Page 16 of Last Seen Alive

“I want to, Logan.”

He looked up at the ceiling, back to her. “That hurts. You know me.”

“I do, but I need to know more about everything. For one, they’re saying it was a woman named Deb Smith, not Claire.”

Logan met her gaze, a flash of anger briefly sparking light in his eyes. “It was Claire. I know my wife.”

Amanda considered how to put her next words as delicately as possible. “It’s been a while since you saw her…”

He scoffed. “You don’t think I would recognize my own wife?”

“I never said that.”

“Amanda, that woman was Claire Hunter.”

“Why did she have ID that said Deb Smith?” she countered.

Logan flailed his arms in the air. “No freaking clue. Your guess is as good as mine.”

He was obviously angry and frustrated, and she couldn’t blame him on either count. “Why would she have a gun?”

“Again, I have no idea. Look, all I know is that my wife is dead, and I didn’t kill her. Are you going to help me?”

Seeing the desperation scoring his features Amanda was hurled into the past when a serial killer had taken Logan hostage and she’d found him. He was as terrified now as he’d been then. “Where do you keep your gun and ammo?” If Logan didn’t shoot the woman, and someone was trying to frame him, the next question would be how did they know where to get his weapon and ammo?

“In my bedroom closet, top shelf.”

Somewhere easy enough for anyone determined to find. Still, she asked, “Anyone else know that?”

He shook his head. “It’s never been a topic of conversation.”

“Do you keep your SIG in a gun box?”

“Yes.”

“And it’s always locked?”

This is where Logan hesitated and glanced at his lawyer.

“It’s not,” Peter answered on Logan’s behalf. “That’s one element working in our defense. Easy picking.”

Amanda wanted to grasp onto the lawyer’s optimism. Hopefully, it would cast enough doubt for a judge to find charges of murder against Logan dismissible. But the scenario of a random killer happening upon Logan’s gun—in his bedroom closet, no less—would be a tough sale. Tag on the victim being his estranged wife, and it would be near impossible. “And where do you keep your ammo?”

“In the open next to the gun box.”

Every time someone opened their mouth, Logan was damned further.

“Are you going to help me, Amanda, or am I on my own here?” Logan was searching her eyes.

“You have Peter.”

Logan angled his head, prompting her for some sort of assurance that she had his back.

She wanted to help him, but without full access to all the facts she wasn’t sure how she could. “I want to, but there’s more I need to know.”

“Whatever it is.”

She was stonewalled by Graves, and that put forensics findings out of her reach, but Amanda could look at motive. “Tell me about Claire and your marriage, how it ended, all of it.”