Page 11 of Deadly Revenge

Already Jenna regretted her decision to let Emma stay. “Just looking.”

There was nothing on the floor where Slater parked the Hummer. She tilted her head. If the pin came out here in the garage, it could’ve bounced.

She knelt and swept the light under the Cadillac. Jenna caught her breath when the light picked up a tiny object.

“Is something wrong?”

For a second she’d forgotten Emma. “No, but I’m going to crawl under the Cadillac.”

She dropped to her stomach and scooted under the Escalade. Seconds later she carefully picked up a familiar piece of steel and scooted out. Jenna held the pin by the ends with her finger and thumb, careful not to touch the rest of it.

It wasn’t broken. That meant someone pulled it out.

She’d been right all along!

“What did you find?” Emma asked.

Proof that someone murdered Joe Slater and his wife. Jenna raised her gaze to the hurting woman, and her elation dimmed. “Just something I need to show my boss.”

5

From his hiding place above the accident scene, he scanned the area with his binoculars, recognizing each deputy at the site. Earlier his heart had almost stopped when there’d been another officer. White short-sleeve shirt, dark slacks—didn’t look like a Russell County deputy. TBI, maybe, but why would Slater’s accident attract the interest of a Bureau investigator? His nerves settled a little when the man left with the chief deputy.

Shifting the binoculars away from the accident scene, he found Jenna and watched as she walked toward the house. She had almost reached where he dropped the castle nut.Don’t miss it.A smile thinned his lips as she knelt beside the road. He zoomed in the field glasses so he could see what she held in her hand.

Yes. She’d found the castle nut.Good girl.

Now that she’d found it, she would look harder for the pin. Earlier she and the other deputy had missed it. He watched as she examined the nut, then started walking toward the house. She knelt to pick up something. Too close to be the pin. She tossed whatever it was to the ground and walked on toward the house. Jenna stopped again right where he’d dropped the pin. After picking it up and examining it, she put it in a small bag.

He’d seen all he needed to see. Time to go.

Last night’s events looped through his mind while he hiked through the woods to his truck. It had been a dumb mistake not picking up the cotter pin, but when Slater came into the garage, it’d startled him. He’d forgotten dropping it ... until he woke this morning. He’d rushed over to search the garage, arriving just in time to see Slater deadbolt the door and set an alarm before they left.

Picking a lock, no big deal, but the alarm was a different matter. Slater hadn’t set it the night before when he got in, and there hadn’t been time to figure it out today. He’d rummaged around in the toolbox on the back of his pickup until he found a cotter pin and then planted it along the road.

Killing someone was the easy part. Manipulating the evidence was another matter.

6

Jenna tapped her hand on her leg, waiting for Emma to lock up, the cotter pin practically burning a hole in her pocket. Then she walked with Emma to her Lexus. “Thanks for letting me in.”

“You’re welcome.” She glanced around. “Where’s your car?”

“It’s—” She’d almost said at the crime scene. “Down the hill.”

“Oh.” Emma glanced toward the road. “Uh ... do you want me to drop you off?”

Jenna shook her head. She would not ask the woman to revisit the site of her brother’s death. “It won’t take me a minute to jog down there, but thanks.”

“I-I hate for you—”

They shifted their attention as a pickup with a flashing yellow light on top came into view at the bottom of the hill. Her dad, delivering the mail. She groaned silently. He would also want to know what was going on. She might as well tell him since it would be all over the county by afternoon, anyway. If it wasn’t already. “That’s my dad. He’ll give me a ride.”

“I’ll walk to the mailbox with you—I need to get their mail.”

It was probably a good idea for someone to be with her. Thatway her dad would be hesitant to try and pry information from Jenna.

“So your dad’s our mailman? He’s such a nice man.”

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