Twice A Hero, Always Her Man

She looked at him, waiting for more. When he didn’t continue or make any attempt to brag, she asked, “And the paintings that you saw, were they the ones that had been stolen?”

He nodded. “One and the same.”

She tried to get more details. “Was this guy part of a gang?”

“Not from anything that I could ascertain,” Colin told her. “When I questioned him, he said he had taken all the paintings. I think he was telling the truth.”

“And he hadn’t tried to fence any of them?” she asked. It didn’t seem possible.

Colin laughed softly. “Turns out that the guy just likes works of art and he didn’t have the money to buy any of his own, so he came up with this plan.” Colin shrugged. “Takes all kinds,” was his comment.

It certainly did, Ellie silently agreed. “That almost sounds too easy,” she said.

“I know,” he replied. “But sometimes everything just falls into place at the right time and the right way. It doesn’t happen often,” Colin allowed. “But it does happen.”

“Well, apparently, it did for you,” Ellie observed. She all but expected to see the detective kick the dust and murmur, “Ah, shucks.”

Colin turned out not to be as clueless as she momentarily thought him to be. A knowing smile curved his mouth as he guessed, “You’re not convinced.”

The smile came of its own volition. “It’s my doubting-Thomas side,” she admitted.

“We’re checking the guy for priors,” Colin told her. “Right now he’s clean, but we’re not finished. I could give you an update later,” he offered.

“I would appreciate it,” she said, then turned toward something that she knew would interest her viewers. “Tell me more about your niece. How long have you been her guardian?”

The question caught him off guard. They were just talking about the thief’s lack of priors. “Is that important?” he asked, unclear as to why it should be, especially in this context.

If nothing else, Ellie knew her audience and how to make a story appealing to them. “The viewers love to hear details like that about selfless heroes.”

“I’m not a hero and I’m not selfless,” he told her, his manner saying that he wasn’t just mouthing platitudes or what he felt passed for just the right amount of humility. His tone told Ellie that this detective was being straightforward with her, which she had to admit impressed her. He could have just as easily allowed her to build him up without protest.

“Why don’t we leave that to the viewer to decide?” Ellie suggested. “Now, how long have you been your niece’s guardian?”

“Six months,” he told her.

Again, he didn’t elaborate or tell her any more than the bare minimum. Was he being modest? Or was that a highly developed sense of privacy taking over?

Either way, her job was to push the boundaries a little in order to get him to open up. “What happened?” she asked.

He didn’t look annoyed, but he did ask, “Is this really necessary?”

She was honest with him, sensing that the detective would appreciate it. “For the story? No. This is just me asking.”

That brought up another host of questions in his mind. “Why?”

She wanted him to trust her. She needed to know the kind of man her husband had spent the last seconds of his life with. Only then would she know if he had done all that he could to try to save Brett. She was aware that he had probably said he had and filled out a report to that effect, but she wanted to be convinced.

“Shut off the camera, Jerry,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at her cameraman. “We’ve got our story. I’ll meet you at the van.”

Jerry looked at her skeptically, still worried about her. She hadn’t told the detective of their connection yet, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to, and when she did, she might need someone there for her.

But he couldn’t say anything, because it wasn’t his place. And if he did say anything, he knew that Ellie would put him in his place because she refused to tolerate anything remotely resembling pity, even if it came in the guise of sympathy.

All he could do was ask, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” The words Now go were implied if not said out loud.

Shaking his head, Jerry took his camera and walked out.

“See you around, Detective,” he said by way of a parting comment.

Turning back to the detective, Ellie picked up the conversation where she’d left it. “You asked me why before.”

Colin had just assumed that she’d forgotten and would go off on another topic. That she didn’t raised his estimation of her. And he really had to say that so far, he liked what he saw. Liked it a lot. Maybe there was hope for him yet. At least, he’d like to think so.

“Yes, I did.” His tone gave her an opening to continue her line of thinking.

“Because I am one of those people who has to know everything,” she told him simply. “That doesn’t mean I repeat everything I hear or everything I know, but I need to know it. And once I have all the information and can process it, then I can move on.”

He looked at her and made a judgment call. “So this really isn’t for your ‘story’?” he asked.

“No. Not directly.” And then she qualified her statement. “That doesn’t mean that I won’t use a piece of what you tell me—but again, we’ll run it by you first. You’ll get the final okay.”

He had to admit that he thought it a generous way to proceed. “Is this your normal procedure?”

Ellie laughed. She had no idea that he found the sound captivating. “There is no such thing as ‘normal’ procedure. It is what it is at the moment.”

Colin paused, considering her words and if he believed her.

Like a lot of true dyed-in-the-wool detectives, he had “gut feelings.”

“Gut feelings” that saw him through a lot and, on occasion, kept him safe. His gut feeling told him that the woman with the deep crystal-blue eyes was telling him the truth.

He took a chance. “They died in an avalanche.”

“That had to be terrible for you,” she said. It was certainly different from the usual car crash or drive-by shooting. She managed to control her reaction so he wasn’t aware that what he said had affected her.

“It wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for Heather, either,” he pointed out.

“You were the one who broke the news to her?” Even as Ellie asked the question, she knew that he would have taken it upon himself to tell his niece. Benteen struck her as that sort of person. She was filled with empathy for both the detective and his niece, knowing what being told news like that felt like.

“I wasn’t about to let anyone else do it,” he said.

No, I wouldn’t have thought so.

Without her realizing it, her estimation of the detective rose up yet another notch.

Chapter Four (#u4e2f27e3-6115-5142-9500-0f6fecf18f7d)