False Pretenses - Kathy Herman [52]
Landry Trail 2 1/4 miles
Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult
Stay on designated pathway
Could she go through with this? An image of Pierce popped into her mind. She had to do this. If he found out she’d lied to him from the beginning, how could he ever believe anything else she told him—especially that she loved him with all her heart? And who would patronize Zoe B’s once word got out that she was a thief and a liar? They would both lose everything. It was too late to turn back. She had to silence this man. Or be ruined.
Zoe walked past the marker and onto the trail, instantly hit with the scent of damp earth and the noticeably cooler temperature of dense shade. If she remembered correctly, the first turn was about fifty yards ahead. She walked slowly on the uneven earthen path, glad that she had thought to wear walking shoes, listening for footsteps behind her or any sign that someone might be following her from behind the trees.
She felt a sharp prick on her neck and slapped the spot. Why didn’t she think to put on insect repellent? Though the chances of her getting West Nile virus were slim compared to the harm this man could do with what he knew.
Zoe stopped and breathed in slowly and then exhaled slowly. She just needed to stay focused and look confident. Tell him that she had confessed everything to Adele, that the law couldn’t touch her because the statute of limitations had run, and that there was nothing he could hold over her head. Then hope he believed her and would leave her alone.
Jude went into the conference room and looked down at the table, facts and photographs from the Jarvis case spread out from one end to the other. His eye fell on the photos of the shoe prints cast at the scene.
He took his cell phone off his belt clip and punched in the speed-dial numbers for Chief Detective Gil Marcel.
“This is Marcel.”
“When are we supposed to get the analysis of the shoe impressions?” Jude said.
“It’ll be at least Monday, Sheriff. Maybe longer. I told them to put a rush on it, and that if they didn’t believe it was high priority, to turn on CNN, Fox, and every other cable channel.”
Jude sighed. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”
“Sorry our suspect turned out to be a fruitcake with a pathological desire for notoriety.”
“I’m sorry too. What else have you learned about him?”
“Terrell worked at a food chain warehouse until a year ago. He got into an altercation with black coworkers who said he wasn’t doing his share of the work. He left and never went back. He’s definitely unstable, but nothing leads us to think he’s capable of murder. We’re looking into who Terrell’s been talking to and where he spends his time. If there’s a connection to the case, we’ll find it.”
“We don’t have time for ifs. Race relations in this town just got shoved back thirty years! There’s no way Marcum Terrell did this, so find out who did. I want his head on a stick!”
There was a long moment of dead air.
“Yes, sir,” Gil finally said. “We’re on it.”
“Gil, wait …” Jude switched the phone to his other ear. “I didn’t mean to bark. I’m just feeling the heat. The governor called a few minutes ago—right after the mayor called—right after Police Chief Norman called. In fact the phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”
“I know there’s a lot of pressure to make an arrest, sir. And we’re working around the clock and using every available resource to find whoever’s responsible. We don’t owe anyone an apology for doing our job.”
“No, we don’t. Is anyone in the black community talking?”
“Not really,” Gil said. “I haven’t sensed people holding out. It seems to me that they genuinely don’t know who’s responsible. They’d have to be nuts not to share information with us when there’s talk that angry whites are about to march across the railroad tracks.”
“We need to partner with Chief Norman’s officers and make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“We are, sir. But it’s hard to do anything about rumors.”
Zoe stopped on the earthen trail, the forest denser than she remembered it, the canopy tighter. She listened carefully,