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

she said she didn’t remember Jared and Chance being in Rascal’s that night?” Georgia asked.

“Not particularly. Chance was confident she’d back him up. She seemed well versed, but her eyes held unease and quite frankly some hidden truth. I’d like to get my hands on that SD card. Without it I don’t know what comes next.”

And he was leaving in a few weeks. Leaving her alone with his unit was well and good; she trusted them. But they weren’t Colt. That line of thinking was why it was best for him to go and the sooner the better. She already lay awake at night fretting about the next day and what might happen to him.

Georgia’s phone rang. “It’s Amber. I’m gonna put her on speaker.” She hit the green button and answered. “Hey, Amber, what’s up?”

“Hey. I need to talk to you. I wanted to do it at the house, but I couldn’t bring myself to.” Her voice was nasally, as if she’d been crying. “I have to come in to work. Can you meet me at the stables?”

“Yes, of course. What’s this about?”

She sniffed. “I’m sorry. I have the SD card.”

Georgia and Colt shared a shocked exchange with one another. “Did you find it?”

“No. I had it. I apologize for putting y’all through all that worthless searching. I was...I was struggling, but I got to do what’s right.”

“We’re on our way,” Georgia said and hung up. Colt made a U-turn on the highway and headed to the south end of town. Milford’s Stables was on the left before one crossed into Craw County. Amber had worked here since she was sixteen. Now, she managed them.

“Why would Amber have the SD card?” Colt’s brow knit as he gripped the wheel and concentrated on the road. “Do you think this was part of their fighting? If Jared knew she’d taken it somehow...”

Georgia tossed her hands up. “We keep running into more questions than answers. I have no idea what to believe at this point. But if Amber has the SD card, then Alice didn’t take it. And how would Alice even know about it?”

“Scott knew about it. If Alice’s son, Wade, was in the photos with him, Jared could have approached him in an effort to turn Wade from his ways. He was like that. Or Scott told Wade and he told his mom out of fear?”

Alice’s prints on the watch may have been about the SD card and her son. “Or Jared approached Wade and threatened to tell Alice if he didn’t quit dabbling in drugs, or he did tell Alice in an attempt to help him before it got out of hand.”

“That makes Wade Parker a suspect, and he lives in Florida. We need to send someone out there to talk to him.”

The road stretched into miles of pastureland where cattle grazed and horses roamed, eating grass and moseying, not a single worry in the world. Must be nice.

Colt turned on the road that led to the stables. He parked next to Amber’s red Jeep in front of the office. The secretary there told them Amber was in the stables. They entered, the smells of hay and manure whacking Georgia in the face.

Amber stood, petting a horse’s mane.

“Hey,” Georgia said.

Amber wiped her wet lashes. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“We need the truth, Amber.”

She inhaled deeply. “I was scared to tell my parents that I’d been seeing Scott. I knew he and Jared had gotten into it. Scott told me that Jared had followed him one night and taken pictures of him at the motel while he was dealing drugs. He said Jared threatened to take them to the police if he didn’t stop hanging around me.”

“So you took the card to protect Scott?”

“Scott promised to get out of the business. Said he hated it but was forced by someone older in his family. I picked up every word he put down.”

Naive girls.

“I sneaked into Jared’s car before he left to go work out at the school and stole the card. I was prepared to fight about it when he discovered it missing, but he...he died. I believed this person Scott had alluded to—who turned out to be fictitious—killed Jared over the photos and it was all my fault.”

Amber slumped to her knees and held her face in her hands. “He’s dead because of what I did.”

Amber believed Scott killed Jared. Georgia grappled with being angry with Amber for withholding important information all these years and feeling compassion for an old friend who had carried the guilt of her brother’s death.

Georgia knelt beside her. “You told the truth now. You have the card. And you don’t know for sure that Scott killed Jared.” Why would he if he knew Chance was stealing the incriminating evidence that would clear him? Unless he wasn’t as dumb as Chance suspected and knew the real card was missing. He let Chance believe it was over so he wouldn’t suspect him of killing Jared.

“Have you looked at what’s on the SD card?” Colt asked.

Amber shook her head. “I didn’t want to see it. At first for fear Scott’s boss might find me and kill me, too. That’s why I never told Scott I had it. I was too afraid to give it to the police. Over the years, I’ve forgotten about it as I’ve moved on. But every anniversary I remember and wonder what would have happened if I’d been brave enough to do the right thing.”

She’d been a seventeen-year-old girl. Teenagers make dumb decisions. Amber stood and handed Colt the SD card. “I hope whoever is on there is found and the truth comes out. I’m so sorry.”

Colt patted her shoulder and pocketed the SD card.

The secretary poked her head inside and hollered, “Hey, I’m running out. It’s just you, Amber. I turned the voice mail on to catch any calls. Be back in an hour.”

Amber nodded and waved. When she left, Amber turned to Colt. “Do you think Scott killed Jared?”

“Maybe. I need to