Page 2 of Mace

“After fifteen years, they found your fingerprint?” Barracuda questioned.

“So they say. I also think the new mayor, Darrin Bing, wants to make himself look good by solving this cold case while in office.”

“You tell them you weren’t the one to kill the guy?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You tell them who did?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“You gonna?”

That was a big fat no. “No.”

“Brother,” Barracuda drawled. “Then what the hell are you going to do? You just said this asshole is gunning for you.”

“All they have is one fingerprint, Barracuda. They can’t pin the guy’s murder on me just on that.” They didn’t have a murder weapon, motive, or any other evidence.

“They fucking arrested you for that,” Barracuda pointed out.

“And now I’m out,” I explained. “If they really had some concrete evidence that I did it or was even there when it happened, they would have denied my bail. My lawyer said the same damn thing.”

“They’re gonna pin this on you if you don’t tell them what actually happened.”

I took a long drag off my cigarette. They were going to try, but they weren’t going to be able to make it stick. They arrested me to scare me into telling them who killed Kent.

I was going to take that to the grave with me.

“I’m not going to prison for Kent’s murder, and neither is Imogen. She was defending herself.”

“Then why didn’t you guys just tell that to the cops when they found his body?”

“Because we were fifteen and seventeen, bro. You really think the cops were going to listen to two kids?” I shook my head. “They would have thrown the fucking book at us and locked us up forever.”

“Yeah, but now fifteen years later, they are trying to do exactly that. Can’t you and this girl tell the cops what happened? He raped her, bro. She was defending herself.” Barracuda sat forward and rested his elbow on his knees. “You still talk to her?”

I shook my head. “Haven’t talked to her since the day it happened. I heard she moved to her Grandma’s by San Diego.”

“She just up and moved, and no one wondered why?” Barracuda asked.

Oh, everyone wondered why she left so fast, but as far as I knew, she was never connected to Kent Bing. Hell, there wasn’t ever talk about me being connected to the murder.

I had done a damn good job of leaving no trace. Though fifteen years later, I might not have done a perfect job.

“Imogen didn’t have the best family in Sutter Creek. Her mom was always running off chasing men, and her dad was never in the picture. Everyone just assumed her mom had disappeared for good, and her grandma had stepped in to take care of her.”

“You gotta know that girl is the only way you are going to get out of this. Find her.”

“Find her so she can go to prison instead of me?” I shook my head. “Not going to fucking happen, brother. I didn’t kill Kent Bing, but I would have if I had been fifteen minutes quicker that day.”

“Then what the hell are you going to do? If this guy has it out for you, you know he is going to pull out all of the stops to make you go down for this.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “I gotta think about it, Barracuda. Imogen isn’t going down for this, and neither am I.”

Barracuda shook his head. “So, we’re wishing for a miracle then, huh?”

God wasn’t going to help me. Not when it came to this.

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