“Are you sure he was with you all night? Did you really go dogsledding with him? What about the hours after you returned until Lindsay woke you with her scream?”
I’m getting it now. He needs me to poke a hole in Braden’s alibi. It’s the third leg in the motive, means, and opportunity triangle. He has the first two—but my insistence of Braden being in bed with me gives him no opportunity to do the crime.
What to do? What to say?
“I’ll make it simple for you.” The sheriff’s oily voice oozes. “You’re an outsider in all of this. The family will contest the will, so you won’t gain a penny other than a long thirty-year sentence. If Braden is the main perp, I can let you plead for a lesser charge—certainly nothing as serious as murder. Maybe you were taken in by Braden’s charm and good looks. You thought this was a game and you had nowhere to go for Christmas. Playing along was fun, but you didn’t truly believe Jon Powers would change his will. You only wanted love.”
“I don’t know what to do.” The bottom of my heart flushes down a deep hole in the ground. If I give up Braden’s alibi, I can put all of this behind me like a bad dream.
After all, he’s already turned on me by implying we knew each other back in state prison.
“Don’t think too long and hard on this.” Sheriff Lane gets up from behind the desk. “While you’re reflecting, give your phone to Seth and stay by his side. When you’re ready, I and my handy confession recorder will be here.”
