Page 51 of Ghost Town Boogie

Still, he didn’t say a word.

A warm hand lightly touched her face. Anna opened her eyes and jerked back and away.

Not Colt…

She’d seen Sawyer Wakefield a few days ago, at the bakery with Nate Tucker. While they’d been chatting she’d mentioned the stuff that had been taken to Nicole’s shop on consignment. Had she specifically mentioned the duck picture? She thought… yes. Had that led to the woman’s murder? The house, Emily… Where was it leading now?

Sawyer looked different than he had when he’d been enjoying coffee and a muffin. He was angry, frustrated, desperate. There was a touch of sadness and uncontrolled anger in his eyes.

Maybe murder did that to a person.

After a moment of silent shock, she opened her mouth to scream. Sawyer responded quickly, clamping the hand that had been caressing her cheek over her mouth. His other hand swung up; light flashed on the blade of the knife he held, a blade that inched closer to her.

That knife had killed Nicole and threatened Emily.

“Where’s Colt?” he whispered.

“Not here,” Anna said into the palm of his hand. Her words were muffled, but he understood well enough. He relaxed a little, then removed his hand from her mouth.

“Good. This can be simple. Where is the money Jack stole? That’s all I need. I’m done with protecting my father, just done. Bastard wouldn’t get his hands dirty, no, he left that to me. Then and now. Take care of it Sawyer. Handle it for me. Screw him and his loser friends. No more. I’m going to take that money and light out of town, and no one will ever find me. Where is it?”

Anna shook her head. She had to stall, somehow. Would one of the depot ghosts realize what was going on? Would they warn Colt? She could only hope someone, or something, was paying attention.

“I don’t know. He probably took it all with him when he left town. That’s the reason he didn’t come back, I guess…”

“Jack’s dead,” Sawyer interrupted. “Dead for a couple of months more than five years.” He watched her face closely, tilted his head as he studied her reaction. “Sonofabitch, you knew.”

“I suspected,” Anna said. “My brother was imperfect, yes, he had many flaws, but he wouldn’t leave us that way.” She had to believe Colt was coming. The ghosts would tell him what was happening.

His ability wasn’t without benefit…

“You killed him.” She whispered the accusation.

“I had no choice.” Sawyer didn’t look at all remorseful.

“Jack’s last text… that was you.”

Sawyer shrugged. “I sent the text then gave the phone to a homeless guy, along with a wad of cash, and put him on a bus. It was summer, really hot. The old guy was happy to head north. I’d grabbed Jack’s bag from the hotel and handed that over, too, after I’d searched it well enough to know nothing of interest was there. Just clothes and deodorant and shit.”

“You broke my mother’s heart,” Anna whispered.

“This is all Jack’s fault. It was bad enough that he took the wrong people’s money. But when he started blackmailing my dad…”

“He wouldn’t.”

“Oh, he did. I figured the proof was long gone, that it had died with Jack, but then you mentioned the duck picture.” Sawyer laughed. “Before he died Jack kept saying duck. Duck, duck, duck. I thought he just couldn’t speak clearly, by that point, and he was cursing at me. But… duck. If Nicole had just sold the picture to Dad that would’ve been it, but it couldn’t be that easy, no. There was nothing. We tore that picture apart, and there was nothing.”

“You killed Nicole, too,” Anna whispered.

“I didn’t want to,” Sawyer said. “We didn’t know what Jack did with the pictures he took, but they had to be somewhere. I asked, I gave him a chance to tell me where they were, but the bastard died on me. The last thing he said was duck.”

She’d cursed her brother’s name more than once in the past five years. For leaving, for breaking their mother’s heart… and all this time…

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Sorry for what?” Sawyer snapped.

She looked into his eyes. “I wasn’t talking to you.”