Page 130 of Proof of Guilt

“Start talking,” Theo ordered him. He stepped closer to his uncle, violating his personal space, and August spared him a glance before his gaze darted away.

“I found the watch shortly after Travis’s trial,” August explained after a long pause. “It was in the barn at Travis’s ranch.” He looked up at Theo. “You know that corner where your daddy used to store sacks of feed? Well, there were some loose boards on the wall,” he said when Theo nodded. “I looked behind them and saw the watch.”

Theo tilted his head, his mouth tightening. Gabriel had a similar expression—one of skepticism.

“SAPD went through that barn,” Theo reminded him. “So did Gabriel and Jameson.”

August nodded. “So did I, and I didn’t see it. Someone had tucked it up behind the boards. I think the only reason I found it was that some of the nails had given way and caused the board to come loose.”

Ivy supposed it was possible that Travis had taken the watch and then hidden it there. Well, it was believable if you discounted the fact that Travis had been drunk the night of the murders. Apparently, he’d been so drunk that he’d passed out shortly thereafter.

“How do you think my dad’s watch got there?” Ivy came out and asked.

“I have no idea.” Now August shifted his attention to her. “But this still doesn’t make my brother guilty. The killer could have easily planted it there hours and even days after the crime. Like I said, I didn’t find it until after the trial, and that was months later.”

“You found it and yet you didn’t turn it over to Gabriel?” Theo’s mouth was in a flat line now.

“I couldn’t see the point of it,” August answered without hesitation. “Travis had just gotten a life sentence. I didn’t think it would do much good if folks knew a dead man’s watch had been found in his alleged killer’s barn.”

“It wasn’t alleged,” Gabriel said. “He was convicted. And you should have given the watch to me instead of trying to use it as some kind of ploy to set up Lacey Vogel.”

“What?” August jumped to his feet, and she saw that flash of temper that’d been missing the last couple of minutes. “Is that what she said I did? Because I sure as hell didn’t.”

Theo and Gabriel exchanged more glances. Confused ones. Ivy was right there with them.

“Someone put the watch on Lacey’s vehicle,” Theo explained. “She tossed the watch aside, and that person then took it and sent it to a lab. It has both Sherman Beckett’s blood and Lacey’s prints. Not your prints, though. Why is that if you’re the one who found it?”

August’s gaze slashed between the two lawmen, and his eyes widened before he cursed again. “My prints weren’t on it because I used a paper towel to pick it up. I then wrapped it in that towel and put it in Travis’s house. In plain view on the coffee table in the living room. I figured if Jodi and Theo came back, they’d see it and turn it in.”

Theo huffed. “Why the hell would you do that?”

Ivy wanted to know the same thing. To the best of her knowledge, Theo and Jodi had never gone back to the house. Like her own parents’ house, Travis’s place had been empty. Abandoned.

“I didn’t want the watch at my house,” August said as if that explained everything. “I just figured it’d be better if I left it at Travis’s.”

“Better because it would seem as if someone had put it there to taunt the police,” Theo snapped. “You did that to try to make my father look innocent. Or at least that’s why you did if you’re telling us the truth.”

“I am,” August insisted.

Maybe he was, but if so, he didn’t deny Theo’s accusation about leaving the watch to make Travis appear innocent.

“Someone must have taken the watch from Travis’s house,” August went on. “But why would that person then want to set up Ivy’s stepdaughter?”

Ivy didn’t know, but she had a theory. “Lacey hates me and would do anything to get back at me. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had had someone go through both my parents’ and Travis’s places. Maybe so she could find something she could use against me. Something to help her win a lawsuit to get her hands on her dad’s money.”

All three men were staring at her now. Maybe waiting for her to come up with more, but Ivy didn’t have more. She didn’t have a clue how Lacey would hope to connect the watch to her.

But Theo apparently did.

Still, there was something about all of this that didn’t make sense. Ivy gave that some more thought but had to shake her head. “That seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to cast some doubt on my name.”

Theo lifted his shoulder. “Maybe it’s all she could find and figured she’d use it. By having her own prints on it, too, she might think it takes suspicion off her. It doesn’t.” Theo shifted his gaze to August. “Nor you. Gabriel could file charges against you for withholding evidence.”

August’s mouth practically dropped open, and he snapped to Gabriel. “By the time I found the watch, the investigation and the trial were over.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Gabriel answered. “Anything connected to the case should have been given to me.”

“What the hell would you have to gain by bringing charges against me?” August’s temper was not only back, but it had also risen a couple of notches.

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