Chapter 39
I helped Nia into the backseat of Cathy’s car, ignoring the questioning stare from my friend as she watched us in silence.
“Put your seatbelt on, dragonfly,” I said before I closed the door and hurried to take my place up front.
Cathy put the car into gear and backed out of the parking spot. “So… who is this?”
“I’m not sure,” I said honestly. “I found her hiding behind a dumpster behind the bar. I haven’t quite pulled a story out of her yet. Thanks for coming to get me. Us. I had too much to drink. Larsen’s going to have one of Aaron’s men come get Sarah’s SUV.”
“Anytime.” Cathy touched my knee. “You’re bothered. What’s going on?”
I turned to glance at Nia. She’d fallen against the window, her sweet face slack with sleep. That was quick, I thought. The poor girl must have had it rougher than I’d imagined.
“Cath, something weird happened today.”
“Other than you finding Tina Harlow dead?”
“How’d you know?”
“How do I know anything in this town?” Cathy shook her head. “Gossipy clients.”
I picked at my skirt, scared to say the words out loud. “I found Tierney washing blood off his hands.”
Cathy shot me a Look. “What? When?”
“This afternoon, before he left for work. I woke up from a nap and he wasn’t home. I took a walk and ended up doing an impromptu ritual at the cliff. When I got back, he was in the bathroom…”
Cathy took a left turn onto the road that led to my cottage. “And then a couple hours later, you found Tina.”
I nodded.
“What’d he say? You asked him why, right?”
“Yeah. Injured deer, he said.” I heard the disbelief in my voice.
“You can’t possibly think — ”
“What am I supposed to think?” I said hotly, crossing my arms. “Tierney showed up at my back door the very day Justine Montgomery disappeared.”
“I’ll admit that’s a little weird.”
“Weird? Cath, it’s like the plot of a bad cop show. He was backpacking north. He told me himself he passed through Gables on his way here, and it stands to reason he passed through Portland and Boston.”
Pulling to a stop before my dark cottage, Cathy shook her head. “I don’t know, Meens. Tierney is so nice.”
“That’s what they said about Ted Bundy.”
“Why don’t you see if you can find the deer?” Cathy suggested. “If it’s there, he was being honest. If it’s not… Well, he’s not.”
Cathy and I exchanged a cheek-kiss, and I climbed from the car. I gently opened Nia’s door, startling her awake.
“Come on, dragonfly. We’re home.”
“Home?” For a brief moment, her pretty green eyes filled with fear, but then she looked through the front windshield to where Cathy’s headlights illuminated the cottage. “Your home?”
“Yep, mine. Let’s get inside and out of these wet clothes, hmm?”
J.J.’s booming bark greeted us from the other side of the screen door, and Nia’s hand tensed in mine. “Are you afraid of dogs?” I asked her. “J.J.’s really nice. He would never hurt you.”
She shrugged, seemingly her answer for everything.
Inside the door, J.J. pranced up to Nia and sniffed her feet. I couldn’t see her reaction in the dark, but I heard the soft sound of his kisses, and she giggled.
“Mena? Where’ve you been, lass?” Tierney’s groggy voice came from the living room, where a match flared to life, followed a moment later by the oil lamp.
Nia squeaked and jumped behind me.
“It’s okay,” I soothed her. The poor thing was jumpy as a baby lamb.
“Meens?” Tierney appeared in the doorway, his gaze on Nia where she peeked around my arm.
“I found her,” I told him, omitting the fact I’d been at a bar.
“Did you call the law?” he asked me.
Shaking my head, I slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her forward. “No. Not yet. I’m going to get her cleaned up and let her get a good night’s sleep. Then we’ll figure things out.”
He grinned. “You have a soft spot for the lost souls, don’t ye, love?”
I stared at his handsome face — strong, square jaw, lips quirked into a smirk, several days’ worth of shadow on his cheeks. I most definitely had a soft spot for the “lost souls” as he put it, but by the warmth in my chest, I knew the soft spot was worst when it came to him. Even as I imagined he could be a killer.