Julianna Morris - Honor Bound

His aunt and uncle had volunteered to lend a hand with Toby whenever he needed it, so he’d rented the other side of their duplex when they told him it was available. Henry and Gina were great neighbors—they respected his privacy and did everything possible to help with Toby.

“Don’t tell me,” Henry said, raising his eyebrows at the papers spread across the table. “You’re taking over the investigation.”

“Not exactly.”

A knowing grin crossed Henry’s face. “Then why do you have the case file?”

“It’s a copy. I’m reviewing the progress we’ve made.”

His uncle smiled wider and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“That’s the real stuff,” Ben warned. “Double strength. Aunt Gina will blame me if you can’t sleep.”

“Caffeine doesn’t keep me awake anymore.” Henry took a long swallow, although the coffee was hot enough to scald. “And your aunt wouldn’t blame you, she loves you too much.”

Ben couldn’t argue the point. His aunt had indulged him as a boy, something he’d never fully appreciated before. It was a miracle how she’d put up with him. His behavior had been relatively okay when the visits were to places like London, Rome and Athens—wherever Henry happened to be assigned at the time—but the later trips to Sand Point were another story.

“God knows why,” he said finally. “I was an antisocial monster when I was a kid.”

Henry gave him a fond look. “You weren’t so bad. And you had issues back then. We understood. My sister and her husband…well, we don’t need to get into that.”

It was the most Henry had ever said about the past, and Ben shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, he’d had issues. His childhood hadn’t been idyllic, proving money didn’t bring happiness. He barely spoke to his parents now, though they’d recently left a few messages, asking if they could visit. He’d put them off, not interested in a family reunion with two people he’d never been close to, even when he was a kid.

“Kelly would have disagreed with you. She thought I was awful.”

“She didn’t think so the whole time.” Henry’s mouth flattened, plainly recalling the evening that Ben and Kelly were caught by a Sand Point cop, engaged in heavy-duty necking.

“It wasn’t a big deal—we were eighteen,” Ben found himself saying, a defensive reflex from the one time his uncle had been truly angry with him.

Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure why Henry had been so upset. Maybe it was embarrassing for the police chief to have his nephew hauled in by one of his own officers, or maybe it was because Henry and Gina thought of Kelly as a daughter. Kelly’s mother had been renting half of the duplex when Henry and Gina bought it. The arrangement had continued, with Henry and Gina living on one side and Kelly and Shanna on the other, so they’d watched her grow up from age twelve.

Hell, Henry was the reason Kelly worked at City Hall; he’d gotten her the job when her husband died.

With a neutral expression, his uncle sat at the table and put a finger on several sheets of paper, twisting them around. A low whistle came out as he read.

“You don’t have to say anything. It’s a lousy piece of investigating,” Ben said. “When your detectives took positions in Portland after you left, these two were hired by the interim police chief. They’ve got law enforcement training, but limited hours on the job. Very limited.”

“You can’t attract experienced detectives to Sand Point with the starting salaries we offer…or experienced police chiefs. So teach them. What do you think I did with my guys? I had to do it more than once, as a matter of fact. I’d get them trained and sooner or later they’d go looking for bigger and better opportunities.”

Ben opened his mouth, then closed it.

Damn it all, Henry was right.

Instead of grinding his teeth in frustration, Ben should be teaching Lasko and Fairmont to be the detectives he wanted them to be. They needed on-the-job training. A college education and police academy certification were fine, but didn’t translate into true investigative skills.

He’d learned from a tough partner who’d kicked his ass in the right direction if he made a mistake.

Henry waved at the file. “Small towns aren’t the same as cities. That means your job isn’t the same as being a captain or police chief in Los Angeles.”

“So I’m discovering. How the hell did you go from Europe to Sand Point?” Ben asked. “CIA to small-town cop? It’s quite a switch.”

“We moved to Oregon when I got tired of knowing that as soon as one bit of scum got put away, there were ten more ready to take his place. It isn’t that way in Sand Point. My work here made a difference. I liked that difference. I’m an egotist.”

“More like someone who plays daddy to the world.” Ben pressed his fingers to his eyes so hard he saw stars. He’d always wanted to be a cop. It was the one constant from his childhood, and yet there were times that working in law enforcement was more discouraging than sweeping sand in a windstorm, particularly when lawyers got perps released as fast as they were arrested.

Henry put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You’ll get it sorted out. I wouldn’t have recommended you if I hadn’t known you were the best man for the job.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“You’re welcome. Now get some sleep, son. Tomorrow comes soon enough.” The back door opened and closed and quiet filled the house.

Ben smiled. Henry and Gina should have had kids; they were born parents. They’d certainly done a lot for him. Even when it came to the house… Ben glanced around the cheerful kitchen. It was a real home thanks to Aunt Gina’s extra touches. They would have wanted to do the same for Kelly and her mother when they’d lived here, though he doubted it would have meant much to Shanna.

His clearest memories of Shanna James were of a hard-eyed woman wearing tight, short, low-cut dresses, sitting on the porch in a cloud of tobacco smoke. She’d worked at a bar till 2:00 a.m., gone through men the way she went through cigarettes, and had a foul mouth that rivaled a longshoreman’s.

The only thing he’d had in common with Shanna was a case of mutual dislike. When they first met she’d called him an “f’ing spoiled brat” and told him stay out of her way. Then she’d yelled at Kelly to “get in the goddamn” house.” Kelly probably would have gone hungry and run wild if it hadn’t been for Henry and Gina, but she’d survived her childhood and ended up married to the former mayor’s son.

So she’d done okay for herself.

Yawning, Ben dismissed the thought and pushed back from the table.

Tomorrow he would talk to Lasko and Fairmont. Whether they liked it or not, he was going to kick their collective asses in the right direction. He’d make them decent detectives if it was the last thing he ever did.

THE NEXT MORNING KELLY went into City Hall, her footsteps echoing in the marble corridor. She smiled at the sound. The old part of City Hall was an improbable birthday cake of a building. It was utterly impractical, but most of the employees loved it. Dubbed the “Marble Monster” when first built in 1926, it provided a gaudy focal point for the entire area.

Phillip and Frank Stone were standing near the base of the main staircase and she veered sharply, hoping to escape notice.

“Mrs. Lawson, I need to speak with you.”

Wonderful. Kelly turned around. “Yes, Mayor?”

He waved an envelope in the air. “The Kite and Blackberry Festival committee just asked me to ride in the parade. I’m concerned they didn’t make the request sooner.”

Frank stepped closer. He was shorter and more wiry than his younger brother, but unlike Phillip, he wasn’t going prematurely gray. “Sugar, the mayor should have been the first person invited. You’re on that committee. You should have made sure the right protocol was followed.”