Page 40 of Deadly Revenge

He handed her his phone and then pulled onto the road.

Jenna laid both phones side by side in her lap. “The letters look identical. Have you been able to trace the origin of the clippings used in Carter’s?”

“The lab is working on it.”

“The letter isn’t exactly a threat,” she said. “Crazy, yes, but I imagine most politicians get letters like this all the time.”

She used her fingers to enlarge the photo. “Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand with these two deaths connected to him, TBI would get involved now, but what made them pay attention to this in the first place?”

Max hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed her quick mind and the way she always saw past the surface in their cases. He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.

“What?”

“Nothing. I wondered the same thing, but he’d had that near accident where someone tried to run him off the road. Add having friends in high places, and you can understand why I’m making sure nothing happens Saturday ... or the next big rally, wherever it is. We don’t want another Gabby Giffords.”

While running for reelection to Congress, Gabby Giffords had suffered a brain injury in an assassination attempt.

“It’s a bad state of affairs when a candidate has to worry about getting shot,” she said. “But then it’s nothing new.”

Max kept his focus on the curvy road. At the four-way stop he pocketed his phone then turned toward town.

“I suppose using words clipped from print is to keep you from analyzing his handwriting,” she said.

He agreed.

She repeated the message. “‘You’ve lined your last pocket.’ The sender is obviously alluding to the three men receiving kickbacks.”

“And he’s avenging their wrongdoing. But why now? Why not when they were in office?”

20

From his vantage point, he observed the vehicles parked in the Slater drive. Would they find the letter? It didn’t matter. Nothing would stop his next move.

Movement in the backyard had him grabbing the binoculars and zooming in on the figures. Jenna Hart and the guy he’d seen at the accident scene yesterday. Today he was more casual in a short-sleeve polo shirt and khakis instead of the white dress shirt and dark slacks.

He focused on Hart. Just his luck that the deputy had found Paul Nelson’s body last night. Or maybe it wasn’t so bad—might make Harrison Carter sweat a little.

Yeah, he liked that idea. What he didn’t like was Jenna Hart being the lead detective—he’d heard someone say that in town this morning. He frowned. The girl was like a bulldog when it came to something she wanted. And she would want to solve this crime.

He lowered the binoculars. If she got too close, he’d just have to take her out, just like Slater and Nelson ... and eventually Carter.

21

Jenna was surprised at how quickly she and Max slipped into their old roles and brainstormed what they needed to do. While they’d waited for their food, he shared the email from his logistics team approving the location of law enforcement personnel.

She checked her watch, not believing they’d been sitting in the booth an hour and a half going over the security measures while they ate.

“Then you agree,” Jenna said, looking up from the notes she’d made on her iPad. “We need ten officers on duty Founders Day?”

Max nodded. “City and county are providing two on the platform along with two of Carter’s private security, four officers out front, and four more in the crowd. Plus Carter’s other two security guys.”

She’d missed these sessions. Jenna scooped up the last bite of peach cobbler in the small bowl and grinned. “That was good.”

He smiled back. “I see you haven’t lost your love of sweets.”

“Yeah. Probably never will.” She glanced at her notes again and grunted. “This is going to be like herding cats.”

“Herding cats?”

---