Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,77
jeans and a low-cut shirt that made her a wet dream. Until they went up and said hey. She’d shut right down, clearly uncomfortable with seeing someone she knew. Within fifteen minutes, she’d left.
He and Pax figured she was trolling the out-of-town bar scene for the same reason they were—to let loose where no one knew them. Where many of the bar patrons were just visiting. Fun times, no ties. But Grace had a reputation to consider.
Now she was the picture of competence and professionalism. She gestured toward the table and, as soon as they were seated across from each other, said, “Tell me everything about the last few months before your deadbeat dad went missing.”
He told her almost everything. Not the potentially incriminating part that would reveal painful secrets. One of those secrets wasn’t his to reveal anyway.
Grace took notes, her glossy peach fingertips flying over her tablet. “Ready to talk to the sheriff?”
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I did it?”
She eyed him. “Did you?”
“No.”
“I have a good feel for telling who’s innocent.”
“What about the guy who beat his wife to death with a baseball bat? Did you think he was innocent at first?”
“I knew better. I told him so, said I couldn’t represent him. But I could negotiate a plea deal if he confessed. Life in prison instead of the chair. He took it.”
“You ever been wrong?”
A shadow passed over her expression as her gaze drifted to the right of him. “Once. Early on in my career, when I let my prejudices blind me.” She focused a hard gaze on him. “Never again.”
The officer led them to the interrogation room, where Sheriff Sullivan waited like a shark. “Ms. Parnell.”
“Sullivan.”
“Is your client ready to answer some questions now that he has his guard dog?”
She arched her eyebrow. “Woof.”
Raleigh had to keep himself from laughing. Yes, she was the perfect attorney for him.
Sullivan blinked in surprise at her response. “What did you say to me?”
She gave him a guileless smile. “I cleared my throat. Got a problem with that?”
He jerked the chair out and plopped down onto it. Grace indicated that Raleigh should take the chair next to hers. They sat down and faced Sullivan and another deputy who was standing off to the side.
Sullivan pinned Raleigh with cold, hard eyes. “Did you kill your father?”
“No, sir. I haven’t seen him in over a year, and he was very much alive the last time I did.”
“When was that?”
“About two months before he left town…or disappeared, as it turned out. He needed to borrow my car. He returned it that evening, handed me a six-pack in thanks, even though he knows I don’t drink, and left. Rose picked him up.”
“Yeah, we’re tracking her down, too. Being Hank’s ex-wife, I bet she has plenty to say about him. Apparently, she has a lawn-care business, puts her all over the place. Saw her kid at Scott Brady’s working on a fence, but he didn’t know where his mama was.”
Hell, he hadn’t even thought about them questioning her. Suspecting her. “She couldn’t have done it. She weighs barely a hundred pounds. No way could she overpower someone the size of my father. She and my dad hadn’t lived together, or been involved, for three years before he left. Or was killed.” Raleigh rubbed his forehead. “That’s hard to process. He was always taking off, saying he had some job in another town or state. We just figured he’d stayed there, or kept moving on.”
“Made it convenient for you—”
“As convenient as it is for you to pin this on my client,” Grace growled.
“Made it convenient for the killer to cover his tracks, let time pass. No one was even looking for Hank West.”
Raleigh shrugged. “No one would probably be looking for him anyway. He had no steady job or romantic relationship, as far as I know.”
Sullivan’s mouth tightened. “You didn’t take after him in that regard,” he seemed to admit begrudgingly. “Or with the womanizing, hitting the bars.”
“I’m nothing like my dad.” Raleigh hoped he hadn’t said that too forcefully.
“Do you know of anyone who might want to kill your father? Anyone he owed money? A girl he stole, wife he nailed?”
“Other than yours?”
“What did you say?” the man nearly barked.
Raleigh drummed his fingers on the table. “I suspected there was something between them, years ago. Before you told Pax not to bring me around anymore.”
“There was nothing going on. I just didn’t want your bad influence around my kid, and I sure