Page 53 of Final Escape
“What about Billy’s murder? Couldn’t he be a suspect?”
“Dante? I doubt it.”
“Was he ever questioned?”
“I actually did hear that he was, but not for long. He doesn’t always make a lot of sense.”
“Even if he didn’t do it, maybe he saw something suspicious, if he’s been hanging around this area.”
Penny and Logan exchanged glances.
“A slim chance, maybe. But like I said, he’s a recluse. Even if he claimed he’d seen something and was brought in to testify, I doubt a court of law would believe him,” Penny said slowly. “Then again...I suppose anything is possible.”
* * *
AFTER COMING TO GRANITEFalls, Carrie had twice felt the eerie, unseen presence of someone watching her, and she’d seen a prowler once. With the timing of Billy’s emails and his ultimate arrival in town, she’d been sure that he was the one who’d been lurking in the shadows. But now, there was an alternate explanation.
It could have been Dante, with his secretive, vagabond ways, though Logan and Penny had both insisted that the old guy was harmless. Maybe he’d just been curious about someone new moving into his territory.
The more frightening possibility was one that she didn’t want to think about—that the prowler had been Billy’s killer. A killer who was still at large.
Had Billy been a random victim—or a specific target? Knowing her ex-husband, he could’ve headed north to escape serious gambling debts or a run-in with a dangerous element at some honky-tonk bar. That could explain why he’d come back to Montana to find her, and wanted money so badly.
If the guy had come after him from down South, maybe he was long gone. If it had been a random act...
She shivered, thinking about the dense forest and the perfect cover it offered. The rushing water of the nearby river that could mask the sound of someone approaching.
Saying a silent prayer, she tried to shove those fears aside as she showered and put on her favorite Snoopy pj’s and a red summer-weight cotton sweater, then checked her windows and door locks and whistled to Murphy as she headed for bed.
* * *
WATCHING FROM THE SHADOWSat the end of the boathouse, his frustration grew by the minute.
It had seemed so perfect.
A grisly murder on the Bradley property and Logan’s past legal history should have immediately branded him as the lone suspect. Eliminated all future risk and helped settle the past once and for all. Even better, there’d been a perfect victim—one who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had inadvertently seen too much. When he became confrontational there’d been no other option but to eliminate him, but there couldn’t have been a better choice. Learning that the ex-wife probably had good reason to see Billy disappear had been icing on the cake.
But oh, no.
Despite a murder in his own backyard, Logan had come up with an alibi that would probably hold up in court. And now people were beginning to dredge up the topic of Sheryl Colwell’s death again. Starting to think Logan seemed like a “nice young man” and wondering why he’d ever been brought to trial for her murder.
Those questions were dangerous.
Though there’d been no witnesses in either case, questions could lead to more curiosity. And if anyone delved too deeply into Sheryl’s past...
Cursing under his breath, the man lifted his gaze to the curtained windows of the apartment above the rafting company office and watched the silhouette of the woman checking her windows and turning off the lights, one by one.
The sheriff was a fool and the BCI investigators clearly weren’t much better, but he’d been careful to eliminate evidence at each murder scene at any rate, for he was a meticulous man. But Penny, Logan, and Carrie were starting to ask questions around town...and he knew they wouldn’t stop until they’d discovered way too much. They had to be stopped.
And if one of them needed to die to make that happen, so be it.
