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“Listen, I know how messy everything gets when a death certificate is involved. That’s why I was happy to let Charlie live so long as he seemed incapable of putting the facts together. I moved his passed out body and the cherry picker to an abounded street and left him there, figuring he’d either die or turn into a blob.
I didn’t realize Hank had been involved, although I should have once one of my main sources of supply was cut off from me. Honey and Wood turned into a goddamned fortress after Charlie’s fall.”
“And the bloody threat on my wall?” Austin asked, stepping further in front of me. Soon I wouldn’t be able to even see the sheriff.
“Again, I wanted to make things less complicated. The second you showed up, I knew there was going to be trouble. I thought I could get you to get the fuck out of here, but I should have known I wasn’t playing around with a scared little fawn.” The sheriff’s heavy boots stepped forward. “Stop moving,” he commanded. Austin listened.
“So all these years,” I said, finding a voice even though fear threatened to steal it. “You were ‘serving and protecting’ while you ‘abducted and sold’ the very people you had to protect? Why?”
“Because it kept the trash out of Blue Creek while I made enough money to support my daughters and wife. I didn’t start my career intending this, but when an opportunity that good falls in your lap, you take it. Being the sheriff gave me an advantage. It was easy. And being in this small town has kept the feds out of my hair. No one would ever look to Blue Creek as the epicenter for a worldwide sex-trafficking ring.”
“You’re fucking sick,” Austin spat. “Worse than the scum inside a fucking sewage pipe.”
The shotgun shifted in Pope’s hand. I held my breath. My eyes darted to the gun on the floor, just next to my feet. I noticed the safety was off—since when did I notice shit like that? I looked back up, around Austin, to a cherry-faced Pope. Scattered beams of sunlight projecting through holes in the ceiling dimmed as a cloud crossed over them.
“Funny, since it’ll be the two of you hanging out in a sewage pipe.”
“Is that how you plan on getting rid of us?” Austin asked. I wondered if he was biding his time, but for what? Did he have a plan? Was the plan forming in my head worth risking it all for? Austin was the detective; I was the one who got us into this mess in the first place.
But if I could just…
“I originally was going to drive my boat out to the middle of the ocean and dump your bodies, but yes, I’m thinking the sewage pipe might be better for you two.”
“Why did you kill Hank?” I asked, keeping my eyes from dropping to the gun on the floor. Pope looked at me, the smile curving on his face. He flipped the shotgun and aimed it at a boarded-up window.
Trigger pressed.
BOOM.
Pieces of wood went flying through the room as I shut my eyes against the intrusion of sunlight and sound. Fuck, that was loud. My ears rang, blocking out the sound of my own heart working like a jackhammer inside of me.
“There, now I can see you two better.”
And I can see you better, too, asshole.
“Yes, I killed Hank. At first I thought it was only you that was involved, Charlie. So when you fell and cracked your skull, I thought the issue was over. Austin coming back into town must have given Hank a second investigative wing. I caught the idiot rummaging through my trash and decided to take him out along with it.”
“You have daughters,” Austin said. How was his voice so steady? How was he standing without his knees clattering together like mine?
“Everything I do in my life is for them. They aren’t involved—they have zero idea what exactly it is I do for them. But I do it. And do you think they ask questions when I’m flying them in a private jet to the Bahamas? No. They don’t.”
Pope let his guard down for a moment and dropped the shotgun to the side, likely resting his arm. My eyes momentarily fell to the gun at my feet. I could easily grab it. Easily.
It was what needed to happen after I grabbed the gun that had me scared.
Austin shifted again. Pope kept the shotgun aimed down at the floor, looking like a Bengal tiger cornering two little church mice. He knew he had all the power, and that meant he felt like he could let his guard down.
I wiggled a few fingers, pulling my hand out of a loop of rough rope but still holding it behind me. Waiting for the perfect moment…
