Coaching Fire by Victoria Laurie

Author:Victoria Laurie [Laurie, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Roberta pointed us to a lovely Italian restaurant tucked away in the corner of an outdoor mall. The second we walked in my mouth watered. The place smelled incredible.

We were lucky enough to have missed the lunch crowd, so we were given a very nice table with a view of the park across the street and made small talk while we perused the menu. After giving our order to the server, Roberta started right in on grilling Shepherd.

“How long have you known Catherine?” she asked.

He reached out and squeezed my hand, offering me such a handsome smile. “I had her arrested oh . . . about three and a half years ago now.”

I spit water onto the tablecloth.

Roberta gasped. Shepherd laughed. Our server hurried over with an extra napkin that I used to mop up myself.

Roberta looked at Shepherd with a sly smile. “Touchy subject?”

“Not for me,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Of course I had to resort to extreme measures, otherwise she wouldn’t have given me the time of day.”

“What’s gotten into you?” I asked him. He seemed . . . relaxed. And that definitely wasn’t like him.

He lifted his rolled-up napkin from the table and flicked it to set it into his lap. “It’s nice to be out of the Hamptons and away from all the stress at work.”

“You’re here to help them with the case, right?” Roberta asked.

“I am,” he said. “But since it’s not my jurisdiction, or my ass on the line with the D.A., I don’t have to sweat the rules too much.”

Roberta then turned to me. “What other leads have you come up with?”

I blinked and almost said, “None,” but caught myself. I didn’t want her to think that Gilley and I had been sitting on our laurels, so I settled for a reminder. “Well, since the fire last night, we haven’t had a lot of free time to explore any new leads.”

“Could the two be related?” Shepherd asked.

Both Roberta and I turned to him. “Do you think they could be related?” I asked, interested in his investigative instincts.

Shepherd gave us a one-shoulder shrug. “Hard to say. Has anyone heard from the fire marshal?”

“Only that Stuart was cleared to go open the safe at the warehouse,” I said.

“Do you think it might’ve been arson?” Roberta asked.

Shepherd shrugged a second time. “I can make some calls after lunch and see if someone over there will talk to me. Sometimes I’m able to sneak in a little, ‘Hello, this is Detective Steve Shepherd calling,’ and not tell them which PD I’m with and they don’t even hesitate to give me any info I asked for.”

Roberta pointed at him. “Sly,” she said. “I like it.”

“Could you use that superpower to see what the local PD has on Imani?” I asked. “Her attorney said that we wouldn’t find out what evidence they have against her until her arraignment.”

“When’s that?” he asked.

“Hopefully soon. I’m waiting on the attorney to call me and tell me so that we can be there to support her.

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