Page 71 of Crosshairs

Ainsley gripped her phone. If Maddox wasn’t her attacker, who was?

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Linc’s stomach clenched. In a way, it’d been easier to think Maddox was the attacker. If he wasn’t, and it looked like he wasn’t ... maybe Ainsley’s assaults were connected to Hannah Dyson’s case. Could the Hanovers be involved in something that got Connie’s daughter killed?

She’d wanted them to wait until the husband left for work to even talk to her. If they were involved in illegal activities, that opened the possibility that Connie Hanover really had been the target last night.

They needed to interview Mr. Hanover as soon as possible. Maybe he was at the hospital with his wife ... Linc tuned back in on the conversation.

“Thanks,” she was saying. “Sam Ryker called in the FBI, and I’m meeting Hugh Cortland.”

“Good call. Keep me informed.”

Ainsley hung up and released a long breath. “Well, back to square one.”

“We need to make a list of people who might want you out of the way, starting with this murder investigation,” Linc said.

“I agree. Once we get back to Cora’s, I plan to set up a whiteboard and walk through the case.”

A visual of the investigation would be helpful. “I’ll help you—that is, if you’d like my assistance.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “I have a problem with these attacks being related to this case. Taking me out will only bring more heat—and has. We wouldn’t be meeting with Hugh Cortland right now if someone hadn’t attacked me at the church and shot Connie Hanover.”

“Ignoring this case, can you think of anyone in Natchez who holds a grudge against you?”

“Besides my dad?”

“Be serious,” he said. But he was glad she could still joke.

She bit her lip and then shook her head. “I haven’t lived in Natchez since high school, and I never had an enemy that I know of. Who would hold a grudge that long anyway?”

Ainsley was right. There had to be another angle. “How about the Kingstons?”

“That would bring it back to the investigation, but you don’t seriously think they would try to kill me over this, do you?”

If he hadn’t seen so much of the wrong side of the law, he wouldn’t. “Power corrupts sometimes,” he said. “Your dad and Kingston are leading the pack of candidates—neck and neck in the polls. If it became public knowledge Kingston’s grandson is a suspect in Hannah’s murder, it could sway the election against him.”

“I can see them being upset after we interviewed Drew, but I don’t see them trying to kill me over it,” Ainsley said.

She had a point, but that brought them back to no viable suspect. He grabbed the enhanced photos of Maddox. “I still think we should ask our tent campers if the sketch resembles the man camped near them yesterday.”

“You don’t think Maddox is with the other escapees?”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan.”

They turned around and slowly drove down the road where he’d last seen the young people, but there was no sign of them at the campsite. “Let’s see if Colton and his parents are still here,” he said.

They circled back around to where the RVs and trailers were parked. Colton’s dad, Jesse Mason, was sitting at the picnic table, a small pipe lying near his hands. When Linc pulled parallel and climbed out of the Tahoe, Mason scooped the pipe up and slipped it in his pocket. He eyed them calmly as they approached.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

A faint odor lingered in the air. “Have a skunk come through?” Linc asked.

“Early this morning,” Mason replied, tugging at the sleeves of his pullover. “Mating season, you know.”

Linc handed him one of the drawings. “Have you seen this man around here?”

Mason looked over the sketch. “No. What’d he do?”

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