Vulnerable (Morgans of Nashville) Read Free Page B

Juliet.
    “So Deke’s balls are in a vise with the mayor?” KC asked.
    She shrugged. “He’s getting a hell of a lot of pressure from City Hall, but it doesn’t look like it’s fazed him. He hopes to kill two birds with one stone. Give me a cold case that I’ve been clamoring for and pacify the powers that be. It’s a win all the way around.”
    “I was still on the job then. But because the case was considered a missing persons investigation, homicide never got a crack at it. I think they pulled Buddy in once.”
    “Well, it’s now being investigated as a homicide.”
    “Too bad your old man and I didn’t get a real crack at it.”
    “I wish you had. So far, I’ve got eighty hours invested in reading witness statements, search crew reports, interviews, and examining the forensic data.”
    Dark eyes sharpened as they did when he’d been on a homicide investigation. “What about that kid that survived?”
    “Amber Ryder. I tracked down her number through her mother, Tracy. The woman wasn’t thrilled to see me or talk, but she gave me a phone number. I’ve called it a couple of times but so far no return calls.”
    A tall waitress with dark brown hair signaled KC she had an order. He filled three steins with beer and set them in front of her. As he moved back toward Georgia, he faced the register and punched in the order. “You working the case alone?”
    Georgia swirled her drink in the glass. “No, as luck would have it, Deke has assigned Jake Bishop to the case with me.”
    “He’s a solid cop.”
    “Right.”
    He shook his head, understanding that stubborn ran as deep in Georgia as it did in her brothers and her late father. “So, what now? You don’t want to share?”
    “Not that. Jake irritates me.”
    Amusement tweaked the edges of his lips. “How so?”
    She leaned forward. “Started flirting with me in the last year. Hell, I stayed off his radar just fine and then suddenly I’m right in the middle after he caught one of my shows here.”
    “That so bad?”
    She held up a finger as if reading her lists of cons. “He’s a cop and I’ve always made it a policy not to date cops.”
    “My late wife never had any issues with being married to a cop.”
    “Well, Deb was a saint and we both know I’m not. I watched Mom do it with Dad and I don’t want any part of that.”
    He pulled a bar rag from his shoulder and wiped up the few peanut shells she’d dropped. “I don’t think he’s looking to put a ring on your finger.”
    “No, he’s looking for a roll in the hay and I don’t need a quickie with a guy that will forget me before his pants are zipped.”
    KC’s laughter rumbled. “Jesus, Georgia, ever thought that you might not be so easy to live with.”
    She held up her hands in surrender. “No arguments here, KC. Not a one. Which is why I don’t need any more cops in my life.”
    “You got him wrong, kid.”
    She took a long sip of soda. When she was down to ice, she crunched a few pieces between her teeth. “Don’t care. My focus is the case and the case alone.”
    “Have you found anything the old teams missed?”
    “Nothing so far. They didn’t leave a stone unturned. And none of those guys gets any criticism from me. Hard to solve a case when you don’t have bodies, no suspects, and a witness with no memory.”
    “You really think you can crack the case after all this time?”
    She shrugged. “It’s only been five years. Maybe someone knows something and will talk. Maybe Amber Ryder will call me back and tell me she’s remembered something.”
    Skepticism deepened the lines of his face. “Amber always said she never could recall a single detail about what happened in the woods.”
    She fished through the nuts in the bowl searching for a cashew. “Her testimony was consistent throughout the police files.”
    “She was a suspect, but her unwavering testimony won over a lot of cops.”
    She tipped her glass up, drinking until she drained the last bit of liquid.