Page 23 of Deadly Revenge

Max quickly dressed in jeans and a pullover and slid his feet into sneakers since his boots were in his truck. He would change shoes on the way to the site.

The police chief’s truck sat idling in Alex’s drive when he arrived. Max parked to the side and grabbed his boots just as Alex jogged by.

Nathan opened the passenger door, and Max couldn’t help overhearing their conversation.

“Your carriage awaits,” Nathan’s voice teased.

“Thank you, kind knight. Sorry to get you out this time of night.”

“No problem.”

Max felt like an intruder and quickly looked away when it was obvious Nathan was going to kiss Alex. Their banter created a yearning in his chest. He didn’t want to think he was envious, and he wasn’t—it wasn’t Alex that Max wanted.

“Coming?” Alex called and climbed into the passenger seat.

“Yeah,” Max mumbled and climbed in the back seat of the truck.

Once they buckled up, Nathan pulled away from the drive. “Which way?”

“Razorback Ridge. I tagged her location in my GPS, and it should give us directions.”

Max laced the boots he’d pulled on. “How did she manage to find a body?”

Alex looked over her shoulder at him. “I don’t know. I thought I’d call her on the way.”

A few minutes later, he leaned forward and listened as Jenna filled them in on the details of finding the body.

“How many hunters are with you?” Alex asked.

“Six counting me. I’m afraid we trampled all over the crime scene, but we had no idea the dogs were barking at a body.”

“What’s done is done. Can you tell who it is?”

“No. Brush covers most of his torso. The only reason I’m pretty sure it’s a man is from the shoe and slacks on the victim. I’ll send you the photo I took.”

Seconds later a text chimed on Alex’s phone. She opened the app and held her phone where Max could see it. The photo showed a pile of brush, and at the bottom he barely made out the sole of a man’s shoe. No socks. White skin exposed between the shoe and pants leg.

Jenna sent another photo. It looked like she’d zoomed in with a closer view of the shoe. Nathan stopped at the only traffic light in town, and Alex showed them both the photos.

“That’s a Crockett & Jones logo,” Nathan said.

The company name rang a bell with Max. He whistled when he remembered why. “When I was head of Robbery and Burglary in Chattanooga, one of our cases involved the burglary of a shoe store, and that was one of the brands the owner reported stolen. Iremember it because it’s an expensive shoe, like over five hundred dollars back then.”

Nathan turned off the highway onto a two-lane road. “I can’t think of anyone in Pearl Springs who spends that kind of money on shoes.”

“I can,” Alex said softly. “And we drove out to his house today to talk to him about Joe Slater’s death—Paul Nelson. He wasn’t home.”

Max’s brain went into overdrive. What were the odds of two city councilmen who served together dying on the same day? Especially with one murdered and the other dying in a supposed accident that was looking less and less like an accident by the minute?

“If it turns out to be Nelson,” Nathan said, “that puts a whole new light on the Slater deaths and the note Carter received.”

Max agreed. “So who did the mayor and city council make mad enough to kill?”

Nathan grunted. “Depends on how far back you want to go. Carter was gone by the time I became chief, but he was mayor while I was Sheriff Stone’s deputy, so I’m familiar with part of his tenure. I’ve heard the sheriff say more than once that Harrison Carter came into office and made changes too fast. Some people don’t like change even when it’s good for them.”

“Especially if it’s crammed down their throat,” Alex said. “I wasn’t in Pearl Springs as an adult much when Carter was mayor and don’t remember those changes.”

Nathan chuckled. “Count yourself fortunate. I remember the chief before me butting heads with him—Carter was frugal with the city treasury to put it nicely.”

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