As much as she wanted to be, Julianne would never be that woman. She would always have her secrets. She would always have a part of herself that she held back from him. Even if she told him it was for his own good, he wouldn’t believe her.
After the last few weeks together, she could tell he was confused. It was easy to feel like things were different when they were together so much, but that wouldn’t last forever. They’d end up caught in the same circular trap where they’d spent the last eleven years. But she could get them out of it, even if he didn’t seem to like it at the time.
He wanted his freedom and she would give it to him.
With a sigh, she stood up and extended the handle of her roller bag. She was nearly to the door of her room when she heard a loud banging at the front door.
She left her luggage behind and went downstairs. The low rumble of male voices turned into distinguishable words as she reached the landing.
“I’m going to have to bring her in for questioning.”
“Why? You’ve asked a million questions. What do you want with her?”
Sheriff Duke was lurking in the door frame, looking larger and more threatening than ever before. “I need to talk to her. We also need a hair sample.”
Heath glanced over his shoulder to see Julianne standing at the foot of the stairs. He cursed silently and turned back to the doorway. “Ask her your questions here. And get a warrant for the hair. Otherwise, you have to arrest us both.”
“I can’t arrest you just because you ask me to, Heath.”
“Fine. Then arrest me because I killed Tommy.”
Duke’s eyes widened for a moment, but he didn’t hesitate to reach for his handcuffs. “All right. Heath Langston, you’re under arrest for the murder of Thomas Wilder. You have the right...”
The sheriff’s voice faded out as the reality of what was happening hit her. Sixteen years’ worth of karma was about to fly back in their faces. And to make things worse, Heath had confessed. Why had he confessed?
Duke clamped the cuffs on Heath’s wrists and walked him to the back of the squad car.
“Don’t say anything, Jules,” she heard Heath say before the door slammed shut.
Returning to face Julianne, Duke started his speech again and reached for his second pair of cuffs. She stood silent and still, letting him close the cold metal shackles around her wrists. He took her to the other side of the squad car and sat her there beside Heath.
The ride into town was deadly silent. Anything they said could be used against them, after all. It wasn’t until they were led into separate interrogation rooms that the nervous flutter of her stomach started up.
An hour went by. Then two.
She didn’t have her watch on, but she was fairly certain that nearly four hours had passed before Sheriff Duke finally came in clutching a file of paperwork. Her stomach was starting to growl, which meant lunchtime had come and gone.
He settled down at the table across from her. No one else was in the room, but she had no idea how many people were gathered on the other side of the one-way glass panel. He flipped through his pages, clicked the button on his pen and looked up at her.
“Heath had a lot to say, Julianne.”
She took a deep breath. “About what?” she replied as innocently as she could.
“About killing Tommy.”
“I’m not sure why he would say something like that.”
“I’m not sure, either. He had a pretty detailed story. If I didn’t know better I’d lock him up right now and be done with it.”
“Why don’t you?”
A smirk crossed the policeman’s face and Julianne didn’t care for it. He was too pleased, as though he had everything figured out. He was probably already planning to use this big case to bolster his reelection.
“Well, as good a tale as he told me, it just doesn’t match up with the evidence. You see, Heath told me that he found Tommy on top of you and he hit him on the back of his head with a rock to stop him, accidentally killing him.”
Julianne didn’t blink, didn’t breathe, didn’t so much as shift her gaze in one direction or another.
“Problem is that the coroner says Tommy was killed instantly by a blow to his left temple.”