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“Spike’s a multitasker,” Jericho muttered, and he stopped in the driveway as a report flashed on the screen on his dash. “Give me the gist of that, will you?” he asked her as he drove away from the house.
Rachel began to read and saw this wasn’t a report about Jason.
But rather Chase.
“The program ruled out Chase as one of our murder suspects,” Rachel summarized. “So did Marco, and I’ll quote. There’s just nothing there. The man’s life is practically an open book on social media. Apparently, he’s turned blabbermouth since all that secretive embezzling.”
Rachel felt both relief and annoyance at the flash of memories from her breakup with the man. But the bottom line was that Chase wasn’t a killer, and while he’d been low on their suspect list, he could now be removed.
And Jason could be added.
That gave her another round of emotions. Gut-twisting ones this time when she recalled seeing the photos of the bruised and battered teenager. She wasn’t sure of the scope of what that could mentally do to someone, but she prayed it hadn’t turned Jason into a killer.
Rachel turned to Jericho, ready to spell out why she didn’t think Jason was the one who’d murdered those three people, but before she could get started, his phone dinged with two rapid beeps.
“Ruby,” he relayed. He gave the verbal command to take the call on speaker, and Rachel soon heard the woman’s voice.
“Jericho, I just got a heads up that Arnez Beckett escaped when he was being transported to the county jail,” Ruby blurted, causing both Jericho and Rachel to groan.
“Did he hurt anyone?” Jericho was quick to ask.
“A deputy. He throat-punched her with his elbow when she was putting him into the cruiser, and he broke into a run. They’re looking for him, but you need to watch your six.” Ruby paused. “Right before he attacked her, Arnez told the deputy he was coming after you. Jericho, he wants you dead.”
Chapter Ten
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Once again, Jericho checked the security at his place. It was something he’d done throughout the day after Rachel and he had come back from seeing Jason. Something he’d continue to do throughout the night, too.
It wasn’t dark yet, but since it was already seven pm, it soon would be, and he figured if Arnez was going to strike, it would be then.
Or rather try to strike anyway.
He was definitely taking Arnez’s threat seriously, but his highest priority was the killer who’d already claimed three lives. Rachel was on that to-die list. And even though the killer had jumped the alphabetical queue to go after the judge, Jericho knew it was only a temporary reprieve for Rachel. Sooner or later, he or she would try to find someone or some way to get to her.
He glanced over at Rachel when she laughed at something one of the kids said during the Facetime call she was having with them. Despite everything going on, the laughter was good to hear. But he heard another thing in her voice, too. The sadness because she couldn’t be with the kids she clearly loved.
When the conversation turned to a boy one of the girls had been texting, Jericho tuned it out and went to his laptop on the kitchen counter to check reports and emails. There was an email from Ruby, asking if Rachel still intended to fake her death.
It was a question Jericho couldn’t answer.
At the moment, she had hit the pause button on the idea, mainly because she wanted to stay put at his place and continue the investigation. Jericho suspected Rachel also intended to keep an eye on him, probably because she blamed herself for getting him involved in this. But Jericho didn’t feel that way.
No, he put the blame right on the killer’s sorry ass.
He fired off a quick to-be-determined response to Ruby and went onto the first report in his reading queue. Arnez was still at large, but the deputy he’d injured was going to be okay. Bree was seriously pissed at both Arnez’s escape and the attack on the deputy and had spelled out the details of the manhunt going on.
Jericho didn’t doubt Bree’s ability to do such things, but Arnez was an extreme survivalist who lived on the land. Hell, he probably had supplies and such stashed in multiple places. The man could already be off the grid. Of course, he’d have to leave his grid-less world if he wanted to come after Jericho.
The next report that popped up was the deep dive on Jason, to figure out if he could indeed be a killer. Jason had apparently known the dead gunman, Bodine, but there was no indication that Bodine had been helping Jason during the attack that had gone on at Stronghold. And since Bodine had had a thing for Marla, Jericho couldn’t see why Bodine would have ended up helping Jason.
Then, he saw it.
The something that flashed like a neon sign.
“Jason has money,” Jericho muttered as he read. After Marla had been convicted, a well-funded support group for victims of abuse had given him twenty grand to be used for college.
“Money?” Rachel questioned, and that’s when he realized she’d not only finished the Facetime, she was making a beeline for him.
