Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 136507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 683(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 683(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
I can barely breathe.
Chapter 44
Logan
“So, then, your cousin Jack Barrow dropped you off at your place at 9:30 p.m.,” the big, burly detective—Schmidt—asks while the guy who questioned me on Thanksgiving—Terry—jots down notes.
“Yes, and I have witnesses who can confirm I stayed there all night, including Staff Sergeant Emery McAllister.” My tongue feels coated in mud as I throw her name out there. “I’ve already told you all this when you came to my family’s porch on Thanksgiving. Do you have any new questions for me?” I quote what my lawyer coached me to say this afternoon over the phone before I came in. Lydia Mercer’s name was at the top of the list of defense lawyers Emery sent, right after she called to tell me she’s had to file official paperwork to recuse herself from Holly’s case, basically outing our relationship to her prick of a boss.
That tells me all I need to know about this conversation.
The detectives share a look.
In the corner above, a wall-mounted camera records the entire exchange. I’m doing my best not to squirm, but the last time I was in this building, there were four bodies heading to the morgue, I’d been brought in wearing handcuffs, and no one seemed to give a damn what I had to say.
“The next morning, you went fishing on Lake Temagami,” Terry says. “Tell me about that.”
“What do you wanna know?” Again, Lydia’s advice—answer specific questions only.
He smirks knowingly. I don’t like the look of him, but I might be biased. “What time did you leave your home for the lake on Saturday morning?”
“It was around seven. The sun was coming up.”
“Did you drive yourself?”
“No, my cousin Jameson picked me up.”
“Is that who you were fishing with that day?”
“Yeah, him and his brother, Jack.” Which I’m sure these two know. “We met Jack there.”
“So, Jameson picked you up at around seven, and you two drove down. Where’d you park?”
“Near the boat launch.”
“And is that where you met your other cousin, Jack Barrow?”
“Yeah.”
“Who brought the boat?”
“Jack did. He was already waiting at the dock for us.”
Terry falters. “He’d already launched the boat?”
“Yeah.”
There’s a subtle nod. “So then you went fishing.”
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Where’d we go fishing?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know. Around the lake.”
“Was it just you three?”
“In the boat? Yeah.”
“What about on the lake?”
I frown. “No, there were other people.”
“Other people?”
“Yeah.”
“Approximately how many?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t count.”
“If you had to take a guess?”
“A guess? Five … ten … I really don’t know.” This guy’s annoying me. “And a loon.”
“A loon.”
“Yeah. There was definitely a loon.”
Terry smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Did you see anything peculiar?”
“No.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Besides the woman floating face down in the water?”
“Right. Carol Roth. You dove into the water and saved her. Nice article in the paper, by the way.”
I grunt. That damn article is the reason I’m in here.
“So you brought Roth to shore and after EMS took her away, did you return to fishing?”
“No. We packed up and drove home.”
“All three of you?”
“Yeah.”
“In one truck?”
I frown. “No. Jameson drove himself. I went with Jack.”
“Was the boat with you?”
“Yes.”
He nods slowly. “Okay. I think we have all we need here. Thanks for coming in, Mr. Landry.”
That’s it? I pull myself up from the couch.
Schmidt offers me a smile as he moves to escort me out.
I’m halfway to the door when Terry calls out, “Oh, wait, one last question. Did your cousin Jack say anything about going back to the Bale House after he dropped you off that Friday night?”
“Jack? No.”
“You sure? Why don’t you give it a second’s thought.”
But I don’t need to. “He didn’t mention it.”
“Got it.” Terry waves me off, his focus on his notes. “Thanks for your time.”
The big detective walks me out.
I can see Emery’s form behind the cracked blinds in her office, but I don’t attempt to veer that way. I don’t want to cause her any more issues than I already have.
My father’s waiting outside in the truck. “How’d it go?”
“Okay, I think. But he kept asking about Jack.”
“Jack.” He frowns as he pulls out of the station parking lot.
An uneasiness settles onto my shoulders.
“I’m worried about Jack,” I say into the darkness of my apartment, that ball of anxiety that’s been in my stomach all day still firmly rooted.
Emery’s fingertip smooths back and forth over the scar on my torso while my thoughts pilfer through the day. She showed up at my door in her pajamas around nine, Duke at her side, announcing that Isla was staying at her father’s. It couldn’t have worked out better had I begged. I need her beside me tonight.
“The way that detective was asking questions, something felt off.”
“That’s Terry. He can make you second-guess yourself while asking about the weather.” She pauses. “What exactly did he ask?”
“They wanted to know where Jack went after he dropped me off that Friday night, and if he took his boat with him when we left the next day. That detective seemed super interested in the fact that Jack met us there with the boat already in the water. Do they have something on him?”