“Sabrina, are you coming?” he said.
His question pulled my head out of the clouds.
I composed myself and replied, “Yes.”
David had a concerned look on his face as we approached the deputy’s car.
“Are you okay?” David said.
“I’m just glad the deputy pulled Jeremy over when he did,” I said.
David kept staring at me. I knew he was still worried about me.
“This is the back road to the middle of nowhere,” I continued.
David’s eyes scanned the forested area that flanked the road. He had the same faraway look in his eyes that I’d had in mine a few seconds ago.
But his distraction didn’t last long. When Deputy Bell spoke up, we turned our focus to his words.
“You two ready to speak with the suspect?” Bell asked.
David nodded.
“I’m just going to warn you right now, he isn’t happy to be back there,” Bell said.
David stared at Jeremy sitting in the backseat of the squad car. “That’s tough. If he didn’t want to be detained, he should have obeyed my orders earlier not to leave town.”
“I explained that to him, but he could use a little refresher,” Bell said.
“Thanks, deputy,” David said.
“Good luck,” Bell said.
David and I stopped in front of the back window of the squad car.
Jeremy looked up from the floorboard of the car and shot David a glare.
“Let me out of here,” Jeremy demanded.
“Mr. Bradford, what makes you think you’re in a position to make demands?” David asked.
Jeremy’s outrage continued. “I have rights, you know.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Then let me go.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“You mean you won’t do that,” Jeremy said. “Now I’m going to tell you one last time—”
“Jeremy, you aren’t the one giving orders here. And what you fail to realize is that I have every right to detain you,” David said.
“Says who?”
“The law,” David said. “You’re a murder suspect—”
“I already told you. I didn’t kill Mark.”
“I’d like to believe you, but you aren’t giving me much reason to do that,” David said.
Jeremy’s nose scrunched. “What more do you want from me?”
“How about following my orders? Or having an alibi for the time of the murder?”
“Weren’t you listening to me earlier? The evening Mark was killed, I was at home all night.”
“Mr. Bradford, your alibi is only as believable as my ability to verify it,” David said.
“It’s not my fault that I was alone.”
“No, but it is your fault that you disobeyed a direct order. What did you think you were doing, trying to skip town like that?” David asked.
Jeremy shook his head. “No. That’s not what was happening—”
David waggled his pointer finger. “Don’t you dare lie to me. We’re miles away from town. There’s only one logical conclusion to draw here. That you were trying to make a break for it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You see, I own a cabin near Lake McLellan. I thought I’d head out there to clear my head,” Jeremy said.
While Jeremy could technically get to Lake McLellan this way, most people opted to take the highway instead. With good reason. It was a much faster route. This back road added twenty minutes to the trip. Besides, this far out of Treasure Cove, there were no gas stations or restaurants all the way until you reached the lake.
Those were all good reasons to question Jeremy’s motivation for taking this road. But even if we were to believe Jeremy’s story about heading to the lake, there were other reasons to suspect him.
David squinted. “Say you really were going to the lake—”
“I was,” Jeremy said.
“Lake McLellan is right next to the Oak Ridge National Forest. It would be easy for you to walk into the forest and just completely disappear, never to be heard from again,” David said.
“I told you. I was just going to the lake to clear my head.”
“So you say, but you can’t prove that.”
“By that token, you can’t prove that I’m lying.”
“No. But I can prove that you defied my orders—which were very clear. No suspect is permitted to leave town in the middle of a murder investigation,” David said.
“I didn’t think this would be a big deal. The lake isn’t that far out of town,” Jeremy said.
“You thought wrong. Do you have any idea how guilty this makes you look?”
“You know, you’re spending all this time focusing on me, but really you should be talking to Barbara Franklin.”
“Why? Has she tried to skip town too?”
“For the last time, I wasn’t trying to skip town—”
“You’re going to have a hard time getting me to believe that. Now, back to you—”
“No. Let’s talk about Barbara,” Jeremy said.
David folded his arms. “Jeremy, do you think I’m stupid?”
“Where would you get that idea?”
“I know what you’re doing. This is classic misdirection. You figure that by pointing the finger of blame at Barbara that the spotlight will no longer be on you anymore.”
“Aren’t you interested in the truth? Because if you are then you should listen to me,” Jeremy said.
“Fine. I’ll hear you out. What have you got?” David asked.
“She was having an affair with Mark,” Jeremy said.
“We know that,” David said.
“Do you know that Barbara’s husband found out about his wife’s affair and went completely nuts?” Jeremy asked.
David nodded. “We sure do.”
“Okay. Well do you know that Barbara begged Mark to leave his wife so they could be together, but Mark refused?” Jeremy said.
David’s eyes widened. “How do you know this?”
“Mark was my best friend,” Jeremy said. “Who do you think he confided in during tough times? And let me tell you, Barbara was going through a really rough patch. First, her husband left her. Then Mark turned his back on her too. So she was left with nothing. Talk about someone who had a reason to seek revenge.”
David folded his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me this the last time we spoke?”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy said. “It didn’t come up.”
“Or maybe you weren’t as desperate to deflect suspicion away from yourself as you are now,” David said.
Jeremy snarled. “You keep twisting things around. That’s not right. You should focus on the facts. Like how crazed Barbara was about losing everything,” Jeremy said.
“We’ll talk to her about that,” David said.
“Good. Now let me go.”
David waggled his pointer finger again. “Not so fast.”
Jeremy’s eyebrows knitted. “What else do you want from me?”
I had remained quiet until then. But a point needed to be made. “Barbara isn’t the only one with a motive here. You had a killer reason for wanting Mark dead as well.”
“Mark was my best friend,” Jeremy said.
“Which must have made it sting even more when he passed you up for that promotion,” I said.
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Jeremy said.
“Tell me it didn’t burn you. One of your oldest friends, giving someone else that manager job at the repair shop instead of you,” I said.
“I see what you’re trying to do, but it’s not going to work,” Jeremy said. “Let’s face the facts here. You have nothing concrete on me,” Jeremy said.
“Whether you want to admit it or not, you’re a flight risk. That’s more than enough grounds to detain you,” David said.
“For a few days, maybe. No more. I know my rights,” Jeremy said.
“Keep mouthing off to
me and I will haul you back to the station. As far as I can tell, you could use some time to cool off,” David said.
“Do what you need to do. It’s not going to change the fact that I’m not a killer,” Jeremy said.
Chapter Eight
After some careful consideration, David decided against dragging Jeremy back to the police station to detain him overnight. Since we were speaking with each of the suspects for a second time, we had a lot of work ahead of us to get to them all. But David wasn’t about to just let Jeremy roam free. On David’s orders, Deputy Bell tailed Jeremy home. Not just to make certain that Jeremy actually went back to his house, but also to keep tabs on him.
If Jeremy did decide to leave his house again while this case was still being investigated, the deputy would be close behind him. David felt that would put enough of a scare into Jeremy to keep him from doing something crazy.
With Jeremy’s every move being tracked, David and I were free to head over to the south side of town to speak with Barbara Franklin.
During a case like this, keeping focus was of the utmost importance. Which made it all the more distracting when my cell phone rang on the drive over to Barbara’s place. From an investigative perspective, I wanted to ignore the call. As a close friend of Melissa’s, I knew I had to at least check the caller identification screen.
My instincts were telling me that her anxiety was probably acting up again. So while I felt like I couldn’t blow off the call entirely, I could keep the conversation short.
Much to my surprise, as I grabbed my phone, I discovered that I was wrong. It wasn’t Melissa calling me.
Instead, it was my daughter, Jessica Carlson. A sense of panic took hold of me. When this investigation began, David and I had brought Jessica to our woodsy cabin by Lake Ashford. The cabin was tucked away in the wilderness, safely out of town. My parents were at the cabin with Jessica, watching over her. They were joined by my grandmother and our family dog.
With our loved ones that far out of the line of fire, it gave David and I some peace of mind.
Most of the time.
Right then, I feared the worst.
Had the killer tracked my family down? Were my loved ones in danger? Was the murderer looking to use my daughter’s life as a bargaining chip to keep themselves out of prison?
It was a horrifying prospect to consider. That said, I had no actual proof of that being the case. I hated that my mind flashed to the worst possible scenario, but I couldn’t help it. I had seen some downright mortifying things in my years of investigating murder cases.
My voice cracked as I answered the phone. “Jessica, are you okay?”
“Mommy, I really miss you,” Jessica said.
The tone of urgency remained in my voice as I replied, “I miss you too. But I need to know—are you safe?”
“Yeah,” Jessica said.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
Jessica continued. “I just want to know when you and daddy are going to come and get me.”
I grimaced. “I can’t really tell you that right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re still in the thick of this case.”
“You’ve been gone so long, though.”
“I know. And I’m sorry about that,” I said. “Are you having fun with grandma and grandpa?”
Jessica did not hesitate with her response. “I want to go home.”
“I understand that. Just be patient. You’ll be home soon enough.”
“How soon?”
“I’m not sure exactly.”
There was no mistaking the disappointment in Jessica’s voice. “Oh.”
I hated to hear my daughter so deflated. If only she understood the true gravity of what was at stake, perhaps she would be more patient. Then again, maybe not. After all, she was only ten-years-old. When I was her age, I didn’t even know the meaning of the word patience.
To this day, at age forty-seven, impatience was a constant fixture in my life, so Jessica didn’t exactly have a great role model in that regard. Go figure. Some things didn’t get any better with age.
Impatience aside, I didn’t want Jessica to know how bad things were here. As I said before, David and I had done our best to try and shield her from the dirty underbelly of the world. She knew that her father was a detective who solved cases, but we were always careful about keeping the specific details of those investigations from her.
“I’m sorry. But know this. We’re doing the best we can,” I said.
“I hope this case is over soon,” Jessica said.
“I can’t agree with you more,” I said. “Where’s your grandma?”
Just as I said that, I heard my mother’s voice in the background.
“Jessica. There you are,” my mother said. “Who are you talking to?”
“Mommy,” Jessica said.
“Jessica, honey, will you put your grandma on?” I asked.
Jessica was reluctant to say yes, but she finally handed the phone off to my mom.
My mother spoke up. “I’m sorry she called you in the middle of a case.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
My mom insisted on explaining herself. “We were just watching TV. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I saw Jessica on the phone.”
“Mom, it’s fine. Really. I was just concerned that something terrible had happened,” I said.
“No. We’re all safe here at the cabin,” my mom said. “How are things there? Or should I even ask?”
“We still haven’t caught the killer, if that’s what you mean.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“So am I.” I took a deep breath. “Anyway, I hate to cut this conversation short, but I really need to get back to the case.”
“Understood,” Elizabeth said. “You be careful out there.”
“Always,” I said.
“Goodbye.”
“Actually, wait.”
“What is it?” my mother asked.
“Before you hang up, can you give the phone back to Jessica?” I said.
“Of course,” Elizabeth said.
The phone line went silent for a few seconds.
I then heard my daughter grab the phone.
“Mommy,” she said.
“Honey, I just want you to know that I love you so much,” I said.
“I love you too,” Jessica said.
Hearing those words never failed to tug at my heart strings.
When I got off the phone, it took me a few moments to switch gears. Thankfully, by the time that we reached Barbara Franklin’s street, I had regained my focus.
Chapter Nine
David turned right onto Dinsmore Road and approached Barbara Franklin’s beige, Spanish-style house. Much to our surprise, Chuck Tillman, one of the other suspects in the murder, was standing on Barbara’s front patio, pounding on her door.
We had no idea what Chuck was doing there, but he was certainly worked up about something. The fact that Barbara was not answering her door only got him more heated.
For a moment, it didn’t seem like anything could deter him from getting Barbara to open up.
But the sound of David’s car pulling into Barbara’s driveway proved to be quite a distracting force for Chuck. He took one look at the car and then sprinted away unexpectedly. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.
Where was he going? And why was he in such a hurry to get away from us? While I sat in the passenger seat of the car, in complete shock over Chuck’s extreme reaction, my husband immediately sprang into action.
David got out of the car and took off after Chuck.
A foot race was on.
I snapped out of my brief brain fog, got out of the car, and tailed David.
I still couldn’t believe that things had gone off the rails so quickly, but I didn’t want to be left in the dust. Even so, as I sprinted after Chuck, I found myself questioning why Chuck hadn’t just stayed on the patio in t
he first place.
As the foot race continued, David called out to Chuck.
“Stop right now,” David yelled.
Chuck didn’t follow David’s orders. Instead, he kept booking it at full speed.
David remained undeterred. “This is the police. Stop right now.”
Once again, Chuck didn’t heed David’s warning. He continued to cut through various front lawns before reaching Owl Road, where Chuck stared down some traffic. Cars whizzed by on Owl Road at forty miles an hour, making it nearly impossible for Chuck to cross the street without risking his life.
Unlike in the movies when murder suspects threw caution to the wind and darted across a busy street to get to the other side of the road, Chuck stopped on the corner and waited for a break in the traffic.
Chuck’s hesitation allowed David to catch up to him. For most of the chase, Chuck had been a good fifteen to twenty feet ahead of David. Now David had made up all that ground.
As David reached the street corner, he drew his gun on Chuck.
“Put your hands up,” David said.
Chuck whirled around with a shocked look on his face. He stared down the barrel of David’s gun and was at a complete loss for words.
What he failed to do was raise his hands.
“I said, put your hands up,” David continued.
A look of complete bafflement came to Chuck’s face. “Wait a minute. Detective—?”
“Hands in the air. Now!” David said.
This time, Chuck didn’t hesitate. He put his hands up.
David then went over and handcuffed him.
Chapter Ten
With all the sprinting, David and I needed to catch our breath for a few moments. Once we had restored our breathing to a relatively normal rate, we directed our attention to Chuck once again, who looked back at us with a mix of shock and confusion in his eyes.
“What’s the matter with you, running from a police detective like that?” David said.
“In my defense, I didn’t realize I was running from the police—” Chuck began to say.
“Chuck, you’re already in a deep enough hole. Do you really think that lying to me is a good idea?” David asked.
“I’m not lying.”
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 13
