A knee bobbed. He’d made her uncomfortable. Or maybe she was anxious to get to Mama Jean. Probably both. She was too stubborn to be scared. What could he do to make her leave Harmony’s house?
Her sweet jasmine scent wafted through the car, reminding him of times when he’d held her close, danced with her at the pool hall, kissed her good-night.
“Do you have a picture of Tyson?”
Luke frowned. “Why?”
“I want to send it to Braxton—he’s a sensei in my dojo. See if Tyson came by at some point. I called him after you stepped outside. He says no one matching that description visited, but after ten years, who knows how much Tyson has changed. Not that I wouldn’t recognize you a mile away, but I see some differences.”
Luke glanced back. “Me, too.” Softer face. More athletic build. Her hair was still all one length but longer. The dimple that rested under her left eye on her cheekbone seemed deeper.
“I don’t have any gray.” She smirked.
He touched his temples. “They say it’s a sign of wisdom.”
Detective Hale snorted. “Not in your case.”
“I don’t know. I think compared to, say, a decade ago, I’ve wised up some. How about you, Piper?” He didn’t mean to be antagonistic, but the teasing and friendliness was harder than he’d anticipated.
“I have.”
“So, tell me about your dojo,” Detective Hale said as he eased onto I-240. “You been in competitions?”
“Not as often as I used to. I run a program for troubled teenagers. Martial arts changed my life. Gave me the confidence and strength I needed.”
“I’ve found, in my life, God has been my source of confidence and strength. But hey, good for you.” Detective Hale glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled. “I think discipline is smart for unruly teenagers, and it gets them off the street.”
Luke didn’t say anything. God was part of his life, too, and right now Luke was curious to know what the Almighty was up to. He called and had the precinct send a photo of Tyson Baroni. “Give me your number, Piper. I’ll send this over.”
She gave it to him and then texted the photo to her friend at the dojo.
A few minutes later, Piper sighed. “Braxton doesn’t recognize him.”
“Then how did he get your business card?”
Piper shook her head. “I wish I knew. I guess he could have come in and taken one from the desk without anyone seeing.”
“Your prints are on them.”
“Well, yeah. I have to touch them to put them in the card holder.” She pinched her lips as if she were holding something back she’d like to say.
“Not all of them.” Luke threw her a pointed look. “And why would he drive all the way to Jackson just to get your business card?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She rubbed her temple again and gawked at the passing traffic.
Eric pulled up to the doors at the hospital. “I hope your grandma is feeling better.”
“Thanks. I can catch a cab home or something.”
Luke opened his door and stepped out. “I’ll walk you in.”
“Again, I can take care of myself.”
“I believe you.” He ignored the hostility and escorted her inside. “Piper, Eric doesn’t know about our previous relationship. He’s going to ask, though. I’ll tell him the bare essentials.”
“That we loved each other once?” Behind her eyes, a storm brewed. Like the one gathering in him.
At one time he had loved her. Bought a ring and everything. But she’d ruined it when she chose a criminal over him, when she’d lied to him and put him between a rock and hard place, when she’d destroyed everything they’d meant to each other with her blatant deceit. He thought he’d got over it, but the crushing sensation he was experiencing proved the opposite. “We? You mean me. I loved you once. I’m not sure what to call what you did.” His tone blasted more heat than he’d intended.
She lowered her head. “I need to see about Mama Jean.” She brushed past him. He ought to chase her down and apologize, but he stood firm as she practically trampled a nurse to get away.
He met the questioning eyes of Eric when he slumped into the passenger seat. “Okay, so we knew each other.”
Eric continued to stare.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just gonna do that thing I do.”
Luke buckled his seat belt. “You mean where you eyeball a person of interest until they shift under your scrutiny and cough up information?”
“Yep.” He drilled Luke with intensity.
“Not gonna work on me.” Luke stared back. “Fine. I was twenty-one when I met her. She was eighteen. We had a thing.” He swallowed hard.
Eric broke eye contact and cheesed. “I’m a Jedi.”
“No.” Luke laughed. “I don’t have time for a staring contest. We have a homicide to investigate.”
“A thing. I’d say you had more than a thing. I saw the way you looked at her. The way she didn’t look at you.” He slowed at the stoplight. “She beat you up and bruise your ego?”
Something like that. Exactly that. Luke flipped open his notepad.
“Your silence says so much.” Eric chuckled. “For the record, she doesn’t seem like the kind of woman to be messed up in something like this.”
Luke grunted. “Let’s take the evidence to the lab, and then we need to get some more information on this Boone person. I’m interested to see what kind of winner he is.”
“I’m more interested in what the killer wanted out of some sweet old lady’s house. I’m not convinced the guy staying there didn’t bring in trouble of his own.”
Piper might not be directly related to Christopher Baxter’s and Tyson Baroni’s murders, but she was in the middle of it somehow.
“What are you thinking?” Eric asked.
“Just running down scenarios in my head.” Trying to untwist the knot in his gut.
“You think Piper offed Christopher Baxter and Baroni?”
Luke stared at the car ahead of them. “No. But based on Piper’s entanglement with Chaz Michaels and his crew, I think she might have hidden something that he or someone wants. Baxter and Mama Jean got in the way. And maybe Tyson Baroni.”
“Mama Jean?” Eric smirked. “Like I said, more than a thing if you’re calling Jean Kennedy Mama Jean.”
Luke expelled a heavy breath. “Okay, it was more than a thing. But it’s squashed. She’s nothing more than a person of interest in our homicide investigation.”
“Okay.”
Silence permeated the atmosphere.
“I’m a Jedi.”
Luke frowned. “I wish you were a Jedi. It’s gonna take that kind of force to get Piper to back down or at the very least stay somewhere safer.” Didn’t matter why or how she was connected—the fact remained she was in serious danger.
And Luke had no intention of letting a single thing happen to her.
Mama Jean had been moved from ICU to her own