Page 110 of Just Killing Time


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He paused, and Caro couldn’t help inserting a little mentalColumbomusic during the heavy pause. “Louise never dropped the gun,” he finally concluded.

Mick and Caro looked at each other again, both trying hard to remember every detail of that day in his office. Finally, Mick nodded slowly. “You could be right. She might not have. In which case, we need to find out what happened to it after she left.”

Gwen cleared her throat, and everyone turned their attention toward her. “I’ve heard rumors that Louise and Pastor Bob are an item. Is it possible Miss Hester didn’t approve, and Louise, um, wanted her out of the way?”

That was one of Caro’s first thoughts. But the two men in the room looked doubtful. “You don’t know Louise,” Jared said, dismissing the idea.

Mick appeared to agree. “If she was going to commit murder, I’m sure she would have done in her rotten hooligan little brothers sometime over the years.”

Caro and Gwen exchanged a look, neither convinced.

“I’m going to try to do some more background checking on Esmerelda Devane,” Jared said. He stood and reached out a hand to Gwen.

His wife nodded, a determined look on her face. “Drop me off downtown on your way home,” she told Jared. “I have a feeling the rumor mill in Derryville might come in handy.” She looked at Mick. “If there’s any secret to be found about Miss Hester I’ll hear about it at the Hair and There Salon.”

Her husband ran his fingers through a long strand of her blond hair. “Don’t you dare let Pammy Morrison lay one finger on your hair.”

Gwen laughed softly and looked at Caro. “She’s been after me to get a bob.”

Jared visibly shuddered.

“While you two are at that,” Mick said, “I’m going to talk to Louise.”

Caro instantly rose to her feet. “Not alone you’re not.”

“You don’t have to come.”

“Oh, yes, I do. The last time you were alone with that woman, she held a gun on you. And no matter what you say about how nice she is, I still think she’s nutty. I’m coming along.”

He gave her one of those devastatingly sexy smiles, which made her relax in spite of the circumstances. “To protect my body?”

More to protect her own heart, since Caro couldn’t imagine what she’d do if anything happened to Mick. But now wasn’t the time or place to admit such a thing. So, she merely smirked. “Damn right. And you’d better get used to it.”

AS MICK AND Caroline drove over to the church to track down Louise, Mick couldn’t stop running the details over in his mind. Sophie in jail. Unbelievable. A murder in Derryville. Also unbelievable.

And those names. Something about those names…

“What are you thinking?” Caroline asked.

He glanced over to see her staring at him with tender concern. “Just going through it all in my mind. There’s something there. Something I’m missing.”

“Do you really think Louise will be honest about what happened?” Caro asked.

Mick nodded. “Look, it’s just as impossible for me to believe that Louise had anything to do with this as it is for me to think of Sophie as a murderer.”

“Okay. If you’re sure,” she said.

He heard the doubtful tone in her voice and wasn’t surprised. And yet even with those doubts about Louise, she’d wanted to come along. To protect him.

“Mick, you do understand that with Sophie being taken into custody, this changes things.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. She didn’t even have to say what she meant. “You’re talking about the show. The press.”

“Yes. When the word gets out—”

“The studio won’t be so scared of slander, because now it’s official that she’s a suspect.”

He looked over at Caroline. She nodded, watching him with wide eyes, waiting for his reaction. He honestly didn’t know how to react. In one moment, the woman was ready to face down a possible murderess to protect him. In the next, she’d admitted that her company might engage in a smear campaign against his sister.

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