Chapter Thirteen #4
while more and then Gabe was upset about who Gigi was dancing with and we went
to talk to Olivia about it. Garrett went to cut in on Gigi, and Olivia asked me
to dance with Miranda.”
“Why would she want that? Again, if you’re her boyfriend,
why would she send you off to dance with another woman?”
“Miranda didn’t want to miss whatever show she thought Gigi
and Gabe were about to put on. I think Olivia wanted a few quiet minutes. Or
however quiet it can be at The Barn. It’s been a stressful couple of days,”
Keane explained. “I danced with Miranda and Garrett danced with Gigi for one
song, I think. Then he got a call and Gabe stepped in. I danced with Miranda
until I got his call that he found Olivia in the parking lot. I raced out, and
we got her to the hospital.”
“When did you pick up her phone?” the deputy asked.
His gut still rolled when he thought about it. “I did not
pick up her phone. Or her purse. I was in a panicked state. I wasn’t thinking
about that at all.”
“Do you have any idea how her phone got into your vehicle?”
He shook his head. “The vehicle was locked. I know because I
fumbled with the fob while we were trying to get her in. They probably threw it
in the back. I don’t know when. I didn’t check.”
“Shouldn’t you have called 9-1-1?”
“We could get to the hospital faster than waiting for EMS.
She was breathing. Her pulse was steady, but she wasn’t conscious. We didn’t
know what was happening, so we got her in the car and drove. We got to the
emergency department shortly after that.”
“According to the hospital records, you arrived at 9:23
p.m.”
Garrett leaned forward. “What is the timestamp on the
security camera? When does it show Keane going to the bar?”
She flipped a few pages, going back over her notes. “The
time stamp is…” She stopped and frowned. “I’ve got it noted at 8:12 to 8:26
p.m.”
“So you think he roofied the drink but Miranda didn’t take
it back to their table until almost nine p.m.” Garrett sounded surer now.
She huffed a breath out. “The surveillance footage shows you
standing in front of her drink. There’s a margarita on the side waiting to be
picked up. You walked to the end of the bar even though it was more crowded
than the middle.”
Keane sighed, a sign of his weariness. “I just walked to the
bar. The bartender was busy. I waited.”
“Did you see the drinks beside you? The ones that were
waiting to be picked up?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. If I did, I wasn’t paying
attention. I was waiting on beers and thinking about what I need to do for
work. We’re changing the fence and we need to do a large portion of it
tomorrow, so I was going over my lists in my head.”
“You stood in front of her drink for a good two minutes.”
“I was waiting and the bar was crowded.”
“Do you have footage of him putting something in the drink?”
Garrett interrupted. “I would like to see it.”
“And you will. Eventually,” she promised.
“I think this interview is over,” Garrett said quietly. “I
don’t want him to give you anything else until we see that tape.”
“You don’t want to explain why you had her cell phone?” she
asked, one brow raised.
“I told you I don’t know.” The panic was back. He would be
sent to the cell and there would be nothing to do but wait and think about how
the rest of his life was going to go. It was almost better to sit in here.
The door came open, and he heard the sheriff shouting.
“Now, Jack,” the sheriff began.
Jack Barnes barged in, his eyes narrowed and finger pointed
Keane’s way. “You think you can kidnap my daughter?”
Garrett stood but Keane stayed sitting. He wasn’t about to
defend himself. This was Olivia’s father. Had she sent him? If she had, then it
didn’t matter what happened to him now. Maybe it was better to let Barnes
murder him right here and get it all over with.
“Mr. Barnes.” Deputy Morgan stood up. “You are not allowed
back here.” She looked to the sheriff. “Are you going to do something?”
The sheriff leaned against the doorjamb and looked tired.
“Well, everyone tells me Jack Barnes is a force of nature. I wouldn’t try to
stop a tornado any more than I would that man.”
Garrett tried to move in front of him. “Mr. Barnes…”
Jack Barnes’s head swiveled like a predator scenting more
prey. “Mr. Pace, you let him lie on his application. I’m going to see if I
can’t take your law license. I swear I’m going to get you disbarred.”
Keane was confused. Jack was on a rant explaining all the
bodily torture he intended to inflict on them while Deputy Morgan told him it
was a bad idea to threaten murder in front of law enforcement deputies.
“What did I lie about?” Keane asked, but the room had
erupted.
Deputy Morgan was trying to get the situation in hand.
Garrett and Jack were arguing about… He was pretty sure it was everything.
In the midst of the chaos, a younger deputy ran up to the
sheriff. “We have trouble coming.”
The sheriff gestured to the room. “More than this?”
“So much more,” the deputy affirmed. “The daughter just
walked in.”
Olivia was here, and so was the hurricane he’d been waiting
for.