Page 70 of Deadly Revenge

Jenna hadn’t scanned the documents in her folder, and she pulled them out, forcing herself to examine them. No matter if he had hair or no hair, she would always recognize him from his hard brown eyes and the arrogant smirk on his face. She stared at the photo with longer hair ... Had that been the man in her window?

“Any chance he could be connected to the murders of Slater and Nelson?” Wayne asked.

“It would be a far stretch to connect him to them,” Alex said.

A timer went off on the chief deputy’s watch. “That’s all for right now. If you come across anyone who’s seen Sebastian, call me or Jenna immediately.”

She nodded to Max and Jenna. “My office?”

Jenna followed Alex, feeling much like she had when the principal summoned her in high school, which was absurd.

“Sorry to spring the earlier briefing on you,” Alex said. She placed the files from the briefing beside her and sat on the cornerof her desk. “But Harrison Carter has an appointment in Chattanooga and requested we meet at nine instead of ten—he has agreed to give us thirty minutes.”

“Very generous of him,” Max said.

“Yeah. The location is still the park since his security people want to check it out.”

She turned her attention to Jenna. “Nathan is picking me up in a few minutes, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. You turned kind of pale when I showed Sebastian’s photo.”

“I’m fine—it reminded me of how slippery he is. I wish we had a photo of him since his release.”

Alex glanced down at the photo on top of her files. “Me too. I’d like to get Dani Collins to do a drawing of what he’d look like if he beefed up in prison—a lot of inmates do since they have so much free time. But that will have to wait until she returns with Mark later this week.”

A text dinged on Alex’s phone. “Nathan’s here. Do either of you have any questions?” When they didn’t, she said, “See you at the park.”

A few minutes later, Jenna followed Max to their vehicles.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” She clenched her jaw. “Everyone acts like I’m this fragile porcelain doll.” Jenna squared her shoulders. “See you at the park.”

35

Max followed Jenna to the park, and they arrived at the same time as Alex and Nathan. Dave Martin, the park director, soon joined them, but his assistant, Derrick Holliday, was missing. Not surprising since he’d made his feelings about Carter known.

At 9:15, Carter hadn’t shown. It wasn’t until almost 9:30 before he arrived with his entourage. That was the only word Max could come up with when he saw security vehicles in front of and behind the senate candidate’s Cadillac.

Carter emerged from the back seat and smoothed his hand over his hundred-dollar haircut. The man had class—Max had to give him that. His suit fit like it was tailor-made and probably was. Max wagered it cost more than most voters in Tennessee made in a month.

“Good to see you again,” Carter said in his radio voice. He shook hands with each of them, and then walked with Martin to the area where he would be speaking.

“He’d probably kiss a baby or two if any were here,” Jenna muttered, and Max nudged her.

“Well, it’s true,” she said.

“Yeah, but you don’t want him to hear you.” From what Maxhad seen, running for election was a business like anything else, and Carter had it down pat. He also had the good looks and confident air to be successful.

Carter was no worse than a lot of other politicians Max had met—a mile wide and an inch deep. He ducked his head and grinned at his grandfather’s old saying.

A few minutes later, the former mayor approached them. “So, you think you have the security all arranged?”

Nathan and Alex deferred to Max.

“Yes, sir.” Max handed him a copy of what he’d drawn and spent the next fifteen minutes showing Carter and his security team the locations detailed on the map.

“We’ll have people positioned at each of the spots marked with an X,” he said, wrapping it up. “Are you still good with providing four of your own security people?”

“Yes. I realize this is a small county, and security might not be adequate.”

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