“I’ve talked to him since, and he stands by his statement. I have no reason not to believe him. Listen, I think I know where you’re going here. Why didn’t they finish the job? I’ve been wondering, too, but let’s look at the simplest explanation. They got spooked and drove away. It doesn’t matter if no one was actually there. They thought someone was, so they left. It doesn’t need to be complicated.”
Tate was aware that the simplest explanations were usually the best, and he didn’t want to overcomplicate the situation.
“We can question why they didn’t back up and hit Josh again, but we know for a fact that they fired a gun and shot Tyler,” Finn explained. “They wanted to kill that morning. We know that for sure. Hell, that’s why we’re all here today. Tyler was in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing Josh’s clothes. In the meantime, I’ve put a deputy on Josh just in case someone tries again.”
If they were determined to kill Josh, a third attempt was a distinct possibility.
Chapter
Twenty-One
Cat driedher hands and then checked her makeup in the bathroom mirror. Some of her mascara had run slightly from the tears she’d shed during the memorial service, but otherwise she looked presentable. With a tissue, she quickly cleaned up the stray black marks before tossing it into the small trash can next to the vanity.
Smoothing down her navy blue dress, she opened the bathroom door only to find someone on the other side, their hand raised to knock. It was Tyler’s girlfriend, Alexa, from Seattle, and she looked a wreck, her eyes red and swollen.
“Oh! I wasn’t sure anyone was in here,” she said, her arm dropping to her side. “I just wanted to splash some water on my face.”
“I’m all done,” Cat assured her with a smile. “It’s all yours.”
“You don’t have to hurry?—”
Alexa broke off, more tears sliding down her already wet cheeks. Her shoulder shook with a sob, and she buried her face in her hands.
“I’m so sorry— I just can’t— I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m a mess. Everyone must think I’m a lunatic.”
Instinct took over common sense, and Cat placed her arm around Alexa, guiding her into the bathroom.
“No one thinks you’re a lunatic. Let’s just get you freshened up a bit. You’ll feel better.”
Cat flipped the lid down on the commode so that Alexa could sit down. It wasn’t her habit to paw through a host’s lined closets and cabinets, but she made a small exception today. She found a stack of washcloths and hand towels under the sink, and she dampened one with warm water before handing it to the young woman.
Alexa pressed it to her cheeks, sighing softly and closing her eyes.
“We were supposed to get married,” she said, her gaze not on Cat but on the far wall where a picture of a cat in the bathtub was hung. “We hadn’t really planned anything, but we’d talked about what kind of wedding we wanted, and who we wanted to invite. Whenever we were out and about, he’d veer us into a jewelry shop and have me point out rings I liked. He said he wanted the ring and proposal to be just perfect.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Cat said, not sure what to say to the distraught woman. She’d never felt she was good at comforting people, but she’d basically volunteered herself to do it. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
“What I’m going through,” Alexa mused, her attention back on Cat. “Such a strange way to put it. I’m not sure that I’m really going through anything at the moment. It all feels completely surreal. I feel positive that Tyler is going to come bounding through my front door, some takeout and a bottle of wine in hand, telling me what a great day at work he had and asking me about mine. He was always doing fun surprises like that. He was very spontaneous.”
“He was,” Cat agreed. “I remember him as being a lot of fun in high school.”
“He could always make me laugh,” Alexa said, her smile tremulous. “He could also make me sad, too. We took a break for a little while before getting back together. But we were stronger for it. We both knew what we wanted by then.”
“Relationships are complicated.”
Cat ought to know that fact. She and Tate hadn’t had an easy, drama-free road to the place they were now.
“We argued,” Alexa sighed. “He admitted that he’d almost had an affair. He ended it before it went too far, but he still felt guilty about it. I was going through some stuff, too, so I didn’t react well. But we pulled it together, and we were creating a better future for us. I really thought we were going to live happily ever after. You know, holding hands in our rocking chairs while we watched our grandkids play on the lawn. I know it sounds cheesy, but I truly believed it. God, I loved him so much.”
This poor woman simply needed someone to talk to about Tyler. Cat could have been any willing soul. If it helped Alexa deal with her pain, it wasn’t a lot to ask of Cat. She could be the ear someone needed to listen.
“I’m sure he loved you, too,” Cat replied, patting Alexa on the shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. “I’m sure you would have had a wonderful future together.”
“I can’t tell any of my friends about what Tyler did,” Alexa went on as if Cat hadn’t spoken. “They’d judge him and tell me to dump him. I couldn’t do that. I knew we could work through it, but they would have turned against him. I know they would have. They wouldn’t have been able to understand.”
Alexa dug into her purse, pulling out a cell phone.
“He sent me a message that morning, you know? I was on duty, so I didn’t answer. I’m a nurse, and I was busy. He left me a message. He told me he loved me. I wish I had answered. I wish I could have talked to him just one more time. I keep playing it over and over just to hear his voice.”
