Read If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense for Free Online Page B

try to stick to the schedule.”
    “I make the damn schedule,” she sniffed. Then she turned on her square heels and let herself out.
    Letting his head fall against the back of his chair, he muttered, “Dwight, I appreciate you leaving me the dragon, but geez. How do I rein her in?”
    There wasn’t an answer, of course, and three minutes later, he forced himself upright as he heard the familiar
tap-tap-tap
of Ms. Tuttle’s heels on the tile floors. He didn’t hear anybody else behind her, although he imagined Joely Hollister’s cousin was there.
    And she was … A second later, the door opened andMs. Tuttle stepped aside, allowing a woman to enter before she closed the door and tap-tapped down the hall.
    Once Ms. Tuttle was gone, he focused on his visitor.
    She was tall—that was Ezra’s first impression.
    She was gorgeous—that was his second impression.
    She was heartbroken—that was his third, and final, impression.
    Even after all this time, she was still broken inside. And there wasn’t much of anything he could do to help her with that, either. He couldn’t give her the closure she needed, because he was still having trouble finding it himself.
    “Sheriff King, right?”
    He rose from behind his desk. “Yes, that’s right. And you’re Nia Hollister.”
    She gave him a tight, strained smile. “Yes. Thanks for seeing me like this.”
    “Not a problem.” He gestured to the seat across from his desk and waited until she’d sat before he lowered himself back to his chair. As she crossed one jean-clad leg over the other, he folded his hands. “What can I do for you?”
    She swallowed and looked down, studying the black messenger bag she carried. “I … this isn’t easy,” she said quietly. She looked back at him, once more giving him that tight, strained smile. “I usually have something of a reputation for being very calm, logical … rational. I don’t … well, I don’t know exactly, but lately, I’m so paranoid, I’m even annoying myself and that’s not like me.”
    Ezra cocked a brow at her. “Why don’t you just tell me why you’re here?”
    She reached inside the black bag, pulling out a file folder. “I … I don’t know if you know much about my cousin.”
    “There’s not a person in this town who doesn’t know about your cousin, Ms. Hollister. We’re all terribly sorry,” he said softly.
    “Thank you.” She nodded, gripping the folder so tightly her toffee-colored skin went bloodless. “I … I’d been out of town for a few weeks before she was killed. And not in very good contact before that. It had been probably close to three months since I’d seen her. Her fiancé, well, he just—he couldn’t cope with anything after he was told she’d died, and she was in bad shape. We had a closed casket ceremony.”
    She stroked the folder, her gold eyes staring off into the distance, seeing something. Memories, Ezra assumed. Unpleasant ones, he suspected, judging by the way her mouth tightened, the way her lower lip trembled as she fought against tears.
    “Three months,” she whispered again. “When I saw her the day I came to identify her, I didn’t think about her hair.”
    Something inside Ezra went cold. “Her hair?”
    Nia’s eyes cut to his. “It was short—too short. I’d thought maybe she’d gotten it cut … they were getting married soon, and I thought … well, I wasn’t really reading e-mail much, deleting a lot. Not keeping an eye on Facebook or anything either. I just didn’t think. But her hair was too short. And she didn’t cut it.”
    “How do you know?”
    Nia cocked her head. “I asked her fiancé. Joely wanted long hair for her wedding … and if that’s what she said she wanted, she wouldn’t have cut it on a whim. Not my cousin.” With a strained smile, she said, “Joely didn’t do whims. She just didn’t. I might react on a whim and go short with my hair, but once she made up her mind, she didn’t change