Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

“I’m being set up.”


Gill lifted his eyebrows, didn’t deny the claim.

“You know about Drew.” It wasn’t a question.

“I do.”

“I didn’t kill Joseph.”

“Who did?”

The expression on his face said he had a name. “I started thinking, after finding the dog . . . then the rabbit. This happened before. Right before Joseph. After, it all stopped, and I didn’t revisit those cases since they were only pets.”

“Where are those files?” Gill had skimmed through a lot of Joseph Ward’s cases but didn’t remember seeing anything that resembled the hanging dog.

“I don’t know. I searched the paper trail and came up cold. Glynis may have scanned them already, and I just haven’t found them.”

“Or . . .”

“Or someone removed them and there isn’t a paper trail. Which means whoever removed them was worried something will link them to Joseph’s murder, or Jo’s attempted . . .” Karl didn’t say murder, which suited Gill just fine. “To Jo. Or whoever removed them knows it would look bad for me.”

“Because you have access to remove files and destroy them,” Gill concluded.

Karl nodded.

“Who is your suspect?” Gill asked.

Karl blinked. “My wife isn’t capable of murder.”

Gill sighed. “Everyone is capable of murder under the right circumstances.”

“She wouldn’t.”

Gill wasn’t so sure. “Where were you when Jo was shot today?”

“When did she go down?”

“With the starting gun of your son’s race.”

“I was by the long jump pits on the other side of the fence. I wanted Drew to see me, but all he saw was the finish line.”

“Did anyone see you there?” His off-the-record questions would be asked again if needed.

“Probably. No one I knew.”

Karl knew he was being interrogated and took it in stride.

“What about Caroline? Where was she?”

It took Karl a few seconds to answer. “I don’t know. She was upset.”

“Why was she upset?”

“You tell me. She was close to tears after sitting with you in the stands.”

Right . . . that would be after Gill let her know he’d unearthed her secret.

Gill wondered just how much Karl knew about his wife. “Do you know why repeat offenders repeat their crimes?” he asked.

“Because they’re not caught,” Karl responded. “Or because their punishment wasn’t enough to make them stop.”

“When you found out about your wife and Joseph, did you confront her?”

Karl glanced behind Gill’s shoulder, his jaw tightened.

“Did Caroline’s life change in any way?”

“She’s not capable, Gill. I’m telling you.”

“Of murder? Maybe not . . . but of finding another lover . . .”

Karl’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his neck.





Chapter Thirty-Three




Drew pulled the car around from the hospital parking lot and waited for his mother.

While sitting in the pickup line, his head was buried in his phone, texting. The group text included Tina, Tim, and the rest of the cross-country team.

This is wrong. Someone shot our coach! Drew sent out.

No one wants to kill a coach, someone shot our Sheriff. Tim texted.

Yeah, Drew figured that out.

“Hey, honey.”

Drew looked out the passenger window to see his mom standing there. “Want me to drive?” he asked.

She opened the door, dropped her purse in the seat. “Sure, that’s fine—” she stopped with one foot inside. “I forgot something. I’ll be right back.”

His mom closed the car door and Drew went back to his phone. The group was going back and forth with their idea of a round-the-clock babysitting service for Coach Ward once she recovered.

His mother’s phone buzzed from the passenger seat.

Ignoring it, he went back to his own conversation.

The buzz a second and third time surprised him. Without thought, he moved his mother’s purse to find that her cell phone had slid out. He picked it up and caught a glimpse of the green text message. The name on the sender was Stella.

Drew didn’t know a Stella.

We are not over. Don’t ever say that! The message coming in flashed on the home screen.

Drew attempted to open his mother’s messages and found it locked.

Why would his mother lock her phone?

Baby, I’ve done everything for you. Don’t do this!

Drew’s hands started to sweat. He looked over the hood of the car, watching for his mother. His own phone pinged, and he glanced at the screen on his phone.

He realized almost all the names he had in his phone were nicknames. Most of which were things like Slowpoke and Yard Time.

Answer my text, baby. I know you’re reading them.

Drew saw his mother’s orange shirt walking from the sliding doors of the hospital. He dropped her phone on the seat, knocked her purse over, and stared at his screen without reading a word.

“Forgot my purse,” his mom said as she reached through the window and grabbed it, and the phone. “I’m getting a soda from the gift shop before we head back. Want something?”

Drew shook his head. “I’m good.”

As soon as she turned away, Drew followed her. He saw her feet hesitate as she neared the doors of the hospital. She wasn’t inside a minute before she walked back out. This time she came to his side of the car and leaned in. “You know what, I’m going to drive back with your father. I’m worried about him.”

“You sure?”

Her tight smile scared him.

“Positive. Drive careful.”

“Let me know if something changes,” he told her.

“I will. Love you.”

“Yeah, okay. See you at home.”

She stepped away from the car and headed inside.

Drew pulled out of the turnaround, his eyes on the rearview mirror. For good measure, he pulled out of the lot and rounded the corner, doubling back. He cut the engine and waited.

It didn’t take long for his mom to walk back outside, look around, and then disappear into a three-story parking structure on the west side of the hospital.

“Holy shit.”

Drew sat in his mother’s car refusing to leave the parking lot. His mother didn’t reappear from the parking structure, and since there were two ways a car could exit the three-story garage, he had no way of knowing if she left with someone else. It would have to be someone else, since Drew noticed his father’s squad car pulling out of one of the emergency spaces designated for the police.

His phone buzzed with texts that went unanswered from his friends.

Drew couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d read on his mother’s phone. No one called another person baby unless . . .

His parents had been fighting a lot in the past year, but he never thought one of them could cheat.

He waited an hour before calling his dad.

“Hi, Dad.”

“You’re not talking on the phone while you’re driving, are you?”

“You mean like you are.”

“That’s different.” Yeah, cops seemed to think those rules didn’t apply to them.

“Ha.” Drew tried to laugh, and it came out strained. “Uhm, is Mom with you?”