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“And you didn’t think to talk to his sister?” Bridger looked at her as he spoke.
The man had a point. She held her mug to her lips, waiting for the pastor to answer.
He shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know why I didn’t.”
Bridger smiled. It wasn’t nice. “I do.”
Jane stiffened. He was a hunter, laying out the perfect trap and then waiting....
Pastor Zack finally looked her in the face. His blue eyes showed fear and something else. Something close to desperation. But that seemed silly. What would a man of God have to feel desperate about?
“I’m being stalked,” he said. “It sounds stupid to admit it. I’m not a small guy. I should be able to handle these things on my own, but whoever it is has gotten bolder over the months. Jason noticed something was wrong, and he pressed me. I thought that with his military background, he might be able to help, so I filled him in.”
Bridger set his mug on the table with exaggerated care and stared the pastor in the eye. “You’re a really bad liar, Rev.”
Tai licked the rim of his empty mug. “I’ve seen worse.”
Bridger looked pained. “Seriously?”
Tai shrugged. “Sorry. I was trying to make the man feel better.”
Pastor Zack sank back against the couch cushions, a sickly smile playing across his lips. “I get it. You’re doing good cop, bad cop.”
Bridger’s gaze hardened. “You wish.”
Tai shook his head, as if the pastor were too sad for words. “Tell us the truth, or you’re about to see bad cop, bad cop.” He grinned. A frightening sight. “It’s my favorite.”
The pastor’s Adam’s apple soared from the base of his neck to the top of his throat, then down again. He laced his fingers together in his lap. “I’m being blackmailed, and the threats are getting worse.”
7
Bridger winced inwardly.Not. Good.
It was obvious Jane held the pastor in high esteem. She was about to get her admiration handed back to her in pieces.
In his experience, people targeted for extortion had dirty secrets to hide. Wasn’t that the point?
Whatever the minister was about to confess, Jane wouldn’t be able to think of the man the same way again. With her brother missing, she didn’t deserve another blow.
He shot her a sympathetic look and prepared to dive into the pastor’s seedy little secret.
He rested his forearms on his thighs and radiated intensity. “What are you hiding?”
The pastor’s mouth opened and closed several times, reminding Bridger of a landed fish. “I had a gambling problem,” he said finally, his eyes shifting up and to the left. “Years ago.”
A truthful response. As far as it went. Lying and telling incomplete truths were not incompatible.
Tai nodded almost imperceptibly. He’d caught it too.
“It started when I was in seminary,” the man continued, staring hard at the top of the coffee table. “By the time I got my first posting, I’d believed I’d gotten a handle on it, but under the stress…”
His rounded shoulders lifted in a huge sigh. “I was wrong. The rest is predictable. I got in debt to a loan shark. Then I got caught stealing church funds. Lost my position, of course, but the congregation was kind enough not to prosecute. I went into treatment, and with the Lord’s help, I made restitution. Never had a problem since.”
The man raised his head, focusing all his attention on Jane. “That was years ago, before I met Evangeline, and long before I took the post here at Redemption Creek.”
Jane looked dazed. Not angry, just shocked. “You never told the church board?”
The man hung his head again. “No.” The response was barely a whisper. “I didn’t have the courage.”
