The Marshal's Hostage - By Delores Fossen Page 0,51

men, a deputy, handed the sheriff a cell phone.

“Rudy, Marshal Walker just arrived,” the sheriff explained. “Miss Tate, too. Now say your peace to them like you said you wanted, and then let’s end this.”

“Dallas?” Rudy immediately said.

“I’m here.” Dallas moved closer to the phone. “Why’d you call me out here?”

“Because this is a setup.” Rudy’s words were slurred. “And I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do.”

Dallas glanced around, probably to see if anyone knew what Rudy meant by that, but the sheriff, deputies and others just shook their heads.

“Rudy, what the hell are you talking about?” Dallas demanded.

“The so-called evidence these city boys are finding. Webb’s blood,” he clarified in a mocking tone. “Well, it was planted there, I tell you, and it was planted to set me up.”

Great. The man had either lost it or had been misinformed.

“The CSIs are collecting evidence, Rudy,” Dallas assured him. “They weren’t there to frame you. We only want to know the truth about what happened to Webb.”

“The truth?” he howled. Joelle looked inside and saw that Rudy was pacing. Clearly agitated. And maybe even drunk because he wasn’t too steady on his feet. “You want the truth, you should be asking Sarah a thing or two.”

“I heard that!” Sarah shouted. “Don’t listen to that drunk fool. He’s lied so much he doesn’t know how to tell the truth anymore.”

“Sarah’s the one who told me this was a setup,” Rudy continued as if he hadn’t heard her, and he probably hadn’t. Sarah wasn’t yards away from the cell phone that was on speaker. “She’s a resourceful woman, and she knows how to set up a man like me to take the blame for something she did.”

“What do you mean by resourceful?” Dallas pressed Rudy.

Rudy cursed, shook his head and stumbled again. “I mean she coulda created them spots of blood on the window to make it look like I killed her husband.”

“Did you kill him?” Joelle came right out and asked.

“No.” Rudy made a groaning sound. “Jonah was my friend. And if you’re looking for a killer, look at Sarah.”

Dallas huffed. “How could Sarah have gotten Webb’s blood to plant anywhere to set you up? The guy’s been dead for sixteen years.”

“She probably saved the cleaning rags she used to wipe up his blood. Saved them and then used them today so these city boys would find it.”

“Listen to yourself,” Dallas continued. “One minute you say that Sarah warned you this was a setup, and now you’re saying she’s the one who tampered with evidence.”

“Because that’s what she said!” Rudy stopped, cursed some more and held on to the wall, probably to stop himself from falling. “She did this. She riled me up. Confused me.”

“Or maybe you misunderstood,” Joelle offered. She glanced back at Sarah, and for just a split second, she thought the woman had a smug look. But maybe it was the twilight playing tricks on her eyes.

“Didn’t misunderstand her,” Rudy snarled. “Who do you think really ran this place all these years? Not Jonah, that’s for sure. Nothing went on around here without Sarah knowing about it. And there wasn’t one kid who took a beatin’ without Sarah making sure it happened.”

That sent an uneasy feeling through Joelle. She’d never liked Sarah, had always thought of her as a shadow of a woman. Had she been wrong? Of course, even if Sarah had pressed for the abuse, it’d still been Webb who’d carried it out.

“It’s like what went on with that knife,” Rudy continued, yanking Joelle’s attention back to him.

“What knife?” Dallas asked. He met Joelle’s gaze, and she could see the concern in his eyes.

“My knife. The one I always used for skinnin’ snakes. She took it when I was out doing some yard work. Took it from my truck, and she brought it to Jonah and fibbed. Said she found it on Declan.”

This was the first Joelle was hearing about any of this, and there was no mention of it in any of the notes she read, but Dallas made a slight sound as if recalling something. “Webb brought Declan and me into his office one afternoon and showed us the knife.” He looked at Joelle. “I forgot all about that until now.”

“That’s right. He showed you, and you picked it up. Looked at it real good and said you’d never seen it before. Declan didn’t touch it but he said the same. Jonah told me all about it. Then, he said Sarah took