cake Mo thought she’d ever seen before leading the way back into the dining room.
It wasn’t until after dessert that Mo found herself alone with the marshal. She felt she had to say something into the heavy silence that had fallen over the room in Brick’s and his mother’s absence.
“I’m sure you’re angry at me for getting your son involved in this,” she said and waited.
Hud studied her openly for a moment, then shook his head. “Brick is his own man. He’s always been determined to finish what he started. What worries me is that he’s never brought a woman home. That he brought you home for one of his mother’s meals... He’s falling for you.” He must have seen her surprise. “He jokes around, yes, but I know my son. All I ask is that you not break his heart since this is a first for him.”
Their conversation ended abruptly as Brick and his mother returned from helping his mother with the dishes, something he’d insisted on. Clearly the two had been in silent alliance.
Mo had trouble following the rest of the conversation before she and Brick left for the cocktail party at Jeffrey Palmer Sr.’s. She kept thinking about what the marshal had said and wanting to deny—even to herself—how close she and Brick had gotten.
* * *
THE PI MADE the call earlier than he’d planned when another case took precedence. After the client wired him the extra fee, he said, “She returned to Big Sky.” He held the phone away from his ear as his client let out a thunderbolt of curses.
“Why would she do that?”
Jim had to assume it was a rhetorical question since he didn’t know the woman.
“Is she still with that deputy?”
“I can only suppose so. I just know that they returned to Big Sky. If you want more information—”
“I’ll get it myself,” the client snapped and disconnected.
The PI also disconnected and checked to see where the pickup was now. It appeared to be on the opposite side of the river from the town of Big Sky. He looked closer. It appeared to be at a ranch of some sort.
As he put away his cell phone, he realized that he knew where the deputy’s pickup was, but he couldn’t be sure that the female was still with him.
He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. The client was determined to take it from here. He considered what he’d been hired to do over the past few days and tried to make sense of it before he stopped himself.
He often didn’t understand why people did what they did. In all the years he’d been a private investigator, he’d found they often did the one thing they shouldn’t because it was going to get them into trouble. But they still did it.
He had a feeling his client was about to do something that he would regret.
Jim was just glad he’d gotten his final payment before the fool either ended up dead or in jail. But he had to wonder why the man was so obsessed with the woman cop.
Chapter Seventeen
Jeffrey Sr. ushered them into his den, closing the door behind him before striding around to sit behind his desk. “I was surprised to hear that the two cops who crashed my cocktail party now want to speak to me in my office. Deputy Marshal Brick Savage and Homicide Detective Mo Mortensen?” He pretended to tip his hat to them each. “To what do I owe this honor since one of you is suspended and the other is on inactive duty, as I understand it?” Mo thought it interesting that the man had taken the time to check on both of them first. “So can I assume this isn’t a professional visit?”
“Assume whatever you like,” she said as she took a seat even though he hadn’t offered her one. Brick remained standing next to her chair. “Your son was having an affair with my married sister.”
The senior Jeffrey showed no reaction to her statement. She reached out and stroked the wings on the large sculpture of an eagle that graced his desk.
“I’m sure you were aware they were using your residence outside of Red Lodge for their...clandestine rendezvous.” To her surprise, she saw that he hadn’t been aware of that. His face clouded, eyes darkening, but he quickly recovered.
“If you’re asking if I sanctioned such a...relationship, I did not.”
“I believe it was at your Red Lodge home that Tricia learned something she shouldn’t have. Something