Page 50 of Everyone Loved Her

“And why are you here?” Blaze asked Garrett. “Just for moral support?” He shined the light right in his eyes, andchuckled as Garrett threw up a hand to block it. “At least you’re sober tonight.”

“Yeah, anyway,” Garrett snapped, glaring at him. “I came because she called me, and of course, I’m not going to leave her down here alone. I don’t know what’s going on in this town, but it’s not good—whatever it is. They let the air out of her tire, and I don’t like her being down here any more than you.”

“Smartest thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth since we met,” Blaze grunted, gazing down at the phone in his hand. “I don’t know how we missed this. We went over this area with a fine tooth comb.” Intuition tugged at him, making him think he was missing something. However, he couldn’t put his finger on it. He just needed to get the phone back to the office and see what was there.

“Maybe you didn’t miss it,” Garrett said, his voice slow as he rocked his weight from one foot to the other. “What if someone tossed it here after the fact? Maybe they thought no one would come back.”

Blaze frowned, flipping the baggy over in his hand again. “Hopefully, we can get that from the phone company—whenever they decide to join the club and help us out.” He didn’t want to give either of them too much information, given thattheyhad found the missing phone. But at the same time…

Maybe they really didn’t have anything to do with her murder.

“I know what it looks like,” Beth added suddenly, taking a step toward Blaze. “But I don’t think Garrett did it.”

“Says the supportive lover,” Blaze snorted, shaking his head and turning back toward his truck. “Y’all need to get out of here.”Blaze glanced at the tire on Beth’s truck. “I’m sure you two can handle that. I need to get this phone turned in.”

With that, he left the two of them standing there on the bridge, while he walked back to his truck. He flung the door open and climbed inside, not even in his uniform anymore. He was hoping for a calm evening—a chance to mull over Daniel’s sudden recurrence in his life after years of silence.

Blaze tossed the phone to the passenger seat, and started the truck, throwing it in gear and turning around. In his rearview, he saw the shadowy figure of Garrett, walking over to Beth’s truck and retrieving the spare.

Am I leaving her with a killer?He thought it over as he headed toward town, his head spinning. Honestly, even if he was, he was certain that Garrett wouldn’t pull anything tonight. It would be too obvious… right?

“Where’dyou say this came from?” Sheriff Myers asked as Blaze set it down on his desk, Dylan Myers standing in the corner of the office. All the Myers had the same gray-blue eyes, and Blaze had started to find himself unsettled by them.

“It was found by the Hollow Creek Bridge, laying against the fence.” Blaze kept it short and concise. There was no point in adding specifics.

“Who found it?”

Blaze’s jaw ticked. “Your son.”

“What the hell was Garrett doing down there?” Dylan exasperated, cutting in on the conversation. “There ain’t nothing for him down there.”

“He was with Beth,” Blaze found himself saying. “And no, I don’t know what they were doing. For all I know, they were just rehashing the past or something. Hasn’t taken much for me tofigure out the two of them have quite a history.” He sighed, fatigue pulling at him harder than ever. All he wanted to do was fall into bed. But here he was, another long night with more questions than answers.

“I’ll talk to him about it,” Sheriff Myers said, and then gestured to the phone. “Get it plugged in.”

“Shouldn’t we submit it to evidence? Dust for prints?” Blaze asked, his eyes bouncing between the two men standing there.

“You touch it?” the sheriff barked at him. “It doesn’t matter whose prints are on it. We can’t prove anything. For all we know Garrett and Beth touched it, too. Inadmissible in court.”

Blaze stared at the two of them, knowing for the sake of right and wrong, he should argue, but chose against it. “Okay. I’ll take it and plug it in. See what we can find on it. It’s probably going to have a passcode though.”

“If it does, we’ll figure it out,” Sheriff Myers huffed. “You can give it to Dylan. He’s on shift right now. You need to get on home. Get some rest. You look rough, Blaze, and I don’t want to go start asking questions about what you’ve been up to.”

He blinked a couple of times. “Working.”

“So you say,” he scoffed. “Seems like you’ve been trying to pull some strings behind my back. We got the preliminary report sent over here on Sarah, and it had the name of some hot shot FBI agent out of Dallas on there. Ain’t nobody I know, so I figured it was you.”

“He’s an old…” Blaze couldn’t come up with the word. “Acquaintance.”

“Sounds suspicious as hell,” Sheriff Myers spouted. “Get out of here—and relay a thanks.”

“Got it.” He spun on his heels and headed out of station,just grateful Sheriff Myers hadn’t asked for any further explanation from him.

Blaze pushed through the glass doors, stepping out into the chilly evening. He headed toward his truck parked in the front row, and as he did, caught an ear of an engine idling. He kept moving, making it to his driver’s side door, and only once it was open, did he scan the parking lot. His eyes landed on a dark blue Ford truck, newer than Peter Young’s, but not by much.

It was parked at the back, facing him. The windows were tinted, making it impossible to see who was sitting inside. His hands began to sweat as he moved to put his hand on his gun, but as he did, he realized he didn’t have it. His belt was hung on the rack inside his apartment. He’d gone in blind to Garrett and Beth. And now, here he was, staring down a suspicious vehicle with no way to protect himself.

I really am sleep deprived.He stared at the truck for a few more seconds, unnerved that he couldn’t make out who was inside. Isthisthe vehicle Beth had seen?No,he shook his head and climbed into his truck. She had seen an SUV. He blew out a sigh and ran his hands over his face, before tossing his cowboy hat to the passenger seat. He started the engine and backed out, keeping an eye on the truck.

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