Operation Hero's Watch

“I buy them for my mom,” Jace protested.

Cassie blinked. Looked as if something had clicked in her mind, but she only said, “That wasn’t aimed at you.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He grinned rather crookedly. “Must have been from being around you guys growing up. I never thought flowers were scary.”

“I know,” she said, and this time her voice was soft, her smile fond. “I remember you used to ask my mother what they all were called. And the lilies were your favorite.”

Now he was embarrassed. “Yeah,” he said. “I liked how they looked so delicate, but if you didn’t take care they’d mark you forever with that orange stuff.”

“Attack of the Tiger Lilies.”

He had to laugh as she quoted the old title he’d made up as a kid for a horror film starring the tiger lilies simply because he liked the name.

And yet again Rafe had to steer them back to the matter at hand.

“What else did you think or wonder about him that first day?” When she hesitated, Rafe leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Sometimes your brain processes things faster than your conscious mind is aware of. So you have a thought that seems out of the blue, or baseless, when in fact there was an entire thought process that brought you to it.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Cassidy said.

“He means—I think,” Jace added with a glance at Rafe, “like when you see a bluebird. You think you instantly know it’s a bluebird, but really it’s a process. First you see that something’s there, then recognize that it’s a bird, then that it’s blue, and then that it’s not a blue jay, and voilà, you arrive at bluebird. But you’re not conscious of all those steps.”

She was smiling by the time he was halfway through. And Rafe, thankfully, was nodding, so he’d been right.

“Okay, I get it. But—” she gave Rafe a doubtful glance “—I’m not sure how it applies here.”

“When he kept hanging around, did your thoughts about what he might be up to get worse?”

“Oh. Yes,” she said with a small laugh. “I started wondering if he was working up the nerve to steal something, or rob us.” As if she’d heard her own words, her eyes widened. “Do you think that’s what it was? That he was...what, casing our shop? That would be pointless—we really don’t have much cash on hand. Most people use credit or debit cards.”

“Assuming the shop’s cash is what he was after,” Rafe said.

“But what else?”

“Did he make you nervous?” Jace asked. “In a...personal way?”

“You mean did I feel like it was me specifically he was watching? Not then. Not until I started feeling watched around here, at home.”

“What made you think it was the same man?”

Cassie let out an audible breath. “That’s what the police asked. And since I’ve never really seen him when he’s been here, I still don’t have an answer other than odds.”

Jace knew she meant the odds that in a small town like this there would be two men hanging around the two places she frequented most. He agreed, but he wasn’t sure the clearly experienced and likely more suspicious Rafe would. But the man was simply nodding, looking thoughtful.

“Too coincidental,” Jace said.

“Yes.” Cassie sounded relieved that he understood.

“I need to ask you some questions,” Rafe said. “And some of them might seem not pertinent, maybe even impertinent.”

Cassie drew back slightly, looking at the man. “Not a word I’d dare to apply to you.”

Rafe smiled, just slightly, and Jace had the thought that it wasn’t exactly a pleased smile. And Cutter shifted suddenly, from his polite, alert posture to leaning slightly against Rafe’s knee. The man’s hand went to the dog’s head, to scratch behind his right ear, and it had the feel of an automatic gesture, done so often it didn’t require thought any longer.

It was almost like the dog had also sensed that smile hadn’t been a happy one and had moved to comfort. He remembered how his childhood dog, Max, had always seemed to know when he was sad or upset and had come to comfort him.

And remember what that cost him.

He shoved away the memory as Rafe spoke again.

“I’m sure you’ve already thought of the obvious,” Rafe said, “but I have to ask anyway. And if I ask what seems like the same thing again but in a different way, don’t feel hounded. Sometimes just a different way of phrasing can trigger different thoughts and ideas.”

Jace listened as the man asked a string of questions. Some he could have answered himself, and he nodded when she did so exactly as he would have expected. Cassie would never get into an argument at work—she was the peacemaker, probably learned from years of trying to broker peace between her brother and their parents. She had a knack for seeing things from another point of view and acknowledging it without ever conceding her own. And she had worked in the flower shop since she was a teenager, so she knew her stuff. Not to mention, knowing her, she worked harder than anybody else.

Unhappy customers? No one that stayed unhappy.

You don’t have to agree. Sometimes all people need to know is that you hear them, understand where they’re coming from. That was Cassie’s philosophy, and always had been. Nobody could stay mad at her for long.

Traffic accidents? No, Cassie was very careful.

Upset neighbors? He nearly laughed at that one. Unless she had very much changed, Cassidy Grant was who you came to if you needed a favor—your dog walked, your cat fed, your kid watched at the last minute; if she could, she’d do it.

True, he hadn’t had contact with her in years, but that was who Cassie was at her very core, and he doubted she had changed much.

Boyfriend?

Jace went still. He should have realized that one was coming. Felt silly when he realized he was holding his breath, waiting for her to answer.

“No.”

No explanation, just a flat no. He could breathe again. And he’d analyze what the hell that meant later.

“Exes?” Rafe asked.

She glanced at Jace. A quick flick of a look, but he was certain he’d seen it.

“Not...recently.”

“How long ago?”

She answered neutrally, “Nearly two years.”

Two years? How had a woman like Cassie gone two years without having guys beating down her door?

“Long time,” he said, his voice coming out a bit gruff. She only shrugged.

“How were the partings?” Rafe asked. Belatedly, Jace realized this could be exactly what they were here about.

“Agreed upon, if not amicable,” she said, her voice still betraying no emotion at all. Odd, he thought, she’d always had trouble hiding her emotions before. He found he wasn’t particularly happy that she’d learned.