Page 58 of Mile High Mystery

Shelby ran to him and scooped up the gun Janelle had dropped. They stood for a moment, staring down at the woman on the ground. She was curled in a fetal position, moaning.

“Hey! What’s going on over there!”

Zach directed the light toward the sound and saw a man in shorts and sandals standing in the road. Shelby moved toward him. “I’m with the FBI,” she called. “Please drive until you get a cell signal and call 911. We’re going to need the sheriff and an ambulance.”

The man hesitated, staring. “Go!” Shelby urged. “Please. It’s important.”

He nodded and ran back down the road. Zach knelt beside Janelle and felt at her throat for a pulse. She opened her eyes. “I think you broke my shoulder,” she said.

“It will heal,” he said. “Lie still. The ambulance will be here soon.”

She groaned and closed her eyes again.

Shelby came to stand beside him. “I can’t believe I was wrong about everything,” she said. “The Chalk brothers didn’t kill the judge or your sister.”

Zach put an arm around her and pulled her close. “They orchestrated the judge’s killing and ordered Camille killed, too,” he said. “That makes them responsible.”

She continued to stare at Janelle. “She killed her own brother. That’s so horrible.”

“It is. But it’s over now.”

She glanced at him. “Is it? The Chalk brothers will say they didn’t know anything about this. They’re very good at making people believe them.”

He blew out a breath. Was she right? “Let’s just focus on now,” he said. “We’re safe. We’re together. That’s all I want to think about.” That was all that really mattered, wasn’t it?

Chapter Seventeen

Shelby’s eyelids felt as if they were lined with sandpaper, and her mouth tasted like old socks soaked in bad coffee. She sat in an interview room at the Rayford County Sheriff’s Department, across from Special Agent in Charge Lester, who had arrived at dawn with a team of federal marshals who took custody of Janelle Chalk. She hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours and wasn’t sure what time it was now—probably before nine in the morning. All she wanted was a shower and to crawl into bed, preferably with Zach, whom she hadn’t seen since they had arrived at the sheriff’s department in separate vehicles hours ago.

She had spent most of the hours since then giving her statement to Sheriff Walker, then repeating the story for Lester. Her account of Janelle’s statements about the judge’s death, and the admission that Janelle had murdered both Camille and her brother, had sharpened his attention, and he had her repeat everything twice.

“Zach Gregory’s sighting of Martin Chalk outside the pub that night confirms that Martin was at the scene,” Lester said. “But Janelle is refusing to say anything now that she’s in custody.”

“Zach heard the same thing I did,” Shelby said. “He’ll confirm my story.”

“And Charlie and Christopher will deny having anything to do with her and her brothers,” Lester said.

“We can find more evidence,” she said. “We can make a case against them. Especially if we can persuade Janelle to talk. She might do it if we promise her a deal.”

“Wewill not be doing anything,” he said. “I’m removing you from the case.”

The shock of this statement cut through her fatigue. “Why?”

Lester’s expression was grim. “For one thing, I understand you’ve become personally involved with Zach Gregory.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but what could she say? She couldn’t deny her feelings for Zach. “I know how to keep my personal and private lives separate,” she said. “And it’s not as if I’m involved with a member of the Chalk family.”

“You’re being reassigned. And you’re booked on a one o’clock flight back to Houston.” He checked his watch. “You should have just enough time to change clothes, gather your belongings and get to the airport.”

“I’d like to see Zach before I leave.”

“That isn’t possible.”

“Why not?” Alarm jolted through her. “Is something wrong? Is he all right?”

“Zach and his parents are going into witness security as of right now. Practically the first words out of Janelle Chalk’s mouth when we spoke to her were that her uncles would wipe out the Gregory family in revenge for Zach hurting her.”

“I’m not sure she’s as valuable to her uncles as she believes she is,” Shelby said.

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