by Terry Spear
“That’s fine. I can provide names, phone numbers, and email addresses. I’ll see if they can email statements to me or to the sheriff’s office.”
“Good. You had a luncheon date with Laurel on the second Monday after your arrest. The suspect’s arrest.” Jenna glanced up at him to hear what he had to say for himself on that account.
He swore she thought he was dating a woman. She was way more interested in him than she was trying to let on. “Laurel MacTire. I’m sure she has the lunch date listed on her calendar too. She’s a lot more organized than me. She’s part owner of the Silver Town Inn, and she’s CJ’s mate.”
“Oh.” Jenna’s cheeks flushed a little.
“We were discussing an anniversary gift for CJ. She wanted to ask me if I’d fill in for CJ at the sheriff’s office so she could take my brother to some exotic place for their anniversary. I said I would.”
“And when was this supposed to happen?” Jenna was taking notes.
“December.”
“Okay, so it looks like you had an appointment with…” She looked up at Sarandon. Her confused expression made him look down at the book to see what she had read.
He smiled. “Ghost hunters. The three men are Laurel’s cousins. All-around nuisances. They document haunted places and showcase them on their TV series. If you ask me, I think they’re frauds. Laurel says she thinks one really has some abilities.”
“Why were you meeting with them? Just curious.”
“Darien asked me to speak to them about what they were doing hanging around Silver Town. He wanted them to find haunted places far from the town. We don’t want a lot of outsiders coming here to see the haunted places.”
“Does Silver Town have a lot of haunted places?” Jenna sounded surprised.
“Mostly, no.”
“Colorado Springs is purported to. It always fascinated me. Not that I’ve ever experienced anything. Did the ghost hunters leave?”
“Yeah, for a little while. Now they’re back, and they’re checking out the new ski lodge.”
“Is it haunted?” Jenna asked, skimming through the calendar book further.
“I can’t imagine that it is. It’s brand new.”
“Can you have the ghost hunters verify you met with them then?” She wrote down some more notes.
“I can, but, you see, all this has to be true, because I didn’t have time to create a calendar of alibis for you. So, it has to all have been real.”
“Unless you’re the suspect and already had this set up in case anybody checked what you’ve been doing and where.”
He shook his head.
“Hey, I’m just saying if someone really believed you were the suspect, that’s what he might assume.”
“Have you seen any cases of someone using someone else’s identity during an arrest and getting away with it?” Sarandon asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. Not any I’ve worked. Not like this. My dad had one where the guy had stolen his friend’s expired driver’s license.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah. You need to destroy those. Anyway, it turned out the man whose ID he used was a lawyer who had proof he’d been in court during the time of the crime—DUI charges—and subsequent booking of this man. I would think that would be one hell of an irrefutable alibi! Nope. The attorney had to fly to the location a thousand miles away to appear at a hearing. He was fingerprinted but not booked. If he hadn’t appeared, they were going to try to have him disbarred. If that wasn’t bad enough, they never went after the real criminal.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah. Life isn’t fair sometimes. It looks like you have an alibi for several of the days you were supposed to be wearing the GPS monitor in Colorado Springs. We need to drop by the sheriff’s office and have him verify this information so you’ll be covered in case you have to go to the CSPD. I’m ready to go. Are you?”
Sarandon really thought she was concerned for him now. He was a little surprised she wanted to stick with him, but he was glad she seemed to be changing her mind about him.
They dropped by the sheriff’s office, and CJ made copies of Sarandon’s calendar. “You still go by this old thing?” his brother asked.
“Yeah. Look how it can help clear me as a suspect in this case. If I had one online, I could just go in and change everything. And since I’ve been in Jenna’s custody all along, she knows I didn’t make this stuff up to cover my whereabouts. At least, you can verify with everyone I met with who’s listed on my calendar.”
CJ flipped through Sarandon’s appointment book, looking at the relevant dates. “Okay, you’ll need witness statements that you’ve met with all these people. The bad news is that the CSPD won’t accept you’re not the suspect unless you appear at a hearing there. They’ll fingerprint you… Yeah, I know, like we’re not able to properly fingerprint you here. You can provide witness statements that we’ll take here at the office so they’ll be more credible, witnessed by Peter and me. I’ll start calling everyone to come in and do this. You’ll have to give your statement under oath in Colorado Springs. The issuing jurisdiction is the only one that can clear you of the charges, they said.”
“Hell.”
“Sorry, Brother. On second thought, I might have Trevor take my place as a witness so it doesn’t look like collusion between family members.”
“Yeah, sounds good. I’ll call the folks on the tour, if you can call our local people,” Sarandon said, irritated to the extreme over this. He swore he’d make this guy pay for all the trouble he had to go through to clear his name.
“Can I help in any way?” Jenna asked, looking like she’d do anything to help him clear this matter up.
“Just call your mom, I guess, and let her know the problem. Tell her we’re still all going to help with trying to track down the suspect,” Sarandon said.
“Okay. I don’t usually have this much trouble tracking down a fugitive. I thought I had it made, once I found you, and would be all set to go after the next bail jumper.”
“You know what they say—if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, don’t remind me.” She got on her phone. “Okay, Mom, Sarandon has airtight alibis for the time he supposedly was arrested and for every day that the real suspect was in Colorado Springs being monitored. We’re returning to Colorado Springs right after Sarandon gets witness statements to that effect. We’re not sure how long that will take, but we probably won’t arrive until tomorrow evening.”
CJ was calling Lelandi to tell her about getting witness statements and that Sarandon would have to go to Colorado Springs to clear his name. Sarandon wasn’t able to reach five of the seven people on his tour. But he did have gas receipts from Silver Town before he took the group out in the wilderness and a grocery receipt for the food he had provided for the lunches and snacks on the trip.
Two of the people on the tour said they’d email statements to the sheriff’s office and gave their phone numbers and addresses so the police could verify their statements with them. Sarandon hated to tell clients he was wanted by the police, but one of the women was so angry about the injustice that she said she’d go to Colorado Springs herself and testify.
“Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate it. I think I’ll have enough statements, but if I need you to, I’ll be sure to contact you.”
“Well, my husband’s a lawyer. So if you need one, just let me know.”
“Thanks. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. I’ll sure keep it in mind.” The woman had taken three excursions with Sarandon, and her husband had come on the white-water rafting one last summer. Sarandon was thankful they were eager to help him. When they ended the call, he emailed the other people on the tour to ask them for written statements, just in case he needed them.
What he really hadn’t expected was for pack members to start pouring into the sheriff
’s office—Mason, the bank president; Mervin, the barber; Silva, with a box of pastries for him and Jenna; Lelandi, Darien, Laurel, and even her ghost-hunter cousins. It didn’t matter if he hadn’t had a scheduled lunch or dinner or other date with them. They were here to say they’d talked to him at the grocery store, or the bank, or the tavern, or any place where they’d seen him during that time.
Jenna looked in awe, and he smiled. He’d told her he’d have an alibi.
For more Terry Spear check out
the Silver Town Wolf series
All’s Fair in Love and Wolf
On sale May 2018
Acknowledgments
Thanks so much to my beta readers, Donna Fournier and Dottie Jones, who are such a help. I couldn’t do it without you! And to Deb Werksman, who has believed in me all these years! Ten years, and we were having so much fun that it just flew right by. And to the cover artists, who give readers a visual hottie to enjoy. Thanks to Stephany Daniel, who helps me to promote all my titles.
About the Author
Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and seven medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Spring, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf, jaguar, and cougar romances, continuing with her Highland medieval romances, and having fun with her young adult fae novels. When she’s not writing, she’s photographing everything that catches her eye, making teddy bears, and playing with her Havanese puppies and her first grandbaby. For more information, please visit terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at Terry Spear’s Shifters: terryspear.wordpress.com.
Also by Terry Spear
Heart of the Wolf
Heart of the Wolf
To Tempt the Wolf
Legend of the White Wolf
Seduced by the Wolf
Silver Town Wolf
Destiny of the Wolf
Wolf Fever
Dreaming of the Wolf
Silence of the Wolf
A Silver Wolf Christmas
Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply
Between a Wolf and a Hard Place
Highland Wolf
Heart of the Highland Wolf
A Howl for a Highlander
A Highland Werewolf Wedding
Hero of a Highland Wolf
A Highland Wolf Christmas
SEAL Wolf
A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing
A SEAL Wolf Christmas
SEAL Wolf Hunting
SEAL Wolf In Too Deep
SEAL Wolf Undercover
Heart of the Jaguar
Savage Hunger
Jaguar Fever
Jaguar Hunt
Jaguar Pride
A Very Jaguar Christmas
Billionaire Wolf
Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing
White Wolf
Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas
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