Page 40 of Double Take

James frowned, started the footage again, and tried to zoom in. “I can’t see it on here.”

“It was there.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t, just that this isn’t the best quality video.” He glanced at her. “If you say you saw it, you saw it.”

Her eyes reddened, then she looked away. Cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

He stood. “You’re not crazy, Lainie, but I’m wondering if someone wants you tothinkyou are.”

“That thought had occurred to me. But why?”

“I don’t know, but I think it has a lot to do with Adam and his death. And the fact that you shot him.”

She swallowed. “Like someone has decided to get revenge?”

“Possibly.”

“Well, that would explain the bald tires.”

“Bald tires?”

She told him about her adventures at Sonny’s. “And while those are my brand, there’s no way they’re the same tires I bought and had put on.”

“You’re saying someone changed them?”

“It’s the only thing I can think of—which kind of discounts the whole accident theory. And it would take some planning to get the timing right. Watching the weather, seeing when it was a better-than-maybe chance of rain, actually changing the tires ... maybe even knowing that I made a weekly, sometimes twice-a-week trip up the mountain to the Gonzaleses’ store.” She fell silent, then cleared her throat. “But if someone wants revenge, why not right after Adam died? Why wait eighteen months?”

He shook his head. “I’m just speculating. Could be something else entirely, of course. Any new thoughts on who would want to come after you in that scenario, though?”

She sighed. “A few.”

He raised a brow. “Seriously?”

“Well, there’s Nichelle.”

“Yeah. She lives at the top of the mountain and is still working as a paralegal. I talked to her briefly by phone and asked her why she warned you about Adam, and she said she didn’t mean to come across threatening, but he gave her bad vibes and she was worried about you.”

“And I took it entirely different.” She pressed a palm to her forehead. “Because I didn’t want to hear what she was saying. I didn’t want to admit she was right.”

“Maybe. I don’t know that I’d be so quick to believe that. I asked her if she’d be open to me coming by to talk to her, and she said she was.”

“When will you do that?”

“She’s going to call me when she gets off work. In the meantime, have you thought of anyone else who might have it in for you?”

“Second on the list would be Adam’s brother, Nick. He wasn’t—isn’t—too fond of me. He and Adam were super tight, so he blamed me for Adam’s death. Which is understandable, I suppose. After all, I did shoot him.”

“And if you hadn’t?”

“I would be dead.” Her complete assurance behind the statement chilled him to the point of goose bumps. “But, sadly, that doesn’t matter to Nick. I’m sure he wishes it had been me who’d been killed and not Adam.”

James already didn’t like the guy. “Anyone else? Other boyfriends?”Please say no.

“I mean ... before Adam, I dated a few guys. It was never anything serious. But no one since Adam and no one I’d consider dating again.”

He hoped he hid his relief. “Names?”

She listed three and he wrote them down. “We’ll check them out if only torulethem out.”

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