One Last Step by Sarah Sutton (free e books to read TXT) 📗

eyes then moved to the third and he slowly picked up the picture as a look of confusion crossed his face.

“Her…I met her before…at the camping store,” he said before staring at the picture for a moment longer. “What exactly is this about?” he asked as he looked up at Warren.

The man genuinely looked puzzled and it stirred Tara’s gut instinct—that this wasn’t the killer. She wanted to step in, but as she glanced at Warren, whose gaze lay focused on the suspect, she knew it would be wiser to stay quiet.

Warren ignored his question as he leaned over the table. He placed his finger hard against the picture in the man’s hands.

“How’d you meet her?” he asked.

The man sat a bit further back in his chair, cowering at Warren’s approach.

“I…uh…she was looking for a water jug,” he responded, flustered.

“What else?” Warren demanded.

The man suddenly pushed up his sleeves from the intense heat of nerves.

“It was brief,” he started. “I told her she could find one for half the price at the convenience store down the street.”

“And what about after? What happened after you helped her?” Warren was now inches from his face.

“What do you mean? That was it.” He threw his hands up in frustration.

Warren suddenly backed off a bit and sighed.

“This woman,” he started as he pointed aggressively at her picture. “She showed up dead not long after she talked to you.”

A look of shock flashed across the man’s face. He looked up, narrowing his eyes.

“Are you accusing me of murder?” Heat rose to the surface of his skin as he grew angry at the realization. He threw his arms up yet again. “This is ridiculous!” he screamed. “Did my wife put you up to this?”

Warren scrunched his face as though confused. “Why would you think that?”

The man looked from Warren to Tara, scanning their faces, and then sighed.

“I don’t know. Maybe because she’s the only one who knew that I was staying at the cabin. How else would you’ve found me?” He muttered something angrily under his breath.

“What was that?” Warren asked as he leaned his ear in closer.

The man sighed again. “I said I wouldn’t be surprised if that bitch tried to pin something like this on me. She probably found out about Sherri,” he said, referring to the woman in the cabin. He crossed his arms. “I swear I had nothing to do with it. Check that convenience store. You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

As Tara listened to his answers, her gut feeling only intensified. The man who sat in front of them wasn’t who they were looking for.

“Why’d you run then?” Warren asked.

The man sat quietly for a moment, and then he spoke. “Well, you saw the fight me and Sherri had. I don’t know, I thought she called the cops on me.”

***

Tara and Warren stood outside the interrogation room, looking in at Greg Davis through the one-way mirror. They stood silently, an awkwardness swirling around them until Tara couldn’t take it any longer.

“What do you think?” she asked.

Warren’s gaze stayed on the suspect as he responded. “I’m not sure. He’s clearly aggressive but he looked a bit too surprised when he realized why we were questioning him.”

“I agree,” Tara said. “We should check the convenience store.”

Warren nodded. “We’ll ask the sheriff to send some cops over to take a look, check the cameras.” He paused as his phone rang. He reached in his pocket and checked the caller ID. Tara could see that it was the medical examiner. They had been anxiously awaiting the results for the bows and arrows they brought in, and Tara knew it could only mean that they were ready.

Warren put the phone on speaker. “What’d you find?” he asked.

A woman’s voice came through. “I’m sorry to say, but it’s not the murder weapon.”

Warren’s face fell, but it only confirmed what both he and Tara already felt in their gut. “How do you know?” he asked.

“What you found were conventional compound bows, not crossbows, and a compound bow wouldn’t have caused the wound found in the victim,” she said. “A crossbow has more power. It’s deadlier.”

Warren paused. “What about the arrows, could they have been used with a crossbow?”

“It’s very unlikely,” she admitted. “The suspect’s arrows were designed for a compound bow, so they’re longer. They wouldn’t fit properly on a crossbow.”

Warren sighed, before thanking her, hanging up, and turning to Tara.

“Well, we’ll still see if his story checks out. But I think we should call it a day. Get some rest.”

Tara nodded, but Warren still stood in front of her. He was still waiting for an explanation of what happened at the scene.

He then spoke: “Are you going to ever tell me what happened back there?”

Tara knew she couldn’t avoid it anymore. She had to say something.

“I’m really sorry, Warren…I just froze. It won’t happen again, I can promise you that.”

Warren narrowed his eyes. “The problem, Mills, is that it shouldn’t have even happened once.”

“I know…I…” Tara tried to save herself but Warren just shook his head and continued.

“You need to get it together. That can’t happen again. You understand?”

Deeply ashamed, Tara nodded as she waited for him to say more, to ask her why she froze. But instead he turned to the door and left the room.

Tara stood alone and turned her gaze toward Greg Davis, wondering if her inner demons would prevent her from seeing this case through.

Chapter Ten

Tara sat at the edge of the bed in her hotel room, flicking through channels. She and Warren didn’t speak at all on the ride back to the hotel, and once they arrived, he went right to his room with just a simple “good night,” leaving Tara unsure of her future on this case.

 His words at the station hit her hard. Her past was something that she had tried to keep buried for so long, but at times the trauma crept up on her without warning, taking hold of her. It was the screams