Waiting on a Cowboy EPB by Jennifer Ryan

Author:Jennifer Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Clint didn’t expect the cops to show up at his place the night Aubrey tried to ruin his relationship with Liz. He expected someone, most likely Aubrey’s mother, would miss her and file a missing person’s report in the next couple days. Some hiker or hunter would discover Aubrey’s bloated body floating in the lake sometime in the next week. Then he expected the cops to rule it a suicide.

Done. End of story.

So what the hell was Detective Valdez doing holding up his badge on the other side of Clint’s door?

He opened it just enough for the cop to see him, but not enough for him to step inside, blocking entry to the last person he wanted to invite through his door. “What’s going on?”

The cop eyed him. “I’m here to ask you about your relationship with Aubrey Pittman.”

“We don’t have one. Not anymore. She broke up with me a while back. Why?”

“You sound bitter about that.”

He tried to calm his racing heart with a deep breath and went with the obvious answer. “Does anyone like being dumped?” The bitch deserved what she got. “What happened to Aubrey?” He tried to sound concerned.

The cop eyed him. “What makes you think something happened to her?”

Shit. Stupid. He shouldn’t have offered an assumption that made him look guilty. He thought of a quick cover. “Cops don’t show up for no reason. So what is it? Is she claiming I harassed her again? Because I haven’t seen her in months.”

“Did you see her today at the deli where you met Liz Scott?”

He shook his head. “No. I left after a brief conversation with Liz and went back to work.”

“Did you make any stops?”

“No. It takes a good twenty minutes, maybe more, to walk back to my office.”

“You walked?”

“I sit in an office all day. I like to get out, walk to lunch, and get some fresh air when the weather is nice. Like today.” He stuck to the truth as much as possible. Once he left the large park and entered the downtown area again, no telling how many people saw him.

“Do you ever walk to the park by the lake?”

Maybe someone had seen him. “Not often, but every once in a while.” He didn’t panic. A lot of people who worked downtown went to the park for lunch. “Why are you asking about Aubrey?”

The officer looked past him into the entry and living room beyond Clint’s shoulder. “May I come in?”

Twice he’d asked what happened and not gotten an answer. He wouldn’t fall into the cop’s trap and talk just to fill in the blanks. “Unless you actually have something to say about Aubrey, I’m done talking.”

“We discovered Aubrey’s body in the lake a few hours ago.”

He leaned into the door frame and dropped his head. “She finally did it.”

“Did what?” the cop asked, staring hard at him.

He looked up, putting on a mask of sadness and resignation. “Aubrey was . . . troubled. She had a hard time coping with life.

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