Page 434 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“So now you’re gonna kill me?” Jacob felt like his heart was going to give out. He didn’t know if it was shame or the heartbreak of finally seeing reality.

“Murder-suicide.” Hank’s voice had no inflection. No emotion. “There was nothing I could do. After you confessed to Mona’s murder and everyone else’s, you took your life.”

Jacob gritted his teeth. It wasn’t just blood rolling down his face. “You think Addie is gonna believe that?”

“She knew all about it. She’ll tell me that before she dies.”

“I want to see her.” Jacob said, “You and I have been friends a long time. Give me that at least. You want to get away with all this, pin it on me? Fine. But I want to tell her goodbye.”

Hank straightened from his crouch and stepped back.

He walked to the door and outside. Slammed it behind him so the whole cabin shook. Jacob heard a lock click into place.

Mona blinked her eyes open and sat up. “We can agree he’s completely crazy, right?”

Jacob nearly started full-on crying he was so relieved at seeing her awake. At not being alone. Even if it was Addie’s sister, and he couldn’t protect her in this condition.

He didn’t even know if he could stand. Right now, it seemed like she might be able to protect herself.

She bent her legs and stood. “How about we figure out how to get out of here?”

Jacob agreed. “I don’t want to know what happens if we stay.”

Mona got to her feet. He saw a wince of pain cross her face, but she pushed it aside. The way Russ taught her to. The way Addie would.

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

Mona looked him over and winced. “This isn’t going to be fun.”

“But it’ll be over.”

One way or another.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Addie leaned on the rail at the end of the bed. “Are you sure?”

Russ lay in the bed wearing a hospital gown, a bandage wrapped around his head. He didn’t have a concussion, thankfully. But he’d been bleeding badly when an ambulance got to the house. Jacob and Mona were both missing.

“Am I sure I saw Hank Maxwell step over me after he clocked me on the back of the head?”

She blew out a breath. “I just have to be sure.”

Taking a blow to the head would make anyone out of it. Enough they could be confused about what they’d seen.

“I know.” Russ made a face. “Because I know how this works, Ad’.”

She walked around and handed him the water cup beside the bed.

He drank begrudgingly.

“Did he say anything about where he was taking them?” she asked. “Anything at all?”

Russ didn’t shake his head. “I never liked that boy.”

Lachlan stood beside the door. When Russ said that, he perked up. “Oh, so you knew he was a serial killer, and you said nothing?”

Lachlan had been trying to shift the blame ever since she’d made it plain just how wrong he’d been about Hank Maxwell, the decorated detective both he and the chief considered their golden boy. When this came out, the public would raise an outcry about how the police had concealed a killer for years. As if they’d known.

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