Brown, Sandra - Thick as Thieves by Brown Sandra

Author:Brown, Sandra [Brown, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2020-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

When Crystal told Ledge that he could drop the pretense, that she knew what Rusty and he had done that night, she hadn’t been referring to the burglary.

Not at all.

As she related her account of Rusty’s visit to her house, Ledge was by turns incredulous and enraged. Rusty had spun quite a tale. He’d left Crystal convinced that if she denied he had been with her much of that night, it would be Ledge who suffered the consequences.

But beyond the personal ramifications, this previously unknown information painted an even blacker picture of Rusty and what he might have done that night after he and Ledge had parted.

I have a rock-solid alibi. But where were you? Where did you get off to after the four of us split up? Who could vouch for your whereabouts later that night?

He’d baited Rusty with that this morning as part of his chest-thumping threat to go to the attorney general and try to get the cold case of Foster’s questionable death reopened. From the moment Ledge had learned of it, he’d suspected Rusty of having had a hand in it, though he’d figured it would have been from a distance, that Rusty would have had someone else do his dirty work.

But maybe not. The burglary hadn’t left him anxious and sweaty. He’d come away from that humming a tune. It hadn’t left him bleeding and broken, either.

When Rusty came to Crystal’s house with an urgent need to establish an alibi, he had been incapacitated, and Foster was dead. There was only one logical conclusion to draw from that. At least to Ledge’s mind. He would need more than supposition before he started slinging accusations.

First, he must set the record straight with Crystal. “Everything Rusty said about selling marijuana that night was one big, fat lie.”

“It was found in your car, Ledge.”

“But I didn’t put it there. I sure as hell wasn’t in a dealing partnership with Rusty. If I’d had an intention to peddle it, I wouldn’t have done it on my uncle’s property. Risk implicating him? No way in hell.”

He pushed himself off the sofa and began restlessly prowling the room. “I didn’t beat up Rusty. I didn’t break his arm, but I’d like to break his neck now for making you believe that I had.” He stopped meandering and faced her. “Do you believe me?”

“I want to.”

“Not good enough, Crystal.”

“After what you did to Morg—”

“I don’t deny that. I never did. But this I did not do.”

“Did you see Rusty that night?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Out at the bar. On the parking lot.”

“What were you two doing together?”

He never wanted her to be placed in a position of having to lie for him, so he skirted around the whole truth. “What he and I are always doing when we’re together. Wishing we could eat each other’s liver. We pawed the ground, but that’s as far as it went. Not a single punch was thrown. I left him and was on my way into town to see you when I was pulled over.

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