Page 58 of Everyone Loved Her

Blaze stood there for a few more minutes, trying to catch his breath. “It’s rare for someone to die from a snake?—”

“Blaze,” Sheriff Myers cut him off, his tone stern. “It happens. Ain’t nobody running around with a venomous snake using it to kill people. That’s crazy talk.”

“Right,” he muttered, clearing his throat and running his hand over his face.

“Yeah, so go print the report off and get a drink of water or something,” his boss laughed. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Blaze nodded, and slipped out of the office, trying to calm his nerves.It’s just coincidence. No foul play… He said there’s no foul play.Never mind the fact thatallthe homicides Blaze was a person of interest in, involved snake bites on the victims.

As he made it back to his desk, his phone vibrated against the wood grain. Blaze glanced down at the screen, seeing the exact man who’d understand his concerns. He swept up the device and answered. “Yeah?”He braced, waiting for his seventh nightmare to begin.

“Got in the reports you were asking for,” Daniel said instead.

“Oh?” Blaze choked out. “That’s good.”

“Yeah,” Daniel sighed. “Got all of them, actually. Just hadto make a few phone calls. I haven’t sent them to your boss, but I’m going to warn you now, it’s going to be like stepping on a hornet’s nest I’m afraid. I’ve been approved for providing your department with assistance due to the conflict of interest.”

While the distraction was welcome, Blaze’s blood ran cold. “The gun came back as a match, didn’t it?”

“Oh yeah. Ballistics were certain the gun used in the crime was the one you submitted to the state. We saw that it’s registered to Sheriff Gavin Myers. However, interestingly, there was a new report stating that it was stolen about a month ago.”

“It’s gotta be false.”

“Yeah, kind of assumed that. How’d you get the gun?” Daniel asked. “Because nowhere in the report do you state that.”

“Uh,” Blaze hesitated, instantly thinking of Beth. “It came from an incident that happened a few weeks ago. Garrett Myers, the sheriff’s son used it in an altercation. He’s a felon, so it was confiscated.”

“Well, looks like you’ve got your guy then,” Daniel chuckled. “There were multiple phone calls to Garrett Myers the night she went missing. The final phone call was actually from her phone to his, and it took place at nine-forty-three. The autopsy confirmed she was pregnant as well. Could’ve been his motive.”

Blaze rubbed his forehead, unable to bring himself to agree with it. “I don’t know… I don’t think their relationship was like that.”

“You never know what people are up to.”

“Any other phone calls?” Blaze asked.

“Yeah, in the mix, there was a Lucas Wilson and then an app, but the information was falsified, so no clue on thatone. It’s suspicious, but the gun kind of messes up that lead. If Garrett Myers was in possession of the gun, then it is what it is. You said he doesn’t remember what he did that night, right?”

“That’s correct,” Blaze said, eyeing the sheriff’s office. “But now what? They ain’t gonna like this.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Daniel said. “I’ve already started working on the warrant for Garrett Myer’s arrest.”

“Great,” Blaze muttered, pushing back from his desk. “That means they’re gonna know this is on me.”

“And if the geezer is worth ten cents, he’ll go arrest his son, making our jobs all a little easier.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

Daniel laughed, a wicked tone to his voice. “Then we’ll arrest them all.” With that, he hung up, and Blaze sat his phone down on his desk face down. He closed his eyes momentarily, knowing that the warrant would be coming through for Garrett at any point—but they couldn’t be mad at him for it.

They knew he submitted the gun for testing.

But honestly, he had expected it to come back clean.

It wouldn’t eliminate Garrett as a suspect, but it would take some of the pressure off the guy, who seemed to be on the edge of a mental breakdown. He had actually started to feelbadfor how he’d been treating him, but now? Now he knew his suspicions had been right.

Beth needs to know.

Blaze pushed himself back from the desk and stood to his feet, shoving his phone into his pocket. Ignoring the nerves rolling through his body, he made his way to Sheriff Myer’s office, and knocked on the door.

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