Thread of Truth, стр. 36

“I thought so.”

“But we're still making a jump.”

I nodded. “Agreed. I'm not saying it's a definitive thing, but those were things I didn't know when I found him or when I was looking for him.”

She thought for a moment. “Still feels like we'd be taking a leap to assume anyone purposely ran him down. I'd say the teacher was the one with the most motivation, but you said you think she's clear.”

“I think she is,” I said. “But still, someone other than me should probably talk to her and verify what she said.”

Swanson nodded. “I can go talk to Carr tomorrow and see if I can get anywhere with him.”

“I mean, if someone was angry with him, there's no reason to just assume it was random, right?” I said, pushing my own plate away. The only thing left on it was a tiny smear of ketchup. “At the very least, you have to consider that angle.”

“I'm not disagreeing with you,” she said. “It's just a matter of getting the wheels that are already in motion to turn a different direction.”

“Would seem silly to not look at it.”

“Again, not disagreeing with you,” she said. A thin smile crossed her lips. “I'm assuming this is how you found your daughter.”

“What is?”

“The doggedness,” she said. “The turning over every rock until you found the right one.”

“I guess. But isn't that what every investigator should do?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but you were a cop. You know it doesn't always work like that.” She picked up her beer. “And not everyone can keep up that pace for years at a time.”

“Depends on the person.”

“It does,” she said, nodding. “It does.”

“Alright,” I said. “Enough about work stuff. Tell me about your name.”

She smiled, and I really liked her smile.

“Okay. It's not a family name, because that's what people usually guess.”

“It's what my daughter guessed.”

“You talked to your daughter about me?”

That was the first awkward moment of our so-called date. “Yeah. It's...complicated.”

She eyed me, but with more amusement than suspicion. “We'll come back to that. But it's not a family name. It's where my parents met. A small town in Massachusetts.”

“Really?”

“Really,” she said. “They met there as teenagers and I was apparently conceived there, but I've asked them to not reveal those details to me because even I have my limits.”

“Wow,” I said, chuckling. “They must really love their town. Is that where you're from?”

She shook her head. “No. They moved before I was born. Phoenix first, then Los Angeles. I came down here to go to State for school and never left. Have you always been here?”

I nodded. “Always. Wouldn't know how to live anywhere else. I lived out of hotel rooms for too many years, but this is the only place that really feels like home to me.”

Our server dropped the check off and cleared our plates. Swanson reached for the check, but I snagged it before she got her hands on it.

“You don't have to pay,” she said.

“I called you.”

“I sort of asked you to call me.”

“Doesn't mean I had to,” I said, dropping bills on top of the check. “And I'm well aware that you'd really like to talk about my daughter and that's the reason you wanted me to call.”

“It's not the only reason,” she said.

I let the silence linger because I didn't know how to respond.

We stood and walked outside. The evening air was cool and the breeze made the palm trees dance above us.

“That was kind of a fast dinner,” Swanson said, as we stood on the sidewalk.

I nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“You wanna walk a little bit?” she asked. “Maybe down to that deck on the back of the hotel? I need coffee before I head home.”

I hadn't been to the deck, not for a drink, since Lauren had been gone. It was a place we'd spent a lot of evenings, unwinding, watching the sun set over the water. I saw it nearly every day on my beach runs, but I hadn't been on the deck since she'd been killed.

But I'd had a nice time with Swanson and I wasn't ready to go home, either.

I nodded. “Sure, let's go.”