Page 59 of Fatal Witness

Her eyes widened. “We really need Lizi to go with us, but I didn’t book her a seat and she’s not a service dog.”

“No, but Gem is.” He hadn’t wanted to leave Gem behind anyway. He tapped the letter. “I need to give this to Alex.”

“The letter says that my parents’ killer had left before Keith arrived at our house. So why kill him?”

“The diamonds. Last week, before you called me back, I researched the case, and they’ve never shown up. The killer could’ve thought Keith had them. He’d probably been trying to find him for years.”

Dani slowly shook her head. “I had no idea my father and Keith were criminals.”

“It’s no reflection on you.”

The look she gave him said she felt otherwise, then she dropped her gaze to the letter. “At least Keith turned his life around.”

Mark gently lifted her chin with his knuckle until her blue eyes met his. “Believe me, no one is going to judge you by your father.”

“You knew,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

He nodded. “Like I said, I researched the case. Mae is the one who told Carson, but it was after the murders.”

“She never said anything to me.”

“You haven’t had much time to talk.”

A text sounded on Dani’s phone, and she checked it. “They’re ready to go.”

“I’ll walk out with you.” He picked up the second copy of the letter. “I made two. Do you want to keep that one?”

“Thanks.”

When they reached Alex’s SUV, the two women were already inside, waiting. Mark handed Alex a copy of the letter while Dani crawled in the backseat and explained what it was.

“Oh, honey,” Mae said. “I’d hoped to talk to you about that before you heard it somewhere else.”

“I don’t remember him,” Dani said, “but it did something inside me when Keith confirmed they both were criminals.”

“It’s no—”

“Reflection on me. Mark’s already told me that, but it doesn’t change the facts. They might have suffered the consequences of what they did, but their actions cost my mother her life and changed mine forever.”

Anger laced her voice. Mark wished he had a good answer for her, but if it had happened to him, he would feel the same way.

“I know,” Mae replied. “I’m praying you can forgive him.”

Her words pierced Mark like a rapier. Had Jolie’s family forgiven him?

27

It was midafternoon Monday by the time they landed in Billings and claimed their baggage. True to his word, Sheriff Crider had a deputy waiting for them, and they piled into his car. When they reached the ranch, Dani punched in the pin number for the gate keypad, although the deputy probably already had it—she imagined the security company gave it to them when they responded to the alarm.

Her stomach cinched as the wrought-iron gates swung open and they drove through. She wasn’t ready for this.

“Always liked this place,” the deputy said as they drove toward the house. “Hope you don’t have any trouble selling it.”

Dani grunted as Mark shifted in the backseat of the deputy’s cruiser. Levi, that’s what he’d said his name was.

“I doubt she wants to think about that right now,” Mark said as Gem sat curled beside him.

“Didn’t mean no disrespect. Just sayin’.”

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