Arresting Developments
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Holder shrugged. “Your words. Not mine.”
“I know what it costs to maintain a large estate. I don’t guess I really need your answer to that question. It does, however, make me wonder if the trustee could be culpable in the murder.”
“In a normal murder case, I might agree with you. But in this one, there’s one fact you can’t explain away.”
“Which is?”
“Amber herself, in the interview the morning her grandfather was found dead, admitted she was the only other person in the house. She said no one else had been there for weeks. Kind of hard to argue that someone else might have killed the old man when she swore no one else had been there.”
Dex was inclined to agree with him, but somehow saying that out loud would have made him feel like a traitor to the woman who had worked so hard to save him. He owed her the benefit of the doubt and was determined to keep an open mind.
The door to the interview room popped open and Garreth stepped outside, closing the door behind him. He stopped in front of the desk. “Miss Callahan has decided to retain my services until I can help her interview and hire a criminal case attorney. I’ll need a copy of the original police report.”
Holder held the folder up. “I figured you might. Keep it. I’ll print myself a new copy.”
“Thank you.” He turned to Dex. “Assuming you still plan to foot the bill—”
“I do.”
“Excellent. Then the calls I made in the interview room weren’t a complete waste of time. I started the ball rolling to arrange bail. Now we just have to wait for a judge to call us back.”
Holder shook his head. “Not going to happen on a Saturday. Miss Callahan will have to cool her heels in jail until Monday, and even then, I highly doubt a judge will grant her bail. She’s a proven flight risk.”
Dex exchanged an amused look with his lawyer. “I think you underestimate Garreth’s abilities, Detective.”
Holder shrugged. “Maybe. I doubt it. I guess we’ll see. But I—” The phone on his desk rang. When he saw the number on the display, he shot Garreth a frown and took the call.
Garreth gave him a smug look and turned to Dex again. “When you’re done here, Miss Callahan has requested to speak with you.”
Dex immediately stood but Holder signaled him to wait.
When he hung up the phone, he shook his head. “I can’t believe what I just heard.” He filled them in on the details.
Dex laughed and clapped Garreth on the shoulder. “You’ve still got it, my friend.”
“I suppose this means your answer is yes, to both conditions?” Holder asked, not sounding happy at all.
“Are you kidding? This is the coolest thing to happen to me in ages. I’m all in.”
“This is ridiculous,” Holder muttered as he shoved out of his chair. “But I don’t guess I have a choice. Hold up your right hand, and repeat after me.”
Chapter Six
Amber clasped her hands beneath the table as Dex stepped into the tiny room and closed the door behind him. Her relief at seeing him, apparently unharmed, had her letting out a relieved breath.
He sat in the chair across from her and leaned his forearms on the table. “I’m surprised that you wanted to see me. I figure you have to blame me—”
“For my arrest?” She shook her head. “I was angry, at first. But I knew this day would come eventually. And I couldn’t exactly expect a stranger to want to stick his neck out for me.” She grabbed his hands in hers. “That’s not the point, and not why I wanted to talk to you. You’re in danger.”
His brows arched as he looked at their joined hands before meeting her gaze. “You wanted to talk to me to warn me that I’m in danger?”
“Yes. I’ve only just now really put everything together in my mind and I wanted to tell you my suspicions. After I took you to Mystic Glades, I went to the crash site to erase any signs of me having been near there.”
“To wipe out your footprints.”
She nodded. “I didn’t know what exactly you would tell everyone about how you got to town, but if you did keep your word, I didn’t want any signs to prove otherwise.”
“Let me make sure I understand. You came to my room every day of my fever and put cold cloths on my head and made sure that I was comfortable.”
“What? That’s not what I—”
“Wanted to talk about? No, obviously you didn’t want me to know. But I remember someone doing that and your aunt looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her about it. So I know you were the one taking care of me far more than she was.” He quirked his mouth up in a wry grin. “Thank you, by the way.”
She tugged her hands but he laced his fingers with hers, trapping her. She blew out a breath in frustration. “Look, you need to take this seriously. Like I said, I went to the crash site and—”
“And you erased your footprints, again, to make sure that I didn’t look bad if I’d kept my word and said I was alone after the crash and that no one helped me. Do I have that right? You were protecting me? Again?”
“Can we get to what matters please?”
“What matters to me is that everything everyone else is telling me about you makes you out to be a killer. But everything—every single thing that I’ve personally experienced with you—tells me the opposite. You seem to me like an intelligent, warm, caring person who puts everyone else’s welfare above her own. Why aren’t you berating me for telling about you helping me after I promised I wouldn’t?”
“It wasn’t your fault. We already discussed this. You were delirious. And it wasn’t a fair promise anyway—to ask someone who doesn’t know me to lie for me. I’m sorry I asked. I shouldn’t have.”
“You’re doing it again.”
She tugged her hands and this time he let them go, although seemingly reluctantly. She clasped her hands beneath the table again. “Look, Mr. Lassiter—”
“Dex.” He grinned “We’ve slept together. I think we can use first names after that, don’t you?”
She blinked. “I don’t know what you think you remember, but we most certainly have not slept together.”
“I’m wounded. You don’t remember us lying together beside the fire? You stayed with me all night, and we both slept, off and on.” He winked.
She leaned across the table and thumped it impatiently. “Will you be serious? Please?”
“Oh, I’m always serious about...sleeping.”
She threw her hands up. “I can see this is going nowhere. You might as well leave. I’ll talk to that lawyer of yours again and tell him—”
“He’s your lawyer now, too.”
She swallowed hard. “Yes... I suppose. Ah, thank you for that. I promise that I’ll pay you back one day. As soon as I can get out on bail, I’ll look into a court-appointed lawyer.”
“I wouldn’t advise that. Garreth’s one of the best around, even if he doesn’t practice criminal law anymore. He’ll make sure to arrange an equally competent criminal attorney. Murder charges are far too serious to skimp on representation. Florida isn’t shy about sticking needles in people’s arms. The death penalty is nothing to play around with.”
She swallowed hard. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Well, I have. This is serious, Amber. Your life is at stake.”
“Aren’t you even going to ask if I did it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “Because I know that you didn’t kill him. You’re not built that way. You could have left me to die out in the swamp. But even though you knew it might mean getting caught and going to jail, you helped me. If you did that for a stranger, I have no doubt you would never have done anything to harm your family.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “You have no idea how good it feels to have someone actually believe in me.”
His smile faded. “Yeah, about that. I’m guessing your aunt Freddie hasn’t exactly been supportive. She certainly doesn’t strike me as someone in your court.”
“Well, you can’t really blame her. Grandpa was her daddy.”
“And yet he left most everything to you. Not her. That seems rather telling.”
She shrugged. “They never had the best relationship.”
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