Page 20 of So Dark

“That’s not an answer.”

Garrett lifted his hands and let them drop. “I’m not obligated to protect people from their own stupidity.”

“Not even yourself, huh?” Michael interjected.

Garrett gave him a stony glare that Michael returned with an easy smile.

“Here’s what I think happened,” Faith said. “Stop me when I’m wrong. Ethan came in asking for something. It was clear that he didn’t know what he was looking for. Rather than help him, you unloaded a product that wasn’t what he needed and hid behind the ‘it’s not my fault you’re stupid’ defense. His lawyers pointed out that itisyour fault that you misrepresented a product by omission of pertinent information and allowed their client to put himself in mortal danger so you could… actually, why did you? Wouldn’t it just have been easier to sell him the product he needed?”

Garrett laughed nervously and planted his hands on his knees. The cracks in his façade were beginning to show. “I don’t need to talk about this. We settled everything. I ended up reimbursing him for the product and paying for his medical bills. I even paid his court fees. No one forced me to do this, I decided to do it.”

“Because you were backed into a corner and had no choice.”

“If it makes you feel better to believe that, sure.”

“Must have frustrated you,” Faith said. “To have been caught like that by an annoying idiot like Ethan.”

“It’s always frustrating when you end up paying someone twenty thousand dollars because they didn’t read a warning label.”

“Not to mention the loss of goodwill your business must have suffered. That would be enough to drive a lot of people to kill.”

“And yet, I didn’t kill them. Sorry, agent. I’m not your guy.”

“Can you tell us where you were two nights ago?” Michael asked.

Garrett laughed and looked up at the ceiling as though appealing to Heaven for help. “This is Alaska, agents. Peopledon’t go out at night here unless they’re heading into the wilderness.”

“Or murdering people in the wilderness.”

“I was at home,” he snapped. “Watching television. Where I am every night when I’m not working here or on a hunting trip.”

“What about last week? Take any hunting trips then?”

“No. I was at home.”

“And no one can prove that?”

“No.”

Faith considered her options. At the moment, they didn’t have enough to arrest Garrett for the murders. There was no evidence of the killer at the scenes other than the scenes themselves. No fingerprints, no boot prints, no hair, nothing. Garrett had motive and no alibi. He had the equipment necessary to commit the crime, but she had no way of proving that.

She tried another tack. “We recovered the murder weapons, Garrett. We’re looking into them right now. Are we going to find out that they came from your store?”

“I sure hope not, but who knows? I sell knives, guns, snares, bows, bear traps… you name it. There’s a lot of lethal stuff in this building, and I don’t do background checks on everyone who walks in here.”

“Might want to start,” Michael suggested.

“You might want to go screw yourself. This is America. We have a right to bear arms.”

“Someone bore those arms to murder two people,” Faith reminded him. “There’s no constitutional right to murder people.” She handed Garrett a card. “If you think of anything, please call us. And postpone any of your upcoming hunting trips. We’d like you to stay close to home.” She smiled. “In case we need anything.”

Garrett shook his head. “All right. If it’ll make you feel better.”

They started to leave, but Faith thought of one more question on their way out. “You like ATVs, Garrett?”

He stared blankly at her. “What?”

“I thought I might rent an ATV while I’m out here,” Faith said. “I was wondering if you had a suggestion?”

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