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I smiled. The sheriff was usually as cool as can be, unflappable most of the time. “Let me ask you a question, Sheriff. Have you questioned him at all or just Emma? I mean who’s to say Alex didn’t go to his brother’s house to cool off? Maybe Mark was blackmailing him about beating up on his wife or his many affairs. Anything is possible.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my damn job.”
“Then do your damnjob, Sheriff. If Emma is a good suspect so is Mark, maybe more because he actually has the experience—as a former cop—to hide a body.”
Cross stared at me for a long time, a smirk on his face as if he knew something or thought he did. “Thank you for your time, Slate.”
“Yeah sure. Whatever.”
Chapter 29
Emma
“Sprinkles, Mommy?” Ash looked up at me with big blue eyes full of shock. “For real?”
I nodded. “For real. We’re celebrating.” I got a job. Weeks of sending out paper-thin resumes and filling out applications online and finally something came through. I’d done more than a dozen different job interviews, most of them online. I put on my best blouse, did just enough makeup to look presentable and put my best foot forward.
None of it had amounted to a damn thing.
“Why Mommy?” Her smile faded. “Are we going back to Daddy Alex?”
I shook my head. “Never.” In fact I’d gone to a divorce lawyer in town and asked and she told me I could file even if he disappeared. I had to make a publication in a newspaper once a week for a month, then my husband would have twenty days in which to file a response. If none was obtained, I could file for an uncontested divorce. I’d decided to go ahead with that plan once things settled, but that wasn’t the reason for my good mood today, “Mommy got a job, honey.”
She frowned. “What’ll happen to me?”
I squatted down in front of her right there in the middle of the grocery store. “In a few months when you’re old enough you’ll go to school but until then you can stay home with me because my job is online.”
“Really?” Her voice sounded uncertain. I guess to her this was all new. Alex had worked and I’d stayed at home.
“Yes, sweetheart. I can work from home, so nothing will change.”
To that news she gave a big grin.
I nodded as my own smile grew. A job. It had been years since I worked in a regular job, Alex wanted me to be totally reliant on him, and having my own income would have undermined his masculinity in his eyes, and I was nervous as hell. “Yeah, really.”
“Yay! Good job, Mommy.”
“Aww, isn’t this cute. The happy little family.” Mark’s voice loomed over us the same way his presence loomed over my life.
Just like his brother.
I stood tall and turned to face him. “What do you want Mark?”
Even his smile was a threat. “I just wanted to see how my brother’s widow was doing.”
I was proud of myself for not flinching at his accusation. “Widow? You must know something I don’t because last I heard he was in Florida living it up.”
Anger flashed in his gaze, but he cooled it quickly. “You better hope that’s true bitch or you and your little rugrat are going to pay.”
“Is that a threat,” I asked loud enough for passersby to stop and look.
“No bitch, it’s a fucking promise.” There it was again, that threat.
I took a step closer. “Then you better hope I don’t see you coming, Mark.”
“Ma’am, are you okay?” The guy who’d frosted cupcakes especially for us in the bakery stood a menacing presence with tattooed arms at the end of the aisle.
“Yeah, I’m fine. My brother-in-law is upset because his brother up and abandoned me. His name is Mark Edwards. Remember that if something happens to me, please.” I flashed him a polite smile and took Ash’s hand, leading her down the other end of the aisle.
