The Marshal

Even when she griped at him.

“I know. I’m sorry. I got caught up at work and didn’t get a chance to call.”

Jamie stepped around her mother, went on tiptoes and smacked a kiss on Brent’s cheek. “Hey, cuz. Good to see you.”

“Hi, James.”

He’d started calling his cousin James when they were kids and the nickname had stuck. She never seemed to mind.

Obviously done ranting, Aunt Sylvie waved at Barnes, who’d finished digging a file box from his car and had set it on the trunk. “Sheriff, how are you?”

“I’m good, Sylvie. You all right?”

“Oh, we’re just fine.” She shot Brent the stink-eye. “Wouldn’t mind seeing my niece and nephew a little more.”

Guilt, Brent had enough of. Hell, he had enough guilt to fill the Chicago River. “You know how to drive. And Chicago is only an hour.”

As usual, her mouth dropped open and she gasped. “Look at you with that smart mouth.”

“Merely an observation.”

Jamie cleared her throat. “What’s in the box, Sheriff?”

The sheriff glanced at Brent, unsure how much to reveal, so Brent took that one. “That’s for me. Copies of Mom’s files.”

With that bright spotlight shining down on her, Aunt Sylvie whipped her gaze between Brent and the sheriff. Brent knew right where her mind had gone. “Has something happened? A lead?”

Dang. He’d been insensitive. He knew her. Knew how her mind worked and the slow-curling panic that fired every time the sheriff pulled into one of these driveways.

And Brent hadn’t warned her.

Gave her zero notice about Jenna investigating. Moron.

Brent touched her arm. “No. But there’s someone I’ll introduce you to in a minute. She’s inside talking with Uncle Herb. I think she can help us.”

“Who is she?”

“An investigator. Remember the lawyer I helped last spring?”

“That adorable little blonde?”

Adorable. Penny would hate that. She’d like Uncle Herb’s description better. “Yes. The investigator works for her law firm. They offered to help with Mom’s case.”

Aunt Sylvie cocked her head. “She’s good, this investigator?”

“She is.”

And she’s got a body that drives me insane. Not that he’d say that, but he was a man, and men had needs. Needs that Brent had been sorely neglecting lately. Needs that maybe Jenna could help him with.

When they were done finding a killer.

Because as much as Brent fantasized about a long night with Jenna in his bed, his priority was catching his mother’s killer. If he and Jenna got involved, something told him it would get ugly when he walked away. And walk away, he would. He liked coming and going as he pleased and not having to explain himself to anyone. He didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

The snick of the front-door latch sounded and they all turned toward the house. Jenna came down the porch steps.

She walked toward them, her coat flying open to reveal her blouse and the slacks that fit her curvy body in all the right ways.

“Wow,” Jamie said. “She’s pretty.”

Aunt Sylvie gave him a bored look. “This is your investigator?”

Brent grinned. “Yep!”

“Which body part made this decision?” she whispered.

“Well, look at you with that smart mouth,” he said in his best Sylvie voice.

Without giving her an opportunity to respond, he waved Jenna over. “Come meet my aunt and cousin.”

After doing the introductions, Brent turned to Aunt Sylvie. “Jenna will be poking around. Don’t freak when you see a car in the driveway.”

“Yes,” Jenna said. “I’d like to chat with both of you, at your convenience, of course.”

Aunt Sylvie pressed her lips together, and then shot a look at Uncle Herb who nodded. She didn’t like talking about her sister. Ever. Growing up, Brent had craved stories about his mom, but the memories were too painful for his aunt and she typically ran from the room sobbing. Over the years, Brent had been conditioned not to talk about his mother. Which pretty much stunk.

“Of course,” his aunt said. “If it’ll help. I’m available anytime.”

“Thank you. I’d like to read through the sheriff’s files first. Would it be all right if I call you in a day or two?” She looked at Jamie. “Both of you?”

“Sure,” Jamie said. “Anytime.”

“Thank you.”

“Well, have you eaten?” his aunt asked Brent. “I could fix you something.”

A meal would serve him good right now, but the night had dragged on and, as hopeful as he was about the new energy Jenna brought, talking about his mother, reliving that night, had drained him. Time to get back to Chicago, where the sounds of the city would drown the noise in his head. Silence, he’d learned long ago, was his enemy. During high school and college, football helped smother it. With football, the energy it took to step to the line and get his head beat in was all the distraction he needed. When he became a marshal—nothing boring there—silence was no longer an issue. Pretty much, the US Marshal Service was involved in everything from judicial and witness security to asset forfeiture. If it involved federal laws, US marshals were there. One day he could chase down a fugitive, the next make sure a witness didn’t get blown away by someone they’d just testified against.

Out here, in his childhood hometown where the streets were desolate after six o’clock and the only outside noise came from birds or cicadas or blowing leaves, the quiet created emotional chaos.

Gotta go.

He leaned down, kissed his aunt’s cheek. “We need to get back to the city. Maybe on the weekend.”

“Saturday,” she said. “After church.”

He laughed. By now he should know better than to throw out a maybe. His aunt took a maybe and turned it into a definitely.

“You could come early and go to church with us.”