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SHERIFF GRADY STARED at me with a kind of swollen look, like he had grown tired of me. I couldn’t say that I cared. One of his deputies walked up behind him and stopped about three yards away. He rested his hand on the butt of his holstered Glock.
These country boys still didn’t trust me. I couldn’t say I blamed them.
I faced the sheriff. I needed to get back to Matlind. It had been most of a day, and he wasn’t safe on his own. Not if this professional hitman was somehow related to his missing wife, which was the only thing that made sense to me. I had kicked a hornets’ nest, and it had to be because of Faye Matlind’s disappearance. She was the only thing that connected me to a Mexican hitman. Had to be. And in that case, Chris Matlind was at the center of something. I doubted if Grady was going to take him seriously. It was best that I got back there.
I said, “I need to go back to the motel.”
Grady said, “You need to stay in my custody.”
“Am I still a prisoner?”
“You’re a witness. There are a lot of unanswered questions here.”
I said, “You don’t need me. And you can’t take me back to the jail, not after what happened.”
“So what do you suggest? That I let you go?”
“Take me back to my motel. At least there I can get some sleep before morning.”
Grady paused like he was searching his brain for the right answer. He knew I was right. I couldn’t go back to the jail. It was a crime scene now, and it wasn’t safe there, but then again, it wasn’t safe anywhere at that moment.
Grady looked at his deputy—not Mike, but the other guy. He said, “Lewis, take him back to the motel and stay outside in your car till I call you.”
Lewis came all the way into the room. He looked at me and made a come here gesture with his hand. I ignored him and looked back at Sheldon.
I held her hand in mine. She slid off the countertop and stared up at me with those gray eyes like storm clouds brewing—beautiful and dangerous.
The lights above hit my back and cast a shadow from my body over her. It consumed her like she stood in the wake of a tall tree. She was tiny next to my frame.
I asked, “Will I see you later?”
She smiled and said, “I hope so.”