Julianna Morris - Honor Bound

“Oh.”

Ben was glad when she didn’t say anything else. A couple of days ago they’d gotten a report from a Sea Front Drive resident about a suspicious person hanging around. When Henry had heard about it he’d nearly had a stroke, then made sure Ben knew exactly which house was Kelly’s so he could get there quickly.

Ben hadn’t taken the report seriously until now. Murders made everyone nervous, and unsolved murders were ten-times worse. People reacted emotionally, so it was common to get a rash of “suspicious person” reports, whether it was a big city or small town. Ever since the first murder, calls had been coming in from all over Sand Point. So far none of them had seemed credible.

Now he wasn’t so certain. Kelly irritated him, but she didn’t seem the type to be scared of her own shadow. And she had admitted to knowing Simon, however casually.

Then there was the little issue of those damned mystery novels….

Ben grimaced.

He pulled into her driveway, braked and swung from the Jeep. Kelly got out before he could get to her side of the vehicle and act the gentleman that Henry had taught him to be.

“See?” She made a sweeping motion with her arm. “I don’t know what you expect to find. There’s nothing going on.”

It was a cool, crisp day, the sun rising in a cloudless sky. Kelly’s house was an older Cape Cod, with weathered wood-shingle siding. Everything was clean, well maintained and naturally landscaped. Nice, but not what he would have expected. What was the old saying about apples and trees?

He looked at Kelly. “No crazy-eyed, fake pelicans? No pigeon-toed-seagull statuettes crowded on the split-rail fence? What about a bevy of scantily clad mermaids, or some cheerful crabs clutching Welcome To My Home signs in their claws?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why would I have those in my yard?”

“Because your mother liked that kind of junk.” Ben had never seen the interior of the Jameses’ home when they were living there, but there’d been so much overdone statuary, cutesy signs and artificial junk on their side of the yard that it resembled a twisted cartoon nightmare. Thank God Henry and Gina had gotten rid of the hideous stuff ages ago. He’d never understood why they’d allowed the stuff in the first place…or why they’d let a woman like Shanna stay. It must have been out of their concern for Kelly and the way she was being raised.

“You’re a snob.” Kelly slammed the passenger door of the Jeep. “And if you don’t mind, I’d rather not discuss my mom with you.”

No wonder, Ben thought. Shanna hadn’t exactly been mother of the year material. He’d rarely seen her with Kelly, though that wasn’t surprising since she had frequent male visitors and worked at a bar until all hours.

Ben walked around the Jeep and found sandy shoe-prints on the driveway. He measured the prints and took several pictures with his digital camera before heading to the rear of the house. The deck design didn’t include stairs, and there wasn’t any easy ground-level access since the rear of the property dropped sharply.

“Where did you think you saw something?” he called.

“There.” She motioned to an area back from the deck and in the cover of the bushes.

He crouched near the spot. The grass was crushed and some twigs were broken, and a single, broad leaf lay on the ground near a greasy-looking, circle of dirt.

Ben noted the distance between the houses. There wasn’t so much oceanfront property in Southern California—not with houses that belonged to regular people instead of obscenely rich movie stars or business moguls like his father.

As for the view, while attractive, it didn’t compare to the one from twenty feet closer to the edge of the cliff. What it did offer was a partial view of Kelly’s deck, along with an unobstructed sight line of the windows and doors on the north and front sides of the house. It didn’t necessarily mean anything, but it was interesting.

“Have you had any workmen here recently?” he asked. “Someone who might have tramped around in this area?”

“No, nothing lately.”

“How about the neighbors—do they ever take a shortcut through the bushes to visit?”

“There’s a wider space closer to our back doors. That’s what we use.”

“Uh-huh.”

Ben took plastic evidence bags and latex gloves from his pocket—tools of the trade that he still carried from force of habit. He didn’t know if the techs could lift a fingerprint from a leaf, but he was willing to give it a try.

“You can’t be serious,” Kelly exclaimed.

The glove snapped against Ben’s wrist. “I’m always serious about police work.”

“This isn’t police work. It’s absurd.”

“Hey, you’re the one who was bothered enough to call Henry.”

KELLY SCOWLED.

She couldn’t believe Ben was collecting a stupid leaf as if it was evidence and taking pictures of sand on her driveway.

“Yes, and when Henry wasn’t home, I’m the one who decided the whole thing was silly and didn’t pursue it further. And I was right—it’s nothing.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because nobody broke into the house or stole my car,” she said matter-of-factly. “See? Nothing.”

“Maybe, but Sand Point has one or more killers on the loose.”

“Sand Point had one or more killers, who’ve probably already left on a cargo ship. We have an unending supply of transient seamen with our deepwater port. At any rate, I’m not the one who’s overreacting now.”

Ben ignored her, dropping the leaf in his plastic envelope and scooping some soil into another. He smelled the contents. “Did you dump some flavored coffee here? At the end of day, when you got out of the car?”

She threw up her hands. “Would it matter if I said yes?”

“I wouldn’t send it to the lab, for one thing. Those tests cost money.”

“The answer is no, but you don’t need to send anything to the lab.” The mayor was already fuming about the cost of the murder investigation; the last thing she needed was the city paying for unnecessary tests.

“It doesn’t hurt to check things out. I’d like to know why someone was hanging around here.”

“If anyone was hanging around, it was most likely totally innocent.”

Ben rocked back on his heels, cool and professional, his expression as unreadable as if he’d been wearing mirrored sunglasses. “Last night Aunt Gina suggested I come over when Henry wasn’t available. Why didn’t you agree?”

“I changed my mind. There wasn’t anything to worry about.”

“Why didn’t you call me in the first place?”

Kelly blew out a frustrated breath. “I just didn’t, that’s why.”

“That isn’t an explanation.”

“Okay, it didn’t occur to me.”

“I’m the police chief. You see me at City Hall and receive my status reports every morning and evening. I’m Henry’s nephew, and the two of us used to date. Why didn’t it ‘occur’ to you that I might be someone to contact when you’re having a problem? I should have been at the top of the list.”

“Because the one time I did call you for something, you were too busy,” she said coolly.

He stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“It isn’t important any longer.” Kelly shrugged. “I’m not sure it ever was.”

She climbed back into the Jeep, more annoyed than she was justified. It was because of those cracks he’d made about fake pelicans in the yard and the other stuff her mother had loved. How dare he? Nobody, including Shanna, would have claimed she was perfect. But she’d done her best, and that was a far cry from what Ben had ever done.

Kelly learned from her mistakes.

She had loved Ben, and then he hadn’t come when her mother died. He hadn’t even cared. It was the sort of lesson that stuck. She’d just returned from the mortuary and the florist, making decisions about a casket and burial plot, and flowers and feeling desperately alone. The house was deathly quiet. She’d broken down and called Ben, but he’d blown her off as fast as possible.