Page 9 of Little Last Words

“I’d like to discuss him now.”

“I don’t have the patience for you today, Georgiana.”

“Good, I don’t have the patience for me either. I’ve been standing at the door for five minutes trying to get inside so I could talk to you.Hestopped me.”

“Oh, I doubt it’s true,” Foley said.

“Itistrue.”

Foley looked at Whitlock. “Did you prevent her from entering the house?”

“I was just introducing myself,” Whitlock said with a grin.

“He implied we’d be working together,” I said. “Why would he say such a thing? Who is he?”

Foley exhaled a long sigh. “Come on, let’s talk outside. Oh, and happy birthday, by the way. I could say I’m surprised something like this happened on your big day, but the truth is, I’m not surprised at all. It’s almost fitting, come to think of it.”

I followed Foley out the door.

Whitlock patted me on the shoulder as I passed and said, “Nice to see you again, Georgiana.”

Again?

Had we met before today?

When we got to the street, my questions were queued up and ready to go.

“Who is that guy, and why is he saying he knows my father?” I asked.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about him. I just haven’t had the time.”

“How about now?”

“Oh, all right. Amos Whitlock used to work with your father.”

“I don’t remember him.”

“From what he told me, you were young when he moved away and took a job as a detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He said he … ahh, had a hard time of it when he learned your father died a few years after he switched jobs. Had a lot of guilt over his death. Even went so far as to say your father might still be alive if he hadn’t decided to transfer.”

No one could have changed my father’s fate.

When I was a child, my father had been murdered after he’d almost discovered the identity of the murderer in a homicide case he was working on at the time. His murder went unsolved for decades. A couple of years earlier, a cold case I was investigating had a connection to my father’s death. Justice was served at last, and a small part of me healed that day.

“Why is Whitlock here?” I asked.

Foley tipped his head to the side and shoved his hands in his pockets, something I’d started to notice he’d do when he didn’t want to answer my questions.

“Oh, no,” I said. “You didn’t hire the guy, did you? Tell me he isn’t working for the department.”

“What was I supposed to do? No one else wanted the job. No one we could afford, anyway. I offered you the chance to come back, and you refused.”

“I can’t come back. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I have my own detective agency now.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You think having your own agency means the rules don’t apply to you.”

“Oh, they apply. Everything just isn’t as black-and-white or ‘by the book’ as it would be if I were still working for the department. As a private investigator, there are shades of gray, and yeah, I’m aware I take advantage from time to time.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”