Page 129 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

But he still had the same warm smile I remembered, an older version of Dakota’s, his nephew and the bar’s new bartender.

They had the same eyes, nearly black, with high cheekbones and a strong chin.

“Can I see Jackson?” I asked him.

He sighed. “I’m sorry. Not yet. We need to ask you a few questions.”

My heart sank. “Okay.”

“Sheriff.” Logan appeared at my side, holding his hand out.

“Logan. Thea.” He nodded to them both. “Hi, Hazel.”

“Xavier,” she grumbled.

No one ever called the sheriff anything other than Magee. He went by either Magee or Sheriff Magee. Not even my father used Xavier and he’d known Sheriff Magee for decades. Why did it not surprise me that Hazel, of all people, called him by his first name?

“Where’s my boy?” she asked him.

“We’re asking him some questions.”

“Are you about done? We’ve been here all damn day.”

He frowned. “I need to talk with Willa. And I might have some questions for you too.”

“Fine.” She narrowed her eyes, sending him a glare that would have made me cry.

“Can I do that?” he asked. “Or did you want me to stand here so you can glare at me a little while longer?”

She dismissed him with a flick of her wrist. “Get on with it.”

I looked back and forth between them, wondering what the deal was with these two. Everyone liked Sheriff Magee. Everyone. He’d won his last election in a landslide. And everyone liked Hazel. So how did these two not like one another?

Now wasn’t the time to ask.

“Willa, come on back.”

“Okay.” I nodded and took a step toward the door but stopped when Logan touched my shoulder.

“I think you should wait until the lawyer gets here,” he said quietly.

“That’s still at least an hour away, and it’s already three o’clock.” I turned to Sheriff Magee, a man who I trusted to give me sound advice. “Should I wait for a lawyer?”

“That’s your call and you have the right to wait. But I don’t think you need one for this. I just have a couple easy questions.”

“Then I’ll come back now.” If answering some simple questions meant that Jackson might not have to spend the night in a jail cell, I’d cooperate.

Logan frowned. “Willa—”

“It’s okay. If I get uncomfortable, I can always stop talking and wait for the lawyer.”

The door buzzed and the lock popped, so before Logan could stop me again, I opened it up and went inside.

I met Sheriff Magee in the short hallway behind the front desk. He led me around a corner and down a hallway toward a bull pen. We skirted past empty desks, going straight for a small room along the back wall.

As I stepped inside, I reali

zed it was an interrogation room. The overhead fluorescent lights were bright, but without windows, the room was gloomy. The beige walls were dull and the wooden table in the middle of the room had seen better days.