Home to Whiskey Creek (Whiskey Creek #4)(28)
Author: Brenda Novak

Dylan studied him as if he was weighing what he heard with what he knew of his brother. Then, apparently coming to the conclusion that Aaron was telling the truth, he relaxed and turned to Stacy. “He didn’t do it.”

“We don’t know that.”

“I do. So the way I see it, you have two choices, Chief. Either charge him, at which point he’ll lawyer up, make bail and be released. Or let him go.”

Stacy hated Dylan even more than Aaron. Addy could feel the animosity in the room. So could Officer Jones, as well as Officer Willis, who’d followed him as far as the doorway. They both fidgeted nervously. It was a cardinal sin to make Chief Stacy appear foolish. But Addy believed Dylan understood enough about the criminal justice system to know he was correct. If Stacy was going to charge Aaron, Aaron had the right to an attorney. If he wasn’t going to charge him, and Aaron refused to talk, Stacy needed to let him go.

She held her breath while she waited, hoping Stacy would back off. All he had as evidence was a pocketknife that’d been discovered in the wrong place. That knife didn’t have any fingerprints on it. Unless they found forensic proof that Aaron had been in her room, or an eyewitness who saw him with her that night, the prosecutor wouldn’t have enough to make a case, especially if Shania backed up Aaron’s alibi.

“You’ve got the wrong man,” she said again. “I think…I think you should let him go, Chief.”

A bead of sweat ran from Stacy’s hair. It wasn’t hot in the room, but he was overweight and in a rage.

“Fine,” he snapped. “Go. For now. But this isn’t over. I plan to talk to Shania immediately, and she sure as hell better tell me the truth.”

“You know where she lives.” Aaron tossed them all a taunting grin and swaggered out.

Dylan remained a few seconds longer, shaking his head at the police chief. “Really?” he said. “This has to get personal?”

Stacy hooked his thumbs in his belt. “That boy’s a bad seed.”

A muscle flexed in Dylan’s cheek. “He’ll get his life figured out.”

The police chief toyed with Aaron’s knife, which Aaron hadn’t even tried to take. He probably knew he couldn’t. It was tagged as evidence. “If not, someday he’ll wish he had.”

“I’ll tell him that. Your approval means a lot—to all of us.”

If Addy had been in a laughing mood, she might’ve chuckled at Dylan’s sarcasm.

Stacy said something under his breath, but Dylan ignored him and looked at her. “I’m sorry about what happened to you.”

She’d never known the oldest Amos. He was four years her senior, had been out of high school by the time she was a freshman. She only knew what she’d heard. Not much of it had been good, but she liked him in spite of that. “I’m going to be okay.”

He gave her an approving nod. “Way to fight,” he said and, with that, he joined Aaron, who was waiting in the anteroom.

Once they left, Stacy shoved a chair into the wall. “You’ll be sorry if you just caused me to release the guilty party,” he railed.

Addy stood. “He isn’t the guilty party.”

“Even if Shania claims they were together, I’m not sure I can rely on that, not if she cares about him.”

“It wasn’t just his alibi that convinced me. I knew it wasn’t him from the beginning, remember?”

He scowled at her. “How?”

She had to look away. She was afraid he’d guess that she wasn’t entirely supportive of his efforts. “Not only did he sound wrong, he smelled wrong, too.”

“Smell. We’re going by smell?”

“The kidnapper’s cologne. It was distinctive.”

“In what way?”

“I can’t explain it. But I’ll know if I ever smell it again.”

“Maybe he wasn’t wearing it tonight.”

“It would still linger….”

He hesitated, then cursed under his breath. “Okay, for now we’ll see how your instincts and memories work out. But one way or another, I’ll catch the bastard who kidnapped you. And if it’s one of the Amos boys, then all the better.”

Addy left after that. She didn’t want to be around Chief Stacy anymore. He was too zealous, too determined. And he obviously had an agenda of his own.

She’d been worried that he’d charge the right person. But what if he charged the wrong person? For her, the effect would be the same, wouldn’t it? If he tried to build a case against Aaron Amos she’d have to come forward. She couldn’t sit idly by and let him destroy an innocent man’s life.

10

It wasn’t easy to see her from where he stood, deep in the shadow of the snack bar, but he couldn’t walk out into the open because he didn’t want to be noticed. The fact that Adelaide Davies was already out of the house, jogging around the high school track as if nothing had happened, troubled him. He’d hoped to make more of an impression on her.

Had he not scared her sufficiently?

He wasn’t even sure how much damage he’d done. Although he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to get a good glimpse of her face—not since that night. He’d heard she was pretty beat-up. He hadn’t intended to hurt her, but when she’d nearly torn off her blindfold, he’d panicked. Then she’d made things worse by grabbing the steering wheel and causing him to hit that retaining wall. His truck was at a body shop right now, getting fixed. He’d had to take it all the way to Sacramento. They were backed up, but the sooner they finished it, the better. The wall he’d hit was very close to Milly Davies’s house. If he’d left some paint on that retaining wall, and someone decided to check it against his vehicle, he could be in trouble. But he had no idea how to get the paint off, not from such a porous substance, and he didn’t dare try for fear someone would see him doing it.

With a sigh, he took a sip of the coffee he’d purchased just before noticing Adelaide’s 4-Runner at the intersection. It’d been fifteen years. Why’d she have to come back?

What had happened at that graduation party might not have been pleasant, but she’d obviously recovered. She was beautiful, maybe even stunning, bruises or no. And look at her run.

She was fine—no worse for wear.

Cody, on the other hand…

“Hey, what’s up? What are you doing here?”

Startled, he glanced over to see Joyce Weatherby, one of the teachers at Eureka High, out with her dog.