Page 115 of Fortune's Control
Detective Davis stared down at the photo I picked out. “Yes, it’s disappointing.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“You’re the only witness who insisted it wasn’t Wilson Skane. I had it all set up, and then you inserted yourself into the whole mess like some crime-fighting superhero.”
Detective Davis’s soft drawl grew harsher and more pronounced.
“What the hell does that mean?” Aiden stood, placing himself between me and the detective. “It’s time for you to leave. Did you notify local authorities of your presence?”
“Why do that when they’d get in the way? But don’t worry, we’ll leave soon. On that part, I couldn’t agree more.” Detective Davis drew a gun. “It’d be better if you were the husband, but she’s here, and that’s enough.”
He fired, and Aiden’s left shoulder jerked before he collapsed on the floor and went still.
Someone cried out.
“Aiden? No.” I reached for him, but the detective aimed his gun at my chest, and I froze. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you don’t know when to shut your damn mouth. I pushed you to leave this alone, but you didn’t listen, and now I’m cleaning up all over again.”
“You know who killed her. You knew it all along,”I said. The killer’s voice didn’t match Wilson Skane’s. He spoke with the same soft accent as Detective Davis. They spoke with the same tone, the same pitch, and the same lilt. My mother commented on it, and I noted it that night. I knew it didn’t match from the beginning, but I didn’t listen. “You sound like him.” How did I miss it?
The detective only gave me a rancid smile.
“My husband will be here any minute. If we don’t help Aiden, you’ll be wanted for murder.”
“Look at all that blood. He’s already dead.” He waved his gun toward Aiden’s body and whistled. “Nelson, get in here.” The detective waved the gun toward me. “Meet my younger brother, Nelson. I don’t think you two have been formally introduced.”
“But that’s impossible,” I said.
Nelson Davis. In all this time, his name never occurred to me. He was always Sandy Cooper’s killer or the man who attacked me.
I studied him. “The goatee is missing.” Otherwise, he was the man in my picture. His black hoodie matched the one he wore the day he tried to run Sophie and me over. It was the same one he wore that night. “I don’t understand.”
“You will. Now, where is your phone?” he asked.
I pulled the phone from my purse and tried to dial, but Nelson grabbed and threw it first.
“You won’t need that. Not where you’re going. Hurry and get what you need, Matty,” he said.
“No, we need to find out what she knows and who she told before we clean up your mess, and we can’t do that here. It’s time to go, before that husband of hers gets back.”
I once read that if an attacker takes you to another location, you’re as good as dead. “What about Aiden? We can’t just leavehim here.”
“He’s not your problem. It’s time to go. Back out the front door.”
Shane would be here soon; all I needed was more time. He’d see an unfamiliar car and immediately grow alert. “Wait. Where are we going? This is a small town, so there aren’t many places to hide.”
Davis laughed. “I already thought of that. Do you think we’d leave without a place to go? I planned this all out.”
But where? “There are people all over this town. It’s tourist season. If you tell me where we’re going, I could help you,” I tried again. “Plus, construction workers are everywhere, and people are fishing. We could stay here. Shane won’t be home for a long time.”
“Do you think we’re dumb?” Nelson asked me. “If it were up to me, you’d be dead already, so do what he says before I get bored and use my knife on you.”
Something sharp poked my back.
With a silent apology to Aiden, I did what he said.
40-Shane
