Page 10 of Little Last Words

I turned toward Whitlock, who seemed to be trying to read our lips and decipher what we were saying.

“Are you telling me that out of everyone you interviewed to take the detective position,hewas your best choice?” I asked. “I mean look at him … he’s what, in his seventies?”

“He just turned seventy last year, matter-of-fact.”

“He was retired,” I said. “Why does he want to be a detective again?”

“Why should he retire if he wants to work?”

It was a fair point.

I wouldn’t want someone telling me I was too old to do something. At forty-six, I still felt young, a lot younger than I had in years.

“I feel like you sprung this information on me,” I said.

“I know you do. I figured as much. I thought I’d be able to talk to you first. I planned on doing it this week, and then this homicide came out of nowhere.”

“How long has Whitlock been here?”

“Ten days or so.”

“Does anyone in my family know he’s taken the detective position? Does Harvey? If he used to work with my father, he worked with Harvey too, right?”

Harvey was a retired chief of police for San Luis Obispo County. He was also my stepdad and a man who had also worked alongside my father back in the day. After my father’s death, Harvey stepped in, raising my siblings and me like we were his own.

“Harvey may have spoken to him, but if he knows Whitlock accepted the detective position, he didn’t hear it from me,” Foley said.

“Why haven’t you told him?”

“I wanted to speak to you first.”

Given Foley had just admitted to putting me first, I felt bad for snapping at him. Here he was considering my feelings, and I hadn’t considered his.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “When I arrived at the house, I felt like Whitlock was riling me up, and part of me thought he was doing it on purpose.”

Foley shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he was. I don’t know. Truth is, I’m just getting to know the guy. From what I’ve heard, he’s a fine detective, Georgiana. He wouldn’t have been hired if he wasn’t.”

“Why do I get the feeling it’s not the only reason you hired him?”

He tugged at his chin, then said, “I’ll admit I wanted to find someone willing to workwithyou, not against you, on the homicide cases you take. Your cases are our cases, and since you’re hellbent on running a private investigator business in my county, you have to work with us whether you like it or not.”

“I have been working with you.”

“With me, yes, but I’m the chief of police now. I have other obligations. Whitlock knows you take on homicide cases, and he’s hoping, as am I, that you’ll share intel with us whenever possible. All I ask is that you keep an open mind and give him a chance.”

I crossed my arms, thinking. To say I resisted change, any kind of change, was an understatement. It had taken awhile for me to warm up to Foley. And now, it felt like I was starting all over again, except with someone else.

Foley had a good point, though.

A team player was better than no player at all.

“I’ll, ahh … I promise I’ll try to get along with him,” I said.

“Good. Now … let’s get back to what happened here. Where’s the girl?”

CHAPTER5

“Sadie Barlow is at my place,” I said. “Giovanni’s looking after her.”