
Pizzas ordered, along with two beers, we waited in the corner for our number to be called or a table to open up. My gaze raked over the place, familiarizing myself with the surroundings. Years of working at a police department, even a small one like ours, made me a more socially aware observer. The table in the back corner caught my attention.
Captain Langston and Matt Monroe were sitting together, just the two of them. It shouldn’t have been odd. They were colleagues, after all. But I had never known them to be overly friendly. Socialize at a party or event, sure. But to have dinner together on a Friday night? And something about it didn’t look social. Matt’s gaze caught mine, and I thought I saw a spark of fear in his eyes. He turned back to the captain, informing him that I was here. Although he tried to be subtle about it, his head tilted in my direction while his eyes stayed focused on the captain, far too intense to be casually having a conversation.
“Hey, we should grab that before it’s too late.” Eddie’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. A table near the wall had opened up, the smooth wooden tabletop still sticky with droppedpizza sauce. A young guy came over to wipe the table down a minute later, moving our tented number marker momentarily to swipe underneath. I had never noticed before how much the order number identifiers looked like evidence markers.
Luke had been quiet on the Karrigan case front for the last few weeks, but I wondered if he was still looking into things.
Probably not. There was nothing to look into. The Calla Bay Police Department didn’t have dirty cops who hid evidence to convict the wrong man.
And besides, he would have told me if he were. I could be helpful. I was often one of the only people in the police department, especially if I was on an overnight shift. No one would even know. Luke just needed to give me a little guidance as to what to look for, but I could help. I knew I could. I made a mental note to talk to him about that. Let him know that he can use me however he wanted.
At work.
In a work capacity.
If he needed me to help him with something at the station. Not, like,howeverhe wanted. Not that he wanted to.
Good Lord, my thoughts were spiraling. I pulled in a breath, blinking my focus back to my dinner and my date.
Eddie and I were mostly quiet during dinner, sometimes circling back through our previous conversations.
