Page 117 of Deadly Misfortunes

But Sascha thought there was something more to it than that. Then Sascha gave Janie a hug. "You will be a beautiful bride."

Janie smiled at her. “Thank you.” Then she glanced at Red. "We’ll go out and celebrate tonight.”

"I would love that."

"Are you still renovating old houses?" Red asked Gregory before he and Sascha left the apartment.

"Yep. It's become a money-making hobby of mine. Like you and the vehicles, I take a lot of pride in restoring something uninhabitable to something that is loved now."

"After I finish refurbishing the farm and selling it, and move to Dallas permanently, can I help you with them? I can also work on the vintage vehicles you want."

Gregory smiled. It sounded like Red was already taking the first step to make a huge change in his life. "Yeah, I can always use another able-bodied person to help. I don't expect you back at work for several weeks while you work on the farm. I think my life is pretty safe for now."

Sascha didn’t think so.

"But you do have more bodyguards now, maybe because of it.”

“Okay, well, keep in touch,” Gregory said.

“I will,” Red said.

Then Gregory escorted Sascha out to his car.

When Gregory and Sascha drove home, she sighed. "I don’t think he was telling the truth. He never actually said he tried to kill you, except when you asked him what trucks were used in running over your vehicles.”

“But the vehicles used in the attempts were different than what he described.”

“The police didn’t see any videos of anyone stealing the vehicles and then dumping them later?”

“They were stolen late at night at places where people worked late. So they were sitting in parking lots and were picked up there. They saw a dark-clothed figure in a black ski mask grabbing both of the stolen Chevrolet pickups on separate nights.”

As they were driving home, Sascha looked out the window and felt unsettled. "I…I don’t know. It seems too pat."

Gregory glanced at her. “Pardon?”

"If Red was able to go after you when he wasn't working for you, why would he hire on to protect you? He could have easily eliminated you at any point when you were more vulnerable."

Gregory didn't say anything for a moment. "Okay, so you're saying he hired on as my bodyguard to really protect me."

"Yes! Which would mean he's probably trying to cover for someone else who actually did go after you." To Sascha's surprise, she got a call from Janie. "Hi, what's up?" She put the call on speakerphone so that Gregory could hear what was being said.

"Brendan's in the shower right now, so I wanted to call you quickly. I looked up when Mr. Landry had his first accident, and during that time, Brendan was with me here in Austin. I didn’t buy that he was involved in any of the attempts on Mr. Landry’s life. And the way he hesitated on telling you what the vehicles looked like that he used? He didn’t have a clue. He was guessing. He would never destroy one of his vintage vehicles after he put so much muscle and love into them, so I know none of them were used in a crime."

Sascha didn't say anything for a moment, figuring she had been right to suspect Red didn’t have anything to do with trying to kill Gregory. "What about the second accident?"

"We had split up by then, so I don't know. But I checked the dates, and Brendan was with me for that first one. We had gone to an afternoon movie—a horror flick—and had tickets for it on my phone. Then we had a special dinner out, but he was here with me all day and all night. No way could he have made the three-hour trip up there to do that."

"Okay. But you wouldn't know about the date when the truck knocked Raymond and me off the bridge in the limo."

"No. By then, he was working for Mr. Landry. But we weren't really talking much at the time. We'd broken up, and I didn't think we would get back together."

Sascha pondered the situation. "You're really sure about that first accident then?"

"Yeah. I looked up the public records of accidents since it wasn't in the news. I really don't believe Brendan would do any of this. The other thing is, did he trash your apartment? Maybe. But I think there was a reasonable reason for it if he had done it."

"Okay."

"I've got to go. He's getting out of the shower. I don't want him to know I talked to you."