Honor Bound. Julianna Morris
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“You’re taking the press conference, right?” he asked Kelly. “Press conference” sounded grander than it really was—a few reporters, a photographer and a cameraman—but the mayor loved making it seem important.
She sent a careless glance over her shoulder. “Sorry, I won’t be there. Mayor Stone wants his stalwart new police chief at his side, assuring the public that the guilty party or parties will be caught. Isn’t it lucky you have all of those big-city crime-solving skills?”
Big city?
Sheesh.
Kelly knew he preferred city life. Okay, so he’d been less than tactful about the town a few weeks ago when talking to his uncle, the former Sand Point police chief. How could he have known she was in the kitchen, visiting his aunt? You’d have thought he’d spit on the flag the way she’d blown up at him.
“Give it a rest,” Ben growled.
“Give what a rest? I was simply extolling your credentials as police chief,” she said, ice glinting in her eyes. Making peace was a smart idea under the circumstances, but it would clearly take a while.
“Fine. Whatever. Any special mayoral guidance for handling the press?” he asked.
“As usual, he doesn’t want you to bring up Deep Water or Deep Sea, but if they bring it up the mayor’s response will be ‘no comment,’” Kelly said. “He wants you to be as brief as possible and downplay any resemblance between the books and the dock murders.”
“Why? Because he thinks they’re smutty?”
Kelly shrugged. “He feels connecting the novels and the murders sensationalizes everything even more, which is bad for tourism. Tourist dollars are important to the Sand Point economy.”
“Especially in an election year,” Ben snapped. “Your mayor is being irresponsible. He doesn’t care about solving the murders, just about the publicity. For all I know, he’s the one who leaked the story about receiving death threats so he could get the attention.”
“Phillip Stone is your mayor, too, Police Chief Santoni. You’re either a member of our community, or you aren’t.”
Ben cursed silently.
When would he learn to be quiet?
Uncle Henry had said the same thing, in a different way. It blew Ben’s mind that Henry Jefferson could have gone from being a Europe-based CIA bureau chief to a police chief in a small coastal town in Oregon. Purely by choice, too—Uncle Henry and Aunt Gina had never had kids, so he hadn’t needed to worry about raising a son in the city as a single father, with the unpredictable hours of a homicide detective.
“You and Viv don’t like Mayor Stone any more than I do.”
“We may not have voted for him, but we did vote.”
“I voted.”
“In Los Angeles. How’s your mayor doing down there?”
He sighed. “I have a better question—how long will it be before I’m accepted in Sand Point? I have a job to do, and I want to do it well. Despite what you heard me saying, I’m willing to give the place a chance.”
Kelly put her hands on the desk and leaned forward, and Ben was reminded that her eyes had always done something to him. Big, blue, wistful…they’d confused the hell out of his younger self. Now they made him wary. What was going on behind the surface?
“You’ll be accepted when you decide to be,” she said softly. “That won’t happen until you realize Sand Point is more than a good environment to raise Toby, and that people are usually better than their selfish side. Some are genuine heroes.”
“Like your husband?” Ben winced as soon as the words left his mouth. He might believe she’d married Mitch Lawson for the financial security he offered, but she appeared devoted to his memory.
Kelly straightened, her lips in a taut line. “Mitch was a wonderful man. Finer than you’ll ever know.”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me. But what’s wrong with leaving the city for the sake of my son?”
“Nothing. Only how is Toby going to adjust if you don’t like it here?”
Ben took his time before answering. He hadn’t told anyone that his ex-wife had hooked a wealthy husband with no interest in a ready-made family. Now Dawn didn’t want anything to do with her own child in case it jeopardized her cushy new life. Moving to Oregon would protect Toby from that knowledge for a while. As for adjusting, Toby was doing great with Gina and Henry doting on him. He had a few separation issues to work through, but it wasn’t serious.
“My son is none of your business, and I’ve got two homicides to solve,” he said finally. “Not to mention I’m doing your job by taking that press conference.”
“That isn’t how the mayor sees things.”
“Probably because you talked him into seeing it that way.”
Kelly’s level gaze didn’t change. “Or maybe he agrees that Sand Point needs to see you and be assured their new police chief can keep them safe.” Without another word she walked from the office. Viv hesitated, looking both curious and puzzled, then left, as well.
Ben’s gut churned.
Kelly was right. He’d done a few interviews with the press when he was a detective, though he’d avoided them whenever possible. Now people were scared and needed reassurance. Like it or not, that was his job as the police chief. At least this way he could deal with their questions about his qualifications directly, rather than letting the mayor do it. Mayor Stone sounded supportive, but there was something in the way he answered those inquiries that bothered Ben.
A muscle ticked in his jaw as he focused on the latest status report from his detectives. He needed answers about the homicides. They didn’t make sense. Two murders within days of each other, in a place as quiet as Sand Point? He’d moved here because it was free of gang problems and had a low crime rate.
Then something else occurred to Ben, temporarily pushing aside more pressing concerns. Kelly had talked about Toby as if she knew him, but he hadn’t brought his son to the station yet. Maybe she’d met him at Uncle Henry’s….
All at once he let out a resigned laugh.
His aunt and uncle had been taking Toby to church, and Toby was crazy about his Sunday school teacher— Miss Kelly. Ben had assumed Kelly was a last name, but he’d bet serious money that “Miss Kelly” was Kelly Lawson.
KELLY FUMED AS SHE HEADED back to her office. To think she’d promised Gina to try being more open-minded when it came to her nephew. But Ben’s sardonic tone whenever he mentioned her husband was too much. He always thought the worst of people. She shouldn’t let it get to her, but it seemed so unfair that Ben Santoni was alive when Mitch wasn’t.
She plopped down on her chair and regrouped.
Nobody knew better than she did that life wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t that she wished Ben dead. She just wished things had turned out better for everyone.
Kelly swallowed, trying to ease the hollow sensation in her stomach. She’d been a widow for three years. It added up to a lot of lonely days and nights…and a lot of tears. Things were different when Mitch had been there, loving her, having faith in their life together. But doubts crept in when she was alone and the nights got long. She couldn’t help thinking about her mother, a hard-living, unmarried cocktail waitress with poor taste in clothing and worse taste in men. There were so many “uncles” growing up that Kelly could never keep them straight.
And yet Shanna’s last thoughts before the accident were about her daughter making a better life. Kelly had clung to that memory when she had nothing else.
“Goodness,” said Viv from the door. “You and the new chief sure don’t like each