Bound to the Past (Starville Series Book 1) (27 page)

“What time did you get home, Jack?” Brent insisted.

He drew a ragged breath. “Around one thirty, maybe two a.m.—I donʼt know exactly.”

“Did anybody see you?”

Jack shook his head. “I just walked around a little to clear my mind, then I came back and lay down on the swing.”

“Thatʼs where I found him,” Sara chimed in, her voice shaky. “He was asleep.”

“Do you remember what time it was, Sara?”

Jack shut his eyes and sucked in his breath.
This is it
. His heart was pounding so furiously in his ears that he almost didnʼt hear Saraʼs answer.

“It was barely two a.m.,” she stated firmly.

Brent scanned her face, as if to read her mind, but she held his intense gaze.

Jack gaped at her in shock. She was giving him an alibi! She was lying to the police, her best friends, to save his butt! “Donʼt, sweetheart.”

Sara looked straight into his eyes. “Don’t try to protect me, Jack. I want to tell the truth.”
Donʼt be stupid! Let me help you
, she screamed on the inside.

“I canʼt let you do this.”
This is not the truth, and you know it!

“Sara?” Brent urged. “Was Jack at home at two a.m.?”

“Yes, he was.” She desperately squeezed Jackʼs hand as she took a deep breath. “Jack didnʼt kill Charlene. He…was in bed with me. We spent the night together.”

Her words dropped like rocks.

Brent winced, his eyes wide. Nickyʼs jaw fell. Jack stilled, his body so rigid and tense that Sara feared heʼd stopped breathing.

“Fuck, Sara, I wonʼt let you―”

She cut him off with a frustrated huff. “Jack, stop it! Itʼs your life weʼre talking about. I donʼt care if everybody knows we slept together!”
Please, please!

He stared at her for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he closed his eyes with a ragged breath. “Heaven help us,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

Sara wrapped her arms around him with a relieved smile. “Thank you.”

“So, is it true?” Nicky asked him, still stunned. “Were you guys, uh, together at the time of the murder?”

His eyes locked with Saraʼs as he answered. “Yes. We spent the night together.”

“Actually, we were still in bed when you guys came,” she specified with a nervous chuckle. At least
that
wasnʼt a lie.

Nicky nodded, suddenly realizing why Jack had been upstairs when theyʼd arrived at Saraʼs. Boy, but it felt surreal. Sara—the sweet, reliable, level-headed Sara…with a man like Jack Turner?
No way!
Yet the dreamy expression on her friendʼs face while she looked up at Jack said it all. Her friend was clearly head over heels for him. Nicky could only hope that Jack wouldnʼt hurt her too much.

“If thatʼs all, I guess weʼre done here,” she said to Brent, who was also still staring at Sara and Jack in a bewildered silence.

He hesitated before rising to his feet. “Iʼm gonna need you guys to come by the sheriffʼs office later and file a formal statement.”

“No problem,” Jack conceded.

“Iʼll talk to you later, Sara,” Brent said in a softer tone, bending over to kiss her cheek.

They all started walking to the door, but suddenly Nicky grabbed Saraʼs arm, holding her back. “Stop,” she whispered. “Iʼve got to know the truth.”

Her heart all but stopped. “What truth?”

“You know… Was it good?”

Relief almost choked her, and she burst out laughing. “Oh, Nic, it was awesome! Fantastic. Incredible. Mind-blowing.”

Nicky grinned. “My friend, I officially hate you.”

***

Standing at the door, Jack watched Nicky and Brent drive off. When he closed the door and turned toward Sara, she held his gaze for a few seconds before drawing a long sigh. “Just say it and get it over with already.”

“What do you want me to say, Sara? That Iʼm grateful? Of course, I am. That I think youʼre insane? I do. Do you realize―”

She raised a hand to stop him. “Save it. The answer is yes. Yes, I do realize I lied to the police and to my best friends; yes, I understand that I just got myself into deep trouble. And you know what? I couldnʼt care less! All I know is that youʼre here right now and not in jail.”

The hint of a smile twitched his mouth. “Iʼm very happy to hear that, love. But thatʼs not what I meant to say.”

Sara gave him a dazed look. Heck, she even forgot what they were talking about… Jack had called her
love
again! She swallowed hard, forcing herself to keep her feet on the ground as she took a step closer to him. “Then what?”

“What I meant to say was, do you realize I owe you my life? Again?” he joked, pulling her into his arms.

She smiled back at him, but it didnʼt reach her eyes. “Letʼs face it, Jack, Lacrod would have thrown you back in jail in a second, and this time he wouldʼve tossed away the keys. I couldnʼt let it happen.”

“Why not?” he asked, just as seriously. “What makes you so sure that I didnʼt kill Charlene? The lake is barely ten minutes away. I could have killed her with no problem, then come back home as if nothing had happened. I wouldʼve had enough time.”

Sara raised her head and looked him straight in the eye. “Did you, Jack? Did you kill Charlene?”

He jumped back as if sheʼd just slapped him. Jaw clenched, he stared at her in disbelief, then took a deep breath. “For Godʼs sake, no! I swear I had nothing to do with her death.”

“Good. I donʼt see the problem, then.”

All Jack could do was give her a blank stare. His head started spinning so fast he almost lost his balance. “How the hell can you ask me if I killed a person one second and smile at me like this the next?”

Sara shook her head. “I know youʼre innocent, Jack. Youʼre the one who needs convincing.”

He blinked against the uncomfortable, stinging sensation in his eyes. “Damn woman. You confuse the crap out of me.”

She bit her lower lip and slid her arms around his neck. “Sorry.”

“The hell you are.”

Chuckling, she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him, but the dead-serious look on his face stopped her midway.

“Sara, I…”

She pushed back slightly to look at him. His eyes were so intense that her breath hitched. Her heart took a leap. No, he wasnʼt. He couldnʼt.
Could he?

“Tell me, Jack,” she murmured, praying to hear the words she was dying to hear from him.

“I―” Swallowing hard, Jack stroked her cheek with his thumb and gave her a taut smile.  Then he shook his head and leaned down to kiss her lips. “Nothing. Thank you again. For everything. Iʼm gonna take a shower before dinner.”

She nodded absently as he disappeared upstairs, her head still spinning. Had she just imagined everything, or had Jack really been about to tell her that he…?

Yeah, right!

Sara took a deep, calming breath. She needed to stop thinking like this or sheʼd drive herself crazy. Carson was right:
One day at a time
. That was going to be her motto.

With that resolve, she went to the kitchen in search of ideas for dinner. But her stomach was in knots as she opened the fridge. A sudden tear rolled down her cheek at the thought of Charlene.

And her heart sank at the knowledge that sheʼd lied about her murder.

Chapter 20

To a strangerʼs eyes, today Starville would have looked just the same as always; yet nothing was the same. Three days after Charleneʼs death, the town seemed almost frozen in time.

The flower shop at the corner of the street didnʼt have the usual colorful plants displayed in the window, and Mrs. Middleton, the owner, was sobbing behind the counter as she put together the flower compositions to be used for Charleneʼs funeral. The mechanic’s garage in front of the flower shop was unusually quiet, and Ronnie was working on a car with a grim and lost look in his eyes.

Brent remembered the same tension, the same heaviness in the air after J.T.ʼs death, and he felt as if heʼd leaped back in time.

With a sigh, he pushed the dinerʼs door. Hank had lowered all the blinds and looked exhausted behind the counter. Lucy walked robotically through the tables, her eyes red and swollen. As soon as Brent walked through the door, everybody turned their heads toward him. He hadnʼt been there since the murder and, not knowing what to expect, he sat quietly at one of the tables.

Lucy walked to him right away. To his surprise, she gave him a sweet, motherly look. “Rough day?” she whispered, pouring coffee into his cup.

“As everyone elseʼs.” Brent nodded. “Iʼm sorry, Lucy, I know you and Charlene were close.”

She smiled through the tears. “That blessed girl drove me insane at times, but she was like a daughter to me and Hank.”

He nodded again, not sure what to say.

“Youʼre gonna catch him, arenʼt you?”

Raising his eyes from the cup in his hands, he gave her a serious look. “If youʼre talking about Charleneʼs murderer, my answer is yes. Weʼll catch him, I promise.”

“Charleneʼs murderer has a name, and itʼs Jack Turner,” an angry voice chimed in from the table behind his.

“If Jack is responsible, he will pay for it, Garrett,” Brent said flatly.

“Like he paid for J.T.ʼs murder? The bastard was out in less than three years!”

“Not this time, though,” a woman interjected. “We all saw him and heard him fight with Charlene at the fair! How long does it take to put two and two together?”

Brent stifled a curse. “Let the police do the math, Rose, okay? Weʼre investigating.”

“You and Charlene were friends for so many years,” Lucy commented between sobs.

“Yes, we were. And this is why I promise Iʼll do anything to find her killer. But I canʼt go around arresting people without any evidence. Do you understand?”

“Nothing has been the same since Turnerʼs return,” another man, Boyd, chimed in. “Just like when he came here the first time. Now Charleneʼs dead, and youʼre siding with him just because the son of a bitch is shacking up with your friend!”

Brent didnʼt reply. Bringing the cup to his mouth, he took a long sip. It burnt his tongue, but he didnʼt care. He needed to keep his hands full, or he would start punching all those idiots around him.

“If there were any justice, the police would let us deal with Turner personally.”

Brent raised his head to give Garrett a cold-as-ice look. “Do you have any evidence against Jack? Did you see him going to the lake in the middle of the night? Were you there when he brutally massacred Charlene and left her in a puddle of blood?”

The man paled at his purposely crude tone and could barely shake his head.

“Thatʼs what I thought.”

“All right, thatʼs enough.” Everybody turned to look at Hank as he strode out of the kitchen.

“Weʼre just talking,” Boyd told him.

“Youʼre bothering Deputy Hayden during his breakfast, and thatʼs not a nice thing to do.”

The two men hesitated for a moment then walked away in an irritated silence. Brent shot Hank a grateful look before taking another sip of his coffee. “Thanks.”

“What a bunch of idiots.”

“Do you believe that Jack is innocent, Hank?”

“I donʼt know.” The older man shrugged. “To tell you the truth, he seemed nice when he came here the other day. Different from what I remembered.”

“Thatʼs the impression I got, too.”

“That doesnʼt mean he didnʼt kill Charlene, though. I heard him threaten her, tell her that it wasnʼt over, and if heʼs guilty, he needs to pay. But, Brent, I can tell you one thing: if heʼs innocent, this time Iʼll be damned if Iʼll let him go to jail again for a murder he did not commit.”

Brent gave him a long look. “That makes two of us.”

***

Nicky took a sip of what was probably her third or fourth cup of coffee, her gaze fixed on the view outside her office window. On the other side of the glass, the glimpse of the townʼs daily life brought tears to her eyes. She loved Starville. She always had―until now. Until the lazy, sleepy town she thought she knew had started to reveal its most hidden secrets, turning into a dark and mysterious place. She didnʼt know who her friends were anymore.

She didnʼt know who could be trusted.

“Are you all right?”

With a shrug, Nicky turned toward Brent, whoʼd just stepped into the office. “Iʼm here, Iʼm alive. I can think, talk, and even drink this nasty coffee.”

“Hey―”

She shook her head. “Iʼm fine, Brent, really. Worry about Charlene instead. Worry about how she felt when she… when…”

Brent suddenly leaned over her and pulled her into an embrace. “Donʼt fall apart on me now, Nicky,” he whispered, stroking her back.

Nicky closed her eyes, breathing in. God, he smelled good! She sighed. “I wonʼt, Hayden, I promise. I have no intention of leaving this mess in your sole hands.”

“Thatʼs my girl.” He let her go slowly, a faint smile on his lips. “So, whatʼs wrong?”

“Charleneʼs autopsy came in.”

All the humor fled Brentʼs eyes. His jaw tensed. “Have you read it?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

Nicky shrugged. “Itʼs on your desk if you want to take a look at it.”

“Did she…hurt?” he asked, swallowing hard.

“There were a couple of bruises on her face, but no evidence of sexual assault.” She put a hand on his arm before continuing. “She didnʼt hurt much, Brent. She was hit on the head twice with a sharp object—possibly a rock—and died before she realized it.”

“She must have known her killer,” Brent said painfully. “She would never have let someone unfamiliar get close to her so late at night and in such a deserted place. And the fact that she wasnʼt raped only makes it even more obvious that she wasnʼt assaulted by a stranger.”

Nickyʼs heart dropped at his words. She knew he was right. Charlene must have known her killer. She must have looked him straight in the eye. But if it wasnʼt a stranger…then who? The idea of the murderer being one of her friends in town…

She shook her head to crush that horrible thought.

“Anything else?” Brent asked.

“Nothing of relevance. Unfortunately, the heavy rain erased any possible evidence we couldʼve found at the lake. Brent, who could have—” She stopped in mid-sentence as she looked at his face and knew exactly what he was thinking: Jack could have. Only he had a reason to hate Charlene.