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Cassie Dewell was a Private Investigator. Trained and experienced in all manner of observation and deductive reasoning. She was good at it and made a good living doing it. But she had no idea what might have happened between her best friend and her newest friend in the past thirty-six hours that would have led to this little exchange that changed so much.
Beau had been telling Cassie for weeks now that he just wasn’t making any headway with Jenny on a professional level and it was becoming a concern as more time passed with no word on Sheriff Tubb’s return. Beau thought his entire aura of authority to the one hundred or so people who worked under him seemed to rest on Jenny’s opinion of him.
Jenny had been telling Cassie for weeks now that she just did not want to bother with him at all. She was professional and friendly as a colleague should be and she was fine with him to a point. Tubb would be back and Beau would disappear from all of their lives and things would go back to normal. She had no desire to “break-in” a new “boss”. Jenny tended to push back on overbearing authority and Tubb had been okay with how she worked. Cassie couldn’t help but wonder how much of Jenny’s reluctance was really from the “breaking in a new boss” part or from the “gone soon” part.
Less than a week ago, this had been the status-quo.
“So how did you get away from Sheriff Beau today?”
“You mean temporary, acting Sheriff Beau?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I heard he’s staying.”
“We’ll see about that.”
The conversation, a meer six days ago, echoed in Cassie’s mind. She and Jenny shared gossip and then commiserated over Beau’s tendency to talk. Cassie had thought that they both seemed to enjoy Beau’s good nature but as they had talked that morning she realized that was not fully the case. Whereas Cassie had let her initial caution towards him go and was finding a person who could become a close friend, Jenny was still keeping him at arm’s length.
Beau had shown up shortly after and Cassie had noticed their still awkward interactions. She remembered being a little sad that Jenny might have actually refused to give him a lift to the office with her and relieved when Jenny just sighed with annoyance and headed out with unspoken agreement.
The last time Cassie had talked to Beau he was dropping the bomb that Jenny’s mother, Gigi, had resurfaced and might be involved in the murder he was investigating. She had tried to call Jenny later that night, but she wasn’t answering her phone. Cassie had managed to finally talk to her last night and heard all about the undercover operation and theft. They made plans to meet up for drinks.
Then this morning, she had dropped by the station hoping to get permission for one of the department’s tech people to find anything from the emailed image Mark Woodman’s parents had sent her. She had heard about the horrible murder of Jody Cutter on the news this morning and knew both Jenny and Beau would be busy. She had planned to be in and out as quickly as possible to not distract them.
She had not been expecting this seemingly complete turn around between her two friends.
It wasn’t the banter, Cassie thought in the millisecond it took to internalize her observation before either could notice her reaction. She had seen them trade barbs before in a professionally appropriate manner and much to the amusement of whoever else was nearby. But, to Cassie, it also seemed stiff and performative.
She gave them both a quick once over, turning all her well honed powers of observation on them both. Beau seemed relaxed and open with no hint of the facade he seemed to wear around the other people who worked with him. This was the side of him that he allowed out more and more during their lunches together.
But it was Jenny’s reaction that was more enlightening. Normally, Jenny would have turned to face him when speaking to him in characteristic defensiveness. Face forward, back straight and ready for a fight even when she was being politely professional. But, she had tossed the remark at Beau by just turning her head to look up at him and no longer apparently feeling the need to “square-off”. It was just a little thing but she seemed as relaxed and as open as Beau in that moment.
Neither Jenny or Beau noticed the look of bewildered yet amused surprise that crossed her face as they joked with each other and Cassie was quick to school her features before they could. Whatever had happened between them, Cassie knew the hurdle that was Jenny Hoyt had finally been cleared for the new Sheriff.
end.