“Okay.” I laughed and walked into his outstretched arms. As expected, one hug and I was steadier. “How are you feeling today?”
“Productive. Mowed the lawn this morning. Picked up around the house. Now I get to relax with my best girl.”
“You’d better be talking about me.”
He chuckled, slinging an arm around my shoulders to bring me inside. “You know I am.”
We settled on the back deck, watching the river flow. The lazy swirl, the lap of ripples along the banks, was as soothing as a sunset on Griff’s porch.
My porch. It could be my porch.
“You look nice today,” Pops said.
“Really?” I was in a simple white tank top, denim cutoffs and tennis shoes.
“It’s not your clothes, sweetheart.” His eyes softened. “Are you happy here? In Quincy?”
“I am. Quincy agrees with me.”
“Or maybe it’s Griffin.”
“Maybe.” A smile tugged at my mouth. “He asked me to move in with him.”
“Yeah? And what did you say?”
“Nothing. Yet. I’m not sure what to do. It’s soon.”
“Pfft. Soon is relative.”
“I lived with Skyler for years. Don’t you think I need to be on my own for a while?”
“Winnie, you might have lived with Skyler, but trust me when I say, you were on your own.”
I opened my mouth to argue but the words died on my tongue. Pops was right. I’d lived with Skyler, we’d been engaged, and I had most definitely been on my own.
“You two coexisted,” Pops said. “That’s not the same as companionship.”
“I don’t think I realized how lonely I was in Bozeman,” I admitted. “Since Mom and Dad.”
And then I’d come here, and from the very first night, I’d had Griffin. He’d chased away that loneliness with such ferocity, I hadn’t even realized how much I’d needed someone to burst into my life and shake it up.
“You went through an awful ordeal,” he said.
“So did you.”
He reached over and put his hand over mine. “It’s not the same.”
For the first time in weeks, I thought about the crash. It had been . . . how long had it been? The last nightmare I could remember had been after the Fourth. Weeks of peaceful sleep and Griffin was the cause.
“I made a decision yesterday.” Pops patted my knuckles. “Want you to be the first to know.”
“You’re retiring.”
He nodded. “It’s time. This little health blip put things in perspective.”
“A little blip?” I rolled my eyes. “You had a heart attack.”
“Minor.”
“A heart attack, minor or major, is not a blip.”
“Call it what you want, but it made me realize I’d rather spend the rest of my time without heartburn. I see these other old-timers sitting at Lyla’s shop each morning, talking about the weather and the gossip in town. I think that would suit me just fine.”
“You’re going to get bored.”
“Guaranteed. I’ll probably drive you crazy. Stopping by unannounced. Staying over uninvited.”
I laughed. “In that case, I fully support your retirement.”
“Good.”
“I’m proud of you, Pops. All you’ve done for Quincy.”
“You know, Winnie?” He sat a little straighter. “I’m proud of me too. It’s been a good run as mayor. A long, good run. But you have to promise me one thing.”
“Name it.”
He leaned in close. “The day you fire Tom Smith, you’ll tell me first.”
“Deal. Well, I’ll tell Tom Smith first. But you second.”
“Before Griff.”
“Before Griff.” I winked. “I hope whoever becomes my new boss is as great as you.”
“You’re biased.”
“No, I’m not.”
In my short time here, Pops had given me the freedom to do my job. He was always there as a resource, but he didn’t micromanage the station or demand to know what was happening with certain cases.
I was sure that Frank had given Pops an earful about Briggs Eden, but Pops hadn’t waded into the fray. He trusted me to do my job and make the right decision.
“Can I talk to you about something confidential? While you’re still my boss?”
“I’m all ears.”
“It’s about Lily Green. And Harmony Hardt.”
I told him about the wallet and the purse. About how I’d found them at Briggs Eden’s cabin and everything he’d told me when I’d brought him into the station last month.
It was all information I hadn’t wanted to burden him with after his heart attack. That and nothing else had come from my investigation. There were no more leads to follow, no more questions to ask. Gossip about Briggs had mostly faded away too.
“There were no fingerprints besides those belonging to Briggs,” I told him. “Not even the girls’ prints. Which leads me to believe that someone put them up there for Briggs to find.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure.” It had been bothering me for a month, but as I turned it around in my head, over and over, nothing made sense. I’d even called Cole in Bozeman to get my former partner’s opinion on the case.
Cole had been as stuck as I was.
And without evidence, I was stuck.
“Maybe someone is trying to set Briggs up,” I said. “To tie him to both Lily and Harmony. That purse might just be a replica of Harmony’s. Maybe it was Lily’s.”
Without fingerprints, I wasn’t sure. I’d tried to hunt down a recent purchase on Lily’s credit card statements but there was nothing that had shown her buying a leather purse. I’d even stopped by some shops downtown to see if they sold it and no one had recognized it.
“If the purse was Lily’s, it would explain why it was in such good shape,” I said. “Maybe she bought it and never showed it to her mother.” And it would explain why it had been with the wallet. “She might have dumped both before . . .”
“Poor kid.” Pops shook his head.
“There’s one more option. Briggs might have been there the nights they died, and he took Harmony’s purse and Lily’s wallet.”
“And then left his trophies on a bookshelf for you to see?” Pops blew out a long breath. “It’s a stretch.”
“Maybe he doesn’t remember where he found them. Maybe he wasn’t lucid.”
“For Lily, it’s probable. From everything you’ve told me, he’s slipping. But Harmony Hardt died years ago. I don’t think Briggs has been experiencing severe symptoms for long. Let me play devil’s advocate. What if he was there? What if he had something to do with it?”
“I have no evidence.” Speculation, however, I had in abundance. “Someone could be setting him up. Someone who wanted me to think that he might have had a hand in their deaths.”
“Who?”
I shrugged. “The only person I’ve ever heard talk badly about him is Frank.”
“And that’s all old drama.” Pops waved it off. “Frank’s a good friend, but between me and you, he’s always had a bone of contention with the Edens. It’s jealousy. Plain and simple. So take whatever he’s told you with a grain of salt.”