Doing It Over (Most Likely To #1)(73)
“One more thing, Sheriff. Did you recently respond to a disturbance call at R&B’s?”
Jo pulled a slow breath, replied with a hiss she wished she could control. “Yes.”
“And did you not bring into your station Wyatt Gibson, Ms. Bartlett’s current lover? The man she was with the night before Hope’s disappearance?”
“Mr. Gibson wasn’t charged with anything.”
“But he was involved in a bar fight, was he not? Indicating a propensity for violence. Something the office of Child Protective Services is very interested in since he is in close contact with that poor child.”
“Wyatt Gibson is a well respected and law-abiding citizen of River Bend, Ms. Pensky. You won’t find one person in this town who will disagree with me.”
Ms. Pensky stood and cracked the line of her lips with a sneer. “I do believe you might be a little too close to the victim’s mother to be objective, Sheriff.”
“It’s a small town, Ms. Pensky. I’ve known most of the residents all of my life. Safe to say I’m close to all of them. That doesn’t stop me from doing my job.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” She dripped with insincerity.
Jo followed her out.
Her clerk offered a smile and instantly dropped it when she noticed Jo’s pained expression.
They’d just about made it out the door when Ms. Pensky fired her last shot. “Oh, Sheriff, one more thing.”
“What might that be?”
“Isn’t the suspect who put poor Hope Bartlett in the hospital still on the loose?”
“We haven’t apprehended him yet.”
“I was told that Hope was found on the side of a cliff, left to die, I believe those were the words from many of the volunteers that were present the day she was found.”
Jo found herself rubbing her thumb and index finger on her right hand. “Do you have a point?”
“How safe is the only surviving witness to a crime?”
“Every precaution is being made to ensure Hope is safe. No one wants that more than the residents, family, and friends of this town.”
“Good. Good. My only concern is Hope’s welfare.”
As much as Jo wanted to see the last of the woman, she went ahead and stopped her from leaving with a question of her own.
“Oh, Ms. Pensky?”
The woman showed surprise when Jo called her back.
“Yes?”
“How well do you know Nathan Stone?”
Ms. Pensky lifted her chin, didn’t smile, and stared.
“Who?”
Gotcha! The woman could interrogate, but she was shit for lying.
“Have a nice day, Ms. Pensky.”
“You do the same, Sheriff.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The street between Sam’s diner and Miller’s Auto was blocked off to traffic. Miss Gina’s special lemonade bridge club started setting up tables by ten. Backyard barbeques were lined up on the street outside of the only market in town. A staple of any small town festivity was the American flag, several of which the volunteer fire department pulled out and flew on every streetlight in town.
River Bend was too small for a mayoral office, but there was a chamber of commerce . . . or a half a dozen busybodies who helped legislate some of the simple squabbles the town would come across.
“I didn’t know you owned a pair of jeans, Dad.” Wyatt gave his father crap as they lugged bags of ice from the market to fill the buckets lining the beverage station.
“Do you own a suit?”
Wyatt thought of the tie holding the PVC pipes together on his truck. “Define suit.”
His father laughed as he dropped the ice into one of the waiting buckets and went back for more.
“So, all this for one little girl.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt said with a sigh. “Great, isn’t it?”
His father patted him on the back. “You really have something special here.”
“I love it. I really do.”
“I can see why.”
Sam walked out of the market as Wyatt and his dad were going back in for more ice.
“Hi, Sam . . . have you met my father yet?”
Sam offered a handshake. “No, but I’ve heard plenty about you.”
After his father exchanged pleasantries, Sam glanced back over to his diner with a scowl.
“What’s up? You don’t look too happy.”
“Zoe’s on a terror in there. She needs fresh basil and I don’t have it.”
“None here?”
Sam shook his head. “I bought them out last night, but she needs more.”
Wyatt scratched his head. “Check with Mrs. Miller, she has an herb garden, and if that doesn’t work, call Mrs. Kate.”
Sam’s eyes lit up. “Your son is brilliant,” he told William before running across the street.
“All for a little girl,” he heard his father utter again.
“She became everyone’s little girl when she went missing. This day could have been very different.” He shuddered to think about what could have happened had they not found Hope when they did. “This celebration is for the town. A pat on the back for watching out for each other. You don’t get this in the big city.”