protect me.”
Madison leaned forward. “That isn’t true, is it?”
The woman’s jaw tightened as she avoided looking at them. Whatever Barrick had told her, she clearly believed.
Jonas signaled Madison to step into the hallway with him.
“She’s stonewalling us,” Jonas said the moment they were out of earshot.
“She’s trying to protect him.”
“And herself. What’s her husband going to think when he finds out what she’s been doing?” Jonas sighed. “She’s our best lead right now, but if she won’t talk, we’re back at square one.”
“She could be telling us the truth. Maybe she really doesn’t know,” Madison said.
“Either way, he called her for a reason. He needed something from her, and we need to find out what that was.”
Madison leaned against the wall. She almost felt for the girl who’d clearly been conned by a man who probably didn’t care what happened to her.
“Let me talk to her again,” she said. “Alone. She’s in love with him. Maybe as a woman I can get through to her the importance of telling us everything.”
Jonas nodded. “You were pretty good with Will. Go talk to her, and I’ll see if I can get on the sheriff’s good side.”
A minute later, Madison set a coffee down in front of Mary Margaret. “Can I get you anything to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I know this has to be hard on you, and I’m sorry.”
“I’ve never had to talk with the police before. Never seen a dead body . . . Damon didn’t kill those people. I know he didn’t and one day, the truth will come out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Do you?”
Madison nodded, then sat back down across from her. “Can you tell me where you met him?”
“At the diner, actually. He loves this part of the country and does a lot of hunting up here. At least he did before he got arrested. There was something different about him. Something about the way he talked to me and looked at me. It was always like I was the only one in the world.”
“How long ago did you meet?”
“A couple years.”
“And you had an affair.”
She let out a sharp breath, then nodded. “Damon showed up at a time when Tom and I were first having problems in our marriage. He came up here to go hunting, and I don’t know. We had a lot in common and hit it off right away. We’d slip away to a cabin for a few hours. I know it was wrong, but I don’t want my husband to find out.”
“Then why did you do it?” Madison asked.
“I don’t know. Sometimes I felt—feel—so empty. I’ve lived my entire life here. I love this town and the people, but I’ve always felt like I’m missing something. Damon seemed to be that missing piece.” She fingered the edges of the photo that still sat on the table in front of her. “He was handsome, charming. Made me feel beautiful and smart. I’d never really felt that way before.”
“And when he was arrested?”
“He swore to me that he didn’t do it. That he’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want the police to know I knew him.”
“I know you want to help him,” Madison said. “And I understand you’re wanting to do that now, but in the end, you’re only hurting him.”
Mary Margaret looked up at her, eyes wide. “How can I be hurting him? You want to send him back to prison, but he’s innocent. He doesn’t deserve to be there.”
“Then that’s all the more reason he needs to come in. What we want is the truth, but the evidence—”
Mary Margaret cut her off. “The evidence is tainted. Don’t you get it? And besides that, do you really think they’re going to just let him go? They needed someone to take the fall for those murders.”
“If he’s really innocent, like you believe, then he’ll be acquitted.”
“But you don’t think he’s innocent.”
“His innocence isn’t up to me to decide. My job is simply to ensure he’s brought in and gets a proper trial. The alternative is that he has to run the rest of his life, and that can’t be what either of you want.” Madison met the woman’s gaze. “Not if you really care for him.”
“He’s running because he doesn’t think anyone will believe him.”
The tension in Madison’s shoulders and neck tightened. They were going in circles. Maybe talking to her was futile.
“At least tell me what he wanted