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  He scratched the back of his neck. He hadn't worn a tie, only a button-up shirt, slacks, and a matching jacket. There was something about his easy good looks and grin that reminded her of someone.

  Someone she really didn't want to be reminded of.

  "Yeah, we’ve talked about it, but I’d have to go all the way to Reno. Actually, my uncle is the one who suggested it. I mean, I don't expect to be paid or anything, but he said you have a lot of stuff to do and could probably use some help."

  Uncle? Hazel had no idea who the kid was. Much less who his uncle was. Cedar Valley may have been a small town, but she didn’t know every soul who lived there. "Let me think about it." She tried to smile, though she was sure her weariness showed on her face.

  "Hey. Turner. What you doing? Hitting on an older chick?" A boy from a group of other teens asked. He was the tallest boy of the group, big and broad in the shoulders with a shaved head. He looked like the type that played a violent sport.

  They all had their cell phones out and were snapping pictures with them of everything from their shoes to countless selfies.

  The kid, Turner, shook his head. "Shut up," he called before turning back to Hazel. "Sorry about him. He's an idiot."

  Turner. She knew that name.

  "Is Turner your first name or your last name?"

  "Last name. Oh yeah. You might know my uncle. Jay. He runs the bar. I’m Travis, by the way."

  There was only one bar in Cedar Valley. The Taproom. And Hazel knew all too well the man who ran it. She wasn't a particular fan of his either.

  That's why the kid was so familiar. He had Jay's cocky smirk down pat. But before she could say anything, he turned and ran back to his friends. The one with the shaved head patted Travis on the back and he stumbled forward.

  Hazel rolled her eyes and walked back to Michael with his drink.

  "I'm sure glad I’m not in high school anymore," he said, downing a big gulp.

  Hazel smiled. "I couldn't agree more."

  Chapter 2

  After the punch, Hazel needed to find the ladies room, and preferably, Esther.

  They’d packed up their equipment but were supposed to stay until the end of the dance. Whenever that was. Weariness tugged at her eyes, and her feet ached with each step.

  She found the bathroom and was leaving when she heard a familiar voice just down the hall.

  She froze, torn between the urge to eavesdrop or walk away. Esther would tell her to walk away and her mother, well, her mother would eavesdrop.

  Hazel bit her lip and listened.

  "I said I didn't want to come," a female voice said. She sounded young.

  "I had to be here tonight, and since you're staying here, I thought it was best not to leave you home alone," a man answered, a man Hazel had grown used to hearing on a nearly daily basis.

  "I'm old enough to stay home alone. How many times do I have to tell you? Stop treating me like a baby," the girl said.

  The man sighed, that frustrated sigh he got when he’d talked to Hazel when they first met. She knew it almost as well as she knew her own sigh.

  Sheriff Cross.

  But who was he talking to?

  "I don't treat you like a baby. But I do treat you like someone your age should be treated. It's not that much longer."

  "Good. Because this is–"

  Hazel wasn't sure what possessed her to step out of the hallway. Maybe the guilt she felt from purposefully eavesdropping on Sheriff Cross is what did it.

  Sheriff Cross and a young woman stared at her. The young woman looked similar enough to Sheriff Cross that she knew they were related in some way. Like the sheriff, she had dark hair and pale skin. Though her eyes were bright green instead of blue. And she wore a long-sleeved black dress that went all the way to her ankles. Unusual for a teenager.

  Most of the girls at the dance had dresses that came well above their knees. Not something Hazel ever would've worn herself.

  "Oh. Sheriff Cross," she said and gave him a pained smile.

  He raised his eyebrows and gave her a smile that was equally pained, though she guessed it was for a different reason. "Hazel. Ms. Hart. Just the person I've been looking for."

  It was Hazel's turn to raise an eyebrow at that. If he’d been looking for her, he hadn’t been doing a good job of it. She hadn’t been able to move the past hour. Though, maybe that was why he hadn’t disturbed her. "Is this thing really going to wrap up soon because I'm looking forward to going home and soaking my feet."

  Why did she say that? It made her sound like a ninety-year-old woman not a thirty-five-year-old one.

  Still, it elicited a twinkle of humor in Sheriff Cross’s eye. "Yeah. Long day for me too. I actually wanted to introduce you to my niece. Violet. Violet, this is the photographer I told you about."

  Hazel held out her hand and gave the girl a warm smile.

  She expected the girl to roll her eyes and make one of those rude pa-shaw sounds. But, instead, Violet’s eyes grew wide and she shook Hazel's hand rapidly. "You’re a real photographer? Wow. That's so cool. My uncle said that you’ve taken pictures of dead bodies. That true?"

  Hazel extracted her hand from the girl’s grip and nodded slowly. "On occasion. I've done forensic photography both here and in LA."

  "So cool," she said and grinned.

  Hazel felt a flush of color seep up her cheeks. ""Are you hungry? I'm sure my sister Esther has a whole table of cupcakes left. She always makes too many for these sorts of events."

  Violet’s eyes grew even wider. "The cupcake lady is your sister." She threw a glance at Sheriff Cross. "Why haven't you married one of these women yet? Cupcakes and photography." Then she shook her head and marched away, hopefully headed toward the cupcakes.

  Hazel felt her cheeks burning even hotter. Thankfully, the light in the hallway was dimmer than the rest of the Manor. "So. Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?" Hazel said and forced herself to meet Sheriff Cross’s eyes.

  He let out another sigh and nodded. "It's a long story. My niece and nephew have been living with my parents for a few years, and she recently got into some trouble at school, so they thought it’d be good to send her away for a bit."

  "How long is a bit?" Hazel asked and chewed on her bottom lip. It was already mid-April, which meant there was only about a month and a half of school left if she was remembering correctly.

  Sheriff Cross shrugged. "Rest of the school year, I guess. She's fifteen and has a mind of her own."

  Hazel grinned. "Most people do."

  "You know what I mean. She has a hard time fitting in."

  "Where do your parents live?" Hazel asked. She realized, as the question tumbled out of her mouth, that she barely knew anything about Sheriff Cross’s family. He never really spoke about his past, his parents, or siblings.

  And Hazel had shared the people in her life with Sheriff Cross. Though, it was because they lived there and sort of imposed themselves on his life.

  "Santa Rosa. She hates it. Claims everyone's preppy, and stuck up, and you know."

  Hazel shrugged. "I went to high school here. No one's really preppy or stuck up."

  "Right. Just of bunch of mountain folk then," he said with a smirk.

  She knew he didn't mean it, and she found herself nudging his arm with her elbow anyway. "Just us yokels. At least she has a person to get away to, right?"

  It felt weird to be talking like this. Usually, they didn't talk about things that were of great consequence. She’d tell him an anecdote about what Anthony Ray, her black cat, had done that morning, and he'd share little incidents about the deputies or the lady who ran the Sheriff's Office, Edith. Or they discussed cases. Though, they hadn’t since the last one had wrapped. Especially since she wasn't an official part of the police force in Cedar Valley.

  She wondered when things had changed. Had it been so subtle she hadn't even realized it?

  When they first met, there’d been nothing but annoyance between them. Now, while she d
id get annoyed at him, this was different. He was friendlier.

  For the first time it struck her.

  They were friends.

  How silly for her to take this long to figure it out.

  Sheriff Cross scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah. That's the other thing. When I moved here, I was in the middle of buying a house and it fell through. So, I've been staying in an apartment." He clenched his jaw, and Hazel flinched.

  "You've been staying at the Pine Crest?"

  It was the only apartment building in town and not the nicest place. In fact, if Cedar Valley had a not so nice place that was it.

  Sheriff Cross nodded. "I don't really have a choice, and I haven't found another place."

  Hazel pinned her mouth shut and didn't mention the real estate agent in town, because he’d probably already contacted them. And she knew how difficult it could be to buy property in Cedar Valley.

  Half of the town was owned by those who used it as a vacation property, so those homes sat unoccupied most of the year. The half of the town that lived there full-time usually weren’t interested in selling what they had. Especially when property values had been going up. And unlike North Lake City, another town on Lake Celeste, there wasn't a lot of new condos being built.

  "Do you at least have a two bedroom?" Hazel asked and wondered if it was inappropriate.

  Sheriff Cross didn't seem to take it that way. "One bedroom. She's been sleeping on the couch since she got here, and I don't think it's going to work in the long run."

  Hazel peeked out of the hall, and spotted Violet talking animatedly with Esther and eating a cupcake.

  "Hey, the old Martin place is on sale. You could live there," Hazel said with a grin.

  Sheriff Cross shook his head. "No. I'll politely decline that offer. That house has too much history for my taste. Even if there wasn’t a murder inside of it."

  Hazel let out a sigh, and a burst of noise tore their attention away from each other.

  "Hey, I won the crown. You don't have to be a jealous little pansy about it," the boy with the shaved head said and pushed the one who'd spoken to her, Travis Turner.

  Sheriff Cross frowned and headed toward them.

  "I don't care if you’re the king of the Spring Fling dance, I'm telling you to watch your mouth," Travis said and smirked.

  "Oh? And what are you going to do about it?"

  "Shut it for you!" Travis said and moved toward the other boy. "Or maybe tell everyone your dirty little secret."

  "Break it up!" Sheriff Cross called and stepped between them.

  The other boy’s face turned beet red. "Shut up!" the bigger boy cried and pushed past Sheriff Cross to grab the front of Travis’s shirt.

  Travis stumbled toward him. "What are you scared of? We’re graduating in a month. You got into Sacramento State. No one is gonna care," Travis said and rolled his eyes.

  "Hey, do you guys need me to take you down to the Sheriff’s Office so you can cool off?" Sheriff Cross slapped his hand on the bigger boy’s arm.

  Travis rolled his eyes and walked away. "You’re not worth it."

  The other boy’s expression dipped into a snarly frown. "I’m worth more than you!"

  A girl hung on his arm, her hair was bleach blonde and her skin tanner than most residents of Cedar Valley. Especially this time of year.

  "Hey, do you really want to make threats in front of the sheriff?" Sheriff Cross said.

  The boy blanched and tugged his arm away.

  Hazel headed over to her equipment and watched Travis head outside.

  "Does that mean the party officially named the king and queen," Hazel asked Michael.

  He yawned. "Yeah. And it's those two. But I don't think that other kid is too happy about it. He was going around whispering to everybody that the Spring Fling King had a big secret. He came up and was trying to tell me something about that guy, but I told him I wasn’t in high school," Michael said with a shrug.

  Hazel snorted. Michael did look young for his age, but she decided against telling him that.

  She glanced over her shoulder one last time at Sheriff Cross as they hauled the last of the equipment out to her truck.

  While not her favorite sort of assignment, the night hadn’t been all bad.

  That was, until she got to the parking lot and ran smack into Jay Turner.

  Chapter 3

  "Hazel! Hey, have you seen my nephew, Travis? I’m supposed to pick him up," Jay Turner said. He wore what he always did, a pair of jeans with a fitted T-shirt and that leather jacket that made him look like he was auditioning for the roll of Danny Zuko in Grease.

  Hazel was about to tell him that she didn't have any idea who Travis Turner was until that evening. But he hadn’t wronged Celia in a long time, so maybe she should stop holding a grudge against him.

  Still, it was easier said than done.

  "He just got in a fight with some other kid and ran out," Hazel said and put her last bag of equipment in the back of her truck.

  Michael waved at her from the other side and pointed at his little silver Honda. "I'm gonna head home now, okay?"

  Hazel nodded.

  Jay Turner shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around the parking lot. If anyone looked out of place at the formal Rockwell Manor, it was him. "Who’d he get in a fight with?" Jay asked and stepped closer.

  Hazel shrugged and shivered in the cold night air. She’d left her jacket in the truck since the Manor was so warm, and now regretted it with only the tiny spaghetti straps over her shoulders. "King of the Spring Fling dance. Whatever that means. Big kid. Shaved head. Has a sports scholarship to Sacramento, apparently," she said and went to climb in her truck.

  Jay gave her his signature sleazy grin. "I know this is kind of awkward and all, but do you mind helping me look real quick? This place is huge."

  With a sigh, Hazel snatched her coat from the truck, threw it on, and began the search for Travis Turner.

  "You really should keep a better eye on your nephew. Or maybe just call his cell phone," Hazel said and shoved her hands in the pocket of the coat. It probably looked ridiculous with the dress, but it was too cold for her to care.

  "Yeah. It’d be nice if he had a cell phone. Do you know how expensive those things are?"

  Hazel bit the inside of her cheek. Right. When she was a kid, they didn’t have anything like that. And if she were a kid now, she wasn't sure if her parents would've gotten her a cell phone considering the costs. "Yeah. Sorry. I didn't think about that."

  Jay shrugged. "No big deal. So, did he talk to you about the apprenticeship thing?"

  If this was all some trick to get her to say yes to the apprenticeship, she wasn't too happy about it. Maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt.

  "He did. I have an assistant, and if I need more help I'll let him know. He's not going to college?"

  Jay ducked around the side of the Manor and went toward the gardens, and Hazel followed. Glancing around hedges and straining to see in the shadows.

  "Once again, that costs money. It's really up to him."

  Hazel didn’t think Jay had gone to school after he’d graduated Cedar Valley High, but he got his uncle’s bar, so he didn’t need to.

  "I didn't know your sister had any kids," Hazel said, trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing. Jay’s sister and only sibling was closer to Esther in age, a couple of years younger than Hazel and Jay. And if she had a kid that was seventeen, that meant she'd had him in high school.

  Hazel was surprised her mother hadn't shared that morsel of gossip with her. But Hazel had already been away at college, so maybe they decided it wasn't important.

  Jay's mouth thinned into a line, and he peeked into an empty doorway. "Yeah. That. She was just a kid and tried her best. Travis’s dad ran off before he was born, so she gave him our last name. But she got messed up with the wrong kind of people."

  "What kind of people?"

  Jay gave her a level look. "Druggies. Peo
ple that don't technically hang around Cedar Valley. She's in Reno in a trailer park, and Travis is up here to get away from that kind of stuff."

  Hazel nodded and wished she hadn't asked. "So, you're raising him now?"

  Jay shrugged. "If you can call it that. Look. The people at Travis's school don't really know about this stuff, and I don't think he wants them to know. If you get my meaning?"

  Hazel drew her fingers across her lips like she was zipping them closed. "You don’t have to worry about me."

  Jay snorted at that. "Really? Like you're not Miss Nose."

  Hazel rubbed her nose and glowered at him. "No. I'm not. Or, if I am, it has a purpose. I'm not Darla Maple."

  At the mention of the current editor of the Cedar Valley Post, Jay laughed. "Got that right. You know she wrote an article last year that my bar was a secret Hell’s Angels hideout?"

  Hazel raised a brow. "Is it?"

  Jay shook his head. "You see any big, bearded guys in leather hanging around and riding Harley's? No. This isn’t the seventies."

  His bar might not be a hideout for an infamous biker gang, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be.

  As the conversation lulled, Hazel wandered off in a different direction since they’d find Travis quicker if they split up. Since continuing to search the garden seemed useless, she turned and went around the other side of the house. Once there, she saw the burning tip of a cigarette in the darkness and heard hushed voices.

  "You don't have to tell anybody, but you might feel better if you do," a voice said— deep and masculine.

  The person smoking drew in another drag. "You say that like it's easy."

  "I never said it was easy. It was a lot harder when I was your age, but—" he stopped talking, and Hazel realized her feet had crunched on the gravel underfoot.

  "Have you guys seen Travis Turner?" she asked and stepped closer to them.

  A light from the Manor’s exterior shone across their faces, and she recognized Robbie Smith and Travis.

  Travis was the one with the cigarette.