Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Barrett
I’m like a caged animal trying to get to her.
I heard the gunshot.
Then the sirens.
I saw them take her away.
My truck followed them like it was possessed by a demon.
Once in the little town of Darling Creek, the ambulance veered right to the small hospital. The cruisers went left, to the sheriff’s department, with me on their tail.
And now, I’m here, watching them bring Goldie inside through the back entrance to the jail. The sight of handcuffs on her made me want to kick down every door. Smash out all the windows.
But I have to collect myself.
The nondescript brick structure isn’t at all like what they show in the movies. It’s a one-story office building with two low cubicles and desks that look like they haven’t had an update since 1996. One of those desks is occupied by a desk sergeant who looks way more interested in filing paperwork than letting me see my girlfriend.
“Listen. It’s really important that I talk to her and tell her not to answer any questions.”
The sergeant lets out a long sigh. “She can invoke her right to silence at any time if she is in fact under arrest.”
“Up until twenty-four hours ago, she was in a cult. She doesn’t know a single thing about civil rights. Do you understand what I’m saying? Surely, as a woman, you understand.”
She pauses, looks up from her computer, and gives me the kind of heavy-eyed stare that says she does not appreciate me playing the feminist card.
“Have a seat before I put you in a holding cell. You’re making me nervous.” Her monotone gives no indication that she’s the least bit nervous.
I sit, and my leg automatically bounces up and down on its own.
Finally, after what feels like hours but is probably more like 30 minutes, Deputy Mark, the sheriff, and some guy with a limp come strolling out of a back room. I stand up, but they pretend not to notice me.
They’re all shaking hands and patting each other on the back.
“Well done apprehending the fugitive from the Sterling Ranch case, Deputy,” says the sheriff. “It’s good to have you with the department. You’ll be getting a commendation for this one.”
It’s all I can do to keep my head from popping off my shoulders. Or tackling that guy to the floor.
Deputy Mark feigns humility. “I just wish the young lady would talk. Then we’d put the public’s mind at ease about having a real killer off the street.”
The sheriff pats him on the shoulder. “As soon as her lawyer gets here, we’ll continue our interrogation.”
“I’m her next of kin. You need help getting a confession out of her, call me,” says the guy with the limp.
And here I am, trying to decide which of these chumps’ heads I want to bash in.
“Where. The fuck. Is Goldie?”
The three men look in the direction of the psycho in the lobby, hollering for fool’s head off. That would be me. I am the psycho.
The sheriff hooks his thumbs in his belt. “And who might you be?”
“I might be her fiancé. And I have the right to speak to her.”
The guy with the limp and the deputy with shit for brains exchange a skeptical look, then stare at me with murder in their eyes.
“Well, now,” the sheriff starts. “You do know that she’s being investigated for murder.”
Just then, the door bangs open. In strides a tired-looking woman in her fifties, wearing a smart gray suit and carrying a weathered briefcase. She makes a beeline for the back room, ignoring the sheriff.
“Now, wait a minute, Audrey.”
“Can it, Lucas?”
Both Mark and the guy with the limp look at the sheriff. “My sister, the crusading public defender. What can you do?”
I’ve never been so happy to see someone besides Goldie.
Without asking permission, she throws open the door to the interrogation room. The sheriff and Mark watch her in bewilderment. Me, I don’t wait for permission. I sprint over there and slide into the room before she shuts the door.
“Oh my god! Barrett!”
I don’t hesitate to scoop up Goldie in my arms and kiss her tear-stained face everywhere. “Baby,” I choke out. “Did they hurt you? What happened? What did you say? Did you answer any questions?”
She seems to laugh and cry at the same time. “No. No, I didn’t say anything.”
“Good girl.”
Audrey blows out a heavy breath and plops her briefcase on the table across from where Goldie and I are pawing, kissing, laughing, and crying.
“As soon as you and your daddy dom are finished, I can brief you on what to say before Thing One and Thing Two mosey on back here.” She pulls out a legal pad, a pen, and a phone, which she uses to begin recording.
Goldie looks at me, then looks at Audrey. She stiffens her spine and pulls herself together as I pull out her chair. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m ready. What do I say?”
Audrey folds her hands, rests them on the legal pad, and then looks Goldie dead in the eye. “You don’t say shit, okay? You let me do the talking.”
Goldie looks at me and smirks. “Well, that was easy.”
I laugh and lean forward, pressing a kiss to her temple.
The sheriff and Deputy Mark walk in and close the door behind them.
Audrey pulls a sheet of paper from her briefcase and looks at the sheriff.
“What do you have there, Aud?”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s the medical examiner’s report. The dead guy was shot an estimated five months ago, and the body froze shortly thereafter. The girl is not your shooter. You gotta let her go.”
“That’s not possible. You’re telling me this woman, who was in those same woods with a gun, firing at people in the same spot Trace was killed, is not a suspect?” Mark says.
Audrey cocks her head. “How’d you know the spot, Mark?”
“What?”
“How’d you know the spot where that man was shot and killed?”
Mark stammers, then babbles something about how it’s evident that Trace’s body washed down from high on the mountain. Or he heard a theory like that.
Audrey’s eyes cut to her brother, the sheriff. “The answer is shell casings, Einstein. They found shell casings from a rifle that was never reported stolen from the compound’s gun locker. And yet, when Goldie here ran away, the gun she stole from the locker was reported missing the same day by someone named Nevyn. You know that guy? That was just yesterday. Now, why wouldn’t they report something stolen that had way more firepower?”
She taps the pen to her chin.
I might love this woman too, if I was into threesomes. Or polygamy. Which I am most certainly not.
Mark points a finger at Audrey, and she raises her eyebrow at the audacity. “Wait a minute. Nobody found a murder weapon.”
Audrey cocks her head. “Maybe you guys ought to do some actual investigating?”
Goldie pipes up. “I know where his hideout is!”
Audrey lifts one brow.
Mark and the sheriff exchange a look.
“Or should we call the FBI for this one? After all, the man my client allegedly shot is a kidnapper and a known criminal. I’m sure they’d love to know more about that.”
She points finger guns at both Mark and her brother.
Goldie leans into me, and I slip my arm around her back.
Suddenly, I have an idea. It’s an off-the-wall idea, but it could clear Goldie’s name.
And since I’m not the one under arrest here, it’s time for me to chime in.
“Wait just a damn minute. I might have something useful.”
“Sir, what are you doing?” Audrey asks as I pull out my phone and unlock it.
“I have trail cam footage. I pay extra for storage because of the birds.”
Audrey asks, “Did he say birds?”
Goldie gasps. “Oh my god, you don’t think…”
“I do think. Audrey, when does the medical examiner think Trace was shot? I have automatic time stamps for big things like grizzlies. And assholes.”
“Oh my god, no way,” Goldie breathes.
October 31 was the first snowstorm of the season on the mountain. I scroll back to the major time stamp before that, and there it is. It’s not as clear as day, except there appears to be a struggle. Someone who definitely looks like the dead guy falling forward, jerkily. I shake off the terrible dread at seeing someone in their last moments of life.
“Dammit. The shooter is out of the frame,” I grumble.
The sheriff stammers. “And you didn’t report this footage to the department five months ago?”
He is roundly shushed.
“I didn’t have a reason to look back at it.”
Seconds later, someone walks into the frame, his back to the camera, and disappears into the woods.
It’s not Goldie. I knew it wouldn’t be.
I play it back and show it to everyone else in the room.
Mark looks heated. The sheriff is stunned silent.
Audrey gives me a nod of gratitude. “Way to go, nerd.” She turns to her brother. “So, Lucas, I assume that now is a good time for me to have a word in private with my client before she gives her statement regarding the charges against her?”