Page 155 of Montana Manhunt

His lips curved. “I did a poor job of it. You’re still here and injured.”

“What will you do now, Fitz?”

The cop’s smile faded. “I don’t know what to do. The new police chief will probably fire me. I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”

Noah frowned. “You did nothing wrong.”

“Yeah? Who’s going to believe I’m an innocent bystander in this thing? Either I’m a poor cop for not seeing what was right in front of me, or I knew the truth and did nothing. Either way, I’m out of a job.”

“Not necessarily. You have alibis for all the murders, Hanson. We’ll give the detectives our research results. It’s up to you to convince them you didn’t know the truth about your father and brother. The question is, do you still want to be a cop?”

Fitz sighed. “More than anything on this planet.”

“This is your chance to become the cop you should have been from the day you put on that uniform. Show the citizens of Morrison what an outstanding cop should be. This is your last chance to get it right. Don’t waste the gift.”

Fitz squared his shoulders and gave Noah a curt nod, then turned his attention back to Violet. “For what it’s worth, I apologize for how I behaved in high school, Violet.”

“That’s worth gold to me, Fitz. Thank you.” Violet sighed. “I’m sorry about the loss of your brother.”

“You protected yourself from a man who planned to kill you.” One corner of his mouth kicked up. “He chose the wrong woman this time. There’s no way to know how many women you saved by killing Jeff.”

Fitz stepped back. “If we see each other again, I hope it’s under happier circumstances. Live your life to the fullest, Violet. Camilla would want that for you.” He turned and strode toward his patrol car.

When Fitz was out of earshot, Violet said, “Well, that was unexpected. I thought he’d blame me for what happened to his father and brother.”

“So did I.” Noah wrapped his arm around Violet’s waist and got her moving toward the SUV again. “Come on. Let’s get you inside the vehicle. You need to get off your feet.”

“Violet!”

Violet froze a moment, then she turned to face her aunt. “Yes, ma’am?”

Noah eased slightly in front of Violet, ready to intervene if necessary. Grant and Rayne flanked them, alert and ready to help.

“You need to go to the police immediately.”

“Why?”

“To talk them into dropping all charges against James.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is a horrible mistake. James didn’t kill any of those women.”

Violet stared. “Aunt Rosalie, he murdered Cami and about half of the other women. His son, Jeff, murdered the rest of them.”

“That’s a vicious lie. Why must you always hurt me? Isn’t it enough that you ruined my life for ten years? Must you destroy my happiness for the rest of it? I love him, Violet. You must drop the charges.”

Violet shook her head. “He killed my sister and tried to kill me. If you want to wait for him to get out of prison, be my guest, but you’ll be waiting a long time.”

Rosalie’s face turned red. “We had plans to travel around the world.”

Noah snorted. “On whose dime?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I know what you did, Ms. Trevelyan.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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