She didn’t look as if she was going to let him in. He hadn’t been expecting that. “I’m not sure what I can say about someone I have no contact with.”

  “You’d be surprised what you could offer,” he said. “If you’d feel more comfortable, you can call an attorney. I’m sure Thomas Klein would gladly come over. Maybe you’d like your sister Jasmine here with you and her husband, Wesley. Your sister Ivy is dating Investigator Scarsdale. If you’d like him present, please call them. I’ve got no problem if they are around while I question you.”

  “How do you know about my family?” she asked. Her arms were crossed now. She wasn’t scared, she was annoyed. He liked that better.

  “It’s my job to know about the people I’m investigating.”

  “I’m under investigation?” she asked. This time she paled. “For what?”

  “We can have this conversation in the hallway where your neighbors might hear or you can let me in and we’ll do it in private,” he said. “If you’re nervous that I’m not who I say I am, you can call the Resident Agency I’m out of in New London to verify. Or the New Haven Field Office. I could give you those numbers, but I’m sure you would think I’m making it up so you can pull them off the internet if it’d make you feel better.”

  He thought for sure that would ease her enough to let him in. He’d even softened his tone a little too.

  “Hang on,” she said, shutting the door in his face.

  He stood there for a minute and then heard her voice inside and smiled. She was calling to find out if he was who he said he was.

  He liked her moxie.

  When the door opened a minute later, she said, “You can come in.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “You can’t be too careful or trusting,” she said.

  “No,” he said. “You can’t. Especially with your upbringing.”

  “What do you know about that?” she asked.

  “Dahlia Greene, age thirty-two. The second of five children born to Dr. Tim and Andrea Greene. You’ve got dual citizenship in Egypt and the United States. You went to college at Loyola University in Chicago and remained in the area until nine months ago or so.”

  He went on to list more things about her life. Where she worked, her job positions and her relationship with Shawn Stratton.

  “I do sound boring,” she said with her shoulders dropping.

  It was the look on her face that almost had him bursting out laughing.

  Never in his twelve years as an agent had he had someone respond to a summary of their life that he’d just read off like that.

  “Excuse me?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Never mind. Okay, you know about my life, however little there is to it. What is Shawn being accused of?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say just yet,” he said.

  “So you spent how long looking into my life so you can come here and let me know you’ve got the power to do that and yet can’t even explain why?”

  She was feisty. He wouldn’t have expected that.

  “I said I had a few questions in regards to Shawn.”

  “Then ask them,” she said. “You also told me that I was being investigated.”

  “Figure of speech,” he said.

  “Obviously not since you know so much about me and my family.”

  She had him there. “How long have you known Shawn Stratton?”

  He had his pad out with his pen and was ready to write down her replies. “If this is going to take long, you might as well have a seat.” He moved to a chair and she sat on the couch. “I worked there nine years. He was older than me by a few years. I’m sure you know that. He was there before me but worked in a different division of the business. I would say I knew him as more than a face in the halls for about three years.”

  “So a year before you split?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Thereabouts. We started talking and then dating.”

  “How long did you date?”

  “Seven months maybe,” she said. “I don’t keep track of those things.”

  He found most women always kept track of those things. He made a note that she didn’t.

  He wasn’t sure if it was of relevance or not. Could just be something he found interesting.

  “Did you notice a change in his behavior during that time or any time after?”

  “I wish you’d tell me why you are looking into him.”

  “Just answer the question, please,” he said.

  “Yes,” she said. “When we first met he was nice. Friendly. He approached me. I’m not one for mixing my private and professional life, but we didn’t work together enough for me to worry. Or maybe he convinced me more. Things started out well and then he just changed.”

  “Changed how?” he asked.

  “He was moody and demanding. He never used to be that way. He was on edge. He was telling me what to do and not asking my opinion. Sorry, I’ve got a voice. I don’t need to be told to have dinner on the table and when.”

  Shit, he couldn’t imagine many men doing that in this day and age.

  “Not many women would.”

  “No. It wasn’t just that. He...he sabotaged my career. Or at least I felt like he did.”

  “Excuse me?” he asked and stopped writing.

  “You’ve got my history, you saw I moved up fast in my job. Then when I was dating him things just halted. I was looked at differently. Don’t get me wrong. Before Shawn I’d been told I needed to go out and socialize more and that just isn’t me. But that shouldn’t affect my job performance any.”

  “No,” he said. “Not unless that is a requirement of your job.”

  “It’s not. Or shouldn’t be. I was respected and well liked. I find I’m friendly even when strange men knock on my door and want to ask me questions when not giving me all the answers as to why.”

  He grinned this time. “Friendly might be a stretch, but you’re cooperating.”

  “Gee,” she said. “Thanks. It’s not like you’re a bucket of rainbows.”

  “And it’d never be said about me either. This isn’t about me. Please continue.”

  “Shawn would come into my office during working hours and pull me away from my job. I never liked that. But it got worse when he started to change. It’s as if he was starting fights on purpose to make me look bad. I never engaged and I suppose that just riled him up more or made me come across as cold.”

  “Sounds more like you were being professional than anything else.”

  “That is how I saw it. I just got sick of it. Things were going downhill fast. I’d flown here to Mystic to visit with Jasmine in the summer when I was dating Shawn. Ivy was coming to visit. I’m sure you know she moved here from Texas.”

  “I do,” he said. He also knew Dahlia had taken two trips to Mystic in a short period of time when she hadn’t flown more than twice in twelve years.

  “I wanted to see Ivy. Then in September, my parents were flying in to see my brother Chase at Columbia University. He was getting ready for Med school. But you know that too.”

  He nodded his head. “You had a little family reunion?”

  “We did,” she said. “Ivy decided to move here and was going to live with Jasmine. It was the first time that many of us had been together in longer than I could remember. I don’t like to fly and would have passed, but I’d gotten in another fight with Shawn and needed to get away and figure things out. It was as good an excuse as any for some distance.”

  “You ended things when you returned?” he asked.

  “Shortly after,” she said. “I wanted to give him a chance. He’d apologized and I thought maybe he was just stressed. I don’t know. It didn’t last long and then I ended it. I realized that my reputation at work had gone from not only just not being warm and fuzzy to now being a woman that had drama and got walked all over.”

  “Which you wouldn’t have appreciated,” he said.

  “No. I got passed by for a promotion I felt I deserved. I brushed it off as the person who got it was there longer than me. When the next one came and I didn’t get it, I decided it was best to move on.”

  “Was your employer upset to see you leave?”

  He knew the answer to this. Not only had he gotten the case file from the Chicago office who had done interviews there, but he’d made calls himself to ask some of the same questions. The answers were always the same.

  They loved Dahlia.

  She was a hard worker.

  She was a great employee.

  They wish they had more like her.

  Her employers swore that she didn’t get the promotions because the other candidates were better qualified but she was in line for the next.

  He suspected Dahlia had no clue. He wouldn’t tell her either.

  “They seemed it,” she said. “They asked what they could do to get me to stay. They offered me more money, but it wasn’t about that.”

  He’d heard that too.

  It could be looked at in two ways.

  She didn’t need the money because she helped Shawn in his theft of millions.

  Or that she was putting her own happiness over a few dollars.

  His gut was telling him it was the second.

  “What was it about?” he asked.

  “Taking a risk,” she said. “Finding a part of myself I’d lost along the way. How that answer is going to help with Shawn is beyond me.”

  3

  BEHIND HIS EYES

  Dahlia watched the agent taking his notes in her living room dwarfing the chair he’d sat down on.

  He sure was a big guy.

  She’d never been one that noticed that much. She’d been around big men before.

  Brooks was huge and it never bothered her much. Wesley was tall but not muscular like Brooks.

  Most of the women at work were married; their husbands were all over six foot and three had been in the service and were more muscular than average.

  But Special Agent Crosby had this presence to him that made her stop and think more than another man had.

  “When was the last time you saw Shawn?” he asked her.

  “Months before I left Chicago,” she said.

  He put his hand in front of his mouth and coughed for a second, then went back to writing. “Can I get you something to drink? Water?”

  He looked up at her, shocked that she’d made that offer. “I’m good,” he said. “Are you sure that was the last time you saw Shawn?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I can’t give you the exact date if you ask me that. I don’t pay attention to those things.”

  Just like she didn’t pay attention to how long she’d dated Shawn. Ivy could tell her every detail of every anniversary of all the men she’d been with.

  Dahlia didn’t look at those things.

  Not every event had to have a special meaning.

  Maybe that was why everyone thought she was boring.

  Even the sexy agent that should be making her nervous yet wasn’t.

  He had almost insulted her with her wardrobe, but she’d thrown the first dart so she shouldn’t complain.

  “It’s fine,” he said.

  “Maybe if you gave me more information it might jar my memory some. What division do you work in?”

  He stopped his notes and looked up. “White collar crimes.”

  She sucked her breath in.

  She wasn’t sure what she was expecting him to say and didn’t know why this hadn’t occurred to her.

  Other than Shawn being a dick the last few months of their relationship, he’d never been violent.

  “And you’re saying I’m not being investigated? I wouldn’t even take a penny off a public street.”

  She hadn’t wanted anyone to know about Shawn to begin with and only recently told her sisters.

  She was embarrassed at the way things ended and didn’t even give them the full story.

  Now she sure the heck wasn’t going to.

  The last thing she wanted to worry about was anyone thinking she’d done something illegal.

  She’d never.

  “You’re being questioned as you were involved at the time of the theft.”

  “So now you’re saying Shawn stole from people? He was cheap. He never paid for anything. Ever. He claimed he had no money yet I knew what he made.”

  “Interesting,” he said.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  She got up to get a glass of water. She needed it now.

  Her place wasn’t that big that she couldn’t still see him.

  She pulled the jug of water out of the fridge and poured two glasses. No reason to be rude and drink in front of him. His voice was hoarse and she wondered if maybe he had a tickle in it or it was always that deep and raspy.

  It sounded as if someone did a lot of screaming at a late night party.

  “Thanks,” he said when she put it down. “I find it interesting that Shawn didn’t pay for anything. What reasons did he give for not having money?”

  She watched as he picked up his glass and took a sip, his head back, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed.

  She just realized she didn’t know his first name. No wait, it was on his badge, but she’d been so stunned by what was happening she didn’t catch it.

  That wasn’t like her. She paid attention to those fine details.

  “He had child support,” she said. “Plus student loans. He had a place that cost a lot. I told him to find a cheaper place, but he didn’t want to. I guess he got it when he was with his ex.”

  “I didn’t find anywhere that Shawn had a child. Did you ever meet this child?”

  “No,” she said. “But there were pictures in his place. He said Amelia lived with her mother in St. Louis.”

  He frowned and then looked as if he was in thought. “Shawn has a niece, Amelia, who lives in St. Louis. His sister Maureen’s daughter.”

  “Maureen is his ex,” she argued. Oh lord, had she been played that badly?

  “No,” he said. “Maureen Clover is his older sister with a nine-year-old daughter, Amelia.”

  “Argh!!! I’m such an idiot.”

  “I don’t think you are,” he said.

  “What’s your first name?” she asked after she downed her water.

  “Hugh,” he said.

  More like huge and she giggled when she thought of that. She never giggled over anything and didn’t know why she came out with that sound.

  Maybe it was nerves after all. For the stranger with the dark looks in front of her. She’d never been one to act like this over a good-looking guy.

  “Sorry. I’m all over the place. That isn’t like me. Hugh, I’m not someone that gets played. I don’t trust people all that much because it was drilled into our heads to be careful because of the way we were raised and where we lived. When I moved to Chicago, I was the first of the girls and my father was nervous but told me that, of all of us, he knew I had my head on the tightest. That I’d make all the right choices. Yet somehow I let a man that worked at the same company as me for years tell me lies and I never saw that. I don’t know how that happened.”

  “I find things like this happen to the best of us in life.”

  “I doubt it would ever happen to you,” she said. “That anyone would surprise you.”

  “You’d be surprised,” he said.

  It was all he said and she was stunned it was that much.

  She’d thought he was this big tough guy.

  No, she knew he was.

  But there was kindness behind his eyes after a few minutes.

  He tried to soften his tone, she’d heard that. Maybe that was why his voice was hoarse, he wasn’t used to doing that.

  “Can you please give me more information? I want to help. I want to make sure you know I didn’t do anything. I shouldn’t say that, but I can give you proof or anything you need from me to clear my name. I’d rather get that done now. Maybe I should call Thomas, but there is part of me that doesn’t want anyone to know I’m even being questioned.”

  What a crazy day.

  Lily had just told her what a valuable asset she was to Blossoms.

  She’d been worrying for months that it might have been a charity job and trying to prove herself.

  Then to find out there might be some doubt about her dealings with this.

  “I will tell you that you were investigated at your old firm.”

  She felt her face flush. “And no one told me?”

  “You came back clean. Your employers all had wonderful things to say about you. Not one person thought you’d have any part in this. Your work was immaculate.”

  “I worked in not-for-profit. I had no access to funds. I was there making sure they did what they were supposed to with their funding.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “I heard you were thorough but fair.”

  “That’s a good compliment,” she said.

  “It is,” he said. “So you were cleared of any wrongdoing there.”

  “But by association, I’m guilty.”

  “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”

  “I want to maintain my innocence. I wouldn’t take a dime from anyone. Ever. I lived a poor life even though my father was a doctor. We had more than most around us and I was grateful even when I hated every minute of that life.”

  “Many would use that as a reason to get more out of life,” he said.

  So he did believe she might be involved. “If I had anything to do with this, do you think I’d be living in this small apartment with my sister and wearing the same boring pantsuits I’ve had for three years?”

  He smirked. “I think someone as smart as you could find a way to lay low and hide money. Even invest it and go back years later when it was old news.”

  She was pretty sure every ounce of color drained from her face that had flushed moments ago. “I need to call Thomas.”

  “That is your choice,” he said. “But my honest opinion is you’re innocent of everything other than being in a relationship with a dick.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  She didn’t know if he was just playing her or not.

  She’d always thought she was a good judge of people, but Shawn seemed to have knocked that out of her.