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

the camera and the SD card all right there for me to see. Like a good boy.” He snorted. “Why would I kill Jared? I got what I wanted.”

“Why did Chance tell you to keep your mouth shut?”

Scott splayed his hands in front of him. “Guess he knew we might be right here chatting like this.”

Colt stood. “Sit tight.” He left Rhett with Scott and met up with Mae and Georgia in the other room.

Georgia pointed to the glass. “I believe him.”

“He’s still hiding something and I don’t trust him,” Mae countered.

Georgia rubbed her chin. “Let’s connect the obvious dots. Scott dealt drugs. He had a connection to Chance that neither will cough up. It’s likely drugs—possibly even performance-enhancing drugs. Chance owes him, and it’s probably over illegal substances.”

“He might have owed Scott money for drugs,” Mae offered.

“Exactly,” Georgia said. “Scott has Chance meet up with Jared and they choose the Magnolia, which we know Scott dealt from often. He may have even been in one of the rooms waiting on the photos. The altercation could have taken place that night at the motel. We know Jared’s body was relocated after his death. But by Scott or Chance?”

Colt was on the same page as the women. “The phone call from Chance to Jared the night he was working out at the school was likely to get him to meet. But it had to be a bogus lure. Jared wouldn’t have met up with Chance to give him pictures willingly. How did he get him to the Magnolia?”

“And how does this possibly link to my attacks and the illegal recruiting?” Georgia asked.

That was a great question. It was possible that Georgia’s attacks were to silence her about the illegal recruiting. Which opened up the case and led to Jared’s murder investigation—the catalyst but not a direct link.

Gerald and Karen had denied that Jared accepted a bribe to go to Ole Magnolia. But Jared was secretive about the money and concert tickets. Could he have bribed Scott or Chance for the money and tickets? Was the photo of Scott dealing drugs to Chance?

“Has Poppy gotten anything from Chance?”

Mae shook her head. “Just football talk. The guy is smart. He knows how to evade incriminating questions. And his dad showed up about five minutes ago. He’s in there with him.”

Great. “I’ll take a crack at him anyway. We have history. And I have Scott’s story. That ought to give me some leverage.”

Poppy stood as Colt entered, and he gave her a chin nod—the signal to leave them inside alone.

“I’m gonna get a coffee. Anyone want one?” She didn’t wait for them to respond. “Okay, just me then.”

Reggie Leeway eyed Colt like a hawk about to strike a lone kitten. Colt was no helpless fluff ball. He was a unit chief, and he’d gone toe to toe with slimy lawyers like Reggie before.

“I’ve talked to Scott.” No point holding back. He relayed Scott’s story, except the fact Scott refused to admit what the favor was in exchange for. “We know you were buying drugs from Scott and you owed him.”

Reggie laid a hand on Chance’s forearm, and Chance remained silent. But to Colt, that was a clear sign indicating the favor was linked to Chance and personal drug use.

“Are you charging him? If not, you have to let him go,” his father said.

“I want to know your side of this story, Chance.” Technically, he could hold him up to forty-eight hours, and Reggie knew it. If it came to that, he would. Colt stared at Reggie with steel in his eyes, daring him to test him.

Reggie nodded to Chance and gave him permission to speak.

“Scott asked for a favor. I complied. I called Jared that Saturday night. You already know this. I asked him to meet me. I didn’t want to come to the school, because I knew his coach was in his office. He’d been talking to him when I called.”

“Meet you for what?” What was the ploy to coax him into meeting?

“I’d popped off the night before—you know that. I offered to buy him some fries and a drink at Rascal’s.” Right across from the Magnolia Motel. “It’d be easy to get it and then deliver it to Scott.”

“Scott was at the motel waiting on you?”

“He was supposed to be, but I think one of his friends didn’t show up, and when I met up with him it was at his house.”

“What happened at Rascal’s?”

“We ate fries at about nine thirty. We talked football, and I apologized for being a jerk. When he went to the bathroom, I checked his jacket for the camera. No go.”

“So how did you get it?”

“I was working on a plan B that would get me to his house so I could dig around his room. But on our way out, I saw it in his back seat along with an Aerosmith T-shirt. I’d heard he scored front-row tickets, and I told him I didn’t buy it and wanted to see for myself. When he dug around in his duffel bag for them, I lifted the camera.”

“Did you look at the pictures?”

Chance looked at his dad. He again nodded. “No. It was empty.”

Scott said Chance broke it right in front of him. Surely he wouldn’t be dumb enough not to look first. “Scott said—”

“I know what Scott said. I went to the 7-Eleven on the corner of his block and bought an SD card. He was high when he called, so I had a fifty-fifty shot. I broke the camera and disk, and he bought it. But the original card was never there.”

“Where was Jared when you last saw him and what time?”

“It was about ten when I left the parking lot at Rascal’s. Alice Parker was working the night shift and saw us. Ask her. She saw me get into my car and leave. Jared was sitting in his when I drove away. What happened after Rascal’s, I honestly don’t know.”

Colt put the missing pieces together.