Page 89 of Colton's Last Resort

“Why?” she asked, pulling back far enough to scan his face.

He stiffened. “I think I know who killed Allison.”

“CJ Knight?” she asked.

“He was taking private lessons. I confirmed that. But I think I’ve been looking in the wrong place.”

“Talk it through with me,” she invited.

He eased back some, his hands lowering to her outer thighs. “KBis Kim Blankenship. Allison went to her bungalow for a lesson the day she died. But I don’t think it’s her either.”

“Then who?” Laura asked.

His eyes hardened.“DG.”

“You know who that is?”

“I think it stands for Doug DeGraw.”

She squinted past the thumping behind her temples. “Isn’t that CJ Knight’s manager?”

“Yes.”

“What makes you think he’s guilty?”

“Other than that he’s a complete and utter douchebag?” Noah drawled.

She sighed, nodded. “Yes.”

“He was trying to flex on one woman. Ariana.”

“Fitzgibbons,” she said, plucking the name out of her memory files. “She’s a new television personality. Beautiful, smiley, bubbly—”

“Like my sister.”

She stopped. “They look similar,” she granted.

Noah swore. “She’s a dead ringer for Allison. And she knows things about spiritualism and symbolism. I felt like I wasn’t just looking at Allison. I felt like I was talking to her, too.”

“Noah,” she whispered. “I can understand how that must have felt. I know how it would have affected me. But is the fact that Doug DeGraw was hitting on Ariana Fitzgibbons the only reason you believe he killed Allison?”

“No,” he said vehemently. “He saw the bracelet. He recognized it.”

When he lifted his arm, she saw the evil-eye pendant around his wrist. “How do you know he recognized it? Did he say something?”

“Yeah.” Noah’s jaw locked from the strain. His hands gripped the arms of the chair again. His knuckles whitened. “He said he knew a woman who wore one. He said she was a real peach. I could’ve killed him on the spot.”

“Okay,” she said soothingly, laying her hands across his shoulders. “Let’s just take a minute.” For all his wrath, she could feel the grief emanating off him and she wanted to hold him until those waves came to shore. “I don’t think you’re in any condition to drive back to Sedona tonight.” When he started to refuse, she spoke over him. “There’s rain coming in. The roads will be wet, possibly icy. And it’s after six—too late for you to make any headway.”

“I need to nail this guy,” he told her. “I need to look into his history, his record, his behavior—”

“Come home with me.” She touched his face. “We’ll soak in the pool, order dinner, then turn in before nine. That way, you can be up and out the door first thing in the morning. And you’ll have the whole day to do whatever it is you need to do.”

His frantic gaze raced over her. “It’s him, Laura. He’s the one who took Allison’s life. He must’ve lured her to his bungalow, drugged her, then...”

A sob wavered out of her. She shook her head quickly. “Stop. Please, stop.”

He released a long, ragged breath, dropping his head. “I still want to kill him. Crabtree was right. If I find something on DeGraw, I’ll need to hand the arrest over to Fulton. If it’s me... I don’t know if I have what it takes not to put a bullet in him.”

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