She eyed him over the rim of her glass. “Interesting.”
“What did bring you to town?” I asked her.
“Found myself with some time off and I was in the area. Thought I’d pay my old friend a visit,” she said.
“What do you do?” Sloane asked.
Lina ran her finger through a water ring on the table. “I’m in insurance. I’d tell you more, but it’s incredibly boring. Not nearly as exciting as getting shot. How did it happen?” she asked Nash.
He shrugged his good shoulder. “Traffic stop gone bad.”
“They catch who did it?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Lucian answered.
The chill in his tone had a shiver running down my spine.
“I’m going to hit the restroom,” I said.
“I’ll come,” Sloane volunteered, jumping out of her chair like it was electrocuting her.
I followed her into the gloomy hallway, but when she held the door open for me, Nash stopped me. “You got a second?” he asked.
My bladder was nearing the red zone, but this sounded important.
“Sure,” I said, signaling to Sloane to commence peeing without me.
“I just wanted you to know that I’m looking into the list you gave me,” he said. “I’m not officially back on duty, but that just means this is getting my undivided attention.”
“I appreciate that, Nash,” I said, giving his arm a squeeze. It wasn’t a crime to appreciate the muscle, right?
“If you remember any other details about this red-haired guy, you’ll let me know?”
“Sure,” I said, my head bobbing. “I only talked to him that one time. But he stands out in a crowd. Muscular, tattooed, bright red hair.”
Nash’s eyes got a funny faraway look to them.
“Are you okay?” I asked again.
He gave an almost imperceptible head shake. “Yeah. Fine.”
“Do you think he could have something to do with the break-in?”
Nash did the Morgan nervous tic of running his hand through his hair. “He’s a wild card, and I don’t like wild cards. This guy just happens to show up at the library to talk to you.”
“He said he needed help with a computer problem.”
He nodded, and I could see him rearranging puzzle pieces in his head, trying to find the pattern. “Then you see him in the bar the night someone breaks into your place. That’s not a coincidence.”
I shivered.
“I just keep hoping, whoever they were, they found whatever they were looking for. If they found it, there’s no reason to come back.”
“I hope so too,” he said. “Did you talk to Waylay about it?”
“I did finally. She took it pretty well. She was more concerned about whether any of her new clothes were stolen than the break-in itself. She didn’t seem to know what Tina or anyone else would have been looking for. I mean, it’s not like we had a pallet of stolen TVs sitting around in the living room.”
“Been thinking,” Nash said, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “It doesn’t have to be stolen goods. If Tina was bragging about a big payday it could have been a different kind of job.”