Chapter 12
Blaze stared at the reports lying on his desk. There wasn’t a single mention of Garrett Myers in them, yet Beth had seen him outside the bar—the same area Sarah had been seen in. He angrily flipped through the file, stopping on the photos.
He hadn’t shown up to the bridge until the crime scene unit had already been called, and yet, somehow, the powers that be had still left the investigation in the hands of their poorly funded sheriff’s department.
Of course, it didn’t help that last minute, Sheriff Myers had slapped a homicide team label on a few of the very unqualified officers, Blaze included. It wasn’t a good look, but given the rarity of murder in the county, he figured it wouldn’t be long before the FBI or state police were called in anyway—and then there was a chance that Daniel Malone, the infamous FBI agent who had beef with him, would show up.
That’ll be the day. He grimaced at the thought. It’d been nearly four years since he’d talked to Daniel, and while there was a part of him that hoped maybe the chaos was over for him, Sarah’s murder had him quaking in his boots with that familiar paranoia…
Blaze took a deep breath, raking his hands over his face. Her death doesn’t fit the MO of the Phantom, he reassured himself as he went back to the photos of Sarah Armitage, sprawled out on the ground, a gunshot wound to her lower abdomen and a second to her chest.
It was gruesome, and unfortunately, they were still waiting on the medical examiner to complete the autopsy. No one was going to rush anything for this obsolete county, and that’s why when things did occasionally happen, the investigation process took longer than it should. Nothing here was like what people saw in the movies. No one cared. It was a snail’s pace to get answers for families, if they got them at all.
“You got someone here wanting to talk to you,” the receptionist called back to Blaze, who just so happened to be the lone deputy at the office.
He made a face as he looked at his watch, seeing that it was nearly midnight. “Right now?”
The older, middle-aged lady named Brenda cocked a brow. “Yeah, that’s what I said. Seems important.”
He ignored her usual cantankerous tone, unfazed by it—no one was happy to be sitting at a desk at this hour. “Okay, well, send them back. I’ll, uh, use the interview room.”
“Okie dokie.” She nodded and then slipped away.
Blaze pushed back from the desk and stood to his feet, closing the case file of Sarah’s. They were so unorganized that while he and Dylan had been the ones assigned to it, he wasn’t sure it was all there in the file. They didn’t even have a digital filing system. He headed off toward the front of the building, where he’d meet with whoever it was wanting to see him .
I should’ve asked Brenda. But his head was hardly in a clear state of mind after the run-in with Garrett. He had lost his cool, but honestly, there was just something about Garrett that pissed him off. He had no specific reason for it.
“Lucas Wilson,” Blaze instantly recognized Sarah’s ex-husband as Brenda led him back. The man was a couple years older than Blaze, but he looked to be a full decade or more his senior. Lucas was squirrelly built, overly slender from partying hard and spending long hours working manual labor. His tanned skin was covered in ink, and he hid behind a thick beard and backwards snap back.
“You’re the only law enforcement officer I somewhat trust in this town,” Lucas greeted him—or more like sized him up as he extended a hand.
Blaze took it, giving him a firm shake and then gesturing for him to enter into the dark-walled, plain room with a black table and four chairs. “Take a seat.”
“This seems more like an interrogation than just a nice friendly chat,” Lucas eyed him, no stranger to being on the wrong side.
“It’s the only place I have to talk,” Blaze said with a shrug. “Nothing’s being recorded or anything like that. What can I help you with?”
The roughneck leaned back in his chair, narrowing his gaze at Blaze. “Well, for starters, I wanna know why ain’t nobody doin’ nothing to help Sarah.”
Blaze knew that was coming. “We’re doing everything we can. You know how this county is. Takes a long time to get anything done.”
“She’s not just anyone.”
Blaze tensed his jaw, having heard that one plenty of times. “ I know, and we’re doing the best we can. A lot of people cared about Sarah.”
“You cared about her. She talked a lot about you.” Lucas’s dark green eyes bore into Blaze’s, and he did his best to read the situation. Maybe that was why Lucas had come here in the middle of night, knowing Blaze was working. “You were close.”
Blaze didn’t want to lie to him. “We really weren’t. If we were, I probably wouldn’t be working this investigation. Our entire time together amounted to a couple of nights getting drinks at Outlaws. I’m too busy to maintain a relationship.” Never mind the fact he wasn’t interested in the woman who had seemed to date every man in the tri-county area.
“Yeah, well, then why did she talk about you so much?”
Blaze drummed his fingers on the table. “Are you here to help with the investigation, or just here to interrogate me about Sarah?”
He sighed, running his hands over his face. “I don’t know, man. I’ve just never lived a life without her, you know? Sure, we’re not together, but we’re not not together, too. You know what I’m sayin’?”
Blaze tilted his head. “You mean, you’re not married but you’re still sleeping together, right?”
“Something like that.”
It wasn’t in the least bit surprising. “What can you tell me about your relationship with her then? I know we took an official statement, and you have an alibi of being with someone else the night of?—”
“Macy Lewis,” Lucas repeats the name that was on the statement, one that Blaze only vaguely remembered. “She’s an old friend of mine. We were reconnecting in Gale.”
“Right, on a Monday night? ”
“Yeah, why not? I ain’t like you, cowboy. I don’t need my beauty sleep.”
He adjusted his hat on his head, and then leaned back in the chair, mirroring Lucas’s posture. “I don’t need it either, otherwise, I wouldn’t be working two jobs.”
“Touché,” Lucas said, his tone brightening. “I really just got one question.”
Blaze prepared himself. “And what’s that?”
“You think it’s a serial killer that got my girl or something?”
Blaze didn’t flinch. He knew better than to react to someone fishing for information, even if the term bothered him more than he wanted to admit. “We’re keeping the case’s information private for now, but there’s no evidence this is or isn’t an isolated event.”
“Huh, well, maybe you should figure it out. ‘Cause it sure seems like you don’t know nothin’.”
Blaze shrugged. “Yeah, I’d say that we don’t know much right now. But we’re working on it.” He ignored the chill that followed in the silence, shooting down his spine like an unwanted bolt of electricity.
“Look at you, Mr. Ranch Manager playing big detective,” Lucas leaned forward, resting on his elbows. He ran his tongue behind his lower lip, where a big fat dip rested. “I just hope you know what you’re doin’, because if we figure it out before you, we’ll be gettin’ our own justice.”
“I don’t doubt that, but right now, I don’t even have any suspects,” Blaze said, which was partially true. He had a bad feeling about Garrett Myers, but there was nothing concrete to put him near Sarah—and regardless of what he thought of the guy, he was just one of many when it came to Sarah’s group. Everyone knew her, and everyone seemed to well, love her .
“Well, it ain’t me,” Lucas chuckled, shaking his head. “And it ain’t Ty, Evan, Gabriel?—”
“And how do you know that?” he cut Lucas off before he could finish naming off every shady, drug doing or dealing man in town.
“Because they’re my friends, and none of my friends would do nothin’ to Sarah. Sure, they all might’ve wanted their turn. They were jealous like that, but… She was mine . They knew that, even if they got with her a time or two.”
Blaze’s expression didn’t budge, but his thoughts definitely did. Jeez. Lucas, a small town pimp. He pursed his lips. “Can you tell me those names again? Full names, if you don’t mind.”
Lucas sighed, and then went through his list again, giving full names when he knew them. Blaze jotted them down, making a mental note that he would try and find time to hunt each one down and ask them what they knew about Sarah. It would be a daunting task, but at this rate, what else did the department have to do?
“Is that all the names you want to include?” Blaze asked once Lucas had gone quiet.
He nodded. “Yep.”
Blaze scanned the list, one name noticeably absent. “What about Garrett Myers?”
Lucas’s gaze lit up. “What about him?”
“Ain’t he one of your buddies?”
Lucas let out a throaty laugh. “Let me get something straight with you, Blaze, the cowboy deputy from God Knows Where. Me and Garrett Myers? We ain’t never been friends.”
Blaze couldn’t help himself, surprised by the sudden animosity. “Why’s that? ”
Lucas met his gaze, his eyes growing dark and angry. “He killed Sam Young.”
Blaze nodded, slowly. “From what I understand there was a car accident? Garrett just happened to be the driver, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what they say happened.”
“Sam’s sister, Beth, was there and corroborated the story, right?”
Lucas snorted. “Again, you clearly ain’t from around here. Garrett killed Sam, then he went and wrecked his truck a few miles down from Sarah’s place—which is where we were all partying.”
“I see…” Blaze wasn’t sure if he should keep digging or not, but he had nothing better to do. “And you believe he… murdered Sam Young? Then covered it up?”
“Only reason you ain’t in the know, is ‘cause you work under his daddy’s nose and with his little brother. If you’d come hang out with some of us real, upstanding folks, you’d find real fast what the truth is.”
He pursed his lips. Most of the upstanding folks Lucas was referring to had rap sheets a mile long. “Okay, well, let’s just say what you’re getting at has some merit, why would Garrett want to kill Sam? They were best friends, right? Like family?”
“So they say,” Lucas hummed, his tone eerie as he pushed back from the table. “But I heard they was in a big ole fight that night. I watched the two of ‘em get into a good scuffle. Garrett got himself a bloody nose, and Sam took a real good punch to the side of the head.”
Blaze made another mental note to dig up the case file on the accident. “But Sam was living when he got in vehicle?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow as he stood to his feet. “Never saw him get into that truck that night. Nobody did. All we saw was them tearing out of Sarah’s grandma’s back field.”
“And Beth?”
“What about her?”
“Well, she would know the truth.”
“Sure, and why do ya think she lit out of here the week after the funeral? The girl changed schools from the local community college to some big ole state university in Oklahoma. She was runnin’ from somethin’, and she never did come back. We heard rumors she went back to the ranch to see her folks, a couple of times, but most of their visitin’ had Peter and Andrea goin’ up there to see her.”
“Sounds like a mess,” Blaze remarked, following Lucas up to the front of the office. He didn’t want to believe a word that came out of Lucas’s mouth, but why did some of the pieces seem to fit?
“Goodnight,” Lucas said with a nod. “Hope you start findin’ some answers soon. I’d hate for you to have to keep skippin’ towns.”
Blaze went rigid, but before he could say anything in response, Lucas Wilson was walking across the parking lot, whistling an unsettling tune.