Page 104 of Trapper Road

“I don’t like any of this. It doesn’t feel right being so far away from you. We should all be together right now. A united front.”

“I don’t like it either, but I worry that you being here with Connor will only make things harder, not easier. And right now, things are hard enough. It’s bad, Gwen. It’s really bad.”

I let my head fall forward until it’s resting against the steering wheel. How does this keep happening? How do our lives keep getting upended in ways I never see coming?

I straighten again. “Tell me.”

“After I called Leo the other night, he went down to his local station and filed a report that I’d been communicating threats against him. He claimed I was threatening him, saying I’d come for him and stuff like that.”

“Did you threaten him?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I might have. I don’t remember doing so specifically, but he apparently has a recording. The police in California have a transcript of it.”

My head starts to pound, and I press my fingers against my temples. “That can’t be that big of a deal. He was threatening us first. Surely that undermines any claim he has against you.”

“He was in Stillhouse Lake,” he continues. “Cell phone records prove it. He was there the night before last, and after that, there’s no record of him. His cell phone cut off. He missed his flight back home. He hasn’t used any credit cards. He’s disappeared.”

“He’s a grown man. He can come and go where he pleases. So no one’s talked to him in a couple of days. That doesn’t mean he was murdered.”

“Except for all that blood in our house,” Sam points out.

Right. That. It’s not a great fact. “Okay, what about the fact that you have an alibi? You were with Lanny at Reyne.”

“That’s what I thought. It’s why I didn’t request a lawyer when they asked to talk to me. I knew I didn’t have anything to do with this, so I thought I’d be okay.” There’s a bitterness to his voice, and my heart sinks. I can’t blame him for not having a lawyer — if you’re innocent, it’s easy to think the system will protect you.

But that’s not how the system is designed. The system is designed to secure convictions and keep them from being overturned.

There’s no need for me to point this out to Sam now, though, when it’s too late.

“They have video of me leaving the hotel. That’s when I went to keep an eye on Lanny while she was at that party, but there are no cameras on that parking lot so there’s no proof that’s where I was. Meanwhile, highway cameras picked up my truck driving to Stillhouse Lake.”

I shake my head, trying to understand. “How do they have pictures of your truck if you weren’t there?”

“I don’t know.” There’s a desperation to his voice. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You were in your truck, so no one could have stolen it,” I point out. He agrees. “So someone either hacked the police cameras or somehow made it look like your truck.”

“Either one of those things wouldn’t be easy,” Sam says.

“Weren’t you the one who said Varrus was rich? Things become much easier when you have money.”

He doesn’t respond. He doesn’t have to. It’s true: money can buy a lot of things. We both saw it ourselves with Absalom. And when someone with money sets their targets on you, there’s little you can do. “We’re going to fight this,” I tell him. “Leo made a mistake. He has to have. He’s not smart enough to pull something like this off without missing a detail. Once we figure that out, the case against you will unravel.”

“Ifwe figure it out,” he says.

I frown. It’s not like him to be so pessimistic. “What does Kez say? She knows you — she knows you couldn’t have had anything to do with this.”

“I haven’t talked to her. I’m still at the station. The detective asked me to stay in case he had more questions.”

31

KEZIA

The minute my phone rings that evening, I know it’s the call I’ve been dreading. I take a breath, brace myself, and swipe to accept the call. Gwen’s voice hits me before I can even say hello.

“What the hell, Kez?”

Of course I know what she’s talking about. Diakos’s interrogation of Sam and the fact I haven’t intervened. “I know, Gwen. I’m sorry.” And it’s true, I am. I followed my gut this morning getting Detective Diakos involved, and now I’m second guessing whether that was the right move.