AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My husband’s been gone over two years now.”
Jane didn’t dare look at him, but she felt the jolt of awareness that zinged between him and Tai. She flipped through the entries, her mind whirling. The payments spanned the first two years that the pastor said he was blackmailed. But Warren was long dead by the time the new set of demands began.
Which meant they had two extortionists.
Someone else knew about Pastor Zack’s past.
Bridger inched forward in his seat, his attention on the frail woman. “Mrs. King, who else on the council would have known about Pastor Zack’s indiscretions?”
Pain creased the woman’s face. “I don’t know. Warren always told me he was the only one. He was desperate—and wrong—but he wasn’t cruel. He never would have told another soul. Not intentionally. I’d swear to it.”
Jane didn’t know about Bridger or Tai, but she believed the woman. Shocked as she was by Rita’s admission, she’d never known either of the Kings to be anything but upstanding citizens.
Just showed what she knew.
Rita coughed softly and sank back against the cushions, looking even more frail than when they’d entered. Her confession seemed to have sucked the energy out of her.
After pouring the woman a cup of coffee, Jane ushered the guys out of the house.
“So do we still like this Peckham guy for this?” Tai asked the minute they were in the Jeep.
“That was his car in front of the store last night when the rock went through my window,” Jane reminded him.
“True that.” Tai cupped his chin, stroking his beard. “But you can’t see his face. Could have been someone else driving.”
Bridger eyed her from the driver’s seat.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. A day ago, I would have said, ‘No way.’ But now….”
Bridger drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I know what you mean. There’s something about this that doesn’t fit. I can see the guy threatening the preacher, and even planting the bomb and the warning letters. But the blackmail seems so….”
“Calculated,” Tai interjected. “Although raising the ask to a hundred thousand and then trying to kill off the victim is pretty crazy.”
There was that. And Billy was nothing if not crazy.
“How would Billy have found out about Pastor Zack embezzling from his former church?” She wondered out loud. “He hasn’t been in town for years.”
Bridger shrugged. “That’s not so hard to explain. King probably let it slip. It wouldn’t take long for the info to reach Billy’s parents.”
“They would have shouted it from the rooftops,” she pointed out.
“True,” Bridger acknowledged. “But it would have been after Myles got the position. Billy had been diagnosed around then. Why even bring it up? Billy wouldn’t have been functional enough to fill the post anyway.”
That made a sad sort of sense. Maybe Billy—or his parents—would clarify things, now that the sheriff was involved.
Bridger pulled back into the hardware store lot. Plywood covered the broken window, giving the place a sad, rundown air.
With the engine still running, he kept both his hands on the wheel. “Peckham’s probably our guy, but you can see why I want to be certain.”
Bridger’s plan made sense. Even if the sheriff got a full confession from Billy, she wasn’t sure they could trust it. Better to be certain.
She slid down in her seat, hugging herself despite the hot air pumping out of the car’s heater. With Jason missing and the ugly currents swirling around town, she wondered if she’d ever feel warm again.
28
By the timeBridger and Tai helped Jane and her assistant manager get the store cleaned up, it was time to head to Jason’s airstrip to meet the two teammates he’d called in to help finish this thing.
He debated about going alone, but Jane’s mood was sinking with the sun. Jane would probably find Kate and Fenn a little too intense for her liking, but at least they’d provide a diversion.
