is a drug-sniffing flunk-out, from what I’ve heard. I thought his forte was tracking down idiots who get lost in the woods.”
Mia wiped her sleeve across her cheeks. “What kind of talk is that for a law enforcement officer?” she said indignantly. “Cora is...was a long-time resident of this town. I should think you’d want to be thorough investigating her death.”
His blue eyes narrowed, face blotching with color. “Yes, Ms. Verde, I will. I started by running a check on you. It made for interesting reading. Since you’ve had such a long and storied history with law enforcement, I guess you’d know that I’ll be contacting you for follow up information as soon as I get this to the lab.”
Mia went white and then red.
Dallas clenched his jaw. Don’t mouth off to the cops, Dallas. “We saw a woman with red hair running away from the house.”
Stiving blinked. “Really? Did you recognize her?”
Mia shook her head. “She might have come to the clinic to talk to Cora, but I’m not sure. I only saw her for a moment.”
“And you?”
Dallas shrugged.
“Right. Well, we’ll investigate that while we’re checking into things.” The detective’s phone rang, and he walked away to answer it and then left abruptly.
Mia put a hand on Dallas’s wrist, her fingers ice cold. “I have to go. Tina needs to get home, and I want to read Gracie a story before bed.” She looked at her soiled clothes. “It will take some explaining about why I look like this.” Her lip trembled. “I’ll need to tell Gracie about Cora.”
He wondered how a woman with filthy hair, torn clothes and a grief-stained face could look so beautiful, like Whistler’s painting of the woman in white he’d seen in his mother’s art books decades ago. Would she be so trusting if she knew the truth about what brought him to town? Dallas had been many things in his life, a gang member, a wanderer and a drinker. He’d never been a liar, not until now, with her. It tightened something deep in his gut. He had to remind himself he had good reasons for the subterfuge.
He’d been hired by Antonia, Mia’s sister, to keep watch over her due to the prevalence of Mia’s ex-husband Hector Sandoval’s many enemies. Cora, a friend of Antonia’s new husband, was in on the whole thing. An accomplice, he thought ruefully, who’d arranged for Dallas to hang out on her property just as often as the stubborn and ferociously independent Mia did.
He returned to the truck where Juno was sound asleep and waited until Mia got into her car. Following her home, he ran things over in his mind. Cora was obviously disturbed when she messaged both Dallas and Mia. How coincidental was it that her house burned down and she lost her life on the very same night Mia spotted some mystery woman fleeing the scene? Very coincidental, and Dallas Black did not believe in coincidence any more than he believed that Elvis still strolled planet Earth.
He walked Mia to her front door and waited while she stepped into the tiny front room.
Four-year-old Gracie came flying down the hall, short bob of hair bouncing around her, eyes alight with pleasure at the sight of him. They’d encountered each other many times at Cora’s house while he was on the roof and she was digging holes around the property. When rain interrupted the roofing, they built card houses together, impressed with their creations until Juno knocked them over with a jerk of his tail.
“Did you come to play?” She took in his appearance and laughed. “You need a shower, Mr. Dallas.”
He laughed, too, and Mia tried to draw Gracie away.
“Can he come in for a snack?” the child asked. “I’ve got Goldfish.”
Dallas got down on one knee. “You eat goldfish? Don’t the fins get stuck in your teeth?”
She giggled. “They’re cracker fish. Juno will like them.”
“Juno can’t have Goldfish tonight, but we’ll come another time.”
She frowned. “Okay, but what if I don’t have Goldfish then? Mommy eats them sometimes when I’m asleep and she’s off her diet.”
Mia’s face flushed, and Dallas hid a grin.
“Tell you what, Goldfish girl. Next time I come with Juno, I’ll bring some Goldfish along. How’s that?”
She nodded, finally trotting off into the kitchen.
“You don’t have to make good on that promise,” Mia whispered as she let Dallas out. “As a matter of fact, I’d rather you didn’t promise her things at all. I know you’d never mean to disappoint, but Gracie’s been let down in a big way by her father.”
“No sweat,” he said. Something flickered in her face, something thoughtful. “You’re not planning to go to the clinic, right?”
Mia jerked. “How did you know I was thinking about that?”
“Call it a knack. Don’t go there by yourself, just in case whatever she was looking into has something to do with the fire.”
She stayed silent.
“If you do have to go, I’ll go with you.”
She offered a courteous smile. “Thanks, Dallas. I appreciate it.”
But you’ll never allow it. He understood. He recognized the shadows that danced in her eyes for what they were. Fear. A desperate, ponderous weight of fear that she did not want to expose to anyone. Who would? He’d known that, tasted that when he was being beaten within an inch of his life during his gang days. That fear was hideous and bred on itself, multiplying exponentially the longer it was kept in the dark, like a poisonous fungus. He wished he could tell her. There is only one antidote, One who could defeat that fear. Instead, he remained silent until he heard the sound of the lock turning.
Juno and Dallas made one more stop on the way home, purchasing a bone for Juno and a handful of hot peppers for himself. With some help from the store clerk, he also secured five bags of Goldfish crackers, which he stowed in the back of his truck. Who knew Goldfish came in so many flavors? Dallas smiled to himself. Gracie knew, and that was enough.
TWO
The parking lot was empty, quiet, save for the patter of a cold rain and the scuff of Mia’s shoes as she made her way to the darkened clinic hours later. She was grateful that Tina offered to stay late. It was almost eight by the time Mia embarked on her mission. She knew she should have called Dallas, but the only thing that scared her more than what had happened to Cora was the thought of losing herself to another man who would betray her and Gracie. She realized her hands were in her pockets, hidden away, a habit she’d developed after she’d stabbed her husband.
The horror lapped at her afresh. Her own hands had lashed out with that knife, powered by terror that Hector would kill her and take Gracie away into his corrupt world. She would never have done it, but she believed, heart and soul, that Hector meant to end her life. After Mia’s arrest, she’d endured six months of jail time, knowing Gracie was with Hector, near people both ruthless and greed-driven, the worst being her own husband. After her release, she’d fled with Gracie, unaware that Hector would soon concoct a plot to outwit his enemies
