Page 44 of Everyone Loved Her

Blaze frowned, suddenly regretting showing any curiosity whatsoever. “Tell me whatever you gotta tell me but make it quick.” He prepared himself for more baseless hearsay.

“Last night, I went to pay Garrett Myers a visit.”

“You shouldn’t be doin’ that,” Blaze immediately commented. “You need to leave the guy alone. It’ll just getyouin trouble.”

“Yeah, thanks, Dad,” Ty snorted. “Anyway, I just wanted tochat. After all, he and I were buddies back in the day. You know, he was Sam’s best friend, and there wasn’t a dang thing wrong with him until he started sneaking around with Beth—but when I showed up, Beth Young was there.”

Blaze sighed.More drama.“It really doesn’t matter who was at his house, and y’all really need to start obsessing over something else. Way too many people are invested in whatever is going on with those two, and to me, it sounds like they’re just trying to work out some kinks from the past.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Ty laughed. “They can do whatever they want. That’s not what I’m here to report. It’s the fact that he shot at me.”

Blaze narrowed his eyes. “And you think maybe you deserved it?”

“That ain’t your job to decipher. The boy’s a felon. He ain’tsupposed to have a pistol. Black powder only. I would know, ‘cause I am one—and I abide by the rules.”

“Okay. I’ll look into it.” Blaze hadnointention of looking into it. He needed a beer and a break from all the drama, and for that reason, he started toward his truck again.

“He gave it to Beth,” Ty called after him. “And I heard from the rumor mill that Sarah was done in by a gun, right? So why wouldn’t you take that gun and test it? Whatever you people do with them.”

Blaze hesitated, turning back to him. “What caliber was it?”

“I think it was a .45.”

His heart thudded an extra beat. “Thanks. I’ll look into it.” He then climbed into his truck, like nothing had jarred his attention, but as soon as the door closed and he was pulling out of the parking lot, he dialed Daniel Malone back.

“I didn’t expect you to miss me this quick,” Daniel answered, his voice flat.

“You had access to Sarah’s file, right? That’s how you knew I was considered an investigator?” Blaze got right to the point. “Can you do anything to get a preliminary indication of what caliber the gun was? We didn’t find any shell casings at the scene.”

“Didn’t see anything on that in the file…”

“Yeah, because no one cares about this county,” Blaze snapped. “We havenothingpast what we found at the crime scene. We don’t even have their preliminary report yet.”

Agent Malone sighed. “You’re asking me to get it for you then? Seriously? Why don’tyoucall?”

“You have more pull,” Blaze reluctantly admitted. “Sarah’s family deserves closure—just as much as your family deserves it as well.”

There was silence on the line.

“What caliber? Right?” Daniel finally asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let me make a call.” With that, he hung up. But before Blaze had even made it out of town, his phone pinged with a text.

Daniel Malone: Preliminary report sent to your department. Weapon was .45 Caliber.

Chapter 21

I stood there,watching the sun set across the rolling fields of the ranch. Orange and pink hues painted the skies, complementing the lingering green of the grasses, dotted with horses and cattle. There were so many good memories from my childhood, riding and working cattle with my dad and brother... Yet somehow, I struggled to recall anything before that May of my senior year. I wanted to move on past what happened to Sam, and honestly, I had accepted the fact that he was gone...

It was just the regret that lingered.

And that was on me—I knew that.

It wasmyfault Sam was in the front seat that night, and whether or not I remembered, I believed Garrett’s story about what happened. And if I had just remembered, maybe I could’ve made his lifebetter.But how could I have testified for something I didn’t recall?

Letting out a sigh, I glanced back over my shoulder, my mom’s silhouette visible through the window. She was cleaning up the kitchen from a silent dinner between the two of us. She was still waiting on me to explain what Garrett was shoutingabout in the church, and I was still trying to decide how to tell her my long-kept secret.

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