Page 21 of Out to Get Her
“That’s why I’ve gotyouto help me. You can tell me everyone’s stories.”
He stared at her a bit longer, a deep frown set on his face, but they both knew she’d won already.
“Aw hell, why not.”
ChapterEight
Samantha tappedthe pencil eraser on the legal pad in front of her. At the top, she’d written “suspects” and underlined the word twice.
The rest of the page was blank.
Dustin walked by with a fresh mug of coffee and tapped a finger on the edge of her desk as he passed. “Want me to just print out a list of every known resident instead?”
She couldn’t come up with a response, funny or otherwise. Her head was throbbing, her brain bouncing against the words of a certain deputy taking up unwelcome residency in her skull, and she had a town full of people her victim had pissed off.
“Might as well.” She was normally optimistic at the beginning of any new investigation. After all, she’d never bumped up against a case she hadn’t solved. Being completely stumped was unfamiliar territory for Samantha, and it was frustrating the heck out of her.
“All right,” Dustin said in a chipper voice. The Pollyanna to her Eeyore. “Let’s start easy. The usual suspects.”
Samantha took a deep breath and sighed. “Fine.”
“Romantic partner?”
They were both quiet, while a nearby Connie couldn’t hold back a chuckle.
Paul had managed to annoy every person in this town at one time or another, so he’d long ago tainted his own stock as a potential romantic partner. Most people in town wouldn’t speak to him, much less go out to dinner with him.
But people were mostly annoyed by his stray comments. Samantha couldn't remember anything serious enough to induce a fit of murderous rage or even vengeful payback.
He did have an ex-wife. They’d dated in high school, annoyed each other through twenty years of marriage, then got a quiet divorce, after which she moved to Florida with her sister. No one had seen her around Etta for several years, and Samantha couldn’t think of a single reason she’d bother lifting a finger to kill Paul for.
“Okay, next,” Dustin said. “Business partner?”
Paul had been a welder who worked alone out of his own backyard workshop. “Could be an irate customer.” Samantha jotted that down at the bottom of her page.
“Fishing buddy?” Dustin asked.
Who on earth would kill someone over a recreational fishing dispute?
Only a handful of people were left in this town still willing to even get in a car with Paul, let alone sit in a boat with the guy for half a day. She couldn’t imagine any of them going through the trouble to kill Paul the way he died. They’d more likely just push him out of the boat.
Still, she jotted their names down, anyway. “Worth a look.”
“Sibling?”
Samantha shook her head. His parents were both long gone from this world and his younger brother had gotten a football scholarship to Michigan State and never looked back. No one had seen him in years. Paul didn’t even talk about him. And Paul did alotof talking.
That could indicate some bad blood, but there was no inheritance or family land or anything for the brothers to fight over. By all accounts, they just didn’t exist to each other anymore.
“Another relative?” Dustin frowned. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you’ve got to consider—”
“I know,” she said, a little sharper than she’d intended. Truth was, she knew exactly who she had to put at the top of this list, but she didn’t want to write the name down and look at it.
“You want me to talk to him instead?”
Yes.For the love of everything, yes, please.
“No, I should be the one to do it.”
