Page 7 of Justice for Aleta

“It was all black. And it had this symbol on it, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.”

A fucking Ruger. She DID see a gun!“That’s the emblem for a gun. Do you know which one?”

“I don’t know anything about guns, but I’ve seen it at the sporting goods store before. I just don’t know what it is.”

“It’s the logo for Ruger weaponry.”

“Huh.” She sat back and furrowed her brows, her eyes glancing upward in thought. Then she looked back to him. “So you believe me?”

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to think we missed a crucial piece of evidence, but yes?I believe that’s what you thought you saw.”

Her lids narrowed and those hazel eyes flashed with fire. “But are you going todo something with it?”

“Yes. I will. I promise.”

“Good. I knew I needed to talk to you. Youarean angel, Jack. You just don’t know it yet.” She grinned and for the first time, Jack saw her as something more than a broken, bloodied body. The woman across the table from him had beautiful eyes, long, dark lashes, a headful of thick, dark, shoulder-length hair, and full, rosy lips. There was something else too. He’d noticed it as he’d followed her across the parking lot.

The woman wasstacked. She was pleasantly curvy and perfectly proportioned. Her heart-shaped ass was more than noteworthy even with that horrible brace on her leg. She wasn’t wearing a lot of makeup, and her clothes weren’t fancy, but they were flattering and clean. There was at least a little pride left in her appearance. He knew how he’d felt four months after Heather died, and yet this woman had lost her husbandandher baby, and she was still pulling herself together. Before he could stop himself, he said, “Aleta, I just want you to know that I admire you. You’re really moving forward and trying to have a life. My hat’s off to you.”

“You’ve lost somebody too, haven’t you?” He started to say something, but she interrupted. “I can see it in your eyes. You know, people who’ve lost someone, their faces look the same, but their eyes look older. Not old like old people. Old like wise. Like they’re holding that love inside and hoping to never lose it. So who was it?”

“My fiancée, Heather. She had leukemia. She fought it for eight years, but it finally took her.”Why am I telling her this?Jack wondered, and then it hit him. She understood. She could understand his pain, his longing, his loss. She could understand those early mornings when Heather’s ghost was so real he could reach out and touch it. Swallowing hard, he looked her in the eye. “I miss her every minute of every day. I don’t think I’ll ever love another woman.”

Aleta’s smile was gentle and warm. “You will someday. You’ll just have to meet the right woman, that’s all.”

Jack gave a little chuckle. “That’s what my mom says.”

“You have a very wise mom,” Aleta said and let out a chuckle of her own. “Oh, here’s our food.” The server placed her appetizer and salad in front of her and Jack’s burger in front of him. Just like that, everything was back to where it had been before that extraordinary conversation.

But it wasn’t. There was something about her that pulled at Jack, some inexplicable draw that made him want to talk to her, to look into her face, to hear her soft, lilting voice. For reasons he didn’t understand, he wanted to know her better and spend more time with her.

When they finished their food and small talk, he walked with her back to her car. As she opened the door, she turned to him and smiled. “See? I was right. Youarean angel, Jack. By the way, what’s your last name?”

“Fletcher. JackFletcher.”

“Well, pleasure to actually meet you, JackFletcher. I hope our paths cross again sometime.”

“Me too, Aleta.” He waited until she was in her little Toyota and had the door closed before he wandered over to his Camaro.

He had a shotgun to pick up, but that was going to have to wait. Before he went anywhere else, he had to talk to the forensics team that went over that car. There were a lot of things he didn’t believe, but there was one he did.

If AletaCulp said she saw a gun and heard a gunshot, he was pretty sure she had.

* * *

“Nope. No bullet hole anywhere.”DexterYates shut Jack down immediately, but the trooper was having none of that.

“I know you didn’t find one, but I’m telling you, the woman says there was a gun and she heard a gunshot.”

“When did she tell you this?” Dexter asked and Jack blushed.

“I ran into her and she recognized me. She told me she had something she had to tell me, and that was it.”

“If I recall,” Dexter growled, taking his usual surly tack on things, “she was pretty well out of it when you got to the scene and was out for several weeks in the hospital.”

“Yes, but she has no knowledge of guns?none?and she insists she saw a gun and heard a shot. And she described a logo, a Ruger logo. I believe her.”

“Then why didn’t we find it?”

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