As if he could explain away the darkness that encompassed his very soul.
The man realized he had miscalculated. Dempseywas never going to be taken down this way. Never going to rot in prison like the man had envisioned. There were too many people who would insist on his innocence even if he walked up and stabbed them in the chest.
Dempsey was certainly capable of it; the man knew that without a doubt.
The thought that Dempsey wouldn’t pay for his crimes was unbearable.
But every day that he was allowed to run free, he came closer to clearing his name.
Because of that woman. The one who looked at him with such devotion in her eyes.
First, Dempsey fooled everyone into believing that he was an upstanding man of the law. And now he would also get to fall in love? To have a life and a happy ending with a beautiful woman? To not pay for his sins in any way?
It was time for a game change. Life in prison was too good for Dempsey.
Instead, Dempsey would loseeverything. Starting with the woman and ending with his life.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
They hadn’t even made it back to Bree’s car and gotten back on the highway toward the cabin before she had her laptop open and was researching Dr. Craig Michalski. He was the key to all this.
She used a mobile hot spot from the burner to gather data on the drive, frustrated when it couldn’t provide her information fast enough. When they pulled up to the cabin, she went inside without a word, still carrying the laptop with one hand and typing with the other.
Tanner was smart enough to just stay out of her way.
“Sheriff Duggan is right to be worried about Michalski. About four months ago, his behavior and financial patterns changed. He started spending a lot more money and spending a lot more time away from home.”
Tanner was pacing behind her at the cabin. “That’s not necessarily a sign of guilt. Could be a midlife crisis or something equally benign.”
That was true. “But it also could be an indication that he was mentally or emotionally snapping.”
Tanner’s hands rested on her shoulders. “Do me a favor. Come at this as if you’re trying to prove Dr. Michalski is innocent rather than prove he’s guilty.”
“Why?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Because that’s whatI would want someone to do for me. Plus, it might provide you a new way to look at things. Not to mention, if Michalski wanted to frame me, he could’ve done it long before now.”
Bree actually wanted to growl, but refrained. How the heck did he expect her to provehiminnocent if she was trying to prove everyone else innocent, too?
“Best I can do is neutral,” she muttered. “Definitely not treating him like I think he’s innocent.”
“Fair enough.”
“Assuming that Michalski’s behavioral changes have nothing to do with the three dead bodies he had contact with and failed to mention...then what really doesn’t fall in line is Carrico.”
Tanner resumed his pacing behind her, but she kept her eyes on her computer. “You’re right,” he said. “Michalski had legitimate reason to be around all three victims, but we don’t know why he was talking to Carrico.”
She pulled back up the encoded emails Carrico had sent. “Do you think they could be working together? That Michalski is on the other end of that guerrilla email account?”
“Is there any indication that Michalski and Carrico know each other?”
Bree split her computer screen so she could see the prison guest log on one section and Michalski’s phone record on the other. She wrote a tiny program very quickly to search through both for the commonalities they were looking for.
It didn’t take long for the results. “Nothing obvious. If Michalski called him, it wasn’t with his cell, office or home phone. Three days ago was the only time he’s ever visited Carrico. No obvious phone calls or emails from Colorado Correctional.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got to believe that if the two of them were working together, Dr. Michalski would be too smart to go visit Carrico so overtly like that. Especially right in the middle of all this going down.”
She shrugged. “Or maybe it never occurred to him that we’d make the connection. It was pretty thin. But...”
