already found out about Alfonso’s mysterious death. Had he also found out something that would incriminate her? “I’ve talked to just about everyone in the sheriff’s department and the police department. What do we need to discuss?”
Eric took two long strides toward her. “I want you to tell me why that man would have come to Wildflower…. Looking for you?”
Julia gasped, then shrank back. “I don’t…I mean…I didn’t know he was looking for me.” She sank down on a chair, then stared up at him. “What are you talking about? Was he looking for me?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Eric replied, his tone gentle now, his expression relaxing. “I’m just trying to figure this thing out, so it can make some sense. I don’t believe this was a routine robbery. Got anything you’d like to share with me about all of this?”
“I didn’t know that man, if that’s what you’re asking,” Julia replied, praying Moria would stay in her room a little while longer. She didn’t want her daughter to hear this conversation. “I’m telling you the truth. I’d never seen him before. Maybe you need to be honest with me, too, Deputy. If I’m in danger. If my daughter is—”
“I didn’t say that.” He let out a breath. “We’re still investigating. We’ve put out an APB based on eyewitness descriptions and our findings, and we have a rap sheet and a positive ID on someone who fits the robber’s description. He’s a dangerous man, which is why I’m trying—on my own time—to do a more detailed investigation into his background.”
“So I don’t have to talk to you, since you’re not even supposed to be here, right?”
His gaze swept over her face, then back down. “No, you don’t have to tell me anything. But…I’m trying to help you here.” He glanced at the picture of Moria sitting on the coffee table. “For your daughter’s sake, at least.”
Julia couldn’t tell him to go away after that. “What do you need to know?”
Satisfied that they understood each other, he said, “His name was Mingo Tolar. Ring a bell?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, it doesn’t.”
Eric nodded, then pinned her with another level look. “But, did that man happen to know you? That’s what I’m wondering. And I’m not giving up on this until I find out what’s going on. Because if he did know you…if he did come here looking for you, then yes, you and your daughter might still be in danger.”
Julia gulped back her fear, her gaze meeting his. He gave her the same steady, reassuring look he’d given her in the restaurant the other day. Then he looked past her into the hallway, his eyes full of surprise.
Julia turned around to find Moria standing there with Rosa clutched to her chest. And a brilliant fear shattering her big brown eyes.
FOUR
Julia rushed to Moria. “Hey, honey. I didn’t see you there.” Bringing her daughter into the room, she pulled Moria close as she sat down on the couch. “This is my friend Mr. Butler.”
Moria sent a big-eyed look toward Eric. “Are we in trouble, Mommy?”
“Now why would you think that?” Julia asked, trying to keep her tone calm. She glanced over at Eric, hoping he hadn’t noticed the fear in her child’s eyes. Or her own, for that matter.
Moria leaned close, her hands going around Julia’s neck. “The policemen came yesterday, just like they did when Daddy went away.”
Julia’s gaze slammed into Eric’s. She could see the questions burning there inside his eyes. Pulling at Moria’s long hair with her fingers, she tried to laugh. “Oh, that. Well, it’s just that something happened at my work the other day and the police are trying to get information. But you and I haven’t done anything wrong. We’re okay, honey. It’s okay. And Mr. Butler is…he’s a sheriff’s deputy. That’s like a policeman, sorta. And he’s just trying to help out.”
Moria didn’t look convinced. “He scares me. I don’t like policemen and I don’t like strangers.”
Eric’s smile was short and quick. “I’m a friend of your mother’s. But you’re smart to be careful around strangers. Has anyone besides the policemen come by to see you or your mother?”
“No.”
“Has anyone who scares you tried to bother you at school or anywhere else, like when you’re playing outside?”
Moria shook her head but refused to say anything else.
Julia sent Eric a pleading look. “Can we finish this later?”
His nod was so subtle she almost missed it, but his eyes were on Moria. “You know, I’ve sure heard a lot about you from your mother. She loves you a lot.”
Moria didn’t reply, instead she clung to Julia even more. Afraid for her daughter, Julia gently lifted Moria up onto the couch. “Honey, stay right here while I show Mr. Butler out, okay? You can color in that new book I bought you at the grocery store yesterday.”
“Okay,” Moria said, taking Rosa in her lap. She stared up at Eric with obvious distrust, then went to the small kitchen table where her crayons and coloring book lay.
Julia motioned for him to follow her out onto the porch. After she’d shut the door, she said, “I appreciate your concern, but…Moria doesn’t understand what’s going on, and I don’t know anything about this man. I only know that I was scared, very scared, when he had that gun aimed at my head. And I am so thankful that you helped to get me away from him.” Then a new fear penetrated her already frazzled mind. “You don’t think he’d come back, do you?”
Eric’s gaze moved over her, glassy and unreadable. “That depends. He’s wounded and he’s wanted for attempted armed robbery, and somehow he managed to get away. He’d need a mighty good reason to come back to Wildflower, don’t you think?”
She thought he was fishing again, and Julia refused to give him any more information than necessary. “I think he’d be crazy to do that, but…I want to feel safe. I did feel safe here until this happened.”
He leaned back against the porch railing, his quiet gaze moving over her face. “Want to tell me about…your past? Where’d you come from?”
“I don’t have to answer that.”
“Anyone in your past who might want to do you harm?”
She glanced away, then back. Should she tell him the truth? But what purpose would that serve? Until they found this man, if this was the right man, who knew why he’d come to the diner? Maybe it had just been a random robbery and maybe she was just imagining things because of her husband’s horrible death. She didn’t want to relive all of that unless she had to.
Finally, she said, “I don’t think so.”
His harsh gaze made her edgy. “But you’re not sure?”
Dropping her hands to her sides, she asked, “How can I be sure? I’ve tried to live a quiet, normal life. I don’t have anything to hide. I just need to protect my daughter.”
