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A crowd of people had gathered around them, with Sven standing protectively behind Wilhelm. Sirens sounded faintly in the distance. Wilhelm did trust the detective, but he also knew that he could get answers out of this piece of trash, if only so many people weren’t watching.
“What kind of things?”
No number of pins would fix this bastard’s wrist, because Wilhelm squeezed with crushing force, making him scream and making some of the people standing around start to protest what they were seeing.
“I’ll stop if you tell me,” Wilhelm promised.
“I don’t know, he had a beef with his bitch sister, and now you.”
Wilhelm grabbed his face, squeezing his chin, and had never been more tempted to rip someone’s face clean off. “His sister?”
The sirens had arrived, and Wilhelm caught the sound of a few police-issued pistols being cocked.
“Wilhelm!” Detective Frasier grabbed his shoulder as if to pull him off. “Come on. We’ve got this now.”
Reluctantly, Wilhelm let go of the driver’s wrist and stood, the detective holding his arm and trying to lead him away. Two officers rushed in to cuff the man, which pulled another satisfying scream from him.
“Are you hurt?” the detective said, leading Wilhelm to lean against an ambulance that had arrived with the police. A medic approached, but Wilhelm waved her away.
“He shot at us, but missed. I’m fine.” Wilhelm peered past Detective Frasier and watched another medic tend to the driver. A man who’d shot at him so there’d be no one to fight over custody of the twins. He was convinced Ralph killed his own sister just to get those twins because of the money that came with them.
He stole the babies’ parents from them, stole their lives, for money.
“He said the person who paid him to shoot me had a beef with his bitch sister. If you’ll give me five more minutes with him, I guarantee I can get better answers than that.”
“I don’t doubt it.” The detective’s expression was sad, but one corner of his mouth turned up. “We don’t need more right now. I have enough to bring Ralph in on suspicion of murder. I have little doubt we’ll get this guy,” he said, gesturing to the driver, “to roll over on him to save his own hide.”
Wilhelm and Sven had to make statements about what had happened, but it didn’t take very long. The detective did everything he could to make it fast and easy, because he seemed to think the best thing would be for Wilhelm to go back home like he’d planned. They had what they needed to bring Ralph in, and as much as Wilhelm wanted to be there to see it, he knew it wou
ldn’t be a good idea.
When they were finished, and there was nothing more Wilhelm could do but sit and stew, he and Sven left for the airport. He’d call Juliette to let her know exactly when they were flying out, so she’d know when to expect him. She’d sounded so uneasy earlier, and he thought it would help. He knew talking to her would help him, though he wouldn’t tell her he’d been shot at until he saw her in person and she could see with her own eyes that he was fine. He didn’t want her to worry.
It was hard for Wilhelm to leave when he felt like there was unfinished business he needed to take care of. His brother needed justice. He had to trust the detective to get that for him.
Because if Wilhelm ended up in the same room with the man who killed his brother, he wasn’t sure he could control his tiger.
He’d end up being the one going to prison on a murder charge, while Ralph Marcoby would only end up in the morgue.
Chapter Sixteen
Juliette should have felt better after sending Bonnie home, but her sense of foreboding kept growing. She’d even been convinced that Bonnie had nothing to do with Leanne’s plot to kill the twins. The police had questioned Bonnie thoroughly already, of course. And she seemed concerned about leaving Juliette and Gunther to tend to the twins alone, and was willing to help.
But she didn’t make an issue of it the way someone might have if they were supposed to stay there and do something sinister. Her concern seemed genuine, as did her delight to find she’d still be getting paid for her time off. She left after reminding Juliette that she could call her anytime and she’d come back.
Bonnie hadn’t been the problem. She wasn’t what made Juliette’s skin itch as the hairs stood on end, her tiger pacing and fretting that something was simply wrong.
Wilhelm had called before they lifted off, and Juliette had worried that maybe her sense of something about to happen was related to him. She’d questioned him about the plane and pilot, about Sven and anyone else close to him. But he owned the plane and the pilot and Sven were longtime employees he had full confidence in. He trusted them in a way he hadn’t Leanne, because he hadn’t known her at all.
He’d convinced Juliette there was no need to worry about Sven or his pilot. He even had the plane double-checked without resistance, as if he understood just how much caution was necessary.
She couldn’t wait for him to get back and tell her all that had gone on in Aspen.
But more than that, Juliette was sure she had to get out of that house.
A change of scenery would ease her mind. The babies had recently been fed and would be content for a while, and weren’t car rides supposed to lull babies to sleep anyway? They had a double stroller and all the supplies she could have needed, so she asked Gunther if he’d mind if they went to Bonbon for a while, at least until Wilhelm got back.
“I’m supposed to do whatever you want, Juliette,” Gunther said with a smile. “Or Wilhelm will have my head on a plaque on his wall. I’ll start packing the car.”
