Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4) by Olivia Jaymes (reading women .txt) 📕

"Did you check with any of them?"

Knox already knew the answer.

"No." Bauer cleared his throat and leaned forward. "Listen, I realize that you've been hired to look into this but I think you're going to find that there's nothing there. When I talked to Lori Waters’ boyfriend, he said that she was a little flaky, kinda nuts. That it wouldn't be out of character for her to just up and leave. You know the type...sexy but a little crazy?"

"I'm not sure that I do. Her sisters say that this wasn't something that she would do at all. Lori Waters had a responsible and professional job at a local marketing firm. She didn't even have a parking ticket from what I could find. I'm not seeing the flakiness that you are."

"I met one of her sisters. Jennie...Jennifer...not sure but it was something like that." Bauer's brows shot up. "She was a hot one. She sure as hell had a temper on her too. Probably just like her sister."

Misogyny was alive and well, living inside of Mike Bauer. It was all Knox could do not to lift the asshole out of his chair and shove him up against the wall. Maybe even try and talk some damn sense into him, but it would be a waste of time. Knox had worked with guys like this. They weren't going to change.

Knox stood, ready to leave. He wasn't going to learn anything useful here.

"I think I have all that I need. Thank you for your time, Detective Bauer."

After exiting the sheriff's station, he headed straight for the coffee shop across the street. She'd been right. He had wasted his time.

She'd been desperate for a good reason.

He owed Jenna an apology.

"Are you okay? You're acting like someone spit in your food."

Jenna and Knox were walking along the sidewalk towards a second coffee shop. This one would be where Lori had met Cal that last day. On the way, however, Knox had barely said a word and had glowered the entire time. Clearly, his mood had gone downhill in the space of thirty minutes.

"That detective is a douchebag," Knox growled. "He was no help at all."

A better person would have simply agreed and moved on.

But when have I been the better person?

"I told you that he was a jerk. He treated me like garbage when I would go in there to talk to him. Smug asshole."

"I know exactly what you mean now," Knox replied. "It seems like he fell under my brother's spell. Cal can be charming as hell when he wants to be. It didn't help that Bauer was already a misogynistic piece of shit. I bet they were two peas in a pod laughing about how emotional and crazy women are. Fuck."

"He didn't tell you anything helpful at all?"

"After talking to Cal, he didn't think he needed to do much. Then when the text came in, he washed his hands of the entire investigation." Knox paused his steps, turning toward Jenna. "I'm sorry."

An apology. She hadn't expected that. For a moment, she wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Thank you," she finally said. "It helps that you understand why I came to you."

"I remember Lori telling us that your family would brag about what a great cop you were. How you always caught the bad guy. There wasn't a case you couldn't solve. She also told us how you didn't take you father's side when he wanted to be paroled. That made me feel like you could be trusted to not take sides. At the very least, I thought you might be interested in proving that your brother didn't have anything to do with it."

"You could have hired any private investigator."

"We did hire one in the early days, right after the detective said that there was no case. The investigator looked into a few things, he worked for a couple of weeks, and then said that he agreed with the police. We were devastated and it colored our outlook for awhile. Looking back now, I should have hired another one immediately, but he sort of convinced us we were overreacting. Then as the weeks and months went by, I became more determined than ever that they were both wrong. We weren't overreacting at all."

"Do you know what he did?" Knox asked. "Did he give you a file of his results?"

"He said that he came up empty. He talked to everyone and that he agreed that Lori left of her own free will."

"It sounds like he took your money and did nothing," Knox scoffed. "You should have been given any work products from his investigation."

All Jenna could remember from those first few months was an overwhelming feeling of fear. She hadn't slept or ate well. She could barely think about anything but Lori. Perhaps if she had been thinking straight, she would have responded better.

"We haven't had good luck. I interviewed a new investigator that day that you came to see me. He was shady as hell."

"We're doing this now," he said. "We'll get to the bottom of it. Somewhere out there is the clue that we need. I always say that we need just one little break in the case. Just one."

"I hope you're right."

They'd arrived at the other coffee shop and Knox opened the door for them. "I'm going to ask that you let me do most of the talking. I promise I'll give you a chance before we leave."

"You're the professional."

She didn't mind. She was kind of looking forward to seeing him in cop-slash-investigator mode. This was going to