Beside her, Harlan shifted his weight and his tone cut sharp. “Why didn’t you tell the sheriff that during your interview?”
Billy scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Tell a cop about a dirty cop? Yeah, that would go real well.” His mouth twisted into a bitter grin.
Laney shot him a hard look. “You’re telling a cop now.”
Billy leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice as though the shadows themselves might be listening. “This is different. You’re not just a badge. You’re David’s widow. And it’s my guess you don’t exactly have warm, fuzzy feelings about your former co-worker, Sherry Dalton.”
His words landed with a sting, and Laney felt her jaw tighten. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction, but her heart thumped harder. Billy had just put his finger on the exact fracture line she was trying to hold steady.
Billy’s eyes gleamed with a mix of arrogance and satisfaction, as if he had finally put a card on the table that could not be ignored.
“When she was on the job, she was dipping into the evidence locker,” he said, his tone low, like he was savoring the reveal. “Guns, ammo, even a little coke and meth. Moving it to smugglers out of town, keeping it quiet so no one looks too close.”
Laney’s stomach turned. “That’s a serious accusation. Do you have any proof?”
Billy gave a humorless laugh. “Proof? No. But I’d bet everything I’ve got the Rangers could dig it up if they wanted. She’s careful, but she isn’t clean. That’s why she’s nervous, why she’s lashing out. She thinks someone’s finally coming for her.”
Harlan’s jaw flexed as he listened, his silence weighing heavy, but Laney couldn’t stop herself. “And you think that’s why she’s trying to kill us? Why the explosive was planted?”
Billy spread his hands, palms up, almost mocking in his surrender. “Makes sense, doesn’t it? She’s spooked. David might have known something. Maybe he was getting too close, and now she’s making sure nobody else gets the chance to drag her down with him.”
Laney’s pulse throbbed in her ears. It was all hearsay, nothing but smoke and bitterness. Yet the note flashed in her mind again, sharp and cruel:David tried to destroy me. Now I’m going to destroy what’s his.
If Billy was lying, it was another attempt to shove suspicion onto someone else. But if he was telling the truth, Sherry Dalton might be far more dangerous than Laney had ever allowed herself to believe.
Laney kept her grip firm on the gun, the weight of it steady in her hands as she watched Billy. Her pulse was a hammer in her ears, but she didn’t lower the weapon.
“How do you know all this?” she snarled.
Billy gave a half-smile, the kind that made her want to squeeze the trigger. “I’ve got sources. People talk. Especially when they think nobody’s listening.”
The way he said it twisted her gut. She forced herself to stay steady, finger close to the trigger guard. “Do your sources know anything about payments? There was a note in David’s book. Just one word. ‘Payment.’”
Something flickered across Billy’s face before he leaned forward a fraction. “Your husband was suspicious. He was digging into Sherry’s side dealings before he died. I was close enough once to hear her tell him she could make it worth his while if he backed off.”
Laney’s stomach knotted. “She tried to bribe him?”
Billy nodded quickly. “That’s how it sounded. But David refused. Said he wasn’t for sale. That’s the man you married. I figure that note in his book, that ‘payment?’ was him trying to make sense of it. Maybe wondering who else she’d paid before.”
Laney’s grip on the gun tightened. If Billy was lying, every word was meant to slice deeper into her doubts. If he was telling the truth, then David had stumbled into something darker than she realized.
She glanced at Harlan, searching his face for some read on Billy’s words, but she already knew. Whether true or false, they had just been handed another thread. One that could either unravel everything or strangle them in knots.
“Laney and I heard Brannigan and Sherry arguing,” Harlan said, his voice cutting through the silence. “What was that about?”
Billy opened his mouth, the beginnings of a reply twitching across his face, but then he froze. His head snapped to the side, eyes narrowing into the dark tree line. Slowly, he stooped, one hand braced on his knee, the other lifted like he was listening for something.
“Wait. Did you hear that?” Billy asked.
Laney tensed, pulse racing. She strained, ears open, but all she caught was the night. The insects, the faint rustle of leaves. Nothing else. Harlan shook his head.
“No,” Harlan answered.
Laney wanted to agree, but a sharp whisper of instinct kept her silent. She wasn’t standing out there like Billy, wasn’t exposed to the night air and its shifting sounds. Maybe he heard something they couldn’t.
Her gaze scanned the trees, the shadows stretching long across the field. She saw nothing. No movement. No shape breaking the dark.
“There,” Billy hissed. He straightened, but his body had gone taut, ready. “I heard it again. Someone’s coming.”
