Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,88
daddy wants him there, so he’ll no doubt pull strings.”
A few minutes later, Mia’s cellphone rang, and she answered.
“Hi, Mia, it’s Marta. I wanted to let you know that we just hit the four-thousand- dollar mark for the legal fund.”
“That’s wonderful! Thanks so much for telling me.”
“Please pass my thoughts on to Raleigh. I know this must be very hard on him. Poor guy can’t swing a break.”
Mia glanced over as Raleigh opened her door for her. “You’re right about that. But we’ll take all the good news we can.”
“Good news?” Raleigh asked.
“That was Marta, at the bank. People are donating to your legal fund. Four thousand so far!”
He dropped into the seat a minute later, his puzzled expression adorable. “My what?”
“I set up a legal fund yesterday and asked Marta and Peter to spread the word.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “See, not everyone thinks you’re guilty.”
“Four thousand dollars?”
“And counting.”
It was the first glimmer of warmth she’d seen on his face in a while, but it didn’t last long. He started the car and backed up.
Mia studied the area. “So Hank’s murderer drove here.”
“Or Hank drove here with his murderer.”
“Did your dad ever come here? To fish, maybe?”
Raleigh shook his head. “He knew he wasn’t welcome. The lake was never open to the public; George was too concerned about liability. Whoever came with Hank or brought him knew the property. Another fact to seal my fate.”
“So it’s more likely that his killer drove here, because that person—”
“Was welcome?” Raleigh finished.
“Not necessarily. But they knew about this lake. Let’s check it out. How do you get to the lake from the road?”
Raleigh pointed to the road leading off to the left as he came to a stop.
“Which is within sight of your cabin. You would have heard a vehicle coming, right? I don’t suppose you have a lot of traffic out here.”
“Hardly any. And I sure would remember seeing my dad’s truck. It was a piece of crap, with a headlight duct-taped into place and a bent front fender. But, honestly, with me working at the garage until one or two in the morning and most weekends, I’m not around all that much.”
He took the road, passing through a thicket of trees and then back into an opening, where yellow crime-scene tape barred them from driving farther. There was no one in sight. In the distance sat the half-finished barn that George was having constructed for the horses.
“We could take a look around,” she suggested.
“Better not. What if they put cameras in place, thinking to catch me digging up the murder weapon or something.” He stared at the lake, following the gouges in the mud where the tow truck had wrenched Hank’s vehicle out of its watery grave.
She let him have a few minutes of silence, but her mind spun. “Cody came to you at the garage, told you what happened. You called Rose, and she came over.”
He nodded. “I left Cody with her and drove to the beach where it happened. By then, though, some time had passed, so it was no surprise that Hank was gone. Then I drove to his mobile home, but I didn’t go up to the door, since his truck wasn’t there, either. I checked his usual haunts, and still no sign of him. I’d say about three hours elapsed from the time Cody arrived until I gave up trying to find Hank. I stopped by Rose’s and let her know that I hadn’t found him. Talked to Cody a little more; the kid was pretty wrecked, as you can imagine. Then I went back to the garage for another two hours to work through my rage. By the time I returned home, it was two. I couldn’t sleep, though. I would definitely have heard something.”
“So he met up with his murderer either at the beach or somewhere between there and here.”
“Maybe he figured he’d better run, so he hit all his money sources to see if he could borrow some. And maybe one of those sources, pissed because he already owed them money, blew his gasket.”
“Look how mad Lola was at him. Probably not enough to kill him, but someone else might have been. Let’s retrace the direct path backward.”
He took her in for a moment. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you. Thank you for believing in me.”
“I’ve always believed in you, Raleigh. I’ll never stop.”
He took a stuttering breath, but his gaze flicked to their surroundings. “I bet