Beverly Barton 3 Book Bundle

“All right.”

“I left the Memphis PD recently.” He went on to explain about Mary Lee’s remarriage, his subsequent move to Adams Landing and his new job as chief deputy. “We have a possible serial killer on our hands here in Adams County. Two women have been kidnapped and murdered and, as of last night, a third has come up missing. We have very few clues and our only suspect in this latest case has an iron-tight alibi.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You can put me in touch with the profiler you used on the Quinn Cortez case.”

“Derek Lawrence doesn’t work cheap,” Griffin said.

“Yeah, I figured as much. I’m not sure the Adams County Sheriff’s Department can afford him, but we need him. Any chance you might intervene and see if he’ll give us a discount?”

Griffin laughed. “Is that a subtle way of asking me if I’ll pick up the tab?”

“I wouldn’t dream of asking you to—”

“Derek owes me a favor. I’ll call in his IOU. But if I do, that means you’ll owe me one.”

“Deal,” Jim said.”

“Derek will be in touch with you by noon today.”

“Thanks, Griff.”

The dial tone hummed in Jim’s ear.

There had been a time when he and Griffin Powell were best friends and teammates. They’d both had big dreams of turning pro after they graduated from UT. A couple of bad knees had ended any hopes of that pro career for Jim. But nobody knew what had happened to destroy Griffin’s plans. Shortly after graduation, he had disappeared off the face of the earth, then reappeared ten years later, a very rich man. A rich mystery man. Only Griffin could answer the questions of where he’d been and what had happened to him during those missing ten years. Griffin and possibly Sanders, the man who had returned with him from only God knew where.

Chapter 13 (#uf0f29a13-839e-557e-a55f-f4749208704f)

Jim took his lunch break at eleven-thirty, exactly five minutes after Allen Clark phoned with the news that Mary Lee had come through the surgery just fine. When Jim pulled up in front of the Granger house, he sat inside his old pickup for several minutes, pulling his thoughts together, figuring out exactly what he was going to say to his son.

Be honest, but optimistic.

As he emerged from his truck and walked up the sidewalk to the front door, his mind wandered back a dozen years to when Kevin had been a baby. And Mary Lee had been his wife. They’d been happy then, hadn’t they? He and Mary Lee had still been in love. They’d been proud parents planning a future for their son. A future that they’d believed would include the two of them raising Kevin and giving him a brother or a sister at some point down the line.

Then everything had gone wrong. Little things at first. His obsession with his job. Mary Lee’s boredom and restlessness. The arguments. The accusations. And then his partner had been murdered and for a while, Jim had nearly lost his mind. After that, nothing had ever been the same again. Not with his marriage. Not with his life.

Just as Jim reached out to ring the Grangers’ doorbell, he heard loud laughter and splashing water, the sounds coming from the back of the house. He vaguely remembered R.B. telling him to make sure Kevin brought along some swim trunks because they had a backyard pool. Jim stepped down off the porch, rounded the side of the house and opened the black wrought-iron gate. He stopped a good fifteen feet away and watched Kevin and R.B. in the pool. They tossed a huge beach ball back and forth, the boy and the man laughing. Brenda Granger, in a pair of yellow capri pants and a short-sleeved white blouse, stood on the patio watching the two, a wide smile on her face. As if sensing Jim’s presence, she turned and waved, then called to him.

“Hello there. You’re just in time for lunch. We’re having hot dogs, potato chips, and chocolate pie,” Brenda said.

Kevin tossed the ball out onto the patio, then swam across the pool and pulled himself out and onto his feet. “Hey, Dad. Any word on Mom?”

Jim nodded. “Allen just phoned.”

“How is your ex-wife?” Brenda asked in a hushed tone as she approached Jim. “We’ve been trying to keep Kevin occupied so he wouldn’t worry.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Granger. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything y’all have done for Kevin and me.”

“It’s our pleasure. And please, remember to call me Brenda.”

Kevin rushed up to Jim and looked him square in the eyes. “How is she? She’s all right, isn’t she?”

“Allen said she came through surgery just fine. She’s still asleep. He’ll call us tonight and then if she feels up to it, your mother will call you tomorrow.” Jim glanced at Brenda. “I gave him your number. I hope that’s all right.”

“Yes, of course, it is.” Brenda reached down and picked up a large beach towel from a nearby chaise lounge and handed it to Kevin, then turned to R.B., who had just emerged from the pool. “Come inside and help me get lunch on the table.”

“Let me dry off first.”

“Well, hurry up. I’m sure Jim needs a few minutes alone with Kevin,” Brenda said.

As soon as the Grangers went into the house, Jim put his hand on Kevin’s back. “Let’s go sit on the deck and I’ll tell you what Allen told me.”

They walked over to the deck that separated the patio area around the pool from the back of the house. As soon as they sat in a couple of cushioned, brown wicker chairs, Jim faced his son.

“They removed your mother’s left breast. They’re testing the lymph nodes they removed during surgery, and they should know in a few days whether the cancer has spread. Either way, she’s looking at chemotherapy, which means she’ll lose her hair and the treatments will make her tired, sick and very weak.”

“Mom will hate losing her hair.” Tears pooled in Kevin’s eyes.

Jim wanted to pull the boy into his arms and hug him. He wished he could promise his son that everything would be all right, that there was no chance his mom would die. Beoptimistic, he reminded himself, but be honest.

“Your mom’s a tough lady. She’s a fighter. She won’t let this thing beat her.”

Kevin glanced down at the deck floor. “She’s not going to want me to see her sick.”

“Probably not.”

“It’ll be a good while before I get to see her again, won’t it?”

“I know it’ll be rough on you not seeing her, but we’ve got to think about her right now. What she wants and needs.”

Kevin lifted his head and blinked. Teardrops clung to his eyelashes. “Allen will take good care of her. He loves her.”

Jim swallowed hard. He heard his son’s unspoken words: You didn’t take care of her. You don’t love her. All the old guilt resurfaced. He could have stayed with Mary Lee. He could have forgiven her for sleeping with other men. If he’d swallowed his pride. But how did a man erase the image of his wife screwing another man in their bed? Jim had walked in on them in the middle of the act and he’d come very close to killing both of them. Even now, he could still feel a little of that old rage.

But Kevin didn’t know what his mother had done, would never know if it was up to Jim to tell him. Besides, he was too young to understand then and now. All Kevin knew was that his dad had divorced his mom. And felt that his dad had divorced him, too.

“She’s not going to die, is she?” Kevin almost choked on his tears.

Clenching his teeth, praying he would say and do the right thing, Jim reached over and laid his hand on Kevin’s damp knee.

“I don’t think so,” Jim said.

Brenda Granger opened the back door and called to them, “Lunch is ready, you two.”

“Come on, son.” Jim stood. “Let’s go eat.”

When Kevin got up, Jim placed his arm around his son’s shoulders. Kevin shrank away from Jim, but stayed in step at his side as they headed for the house.