by Laura Scott
She held his gaze, then bit her bottom lip and dipped her chin once in a nod. “I wish—”
“Let’s not do that,” he murmured. He didn’t want her wishes. “Take care of yourself, Georgia Jane. I’ll be listening to your podcasts.”
She laughed. “I may hang up my podcast hat for a while.”
“Probably be safer, and you need a better name.” He found he could actually grin. “I can’t just shoot over here from Atlanta if you get in trouble again.”
“I suppose not. But I’m not out until Jared’s killer is caught.”
“I expected as much, but we found your attacker and that gives me a measure of peace.”
“Me too.” She shifted her feet and glanced down the hall. “I need to find Susan.”
He watched her walk away from him.
Once again.
He didn’t think it could hurt worse than the first time. But it did.
* * *
Georgia loved on her babies, but it didn’t mend her broken heart. Didn’t change the fact she couldn’t be with the only man she’d ever loved. Walking away from him was the hardest thing she’d ever done—and she’d hauled him from a truck and carried him to a dip in a hill. She’d watched him get shot and put out a fiery quilt on his leg. But saying goodbye—knowing he wanted her but knowing she couldn’t walk that road—was the worst thing she’d ever done in her life. If she wasn’t so riddled with anxiety...if...if...if...
“Wow,” Susan said, “those pups are happy to see you.”
“I missed them. Thanks for giving me a ride to the vet and to Amber’s.”
“Girl, please. I’m happy to do it.”
“I’m glad it’s over. These few days have been a living nightmare.”
“But you made it, and you have a great story to tell. I can’t believe Coach Flanigan tried to kill you. I can’t believe he killed Dandy.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “I would have never guessed it. Do you think he’ll end up admitting to Jared’s death? It stinks that no one is copping to that. Why? Why lie about that after admitting he murdered two people and tried to kill you?”
“I don’t know. They still have Alice’s prints on Jared’s watch and an SD card to look at. That might shed some light on who killed him if no one fesses up. But Colt feels like the light is at the end of the tunnel, and my attacker has been caught, so I’m free to move on.”
Susan turned on Oleander Drive. “Will it be with him? He’s only forty minutes away or so. Not at all a bad commute.”
“He’s actually moving to Atlanta in a few weeks, and even if he wasn’t... I can’t.” She poured everything out from high school to now. She’d never told anyone but her therapist and Colt, but she needed to get it off her chest; it was crushing her.
“Is that why you never go to dinner with me or anywhere for social occasions? You’re holding me at arm’s length?” Susan turned on her blinker.
“It’s nothing personal.” It was the way it had to be to avoid triggers and lead a semi-calm life.
“It feels personal, Georgia. I love you like a sister, and I’ve been worried this entire time about everything happening to you. I knew you could have been...killed. But being your friend is worth the risk. So the question is would you rather—”
Georgia groaned. “Another Would You Rather question? Really?”
“Hear me out,” Susan said through a chuckle. “Would you rather go your whole life never experiencing the love of someone and returning that love or loving and losing someone but having those memories to cherish forever?”
To love and lose or never love and be alone. She had loved and lost. And she often thought of those few years with Colt—the laughter, kisses, conversation. The way it made her feel full and satisfied. Sometimes when applying lotion, she’d remember how her hand fit perfectly in his. Or when she walked into a building she’d remember how he always opened doors for her. Even his merciless teasing she thought about with fondness.
Those memories were warm. Until they faded and she was left with the reminder that she was going to grow old alone—but with managed anxiety levels.
“I don’t know,” she said weakly.
“Do you think God wants you to be alone and afraid to have relationships? I’m not talking about people who feel called to be single in order to serve God—the kind the apostle Paul talks about. I’m talking about a woman who is clearly in love with a man who is obviously head over heels for her—but she pushes it away out of fear of things that may not ever happen. A woman too afraid to live. That kind of fear is not of God.”
No, it wasn’t. But she didn’t know how else to move forward. “He’s in law enforcement. Every day I’ll make myself sick wondering if he’s okay and he’ll get tired of it. It’ll be high school 2.0.”
“Georgia, since you’ve been seeing a therapist and learning coping techniques, how far have you come on a one-to-ten scale?” She turned onto Amber’s road.
“Six, maybe? Every day is different but I manage to make it through.” God’s grace had been sufficient. Every day. Every moment.
“Someone has tried to literally murder you for days, and here you are hard-pressed but not crushed. Struck down but not destroyed. Your faith is firmly planted in the Lord, and you haven’t hidden under a rock and refused to come out. You have coping skills you didn’t have fifteen years ago. It’s about taking those negative thoughts captive and saying, ‘God, here they are. Take them and make them bend under Your will. Remove and replace them with what truly belongs in my mind.’”
“Anyone ever tell you that you give good advice?”
Susan smirked. “Yes, all the time.”
Georgia laughed as they pulled into Amber’s drive. “I’ll think about it. Besides, Colt is moving to Atlanta. My job is here, and come January I’ll be editor in chief. I’ve wanted that for so long, and I don’t see it happening in Atlanta.”
“Maybe God has other dreams for you that aren’t so safe as a small-town editor in chief—not that anything is wrong with that—but for you, again, it’s safe.”
Georgia leashed her dogs, and they bounded out of Susan’s vehicle.
“I’ll call you later.”
“One last one. Would you rather stay in a safe bubble or burst it and follow the love of your life into an uncertain and unknown place but be loved and cherished?” She waved. “Think on that!” She didn’t give Georgia time to answer.
To be loved by Colt. Wake up with him, go to sleep at night next to him. Walk the dogs, have children. Children who might lose a father at a young age. Her stomach churned. But this wasn’t living. Susan was right. She was walking dead.
Georgia knocked on Amber’s door, and she opened it. Wyatt and Doc barked their greetings. She unleashed them inside, and Amber laughed. “Man, I love those dogs.”
“Me too.”
Georgia heard Gerald greet the dogs and chuckle. He came through the kitchen with a grin. “If Karen wasn’t allergic, I’d have a few of my own. Colt called us. Told us about the coach and Terry Helms. We should have come clean about Jared taking the bribe, but we were all ashamed, and once he died, we wanted to bury it along with him. But one of them killed my son. I wonder if I’d said anything years ago if it would have helped.”
“We all made mistakes, Dad.” Amber rubbed his back.
“And everyone deserves grace,” Georgia added.
“I guess you’re right.” He hefted a box that was stacked in Amber’s living room. “I’ll go load this with the others.” He slipped out the front door.
“The church is doing a community yard sale, and I have a lot of things to let go of, including guilt. Thanks for being a friend and not berating me for my idiocy.” She sat on the couch, and Wyatt jumped in her lap.
Gerald entered and rubbed his lower back. “You giving away gold, Amber?”
“Ha! I wish I had enough t
o give away gold.” She turned to Georgia. “Did you see what was on the SD card?”
“No.” Georgia sat in the recliner and rubbed Doc’s head. “But one of Colt’s agents is getting something so they can look at it. If for some reason Terry or Coach didn’t kill Jared, I’m hoping whatever is on that SD card will lead them to the killer. I imagine it’ll lead to Alice or Wade.”
“You don’t think it was Coach or Terry? We do.”
“I don’t know. Terry copped to fraud knowing he’d lose his job and even do some time. Coach admitted to Dandy and myself and even Harry. Who else is there?” Unless Chance was lying, or Scott. Or even Sunny Wilkerson. “We still don’t know why Alice had her prints on Jared’s watch. Says she didn’t remember seeing him that night when she clearly did. She’s hiding something, and I think it might be Wade’s drug habit at the time.”
“Well, at least you’re safe now,” Amber said.
* * *
Colt had Duncan Flanigan in one room writing out his statement and Terry Helms writing his in another room. Cody Weinbeck approached. What a tool. “Nice work, McCoy. Course, our season is shot, and homecoming is next Friday night.”
“Yes, because sports is what’s important over justice being served. You are a deputy, you know.” He refrained from the eye roll.
“Maybe I like the power,” he shot back and laughed. “I’m clocking out. I assume you’re leaving town now that it’s all wrapped up nice with a bow for you.”
Except it wasn’t. He wasn’t technically here to find out who hurt Georgia but who killed Jared, and at this second, he wasn’t sure. No one had come forward. “Depends on the statements.” No point in prolonging his goodbye to Georgia, though. She didn’t need to feel obligated to stick around now that she was finally able to be free of him.
“Seems to me one of those two did it.” Cody shrugged and swaggered down the hall.
Mae rounded the corner with a frown.
“What’s wrong? Couldn’t find a device we can plug that SD into?” Colt asked.
“No, I got a computer. I just don’t like that deputy.”
Mae didn’t like any man, let alone trust one, but she knew how to be a team player, and they worked well together. But the only personal things he knew about her were she liked unsweet tea and black coffee and had a soft spot for female victims. “Well, let’s pop this bad boy in and see what we see.”
She fired up the computer and inserted the SD card.
Rhett and Poppy rounded the corner, each with a paper in hand. “We got statements,” Poppy said, “but you ain’t gonna like it.”
“Why?” Colt took Terry’s statement. The loan fraud and illegal recruiting were admitted, but nothing about Jared. He then read Coach’s and read it again. “He admits to every murder, break-in and attack—even poisoning the dogs—but there’s nothing here about killing Jared or about cutting the brake lines and releasing the steering fluid. And I seriously doubt he’d forget doing that. Georgia shot one off to scare him away, and looking at my face—and hers—ought to do it.”
“I’ll go back in there and jog his memory. His lawyer is here, and of course it’s Reggie Leeway. I do not like him.” Poppy snarled.
No one did. He was making money off all this illegal activity by defending these people, except for Scott Hazer, whom he was representing pro bono to keep quiet about Chance’s drug use—which Colt suspected was still going on presently. Poppy strode from the room while Colt, Mae and Rhett pulled up the photos. Some were photos of Jared’s friends and football practice.
Then he got to the ones Jared had taken of Scott Hazer. There he was, clear as a bell, with Wade Parker—Alice’s son.
“This might be why Alice didn’t mention seeing Jared,” Colt said. “She didn’t want it to come out they’d talked about her son and the drugs.” It would explain the print on his watch—if she’d grabbed him to keep him from leaving without promising to keep silent.
“If you can’t get her to confess, we got nothing but circumstantial evidence.” Mae shook her head.
If Alice was indeed the killer he suspected her to be. “I need to call Georgia. Update her.” Or text her. Hearing her voice was too hard right now, but she needed to know where the case stood.
THIRTEEN
Georgia had gone through the last two boxes of Amber’s clothes, since she had absolutely nothing. She’d grabbed a few T-shirts, jeans and an old pair of tennis shoes. She needed to do some shopping, since she’d only been able to grab a few necessities. She folded the box sides back together so Gerald could haul them out easier. Her phone chirped with a text.
She read it and gaped.
“What is it?” Amber asked.
“They saw the SD card. Scott was dealing to Wade Parker. Colt believes Alice may be Jared’s killer, but she’s not at work or home.” Georgia texted she was at Amber’s.
Colt texted back.
Come to station. There’s more.
“I need to go to the sheriff’s office,” Georgia said. “There’s more, and I’m afraid he didn’t say, so it must be confidential and important.”
“I can give you a lift. I’m on my way to the church,” Gerald said.
Georgia hated to leave her dogs, since she’d only just gotten them back. “Do you mind watching them while I go?” she asked Amber. “It might be a few hours depending on the news.”
“Sure.”
After loving on the dogs, she hauled herself into Gerald’s truck. “You never drive the same vehicle. Nice perk of owning a dealership, huh?” she teased and clicked her seat belt in place.
He laughed. “I reckon so. It came on the lot last week, and I couldn’t stand it. Had to have it myself.”
“I hear ya.” She couldn’t get Alice out of her head. “Do you think Alice could have killed Jared, Gerald? I mean, if she did, I think it would have been an accident, and then there’s the moving of his body. She isn’t strong enough to do that. But Wade would have been. Or maybe Wade killed him, panicked and told his mom and they cleaned it up together. Colt sent Florida PD over to talk to him, but he wasn’t home. They’re hunting him down.”
Gerald shook his head. “I don’t know if I can believe Alice murdered Jared. Maybe Wade if he was using drugs.” He glanced at his phone and groaned. “Hey, do you mind if we run by the dealership real quick? I got an issue. Won’t take long.”
“No, that’s fine.” She pulled out her phone to let Colt know she was with Gerald and it would be a few minutes longer before she arrived.
“Georgia, I’m gonna need you to put that phone back in your purse.”
“What?” She glanced up to see a gun pointed right at her. Her pulse spiked and she froze.
“Phone. Back in your purse. Now. I can’t have you telling the McCoy boy where you are. I need time...”
Time for what? What was happening? She carefully put her phone back in her purse as her heart thundered against her ribs. “I don’t understand.”
Sweat poured down the sides of his beet-red cheeks. “It was an accident.”
Alice had killed Jared and Gerald had helped her move the body?
“I made a lot of bad investments, and Karen was keeping the dealership afloat with her own money.”
Probably money from life insurance from her first husband.
“When Jared was approached, I needed that ten thousand dollars, and I pushed him to take it so that I didn’t have to use Karen’s money, and really Ole Magnolia’s not a bad school. The money would’ve helped me out and our family. Jared agreed. He kept a thousand dollars and the tickets, and I used the rest. When he told me that he wasn’t going to go and we needed to give the money back...I was angry.”
He. Was. Angry. “You killed him for that?”
Gerald kept the gun on her, glancing at the road and back to her, repeating the action. If she could get the gun while he wa
s looking at the road, she might be able to save herself. Why kill her?
“No. I was angry, and I’d spent the money on bills and credit card debt. I didn’t have it to give back. I thought I’d talk about it again with him. Or I’d have to tell Karen. She would have been disappointed, but she would have paid the money back.”
“What happened?” she whispered.
“That night when he took the photos of Scott at the motel, he saw something he shouldn’t have.” Gerald’s voice cracked. “Alice was a mistake. I tried to tell him it wouldn’t ever happen again, but he was furious and he threatened to tell...” Panic, desperation and hysteria laced his voice.
The print on the watch. Not telling she’d seen Jared. It wasn’t about Wade. She might never have known that Wade was in a room nearby buying drugs at the same time. It was about Gerald and Alice. “He threatened to tell Karen that he’d caught you and Alice having an affair.”
“Yes,” he cried. “He saw us coming out of the motel room, and when Alice left, he approached me. We argued, and he stormed off. I called Alice and told her. When she saw him at Rascal’s, she tried to talk to him privately when he went to the restroom and wasn’t with Chance. I imagine that’s how her print ended up on his watch. When I heard that it was hers, I panicked. I can’t let Karen know this! I’ll lose her and the business and everything!”
“You killed her son. How have you looked her in the eyes all these years?”
Gerald wailed. “I’m not sure I have. I’ve been paying every day. Me and Alice stopped it that night. Never ever met up again. She quit the dealership, and we don’t even so much as speak. We’ve changed.”
“It doesn’t change what you did, Gerald.” She rubbed her temples. “What do you want with me? Colt has the SD card. Are you on it, too?”
“No! But two of my dealership cars probably are. Jared was parked right behind us. I knew if Colt got that SD card he’d put two and two together—especially having Alice’s print. I tried to get it, but—”
Georgia’s brain wouldn’t slow down. So many thoughts. The terror. The tragedy. “Wait. You tried to get what? The SD card?” It was him. He knew they were looking for it, and he must have overheard Amber call them to meet her at work for it. So he showed up, and while they were in the stables, he messed with Colt’s truck with hopes of them dying in a car accident or at least being knocked out long enough for him to steal the SD card. Then it would go back to a cold case that couldn’t be solved. Alice’s prints would mean nothing without evidence that she hurt Jared.