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“It means I’ll uncuff you, but I need you to be really honest with me.”
“Fine.”
The marshal unlocked the handcuffs first, and Michael felt his tension drop a few notches, just knowing he wasn’t chained to this bed. The ankle chains were next. Everything rattled against the tile floor where the marshal dropped them.
Then the man straightened. “Did you start the fire at your house?”
“No.”
“Did any of your brothers?”
“No.”
“Did you plant a bomb at the Roadhouse?”
“No.”
“Do you know who shot you?”
“No.” He remembered the flash of the phone’s camera, seeing the edge of a face and some sandy-colored hair. It wasn’t even his own phone, so he’d never be able to go back to it. A Guide? A cop? He had no idea. Still, it was something to offer.
“Someone was in the wreckage. He was looking down at me. As soon as I saw him, he was shooting.”
The fire marshal looked interested at that. “Could you give me a description?”
“I only saw him for a second. Less than a second.”
“But it was definitely a man?” Jack pulled out a notepad and a pen.
Michael thought. He’d assumed man, but really, his memories weren’t even clear enough to confirm that much. “Maybe. I’m not one hundred percent sure.”
“Race? Hair color? Height? Anything?”
Michael closed his eyes and tried to remember. All his thoughts would supply was a flash of movement, and then the sound of the gun firing. “Sandy hair. I don’t know.” He opened his eyes. “I don’t know what happened to the second phone I used, but I might have caught him—or her—in one of the pictures.”
Another quick note on the pad. “Why were you at the restaurant at all?”
Michael froze. His brain wasn’t organized enough to lie, but he could go with the same story he’d given everyone else. “I was meeting someone about a job.”
“Your brothers told an officer that, too. You know who didn’t say that? Every single witness from the restaurant that I could question. They said you walked in and picked a fight with Tyler Morgan.”
Michael fought to keep his voice even. “I didn’t know Tyler would be there. The guy I was meeting never showed up. I thought—”
He stopped short. He’d almost said, I thought Tyler had set me up.
But that would lead to more questions.
“You thought what?”
Like that one. Michael shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing. I didn’t know he’d be there. I was supposed to meet someone else.”
“Okay, give me a name.”
Michael turned to stare at the ceiling again. “I don’t remember.”
The fire marshal pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and held it up. “Maybe you should check your text messages.”
Michael whipped his head around. His vision spun for a moment, and he had to blink.
