Watch Me (Last Stand #3)(32)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Just go,” Cain said. “You’re not here to investigate Jason’s murder. You’re here to make Sheridan feel like a tramp. And I’m done listening to it.”

Amy sat in the booth next to her brother and across from Kent Lazarus, another police officer on their little force.

“He nearly hit me!” Ned said, telling them what’d happened at Cain’s.

“What made him so mad?” Kent asked.

“He said I was humiliating Sheridan. But she might’ve caused Jason’s death. She should be humiliated.”

“No kidding.” Amy couldn’t believe Cain would stick up for Sheridan. Sure, she was pretty, but it wasn’t as if they’d been friends back in high school. “She also pretended to be better than the rest of us while she was screwing my boyfriend behind my back.”

“He wasn’t your boyfriend,” Ned grumbled.

Amy let the comment go because, technically, her brother was right. She hadn’t managed any type of commitment from Cain until he married her. “But who would’ve thought she was messing around with Cain?”

“Her parents would’ve disowned her if they knew,” he agreed. “They were so strict she had an eleven-o’clock curfew. She could only go out on one night each weekend. And they wouldn’t allow her to date at all until she turned sixteen.”

“Even then she could only double-date or go to official school dances,” Amy chimed in. “You asked her out once, remember? She turned you down because it wasn’t a school dance. And your reputation was much better than Cain’s. They never would’ve allowed her to be with him.”

“How’d Cain get in her pants?” Kent asked. He’d moved to town three years ago, well after Cain had started keeping a low profile, and didn’t know him that well.

“Cain could’ve had anyone in high school,” Amy said.

Kent snickered. “So was he sleeping with you at the same time?”

Amy wanted to reach across the table and smack him. “Shut up!”

“That’s really what’s pissing you off, isn’t it?”

Ned interrupted before they could break into an all-out argument. “The question is, how are we going to make sure Cain gets what’s coming to him? I’m not letting him get away with more of his bullshit.”

Kent lowered his voice. “It shouldn’t be too hard. The rifle was in Cain’s cabin. Sheridan was attacked on Cain’s land. Cain had the only motive we’re aware of for killing Jason. Cain was at the hospital when that mysterious guy showed up. And we know Cain had emotional problems as a teenager. It’s all Cain. He’s the common denominator. I think we take what we’ve got to Judge Brown and try to get a search warrant.”

Ned pursed his lips as he considered it. “If we could go through Cain’s belongings, maybe we’d find the ski mask or a piece of bloody clothing or something.”

Amy flicked the lid on the metal creamer. “Bloody clothing won’t be enough. He carried Sheridan into his house the night she was hurt, so there’s a legitimate reason for her blood to be there. Owen knows it, too. And he’s loyal to Cain. He wouldn’t talk to me about what he saw in that camper, and I got the impression he was pretty unhappy with Robert for telling us.”

“So he’ll testify that Cain was trying to save her, not kill her.”

“Exactly.”

“Who would’ve thought she could survive such an attack?” Ned muttered.

“It’s a miracle she didn’t die.” Amy halfway wished she had. Then she wouldn’t be at Cain’s place right now and Amy wouldn’t be spending every moment consumed with the fear that he might become emotionally attached to Sheridan Kohl.

“What if we found Jason’s blood?” Kent asked.

“We’re not going to. It’s been too long.” As much as Amy wanted to punish Cain for rejecting her, and as much as Cain’s unapologetic and aloof nature inadvertently helped make him look bad, she knew he hadn’t shot Jason. But her brother didn’t, and neither did Kent, which made them perfect tools to badger Cain. He was going to need an ally soon; he was going to need her. She wanted that so badly she could taste his skin, his kiss—

“Then what?” Ned said.

“We keep talking to the neighbors, try to come up with someone who saw Cain in the neighborhood before Sheridan went missing,” she responded.

Skepticism etched lines in her brother’s forehead. But he has family there. His stepfather and stepbrother live a few doors down. Even if we find someone to place him on that street, he’s got a good reason to be there.”

“Robert’s on our side.”

Ned toyed with the sugar packets on the table. “Robert’s an alcoholic, and alcoholics don’t make the most credible witnesses.”

Amy pushed the bowl of sugar packets back against the wall. She didn’t want Ned to destroy every one of them. She had more coffee coming. “His statement got them to admit what they did.”

“But John would be a more reliable witness,” Ned said.

“He won’t do it.”

“He might. He wants to get whoever murdered Jason. And with the discovery of that rifle, he’s beginning to wonder about Cain.”

Amy shook her head. “He has Marshall to consider.”

“What does Marshall have to do with anything? He’s been over at Sunrise Vista ever since John’s mother passed.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Amy argued. “Marshall got a pile of money when he sold his hardware stores, and he won’t leave it to John if John doesn’t watch himself. Maybe John doesn’t get along with Cain, but Marshall thinks Cain hung the moon.”

“Maybe we could establish more testimony about Cain’s presence at Rocky Point,” Ned said. “Find someone who’ll say he was enraged at seeing Jason and Sheridan together, that he made some threats.”

The ice in Kent’s glass clinked as he finished his water. “We already have Maureen Johansen.”

“That’s not enough,” Amy said. “She won’t go beyond saying she ‘thought’ Cain ‘might’ have been upset. If we’re going to make a case out of circumstantial evidence, it needs to be overwhelming. We need more.” More with which she could bring Cain to his knees.

Ned dropped the last mangled sugar packet she’d allowed him and rocked back. “We can find it.”