Rebels and Roses (Winslow Heights #2)

Chapter 7

7

L incoln Davis was younger than Cooper had expected, possibly mid to late thirties. He radiated a competent air, however, and a huge positive energy that anything was possible.

Even solving a disappearance from a decade ago.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up,” Linc warned. “This isn’t going to be easy. Witnesses die. Memories fade. Evidence - if there is any - gets lost. Cold cases have a terrible track record of being cleared and for good reason.”

“But your firm took the case,” Tate pointed out.

They were all sitting in Finn’s office at the sheriff’s station. Linc, Finn, Cooper, Tate, and Frankie. Sam and Piper couldn’t make it, and Zack was out of town.

“We did, because we believe that we can make a difference here,” Linc replied. “It appears that there are investigative avenues that were not pursued under the previous law enforcement administration.”

“What a polite way to say that the former sheriff was a goddamn idiot,” Frankie said, her tone dripping with disgust. “And I’m sure he was being paid off by our father. He’s going to be a pain in your ass, by the way. He clearly doesn’t want this case opened up again. He’ll do whatever it takes to shut it all down - legal or illegal.”

Linc cleared his throat and had what Cooper thought was a smile playing around his lips.

“I’ve already researched your family history, Ms. Winslow. I’m well aware of Joel Winslow.”

“Then you know that he’s a total asshole,” Frankie pressed. “He’ll try and run you out of town on a rail. He’ll try and suppress whatever you find or discredit you. He’s totally ruthless. If he thought it would make this all go away, he’d seduce your wife or have someone else do it.”

“I don’t have a wife, but I appreciate the warning. He wouldn’t be the first person who has tried to interfere in an investigation. He won’t be the last.”

“He has no scruples,” Tate said. “He’ll do anything and everything to get in your way. And he has the money to do it.”

“The firm also has money and connections,” Linc replied smoothly. “I assume that was one of the reasons you hired us.”

“It was,” Tate agreed. “Of course, my dad had already paid off every private investigation firm within five hundred miles. I had to go out of state to hire someone. You came highly recommended.”

“That’s what makes us uniquely qualified for this,” Linc said. “We don’t need your father’s money, and the local power that he may hold can’t touch us in Seattle. We’re not beholden to him. He’s going to become a problem, I’m sure. But we’ve dealt with this before. It’s not anything new.”

“Dad is going to have to learn that he can’t have everything he wants,” Frankie declared. “It’s never too late to find out that you don’t control the world.”

“Do you honestly think that at this stage in his life, Dad is going to change in any way?” Cooper asked. “I don’t see it happening. He’s set in his ways.”

“I’m an optimist,” Frankie sniffed. “So, what lines of investigation are going to look at, Mr. Davis?”

“Call me Linc. The first thing we want to do is, of course, recreate your mother’s last known day. Walk through it. Talk to everyone she came into contact with that day. Yes, I know that was done, but I think it’s worth doing again. We might find a sliver of something that we can follow up on.”

“Second, we’ve analyzed the known facts of Mrs. Winslow’s disappearance against crime files at that time in the Midwest. There was a serial kidnapping of women from malls. He’d keep them for a few days before dumping their bodies. Several bodies have already been found. There might be more. I think we should follow that line. I’ll go interview him, plus search out possible other dumping spots.”

Frankie’s face had turned a slightly green shade of white hearing the investigator talk about dumping sites and serial killers.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Winslow,” Linc immediately apologized when he recognized the distress. “I don’t mean to be?—”

“It’s fine,” Frankie said, waving away his apology even as Cooper reached out to place his hand over hers. “I need to toughen up, I think, if we’re going to do this. I’m sure there will be far more unsavory details that won’t be pleasant to hear.”

She gave Cooper a grateful look, however, turning her fingers so that she could hold his hand back. Frankie didn’t like showing any sort of weakness. World class tournament tennis had brought out her ultra-competitiveness. It was a trait that all the Winslow siblings had, but it manifested itself in different ways. Instead of fighting back at their father, Frankie had knocked the hell out of a yellow tennis ball.

It wasn’t therapy - which they all probably should look into - but it had worked for Frankie.

The PI wasn’t an opponent, but Frankie didn’t discriminate. It was rather surprising that she’d allowed Cooper to reach out to her at all. Maybe she was softening now that her career was over.

They hadn’t talked much about that, if at all. Cooper had mentioned it once, and Frankie had admitted that the knee injury wasn’t going to heal the way she needed. She was off the tour, her career ended. She’d acted as if it wasn’t a huge deal, saying that she was thirty and she’d only had a few years left anyway. She was happy to leave at the top of her game, not hanging around trying to hold onto her former glories.

“I don’t care how graphic the details are as long as we’re hearing the truth,” Tate said. “That’s what I want from this investigation. The truth. Even if it’s terrible, and it probably is, I want to know what really happened to Mom.”

Frankie nodded in agreement with Tate’s statement. Finn’s expression throughout this meeting had been neutral, never slipping from professional mode.

“That’s what we all want,” Cooper replied. “I’m done listening to Dad’s version of the story.”

“Joel Winslow wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up to him and slapped him in the face,” Frankie said between gritted teeth. “I think he even believes his own lies.”

Cooper wasn’t so sure about that. Joel was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what was real and what was fantasy.

And this time? This time they were going to get the truth. Joel Winslow couldn’t stop or control this investigation.

His dad better start getting his story straight.

“He’s going to hang out here all day, isn’t he?”

Lucy’s whispered question was for Jane’s ears only. Even if she had spoken at a normal volume, it was doubtful Tom Kemp would have heard. He was currently too busy telling them an animated story about how he and his sister had once let all the horses on their parents’ property out of the barn so they could be free like in the book Misty of Chincoteague.

He’d been regaling them with tales of his childhood for over an hour while drinking a latte and eating pastries. He’d wandered in after Cooper had left, apparently bored in the apartment after he’d woken around lunchtime.

I don’t think this story is the flex that you think it is, Tom.

With each story that he’d told, Jane had become more disturbed by the narrative. Perhaps she was being a bit too tough on the younger man, but it sounded like he and his sister had been nightmare children who were spoiled and bratty.

He and Fiona had basically tortured their nanny and the household staff, playing practical jokes and generally being destructive. Apparently, he thought it was hilarious when other people had to go behind him and clean up the chaos he’d wrought.

Jane’s own parents had been fairly permissive, but they would have grounded her for life if she’d pulled even a fraction of these shenanigans. She’d still be sitting in her room with no television or electronics.

“That’s when Dad sent me to a different school,” Tom said. “He thought that I was falling in with the wrong crowd. They were a bad influence.”

Who was influencing who? Jane wasn’t so sure.

“My parents?—”

Tom broke off what he was saying, his gaze frozen out of the front window of the bookstore. He’d paled for a moment, but now his cheeks were bright red.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Is there a back entrance to this place?”

“Yes,” Lucy replied, pointing to the backroom that served as an office and storage. “Is everything okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Sadly, she’s all too real. It’s my sister. She’s found me.” Tom stood and appeared ready to make a run for it, but the door was already swinging open. “Too late. If I were you, I’d run. But that’s just my opinion.”

His sister? As in Fiona Kemp Winslow? Cooper’s ex-wife? She was walking into the bookstore at this very moment.

A woman around Jane’s age strode confidently into the bookstore, not sparing even the slightest glance at Lucy or Jane. She headed directly for Tom who looked like he wanted to jump behind one of the bookshelves or dig a hole into the earth’s core to escape.

“Fiona, what a surprise.”

“Shut up,” Fiona commanded, her hands on her hips. “Give it to me now, you little thief. What in the hell were you thinking? Did you think I wouldn’t find you? All I had to do was find my phone. Are you really that dumb?”

Jane wasn’t sure what she was expecting, to be honest. She’d had a feeling that Fiona Kemp would be beautiful. That was a given when it came to Cooper. She simply hadn’t been prepared for the breathtaking gorgeousness of Fiona. The woman would draw every eye in any room she entered.

Long, lustrous strawberry blonde hair. Velvet-soft brown eyes. Golden skin without a blemish to be seen. Tall, with long legs, she had that effortless model-like look that she wasn’t trying all that hard.

Her makeup wasn’t perfect, but not overdone, just tasteful. Her hair was wavy and loose on her shoulders as if the wind had perfectly blown it into place. Her casual white-linen trousers were paired with a sapphire blue silk blouse. Even her handbag and shoes weren’t fussy but screamed wealth.

Jane couldn’t have pulled off that look in a million years. She bought her clothes mostly at the local discount retailer. Her purse was at least five years old, and her hair was always pulled up and away from her face to keep it out of her eyes when she worked or studied.

“I’m not stupid,” Tom argued back, moving in closer to his sister so they were almost nose to nose. “I needed your phone, and I knew you wouldn’t give it to me.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t have. You don’t need to be bothering Cooper about your delusions. Jesus, did you really come all the way here to beg him for help? You’re not being followed or watched, Tom. Get real. Frankly, you’re not that interesting. You’d bore a stalker to death.”

That seemed like a mean shot. Okay, maybe Tom wasn’t the most fascinating person Jane had ever met, but she wasn’t going to point that out to him. Sibling relationships, however, worked with different rules. She’d seen brothers and sisters absolutely roast one another. Just for funsies.

Tom’s voice rose as he defended himself, and Fiona’s went up as well until the two of them were having a full-blown, loud-ass argument in the middle of the bookstore. Everyone - staff and customers - had frozen in their tracks to watch the show. Clearly, Fiona and Tom didn’t realize what the gossip could do in a small town like Winslow Heights. They’d be infamous before dinner time.

“I sent Cooper a text,” Lucy whispered. “He said he’ll be right over.”

Jane should have thought to do it herself, but she’d been shocked to see Fiona show up. This was the very definition of unexpected.

Fiona had flown all this way to retrieve her cellphone. From the look on Tom’s face, he hadn’t foreseen this either.

The brother and sister were still going at it, but Tom appeared to realize that they were making a ruckus. His gaze swept the room, and then he made a face at his sister who also quickly glanced around her.

“Look what you’ve done,” Fiona scolded. “You’re making a spectacle of yourself.”

You are, too.

Tom introduced first Lucy and then Jane, explaining that they ran the bookstore. Fiona immediately gave them a big smile that Jane wasn’t sure was genuine.

“I do apologize for my brother. When we’re together, we often get a bit heated. This certainly isn’t the time or the place, is it?” Fiona turned back to Tom. “Where are you staying? Are you leaving for home soon? Your girlfriend didn’t know where you were until I told her.”

Which one? Chicago or Denver?

“You called Erica?”

Tom sounded upset; his fists furled tightly at his sides. Was he going to haul off and smack Fiona? Were the Kemps a violent family? Cooper hadn’t mentioned that.

“Of course, I called her,” Fiona said, her voice lower than before. “You had my phone, and you weren’t answering my calls. I had to talk to someone. She said she thought you were on a business trip in Chicago. I told her that the phone was showing you in Winslow Heights. She was quite surprised.”

“Fuck,” Tom spat out, his face a shade of reddish-purple. “Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused? Dammit, Fiona. You’re just dying to stir the shit, aren’t you?”

Fiona did, indeed, appear supremely happy with herself. She was smiling widely, a smug grin of satisfaction that clearly infuriated her brother.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be screwing around, little brother,” Fiona hissed. “Erica wants you to call her, by the way. It seems you haven’t been keeping in touch with her since you flew out of Denver. Tsk, tsk. That’s no way to treat your future wife.”

Fiona held up another cell phone she’d been carrying in her hand.

“You have several messages that you might want to check. I can’t believe you left me your phone.”

“I thought it might take you longer to realize I’d taken your phone if you had mine,” Tom muttered.

“You thought I wouldn’t notice?”

Fiona was openly laughing now, shaking her head at Tom’s logic.

“I let it go for a few days,” she went on. “I thought you’d come to your senses and give it back, but it became clear that you’d lost your mind. I can’t believe you bothered Cooper with this.”

As if on cue, the door swung open and the bell on top rang as Cooper, Tate, and Frankie strode into the store.

Cooper wore a grim, unhappy expression while Tate and Frankie looked more curious than anything. He gave Jane a brief glance that might have meant something but was far too quick to convey what he might be thinking at this moment.

Other than he was not a happy camper. That much was clear as day.

“What are you doing here?”

If Fiona registered Cooper’s harsh tone, she didn’t act like it. Instead, she threw her arms around him like they were long lost lovers, pressing a kiss to his lips. To his credit, he didn’t hug her back.

“I’m here because Tom stole my phone, of course. You had to know that I would come get it.”

“You didn’t get a new one? You’ve been without your phone all this time?”

Fiona’s smile dimmed slightly, and she appeared less sure than she had been only moments ago.

“Well…I…it’s my phone. I wanted it back. And he shouldn’t be here bothering you.”

“Is that a yes or a no as to whether you have a new phone?”

Cooper had his arms crossed across his chest as he looked sternly down at his ex-wife.

“Yes, I have a new phone,” Fiona admitted. “I had to have a phone, after all. But I knew Tom was here bugging you about this idea that he’s being followed. He’s delusional, Coop.”

“I can handle things here,” Cooper replied. “I don’t need you to rescue me from your brother.”

“He shouldn’t be here,” she argued.

“Neither should you.”

Ouch, damn. Fiona might look like a goddess, but Cooper clearly wasn’t thrilled to see her.

“That seems harsh. I came to help you,” Fiona said. “You could be more grateful. This is one of your big problems, Coop. You don’t think of anyone but yourself. That’s why we’re divorced.”

Cooper’s brows rose at her statement, his lips twisted as he stroked his chin.

“That’s why we divorced? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Fiona pressed. “But we can let bygones be bygones. Whatever brought me here, it doesn’t matter. I’m finally in your quaint little hometown. Are these your siblings? I’ve only met the one. What was his name?—?

“Zack,” Cooper cut in. “His name was Zack. Shit, we stayed with him for almost a week. This is Tate and Frankie. Tate and Frankie, this is Fiona.”

Fiona made a show of greeting them enthusiastically, telling them that it was so wonderful to meet them. She’d been wanting to since she and Cooper married, but he’d always put her off.

Cooper’s mouth opened as if to contradict her, but he snapped it shut before any words came out of his mouth. His lips were pressed into a thin, unhappy line, his moss-green eyes now a cold and icy gray.

“We should all have dinner,” Fiona said, clapping her hands together. “We can all get to know one another. It will be so much fun.”

Cooper looked like he was being led to the gallows, not an amusement park.

“I don’t think that’s a good?—”

“It will be great,” Fiona insisted. “I want to get to know your family. Dinner is on me. Where’s a good place to eat in your cute little town?”

“What about the tavern?” Frankie asked. “Everybody likes the food.”

“Yes, let’s go there,” Tom said. “The food is awesome. Lucy…Jane…you should join us, too. The more the merrier and all.”

Jane wanted to be there, and absolutely didn’t want to be there, in equal measures. The wanting to be there won out, however, by a nose. She was simply far too curious to sit home. Watching Cooper and his ex-wife was fascinating, a psychological study unfolding before her eyes.

I am a terrible human being.

“We…could go,” Lucy finally replied. “I don’t have any plans, but I can’t speak for Jane.”

Jane could feel the weight of Cooper’s gaze heavily, but she still couldn’t say whether he wanted her there or ten miles away. It didn’t matter, though. She wasn’t going to send Lucy into this cage match alone.

“I’m free.”

She could have been working on homework, but that would simply have to wait.

Fiona had her arm hooked through Cooper’s, a wide smile on her face. Cooper? His expression had closed up completely. If he’d been playing poker, no one would know whether he had a royal flush or a pair of twos.

This impromptu dinner party might just be a disaster in the making.