Edisto Stranger by C. Hope Clark

Author:C. Hope Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks Inc.
Published: 2021-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

AROUND HALF PAST noon, without the housekeeper, Mrs. Flagg walked Callie and Knox to the door. Callie carried the photos. They’d begun their visit with horrific news about Rhoades and discussing the brutal topic of Emma, yet Mrs. Flagg hugged them both with a sad sincerity. Then she requested they update her often as to what they found.

She gave Knox a second hug and patted his cheek.

It wasn’t until Callie drove out of the drive that she yielded to the fact that Amanda Flagg had deftly transferred responsibility of finding Emma onto them. New bodies to take up the torch.

More importantly, though, how would she approach Nolan when she got back to Edisto?

She cut a glance at Knox. “You realize Mrs. Flagg—”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, resignation thick. “We’re her detectives now.”

Knox’s forehead furrowed, probably working out, if he hadn’t already, where Pinky’s interests lay and what that meant.

“Rhoades was way more than a detective for that woman. It’s common,” she said. “Don’t be so quick to judge. People thrown together on cases, on the job . . . feelings happened.”

Like Stan, but not like Stan . . . but so much like Mike.

“Their thing seemed more sweet than sordid,” she added, filling in his silence. “Not by today’s standards.”

He snapped around to her. “Exactly. The Bureau . . . never mind.” He caught himself but a second too late.

“The Bureau what?” she asked, but he turned deaf to her question.

Then she got it. “Did the FBI force him to retire over her?”

Knox’s mashed his lips a few seconds. “He could’ve stayed another two years before mandatory retirement at fifty-seven, but he kept working that damn case. And that meant using resources that left trails back to him. I told him to watch his back, but somebody had nothing better to do than to dig into how he spent his hours.” He let out a loud, grumpy huff. “And yes, they also found out he’d been entertaining Mrs. Flagg since Mr. Flagg died.”

She understood there were rules, but how juvenile of them. “It was a seventeen-year-old cold case.”

“But still an open case,” he replied.

“And Amanda Flagg felt guilty so she funded his continued search. Hmm.”

Knox narrowed his eyes. “Hmm what?”

“Kinda makes you wonder who sent the note, doesn’t it?”

His voice ground even harder. “Not any more than before.”

“Knox,” Callie said, trying not to dumb down her response. “She was a lonely woman with money.”

“She didn’t buy his affection.”

“Not saying that. I agree money didn’t drive him, she did.”

But she still could’ve written the note.

Callie understood better how Knox had fallen under Amanda’s spell back there. Showing way deeper emotion than she had seen in him since they met, he was familiar with Pinky’s love life, and protective of it. In an empathetic wave of remembrance, Callie understood why.

Mike Seabrook first gravitated to her via their law-enforcement careers, with him admiring her big-city detective skills on an island faced with a murder and an inexperienced force. But their shared bereavement was the bigger bond that drew them tight.

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