Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Scott (free e reader .TXT) 📕

Georgia hated to leave her dogs, since she’d only just gotten them back. “Do you mind watching them while I go?” she asked Amber. “It might be a few hours depending on the news.”

“Sure.”

After loving on the dogs, she hauled herself into Gerald’s truck. “You never drive the same vehicle. Nice perk of owning a dealership, huh?” she teased and clicked her seat belt in place.

He laughed. “I reckon so. It came on the lot last week, and I couldn’t stand it. Had to have it myself.”

“I hear ya.” She couldn’t get Alice out of her head. “Do you think Alice could have killed Jared, Gerald? I mean, if she did, I think it would have been an accident, and then there’s the moving of his body. She isn’t strong enough to do that. But Wade would have been. Or maybe Wade killed him, panicked and told his mom and they cleaned it up together. Colt sent Florida PD over to talk to him, but he wasn’t home. They’re hunting him down.”

Gerald shook his head. “I don’t know if I can believe Alice murdered Jared. Maybe Wade if he was using drugs.” He glanced at his phone and groaned. “Hey, do you mind if we run by the dealership real quick? I got an issue. Won’t take long.”

“No, that’s fine.” She pulled out her phone to let Colt know she was with Gerald and it would be a few minutes longer before she arrived.

“Georgia, I’m gonna need you to put that phone back in your purse.”

“What?” She glanced up to see a gun pointed right at her. Her pulse spiked and she froze.

“Phone. Back in your purse. Now. I can’t have you telling the McCoy boy where you are. I need time...”

Time for what? What was happening? She carefully put her phone back in her purse as her heart thundered against her ribs. “I don’t understand.”

Sweat poured down the sides of his beet-red cheeks. “It was an accident.”

Alice had killed Jared and Gerald had helped her move the body?

“I made a lot of bad investments, and Karen was keeping the dealership afloat with her own money.”

Probably money from life insurance from her first husband.

“When Jared was approached, I needed that ten thousand dollars, and I pushed him to take it so that I didn’t have to use Karen’s money, and really Ole Magnolia’s not a bad school. The money would’ve helped me out and our family. Jared agreed. He kept a thousand dollars and the tickets, and I used the rest. When he told me that he wasn’t going to go and we needed to give the money back...I was angry.”

He. Was. Angry. “You killed him for that?”

Gerald kept the gun on her, glancing at the road and back to her, repeating the action. If she could get the gun while he was looking at the road, she might be able to save herself. Why kill her?

“No. I was angry, and I’d spent the money on bills and credit card debt. I didn’t have it to give back. I thought I’d talk about it again with him. Or I’d have to tell Karen. She would have been disappointed, but she would have paid the money back.”

“What happened?” she whispered.

“That night when he took the photos of Scott at the motel, he saw something he shouldn’t have.” Gerald’s voice cracked. “Alice was a mistake. I tried to tell him it wouldn’t ever happen again, but he was furious and he threatened to tell...” Panic, desperation and hysteria laced his voice.

The print on the watch. Not telling she’d seen Jared. It wasn’t about Wade. She might never have known that Wade was in a room nearby buying drugs at the same time. It was about Gerald and Alice. “He threatened to tell Karen that he’d caught you and Alice having an affair.”

“Yes,” he cried. “He saw us coming out of the motel room, and when Alice left, he approached me. We argued, and he stormed off. I called Alice and told her. When she saw him at Rascal’s, she tried to talk to him privately when he went to the restroom and wasn’t with Chance. I imagine that’s how her print ended up on his watch. When I heard that it was hers, I panicked. I can’t let Karen know this! I’ll lose her and the business and everything!”

“You killed her son. How have you looked her in the eyes all these years?”

Gerald wailed. “I’m not sure I have. I’ve been paying every day. Me and Alice stopped it that night. Never ever met up again. She quit the dealership, and we don’t even so much as speak. We’ve changed.”

“It doesn’t change what you did, Gerald.” She rubbed her temples. “What do you want with me? Colt has the SD card. Are you on it, too?”

“No! But two of my dealership cars probably are. Jared was parked right behind us. I knew if Colt got that SD card he’d put two and two together—especially having Alice’s print. I tried to get it, but—”

Georgia’s brain wouldn’t slow down. So many thoughts. The terror. The tragedy. “Wait. You tried to get what? The SD card?” It was him. He knew they were looking for it, and he must have overheard Amber call them to meet her at work for it. So he showed up, and while they were in the stables, he messed with Colt’s truck with hopes of them dying in a car accident or at least being knocked out long enough for him to steal the SD card. Then it would go back to a cold case that couldn’t be solved. Alice’s prints would mean nothing without evidence that she hurt Jared.

He turned into the dealership parking lot. By now it was closed for the night. Empty. No one to run to.

“Why did you move the body? Where did you kill him?”

Gerald’s face fell, and he motioned her to slide out on