seemed to grow as his eyes widened. Pulling in a deep breath and releasing a low guttural sound, he appeared to get control of his anger. His rage deflated and he flattened his voice. “Well, we’ll leave it at that.”
“You do realize Josh overheard you that night.”
“No, I didn’t know that. He never said anything.”
“Colin and I interviewed him this morning and I could tell he was hiding something. He didn’t want to tell me, but when I pressed him hard, he told us he’d gone to the office that night to have it out with Lucas, but you were already there. He overheard part of your conversation and knew you’d pulled a gun on him.”
“I didn’t know.” Sully hung his head as he propped his forearms on his knees. I’m so ashamed, Emily.”
“I don’t understand why you’d steal the city funds and invest in this scheme. That isn’t the Sully Sullivan I know.”
“When you’re desperate for money, you do things you never thought you’d do. It changes you. Between the crappy economy and Carolyn’s illness, everything I had has been wiped out. I didn’t look at it as stealing—Lucas had me convinced I was only borrowing the money.” Sully sat up and ran a hand over his face. “I can see now he was never going to give me the money back. He was just hanging a carrot out to get me to do what he wanted.”
“But it was stealing—grand theft is what you’ll be charged with.”
“I know.” Sully’s voice sounded weak and shaky. “I don’t know what to do.”
“As much as I’d like to help you, Sully, my main concern is Maggie. She needs me to find out who killed Lucas and I hope to God it wasn’t Josh.”
“Me, too,” he agreed.
“I hate to say this, but you had motive and opportunity, too. You’re on my short list.”
“Emily, you can’t think I would do this.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Like I said, if I killed him I’d never get the money back.”
“In a fit of rage, knowing he was never going to let you have it, I could see you killing him.”
“He wasn’t shot to death, was he?”
“No, someone hit him hard in the head with something, shattered his skull. That someone could have been you.”
“I’m not a murderer!” Sully’s sunken eyes bulged with anger. “I could never kill someone.”
“Anyone could kill under the right circumstances,” she shot back.
“So now you think I’m a murderer and a thief?” He jumped to his feet at the accusation.
She rose to face him. “Like you said, Sully, a desperate man will do things he never thought he would do. Those were your words.”
“You’ve got to believe me, Emily,” he begged, grabbing her by the arm. “I did not kill Lucas. When I ran out of the office, someone else was there. I heard a noise—that’s why I left. From the sound of things, that someone was Josh. I bolted out of there and went home to Carolyn. She’ll verify it.”
She yanked her arm loose from his hold and glared at him.
“Everything okay in here?” Colin asked, his hands planted protectively on his hips, filling out the doorway.
“Fine. The mayor was just leaving.” Emily’s hand motioned toward the door.
Sully stepped close to Emily and whispered in her ear. “You’ll keep the other thing just between us, won’t you?”
“For now,” she replied softly.
“Sorry to bother you,” Sully muttered to Colin as he breezed past him and out the door.
“What was that all about?” Colin approached Emily.
“I guess the Mayor didn’t like me accusing him of killing Lucas.” She slipped her arms around Colin’s torso and he returned the gesture. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she agreed with Sully—if Colin knew what Sully had done, he’d have to do something about it. For Maggie’s sake, she’d keep her brother’s secret for as long as she could.
“You accused him? To his face?” Colin sounded stunned. “You’re getting pretty gutsy.”
“I didn’t actually accuse him straight out. I simply told him he was on my short list.”
Colin laughed. “Almost as bad.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She giggled. “Steaks ready yet? All this gutsiness has made me hungry.”
CHAPTER 18
“We should get going pretty soon.” Emily rolled her wrist to check her watch. “I’ll do the dishes later.”
Colin brought their plates from the table and set them in the sink. “It’ll only take a minute to rinse them off and stick them in the dishwasher.” Because of his military training, Colin always liked things squared