Page 67 of One Final Target

“Myself?” He snorted in disdain. “You owe me something, Jodie. Talk to your uncle.”

She leaned back against the door. Jodie had no wish to hurt him, but she couldn’t throw him a bone.

“Ian, I can’t change what happened. I’m sorry. I miss everyone as much as you do, and I want to see justice done. You’re angry—I understand—but I think you need to sit this one out and take care of you.”

“Spare me your pity. I get it.” His face was red with rage. “You should have waited. Those deaths will always be on your head.”

“Yes, I know.”

CHAPTER36

WHILE THE COMPUTER RELIEF OWNERread the warrants, Sam turned to Tara.

“I think I should go chat with Martin.”

She frowned. “Now?”

“Here on his home turf he might be more inclined to open up. I don’t want to drag him to the station.”

She took a beat to consider his suggestion, and he really didn’t think she liked the idea. This surprised Sam. Divide and conquer was a successful tactic for him and Rick. Maybe he’d been without a partner too long. Well, if she wanted them to stay together, he’d deal with it.

Finally she nodded. “Yeah, okay, I can handle the records.”

Tara stayed with the owner, poring over the accounts Dennis was responsible for, while Sam took Martin to a private room in the store.

“Martin, I’m Detective Sam Gresham. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about Dennis.”

“I’m not sure what I can tell you. Yeah, we were friends and stuff, but he was never the most open of people.” He seemed to want to say something else, and Sam wanted to keep him talking.

“You have a question?”

“I saw the news, the reports about a bomb under his house. Do you really think Dennis planted C-4? And he killed those four officers up in the mountains?”

“The evidence points toward him.”

Martin shook his head. “I thought he was a little off, but murdering people is crazy.”

“Off how?”

“He could be obsessive.”

Sam prompted him to keep going.

“Like being a cop. He got me started. We studied together, worked out together—he was way more into it than I was. He even had a private trainer.”

“What, like at a health club?”

“No. He claimed he had a cop buddy helping him train.”

Sam stiffened. Would finding the other half be this easy? “You’re sure it was a cop?”

“Dennis said so.”

“Did you ever meet this guy?”

“No. I wasn’t sure he was telling the truth. The guy could have been a security guard for all I knew. Dennis could exaggerate at times. Or maybe he just had a YouTube video with a workout hefollowed. It didn’t seem to help. He barely passed the physical test. Even I did better on it than he did.”

“Did he say why he wanted to be a cop?”

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