Snow Angel (The Hope Falls Chronicles) (14 page)

proud of you. As soon as it did, she began questioning it.

Did she?

Why did it matter if a guy she’d met a couple of weeks ago thought highly of her?

She didn’t have the answer to that, but she knew if she was being honest with herself that the reason

didn’t matter. Lily absolutely wanted Eric to be proud of her.

She wished Eric were here, witnessing her accomplishment. That little factoid in her consciousness

scared the living daylights out of her.

Lily heard a thud and then several screams. She rushed to the middle of the room where Mr. Rickles

was lying flat on his back on the floor. She froze.

Oh my God, he’s dead.

“Call an ambulance!” she heard Mayor Walker instruct.

Well, now she was certainly glad Eric was
not
here.

“Move out of the way.” She tried to keep her voice calm and authoritative. With this crowd, she had to.

“I know CPR.”

Not that she’d ever thought she’d have to use it on anyone! Especially on someone in his nineties. She

knelt down beside Mr. Rickles and felt for a pulse. It was faint but there. Then she gripped her hands

together the way the instructor in her class had shown her to and placed them on his chest.

Here goes nothing.

---~---

Eric cracked his knuckles before returning his fingers to his keyboard. Rolling his head from side to

side, he took in a deep breath through his nose and opened and shut his eyes several times before

attempting to focus on his screen once again.

He knew that this report was not going to write itself, but he just could not seem to get it done. Not only was his caffeine buzz wearing off, he also kept checking the clock every two minutes or so, waiting for it to reach twelve forty five so he could leave to go pick up Lily for their lunch date. He felt like a kid at

Christmas waiting for his parents to wake up so he could open his presents.

“Chief Maguire,” the female voice of his very young secretary buzzed over the telephone intercom.

He pushed the talk button. “Yes Jill.”

“A…umm…Judge Pattinson is holding for you on line six,” she said curtly before disconnecting the

line.

Eric knew he was getting old when at least two or three times a week the thought ‘What’s wrong with

kids these days?’ ran through his head. He just didn’t understand how Jill expected to keep her job when

she was on her personal phone for at least five hours out of her eight-hour shift. She was, if not rude, at least definitely not friendly to people on the phone, and she was
never
on time.

He would have fired her already if Tamera, who was in charge of human resources, wasn’t out on

disability. Which, come to think of it, the circumstances under which she’d been granted disability blew his mind as well.

She’d come to work one Monday morning, and while she was pouring herself a cup of coffee, she had

spilled some on her hand, causing second degree burns. She’d been out for three months and she was

getting paid.

Eric realized that maybe he was just old school, but he’d been raised of the mindset that if you spilled

coffee on
yourself
, you didn’t collect workers’ comp for the injuries. Also, when you were being paid to work, you didn’t handle personal business like trolling social media sites. You were polite to people. And

most importantly, you showed up for your job
on time
.

He pushed the blinking light beside line seven, not line
six
like Jill had indicated, and tried to shove down his frustration. “Hello, Your Honor. How are you doing today?”

Judge Pattinson preferred to be referred to as Your Honor. Eric figured since he’d served his time on

the bench—nearly thirty years—he deserved the respect of that distinction.

“I was doing much better before I received the background check on my new tenant,” he said in his

trademark dry, authoritative tone. It was the very same one he had used when Eric was a kid when he and Jake had been playing around at the park and Jake had gotten distracted and not caught a popup. The

baseball had gone right through the windshield of the Judge’s Mercedes, which had been parked across the

street at the Municipal Building.

Hearing it again caused Eric’s blood to run cold. For one, when the Judge spoke in that tone, it didn’t

matter who you were. You always felt like you had done something horribly wrong. But also, the very thing

that had caused the honorable Judge Pattinson to use such a tone was the very person Eric was pretty sure

he was falling for. Hard.

“What does the problem seem to be?” Eric asked, reminding himself that, as the Judge had gotten up in

years, it took very little to get him worked up into a state.

“She’s not who she says she is,” the Judge stated, raising his voice about ten decibels.

Eric remained calm. No reaction was better than an overreaction. “Really. Who is she then?”

“Look, son, don’t get smart with me.” Judge Pattinson’s tone caused Eric to regret any tiny bit of a

patronizing tone that may have dripped through in his response. The man deserved respect, no matter what

Eric’s feelings were on the subject he was broaching.

“Sorry, Sir,” he immediately apologized.

“Now, I need you to run a full background check on one Miss Liliana Sotelo. I’m going to have Gloria

at the front desk send you her social, birth date, and signature paper for the background check over the

computer mail.”

“E-mail.” Eric didn’t mean any disrespect. He only corrected the Judge because if he was lucky enough

to live as long as Judge Pattinson had, he would want someone to correct him.

“E-mail,” Pattison echoed with frustration.

“What are you looking for
specifically
?” Eric didn’t know if he should be focusing on employment

history, personal contacts, or rental history. He did know one thing for sure though. He really didn’t like the idea of going behind Lily’s back. Even if it was his job.

He could pass it along to some rookie if the department wasn’t already so understaffed. Also, the idea of

someone else digging into Lily’s past bothered him even more than the thought of him doing it.

“Well specifically I’d like to find out just who in the hell is living in my house,” Judge Pattinson huffed, sounding more and more upset by the minute.

Eric took a deep breath, knowing that he needed to handle this with kid gloves. So he tried a different

tactic. “What makes you think that you don’t already know who is living in your house?”

“When Lauren came by and gave me the credit report she’d run with the application, I realized that it

only went back two years. I asked her about it and she said that it was the standard. That bothered me, so I asked a friend of mine that owns a private eye firm to do a little digging on her. Where she grew up, if she had any kids, siblings. Verify her social. Basic stuff.”

The Judge stopped talking, and Eric was sure he must have had more to say so he just waited to hear

him out. Judge Pattinson did not continue. That couldn’t be the end of his story.

Okay
.

“And what did they find?” Eric prompted.

“Well that’s the thing. They didn’t find anything. It’s like before she popped up in Sacramento two

years ago, Liliana Sotelo didn’t exist. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I don’t like the idea of a seedy element in my house.”

Eric really hoped this was all just a big mistake. But his gut was telling him that something was

definitely not right. Still, there was no reason to alarm the Judge. Also, Lily was a lot of things. Gorgeous.

Talented. Sweet.
Sexy
. But seedy she was not.

“Listen, Lily is not at all seedy. I would be just as concerned as you if I believed that, since she’s my

neighbor. I will look into this and get back to you.”

“You do that,” the Judge said before disconnecting the call.

Eric sat stock-still for a moment, trying to process that call. Then he noticed the time. It was twelve fifty.

He needed to go pick up his date. Lily. Then after lunch he needed to run a thorough background check on

his date. Lily.

When he had said he didn’t want ‘simple,’ he sure as hell never thought things would be this

complicated. Eric guessed the old saying was true—be careful what you wish for.

Chapter Twelve

Eric pulled up in front of the Community Center and saw Engine 42 parked in front of it. That was his

brother Jake’s rig. What in the hell?

He stepped out of his SUV and began walking towards the front entrance of the building where he now

noticed several emergency vehicles including an ambulance. As he stepped around the fire engine, he was

stopped up short by what he saw.

Lily was talking with his brother and his
parents
. Both she and his mom were cracking up at something Jake had just said. His father looked less amused.

“Howya, boyo!” his dad called out in an old Irish greeting when he saw Eric walking toward the group,

opening his arms.

“Hey, Pops.” Eric hugged his dad then leaned down and kissed his mom, who stood a whopping four-

foot-ten inches tall—although she insisted she was five foot— on the cheek.

“Well, son, you missed all the excitement if that’s what you came for,” his mom informed him as she

patted his back.

Eric straightened. “Actually I came by to pick up Lily for lunch.” He stepped beside his lunch date and

looked down at her smiling face. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said, and he noticed that she moved closer to him.

As a detective, to enhance his natural talent for reading people and their body language, he’d taken a

course in decoding, deciphering, and interpreting non-verbal communication, and her small movement

towards him meant she either trusted him, was attracted to him, or was drawn to him. He’d be happy with

any of those three things.

“Lunch date, huh?” Jake asked with an arrogant grin that made Eric want to smack him in the face.

Ignoring his brother’s comment, Eric asked, motioning to the rig and his parents, “So what’s going on

here?”

“Well now, that old Mr. Rickles was acting the maggot and went and had a heart attack,” his dad

explained, as if that made all the sense in the world.

“Is he okay?” Eric turned to his brother.

“They’re taking him to Hope Falls Memorial. He was awake and talking before they transported him

thanks to the hero of the day.” Jake lifted Lily’s hand in the air like she’d just won a boxing match, and

both of his parents started clapping.

“Oh you should have seen it,” his mom beamed. “He dropped to the floor and honestly I thought he

was a goner. But then Lily started CPR and kept him alive until your brother showed up.”

“We make a good
team
.” Jake reached up his hand for Lily to give him a high-five, which she did. Eric didn’t like thinking of them as a team. He didn’t like it one little bit.

“So he collapsed in your class and you performed CPR?” Eric was trying to get up to speed. Lily

nodded. “And how did you guys end up being involved in it?” he asked his parents, attempting to get

clarification on their role.

“Oh we were taking the class,” his mom offered happily. His dad didn’t look so happy about it. Then his mom leaned into his dad and patted his chest. “It’s good for his ticker.”

“Well, now I’m not so sure. Look what happened to poor old Rickles,” his dad quickly pointed out.

“Oh, Sean, you stop it. You need more exercise.” His mom poked his chest with her finger. “Doctor’s

orders.”

His dad just huffed. Obviously he wasn’t happy about the fact that his mom now had the ‘doctor’s

orders’ card to play. Eric was glad his dad had his mom looking out for him. She was making sure that he

cut down on his salt intake and his beer intake, which was quite a feat but definitely needed to be done.

Eric didn’t want to be rude to his parents, but he knew he had to get back to the station and only had a

short time to spend with Lily, and he really didn’t want it to include his family.

“Do you still feel like grabbing some lunch?” he asked Lily.

“You don’t have to worry about his feelings, Lily. He’s a big boy. You can tell him that you’d rather go

with me,” Jake teased. Then he stepped beside Lily and put his arm around her waist.

“Jake.” Even Eric himself was surprised at the warning tone in his voice.

“Boys, now you stop it,” his mom chastised them.

“I’m starving. Lunch sounds great,” Lily said to Eric as she shook her head, laughing at Jake.

“See you guys later,” Eric said to his family.

“Bye, Jake. It was so nice meeting you two,” Lily said to his parents as she began moving towards the

parking lot.

His mom intercepted her and gave her a big hug, “It was lovely meeting you as well. And it was a great

class before all the hubbub.” As his mom released her from the bear hug, she patted her hand. “I hope I’ll

be seeing more of you. Socially,” she said, pointedly towards Eric.

“Real subtle, Mom,” Eric said, smiling, as he stepped up and placed his hand on Lily’s lower back. Then

he started guiding them towards his car.

Just as they were about halfway across the parking lot, he heard his dad bellow, “She’s a good one

there, boyo! She’d make a real good mot!.”

“Got it, Pops!” Eric shouted back shaking his head as he opened the passenger side door for Lily.

“Bye.” He waved once more to his family, who were all standing on the curb, watching him and Lily leave

like they were going to prom or something.

Simple was looking really good right about now.

As soon as he got in the car, Lily turned to him. “Okay, boyo I know, but what is ‘acting the maggot’