Page 35 of Colton's Second Chance
“I was. We both very nearly bought the farm. I only spotted the bomb with a few seconds to spare. Scott clearly wanted to take us out along with any evidence in his house.”
Both of Kansas’s hands flew up, palms toward Eli. “Hold on. Back up. Scott who? Not our Scott?”
“Our Scott,” Asher said, though his eyes were closed, “isn’t our Scott, after all.”
“What?” Kansas said, dividing a stunned look between her cousin and Asher.
Eli moved to the corner of the room to drag another chair close to Asher’s bedside. “Have a seat. I’ll give you the lowdown after I get another chair from the hall.”
Noelle gave Kansas a quick smile of greeting when the confused woman glanced at her.
“Noelle, hi.” Kansas blinked as if surprised to see her there. “Were you with them, too?”
“No. I’m just here…for support.”
Clearly Kansas heard the hesitation in her voice, since she gave Noelle a curious look.
“And why areyouhere?” Eli asked his cousin when he stepped back into the room with another chair. “You and Rafferty are always sniping at each other. I wouldn’t have thought after you knew he survived that you’d be so worried about his sorry hide.”
Kansas sat taller in the chair and cast an inscrutable look to Asher before glancing back at her oldest cousin. “Let’s just say things aren’t always what they seem.”
Eli’s brow snapped into a deep V. “What?”
Kansas ignored her cousin’s confused frown. “Answer my question first. What did you mean about Scott? How is he connected to the explosion?”
“His house,” Asher said.
Kansas gasped. “Was Scott hurt? Was he—”
“He wasn’t there,” Eli said quickly. “He’s likely the one who set the bomb, with the intention of killing me and anyone who came with me to his house.”
Kansas was clearly having a hard time taking in the truths Eli was laying out. Recognizing this, Noelle stepped in with more background.
“I volunteered to help Eli analyze the case with some data software I work with,” she explained, “and it turned up inconsistencies with the forensic data. Based on the patterns of irregular information the program revealed, we think Scott Montgomery has been deliberately sabotaging the Fiancée Killer investigation.”
Kansas glanced to her cousin, then to Asher for confirmation.
Eli nodded, and Noelle expounded on the information from the files she’d input, the resources she’d used as backup, the cross-references, the charts she’d double-checked and the patterns of misinformation her analysis had uncovered.
“I called Scott early this morning, after Noelle showed us what she’d found. He agreed to meet with me. He asked that we meet at his house for privacy.” Eli took a beat, and his expression darkened. Noelle saw guilt in his eyes when he glanced at his injured partner. “I asked Asher to come with me as backup.”
“Wasn’t there. Rigged a bomb for us,” Asher mumbled, clearly fuzzy from his painkiller.
“He left a note,” Eli said, pulling a crumped sheet from his pocket. “Just sayssurprise. I’d say that’s evidence the bomb was intentional.”
“Surprise… I’d say so.” Asher chuckled dryly, then groaned in pain.
Noelle frowned as she mulled the situation. “Are you saying he had time to rig a bomb and make his getaway in the couple of hours between your call this morning and when you arrived? That’s hard to fathom.”
Eli shot her a startled look. “I hadn’t thought about that before now, but you’re right. He had to have had the materials at his house already and known what he was doing to rig the explosive that quickly.”
Asher grunted. “Or already made. In case we found out.”
Noelle gasped. “So he could have been waiting for you to make the connection between him and the Fiancée Killer and set the trap days or weeks ago?”
“And only set the trigger at the door when he knew we were coming for him,” Eli said in a dark tone of dawning understanding. “Damn it.”
“But I don’t…” Kansas began, her expression saying she was struggling to take in this turn of events. “You’re saying youthink Scott Montgomery is the Fiancée Killer? That’s…crazy. I mean, Scott has always been so…nice.” She furrowed her brow and slumped in her chair, her hurt and confusion plain in her expression. “A bit of a geek, yes. But he’s never seemed like the sort who could kill anyone. Much lessfivewomen. Or his coworkers!”
