Chapter 27
Blaze stared at the calendar. It’d been over a week since he’d called Daniel asking for help on the case. Nothing had moved in that time. Sure, everyone walked around like they were doing something, but they weren’t—and based on the hushed whispers in Sheriff Myer’s office, he knew that something was transpiring behind the scenes.
He’d left a business card at Outlaws for Lauren to contact him, but she hadn’t. Apparently, she’d taken some kind of vacation right after that whole conversation with Beth, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the disclosed secret had something to do with it. Was someone threatening her, too?
Tapping his pen on his desk, he mulled the whole thing over, mentally noting that Beth had seemed to take his advice, staying home and spending time with her mom. He hadn’t seen Garrett around, either, which had him thinking his family had him laying low somewhere.
Probably a good move. He sighed as his computer chimed with a new email, and he double clicked it, opening it up to a notification from the state lab. His heart started to thump with adrenaline immediately.
“What the…” His inaudible mumble trailed off as he read the words.
It appears the victim tested positive for envenomation from a pit viper. The timing of the bite was prior to the time of death. To answer your question, yes, we do believe that Caroline Murphy was bitten by a venomous snake prior to death, causing cardiac arrest.
Blaze couldn’t breathe as he shoved himself back from the desk, jumping to his feet. He stormed to Sheriff Myer’s office, feeling sick to his stomach. Knocking on the door, he rocked back on his heels, already starting to sweat.
“Come in,” the sheriff called out.
Blaze swung the door open. “I just got an email with a lab report about some snake bite on a victim? What the hell is that about?”
Sheriff Myers furrowed his brow. “Uh… Yeah? We just had to get the cause of death done for a woman who died outside of Huntersville a few months ago. They just wanted confirmation.”
“A few months ago?” Blaze was choking on his words now, trying to wrap his head around it. “How did I not know about this?”
The sheriff looked confused. “Because it wasn’t a crime? Someone found her up north on the edge of a field. You were off helping Peter or somethin’. So, I sent Dylan and a couple others up there to take care of it. No foul play suspected. We found some kind of bite… Probably a snake, by the looks of the email you got. Looks like we can close it.”
Blaze’s heart hammered in his ears. “And you’re sure there were no signs of foul play?”
Sheriff Myers raised a brow. “Uh, yes. You wanting to play TV detective and assume there’s a serial killer or something?” He chuckled, shaking his head. “You can just print off the report and give it to Dylan. He’ll put it in the file and close it.”
Blaze stood there for a few more minutes, trying to catch his breath. “It’s rare for someone to die from a snake?—”
“ Blaze, ” Sheriff Myers cut him off, his tone stern. “It happens. Ain’t nobody running around with a venomous snake using it to kill people. That’s crazy talk.”
“Right,” he muttered, clearing his throat and running his hand over his face.
“Yeah, so go print the report off and get a drink of water or something,” his boss laughed. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Blaze nodded, and slipped out of the office, trying to calm his nerves. It’s just coincidence. No foul play… He said there’s no foul play. Never mind the fact that all the homicides Blaze was a person of interest in, involved snake bites on the victims.
As he made it back to his desk, his phone vibrated against the wood grain. Blaze glanced down at the screen, seeing the exact man who’d understand his concerns. He swept up the device and answered. “Yeah?”He braced, waiting for his seventh nightmare to begin.
“Got in the reports you were asking for,” Daniel said instead.
“Oh?” Blaze choked out. “That’s good.”
“Yeah,” Daniel sighed. “Got all of them, actually. Just had to make a few phone calls. I haven’t sent them to your boss, but I’m going to warn you now, it’s going to be like stepping on a hornet’s nest I’m afraid. I’ve been approved for providing your department with assistance due to the conflict of interest.”
While the distraction was welcome, Blaze’s blood ran cold. “The gun came back as a match, didn’t it?”
“Oh yeah. Ballistics were certain the gun used in the crime was the one you submitted to the state. We saw that it’s registered to Sheriff Gavin Myers. However, interestingly, there was a new report stating that it was stolen about a month ago.”
“It’s gotta be false.”
“Yeah, kind of assumed that. How’d you get the gun?” Daniel asked. “Because nowhere in the report do you state that.”
“Uh,” Blaze hesitated, instantly thinking of Beth. “It came from an incident that happened a few weeks ago. Garrett Myers, the sheriff’s son used it in an altercation. He’s a felon, so it was confiscated.”
“Well, looks like you’ve got your guy then,” Daniel chuckled. “There were multiple phone calls to Garrett Myers the night she went missing. The final phone call was actually from her phone to his, and it took place at nine-forty-three. The autopsy confirmed she was pregnant as well. Could’ve been his motive.”
Blaze rubbed his forehead, unable to bring himself to agree with it. “I don’t know… I don’t think their relationship was like that.”
“You never know what people are up to.”
“Any other phone calls?” Blaze asked.
“Yeah, in the mix, there was a Lucas Wilson and then an app, but the information was falsified, so no clue on that one. It’s suspicious, but the gun kind of messes up that lead. If Garrett Myers was in possession of the gun, then it is what it is. You said he doesn’t remember what he did that night, right?”
“That’s correct,” Blaze said, eyeing the sheriff’s office. “But now what? They ain’t gonna like this.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Daniel said. “I’ve already started working on the warrant for Garrett Myer’s arrest.”
“Great,” Blaze muttered, pushing back from his desk. “That means they’re gonna know this is on me.”
“And if the geezer is worth ten cents, he’ll go arrest his son, making our jobs all a little easier.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Daniel laughed, a wicked tone to his voice. “Then we’ll arrest them all.” With that, he hung up, and Blaze sat his phone down on his desk face down. He closed his eyes momentarily, knowing that the warrant would be coming through for Garrett at any point—but they couldn’t be mad at him for it.
They knew he submitted the gun for testing.
But honestly, he had expected it to come back clean.
It wouldn’t eliminate Garrett as a suspect, but it would take some of the pressure off the guy, who seemed to be on the edge of a mental breakdown. He had actually started to feel bad for how he’d been treating him, but now? Now he knew his suspicions had been right.
Beth needs to know.
Blaze pushed himself back from the desk and stood to his feet, shoving his phone into his pocket. Ignoring the nerves rolling through his body, he made his way to Sheriff Myer’s office, and knocked on the door.
“Yeah?” the sheriff called. “Come in.”
Blaze pushed the door in. “I got some stuff I need to do on the ranch. Ain’t much going on here. I think I’m gonna take off the rest of the day.”
The old man raised his brow. “Not like you to take off work.”
Blaze shrugged. “Nope, but Beth is out there working alone today. No sense in that when I don’t have anything going on.”
Sheriff Myers narrowed his eyes, seeming to scrutinize Blaze’s expression for a few minutes. “Well…” His voice trailed off. “Okay. See ya in a few days then. Maybe catch up on some sleep between now and then.”
“Yep,” Blaze tipped his hat, and then slipped out of the office, grabbing his things as he made a beeline for the door. He only had one thing on his mind now, and that was ensuring that Beth never went near Garrett Myers ever again.
As Blaze roared up the driveway, he breathed a sigh of relief as his eyes landed on Beth, loping one of the horses in the arena. Her auburn hair blew in the wind, and he slowed as he caught sight of the smile on her face.
And now I gotta ruin it. He hated that, but knew it was for the best. It just had to be done. She deserved the truth more than anyone else, since she had so loyally stood by Garrett despite everything. He put the truck in park, cut the engine, and slid out. It was nearly Halloween, and the air was more bearable than it had been all year.
I’ll miss this place if I have to leave, he inwardly cringed, once more thinking of the email about the case he hadn’t known about up north. There’s no foul play, he reminded himself once more. Let it go. Focus on the present .
He waved to Beth as he walked around the front of the truck, and she grinned, waving back, directing the palomino to trot up to the railing. Blaze made his way to the fence, and then rested against it, his left boot on the bottom rail.
“You’re here early,” Beth said, a quizzical, albeit pleasant, look on her face. “How come?”
He blew out a breath, suddenly dreading what he was about to say. “There’s something I need to tell you, Beth,” Blaze began, looking up at her. “And I think you should get down, and we go somewhere else.”
Her dark brows furrowed. “Why? Is Mom okay?” She looked over toward the house, throwing her hand up to shade her eyes.
“Your mom is fine,” Blaze said quickly. “I’m serious though. We gotta talk, and I just want to get it out of the way before you hear it from someone else.” He backed away from the railing as she slid off the horse.
“I’ll meet you in the barn, I guess,” she said, no longer smiling. In fact, she looked more perplexed than ever. She eyed him as she ducked away, leading the horse behind her as she made her way toward the barn.
Blaze took a few deep, steady breaths as he made his way back around to meet her inside. As he did, his phone started to buzz, and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was an unknown number—one from out of state. He pressed the ignore button and shook his head. He wasn’t in the mood for spam callers.
The sun was starting to sink lower in the sky, and he wondered if it would take until the next day before the warrant popped up on their system. Well, or when someone faxed it over. He shook his head as he stepped onto the concrete, where Beth was untacking the horse .
“So?” She looked over the back of the gelding. “What do have to tell me?”
Blaze joined her, grabbing the saddle pad and shaking it out before hanging it on one of the racks. “Let’s finish untacking first.”
“Oh my gosh,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “I hope whatever you have to say is worth it.”
“Did you tell your mom about the ranch?” Blaze asked, leaning into a momentary change of subject. “I saw the papers on the desk in the barn office. Shows the debt was mostly paid off. Figured you made that happened.”
“Yeah. I paid it off,” she said, shrugging. “We’ll sell some of the equipment we don’t use to pay the rest of it. Should be debt free in a few weeks.”
“Then you’re gonna head out of town?”
She narrowed her gaze at him as she brushed down the horses back. “Maybe. Probably. Why? Is that the news you came to talk to me about? You’re leaving?”
Blaze swallowed the knot in his throat, the dry sensation irritating. “Not yet. I just said I never hang around one place too long. Never works out for me.”
“I see…” Beth’s voice trailed off as she grabbed the lead rope and led the horse to his stall. Once she had slipped the halter off and turned back to me, she folded her arms across her chest. “So? What do you have to say?”
He sighed. “We got the tests back today. The gun came back as a match for the one that killed Sarah Armitage.”