Page 21 of Reclaiming his Honor
This guy was a real piece of work. What the hell did Ellie see in him?
Granted, Turner was drunk—possibly very drunk—but his true colors were the same no matter his sobriety level. Sloan appeared in the distance, and Mac raised his hand to tell him to stay put. He didn’t trust Turner, and didn’t want the other man to know HERO Force was here.
Turner was prattling on about people pretending to be more important than they were. Mac was pretty sure the monologue was meant to be insulting to him, but he didn’t care, and besides, he had something more important to turn over in his mind. Was Turner just trying to make himself sound important by saying he was at Godak’s execution? What other possible reason could there be?
The TV reporter droned on in the background. …have looked at several suspects, checking each of their alibis…
Alibis. When they were strong enough, they could exonerate someone despite all the evidence in the world to the contrary. Mac had seen some doozies in his day, even some that had seemed iron clad until they fell apart in an instant.
Alibis.
Take Turner, for example. What if he said he was at the execution so he couldn’t have been somewhere else? Like strangling their Jane Doe and dumping her in the river?
No one would have questioned it. He was the detective in charge of the case. He had every right to be at the execution. And if he said that’s where he’d been, who would even check to be sure he was telling the truth?
He pinched the skin between his eyes. It had been a long couple of days, and now he was mentally accusing a former law enforcement officer of murdering a woman on behalf of a serial killer. He interrupted Turner’s rambling, losing patience for the other man. “I gotta hit the head. ‘Scuse me.”
He walked past Sloan and Moto, knowing they would follow him to the john. When they did, Sloan checked the stalls before talking. “You’re not going to believe this, Mac. We did some checking, and your friend Turner isn’t a real police officer.”
Mac cocked his head. “He’s a detective.”
“Not by a long shot,” said Moto. “He’s an ex-con from Tulsa. He worked as a department store clerk in Albuquerque for three years before making up this fictional police detective and planting himself in the Mobile PD.”
“And guess who his cellmate was in Tulsa?” asked Sloan with a smile. “Come on, guess.”
“Arnold Godak,” said Mac, understanding crystallizing in his brain.
“Yep,” said Moto. “Godak was serving five years for B&E while Turner was in for passing bad checks from a dead man. Looks like they forged a friendship that lasted.”
“Turner was running the serial killer investigation. He could have steered everyone in the wrong direction, keeping Godak from getting caught,” said Mac.
Sloan scoffed. “Hell, he could have been killing women with Godak, for that matter. Anything’s possible.”
“Jesus Christ,” said Mac. “What if he was?”
Everything he knew about the case flew through his mind. “Godak stalked his victims for weeks before abducting them.”
Godak had stalked Ellie, but on the night he decided to take her, he’d gotten Ursula instead.
What if it wasn’t Godak doing the stalking? What if it had been Turner all along?
“Ellie. I have to find Ellie,” Mac said. “You two stay on Turner. No matter what, don’t let him out of your sight.”
They left the men’s room, and got the tiki bar in sight. Mac’s heart flailed as fear doused his bloodstream with adrenaline.
The tiki bar was empty.
Turner was gone.
CHAPTER13
Ellie dropped Callie and Lewis at the hotel, then went to do some shopping. She’d brought relaxing, comfortable clothing for her time at the resort after the wedding, but she wanted to look nice when she met with Mac tomorrow.
She hadn’t asked him to join her. Not yet. But she was going to. Maybe dinner at that casual restaurant on the beach, or a private sunset dinner cruise. She was ready to make a new beginning, and she wanted everything to be perfect.
So she’d found a pretty pink dress that flattered her figure and made her feel beautiful, and paired it with new pink sandals and simple silver jewelry, her mind focused on the day ahead as she shopped. She’d already decided it would be tomorrow, giving herself this evening and the night to revel in the anticipation of wanting him. There was something decadent in the wanting, and in knowing she would have him in her bed once more.
Her cheeks heated at the thought. It was going to be a very long night without him. Stepping out into the sun, she pulled her phone and ordered an Uber to return her to the hotel.
