“You can’t,” I said.
“Why not?” the lawyer snapped.
I flashed him a smug grin. “Because your client is under arrest.”
Evan leaned forward and slammed his fist on the table. “For what? Punching the old man? He deserved it. He had his back to me while he told me all the reasons I wasn’t right for his precious daughter. When he turned around, I reacted.”
The lawyer tried to yank him back so they could confer. He didn’t let him.
“So you watched him die. I have the footage from inside the bar.” Another lie.
Evan sneered at me. “You can’t. I took it as proof he was alive when I left. The man tripped over his feet, fell and bumped his head.” His lawyer kept telling him to shut up, but he was solely focused on me. “I know my rights. There is no duty to rescue in Montana. You can’t arrest me because I didn’t call 911. He was breathing. For all I knew, he’d get up in a few minutes. And if he didn’t, Emma would be better off. Because of me, the old man bought a new life insurance policy.”
That was a shock, and I did my best not to show it. Though I wanted to know why, I continued to goad him into hanging himself. “Yet you took the surveillance video to conceal you’d been with him.”
“I took it for my protection.” He held up a hand to his lawyer. “I’ve got this,” he said to him.
Since he was distracted, I asked, “Where is it now?”
“The original is in my apartment. I have another on the cloud. I can pull it up on my phone.”
“Your apartment in Montana?”
“No, Chicago. I’m done with Montana. I have all the credits I need to graduate with my MBA.” He said it like I should be impressed.
“Well, you’re going to miss graduation.”
He stood but still leaned on the desk like I should fear him. “Fuck you. You have nothing on me.”
“Would you like to tell your client, or should I?” The lawyer knew they were screwed. “You see, you admitted to aggravated assault of Mr. Hawkins which is a felony. If your felony results in a death, that’s called deliberate homicide here in Montana. You’ll be subject to the death penalty. I hope it was worth it. You should have called 911.”
Evan lost it and charged at me. I had the benefit of time as he skirted around the table. I let him hit me because that was an assault of a law enforcement officer. Just another assault charge added to the many.
Wyatt and Sam, who’d been watching, came rushing in and subdued him. We already had county transport ready to take him to a county jail. He was spitting mad.
I turned to his lawyer. “You should know, we have a duly executed search warrant for his apartment in Chicago. Well, the Feds do. I called in a favor to a buddy of mine. Anyway, he’s being moved to county.”
The lawyer said nothing and walked out.
Though I had paperwork to do, I had to do something first.
Emma
I happened to be out front when Aiden walked into the bar. I smiled before I noticed he wasn’t. “What’s wrong?”
He glanced around. “Can we talk outside?”
That was unusual. I felt nervous butterflies and not the good kind. My stomach continued to churn as he took my hand and led me out the front door. “You’re scaring me,” I admitted.
“Let’s walk around back.”
That freaked me out more. He didn’t want anyone to see or hear what he was about to tell me.
At the back of the bar, there was an outdoor area that had a platform deck. We used that for evening summer-time concerts and special barbecue events when we screened sports games. At the moment, it was empty.
He never let go of my hand and we were standing close, so he didn’t have to speak loudly. “We have your father’s killer in custody.” Alarm filled me. “I wanted you to hear it from me before the rumor mill got started.”
“Who is it?” I prayed it wasn’t Jack. We’d come so far in our relationship. I didn’t want to think he’d betrayed my father that way.
“I don’t want you to think this is your fault in any way.”
I tried to pull away as anger wanted to take hold. “Just tell me.”
“Evan, Emma. Evan punched your father, he fell, and you know the rest. For the record, I don’t believe he intended on killing him.”
I covered my mouth because I was going to scream as my knees buckled. Aiden caught me. Tears burst from my eyes. “He punched Dad and left him there to die?” I choked up. This was my fault. I brought Evan to see my dad.
“Yes. But I don’t think he waited around to see how serious it was. I’m not trying to give him an excuse. I just don’t think he’s a cold-blooded murderer. He will face the death penalty though.”