Tanner was unusually quiet as he drove me back to the police station. Maybe feeling self-conscious about the “expedient” quip. We were talking about my family friend after all. He stopped in front of my borrowed Land Rover. “Get some sleep, Jones. Tomorrow you’ll get your answers.”
“I hope so. Thanks for your help today.”
A smile flitted across his face. “Any time.”
He waited while I climbed into the vehicle, trailed me as far as his B&B, then flicked his headlights and turned off. A couple of minutes later my phone rang.
“It’s Moore. Learn anything I should know about?” He sounded as if he was driving too.
“We’re executing search warrants in the morning. Turns out Carly was arrested for smuggling as a coed.”
“Who told you that?” Irritation laced his voice.
“Don’t beat yourself up. Our background check didn’t turn up the report either. The guy she accused of putting her up to it told us.”
“Oh yeah?”
Realizing I’d passed Ashley’s road, I pulled a U-turn.
“Joe got any idea where she may be holed up now?”
Spotting the road this time, I turned into the woods. “No.”
“You got a plan to flush her out?”
“No, heading back to my friend’s for a good night’s sleep.”
“Ditched the sidekicks, did you?” He chuckled.
Slowing down for the driveway, I chuckled too. No denying it must’ve seemed comical the way I’d show up at one scene with Nate and at the next with Tanner. “They’ve gone home. Goodnight.”
My headlights swept across Jack’s porch as I pulled into the driveway. Someone was on the porch steps. I parked in front of Ashley’s cottage and could see her and Ben’s silhouette, through the curtain, sitting in front of the TV. I squinted at Jack’s porch. I wouldn’t put it past Aunt Martha to wait out here for an update on the investigation, but she’d stand up and yoo-hoo me. I reached for my phone to use the flashlight app.
The visitor rose from the step, triggering the motion detector light. Carly.
No way. I thumbed a quick text message to Tanner: You won’t believe who’s waiting for me on Jack’s porch—Carly.
She was hugging the same thin sweater around her middle as she’d been wearing earlier.
I couldn’t see her hands, so I slid out from the passenger side of the vehicle to give myself cover.
“Al killed Charlie,” she wailed across the distance between us, “and he’s going to kill me.”
“Okay, take it easy. Can I see your hands?”
They flew into the air. “Please, you have to listen to me.”
“I will. I just need to know you’re not going to pull a gun on me.” I beamed the cell phone’s flashlight over her hands, pockets, waistband.
“I don’t have a gun.”
I swept the light beam over the rest of the porch, then stepped out from behind the cover of my vehicle. “You fled from the scene of a crime, Carly. This is standard precaution, okay? Please turn and place your hands against the wall so I can check you for myself.”
Her story spilled out as I patted her down. “He’s been blackmailing me for years. Threatened to turn us in if we didn’t pay. So we did. We always paid. But then when he heard about Jack—” Her voice cracked.
“Okay, you can put down your hands and turn around.”
“He must’ve gotten scared we’d turn on him to cut a deal. That’s why he killed Charlie. I’m sure of it.” She swallowed hard and, finally seeming to register my instructions, lowered her hands and started to turn toward me.
“Who?” I asked.
Her gaze shot past my shoulder.
Instinctively, I dove.
But not quickly enough. Probes caught me in the shoulder and a gazillion watts of electricity jolted through my body. Dropped me to the ground. My limbs shook uncontrollably. A fist clipped me in the jaw. Then everything went black.