“That would be heaven.” West tossed back the last of his soda. “Can I borrow Presley for a few months? I’d pay her well. If that crazy mayor will let me.”

Seth grinned but shook his head. “She’d love the challenge but she’s been pretty wore out these days being pregnant, having a toddler plus helping out here a couple of days a week. But she’s always happy to train someone on how to do it. A few months ago she worked with Griffin’s admin assistant.”

“I may take you up on that,” West promised, holding up a piece of paper. “But in the meantime I need to pull everything we can about the Barnes murder twenty years ago. This is the best motive we’ve found so far.”

Jason slumped in his chair, his mind whirling with what they’d discovered. “This is not going to go over very well with Brinley. She bought that place as her dream house. I doubt the real estate agent revealed that there had been an unsolved murder there.”

“You didn’t know when you moved in next door?” Seth asked with a frown. “I thought you’d lived in Tremont your entire life.”

“I would have been in college.” Jason stroked his chin. “You too, West. If anyone mentioned a murder there I sure as hell don’t remember it. Gail never talked about it. I admit she and I only had a few conversations when she lived there but she never mentioned that her sister was killed.”

West pushed a piece of paper toward Jason. “Maybe no one mentioned it because they thought they had it solved. According to Anita’s notes the cops always thought Linda Barnes was shot by her husband Wendell, but they could never prove it.”

“Was he arrested?” Seth paged through the notes.

“No, and they never found the weapon. I saw that…here.” Jason pulled out a copy of what appeared to be the original police report. “They picked him up the night of the murder by Tremont Lake. He said he was fishing. At night. They think he was getting rid of the gun. They didn’t have much on this guy except a theory that Linda was spending him into the poor house so he shot her. If that was his only option he doesn’t have great problem solving skills.”

“Murderers rarely do. In a domestic situation we always look at the spouse first,” Seth pointed out. “It looks like Roger and Anita were on to something that might prove his guilt. More motive and opportunity evidence. I guess we know who to talk to next.”

“There’s good news out of all of this.” West nodded to Jason. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Brinley personally. She doesn’t need to fear for her life.”

That fact was already making breathing a hell of a lot easier for Jason. She didn’t need to be babysat every moment of the day but he was still planning to keep a close eye on her.

But now for purely personal reasons.

One thing still bugged him though.

“Someone did try to break into her house when she wasn’t there. Was it the killer? Or was it completely random? I know what my vote is so I think I’ll keep her at my house until we solve this.”

West’s lips twitched. “Better safe than sorry. I’m sure you’ll take real good care of Ms. Snow.”

Seth scratched his head. “Did I miss something here?”

West looked down at the notes in his hand but Jason could still see the shit-eating grin on his brother’s face.

“Jason has a girlfriend,” West whispered, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Aww, hell,” Jason growled. “It’s like we’re back in junior high or something.”

If only that was the case. Things had been a whole lot simpler back then. His biggest concern was getting to second base. As a grown man he had more complex desires.

And he could only hope Brinley was his girlfriend. She was the most interesting woman Jason had met in years. Maybe ever.

Now that she was out of the line of fire it was time to turn up the volume on the wooing. Dazzle her with some real romance. She deserved better than he’d given her so far.

Jason was ready to take a chance on Brinley Snow.

*

Jason was flipping burgers at the grill flanked by West and Logan while Brinley relaxed and sipped a glass of wine. A drink she’d desperately needed after hearing about Jason’s day and what he had found. The best news being that she wasn’t a target. Roger Gaines had her address in his hand because of the house. Not because of her.

Of course now her dream home was the scene of some horrific unsolved murder.

That sucked.

It made Brinley want to call that real estate agent up and give her a piece of her mind. Except that if Brinley hadn’t moved into the house then she probably wouldn’t have met Jason. She couldn’t have one without the other.

Brinley took another fortifying sip of her wine. “So she was shot in the hallway? By her husband? I wonder if the house is haunted.”

Jason paused from adding cheese to the hamburgers. “Have you seen any ghosts or had anything strange happen?”

“No.”

Jason grinned and took a big bite out of a slice of cheddar. “Then it’s not haunted. And we don’t know that it was her husband. He said it must have been an intruder because some jewels and money were missing.”

“That makes sense.”

For some reason Brinley didn’t want to think the poor woman had been shot by a man she loved.

“Except that the jewels never showed up in any pawn shops or guys fencing stolen goods. If they stole the jewelry they didn’t do anything with it,” West pointed out. “Why steal something if you’re never going to use it?”

“People steal art paintings just so they can possess them.” Logan plucked a potato chip from the bowl on the table. “It’s what it represents more than the money.”

“So you think the husband did it then?” Huck plopped his head on her knee and she gave him a scratch behind his ears.

“The police seemed to think so but they didn’t have much evidence to go with their theory. At this point I could go either way.” West paged through the file folder he’d brought from police headquarters. “It’s really kind of sad that there’s so little here. It doesn’t reflect well on the detectives working twenty years ago.”

“No witnesses. No murder weapon. Conflicting statements and a victim others really didn’t like much. A cop’s worst nightmare,” Logan mused. “Add in the fact that small town cops didn’t have much in the way of DNA back then. You might want to cut them some slack.”

West’s lips twisted and he shut the folder with a snap. “You’re right. They talked to the neighbors, friends, everyone they could think of. They went over the house with a fine-tooth comb. No fingerprints or hairs that shouldn’t be there, which is one of the reasons they were leaning toward the husband. The whole thing is sad. It tore the family apart from what I can see.”

“Family?” Brinley frowned as Jason piled burgers on a platter and set them in the middle of the table. “Did they have children? What happened to them?”

“One child. A son from Wendell Barnes’s first marriage.” Jason waved a spatula toward the file. “Damian Barnes was a teenager when it happened. Out with friends at a movie. He’s the one that found the body.”

Brinley shuddered. “Ugh. I imagine that would stay with you the rest of your life. Did you know him?”

West frowned and shook his head. “Jason and I were older. In college when he was in high school.” West scribbled something on a piece of paper. “We’ll need to talk to him and the father. And of course Gail Denton. I know she’s over at the assisted living place but I have no idea where the other two ended up.”

Logan piled his burger high with pickles, lettuce and tomato. “Follow the money. From what I read the family is loaded. Would your parents know the Barnes or remember them?”

Jason sat down and joined the rest of them around the table. “That’s a good question. Maybe I should show up at Sunday dinner tomorrow and find out.”

West groaned and slumped in his chair. “Don’t even say that. If you go and start asking questions they’re going to ask where I am. Shit.”