“He’s sure you killed Casey Morgan,” Laurel said.
Huck snorted. “Yeah, I’ve heard that. I didn’t.”
“What happened between you and Casey, anyway?” Laurel asked casually.
The casualness ticked him off. “Is that a personal or a professional question?” he asked.
“Does it matter?” she asked smoothly.
“Yes. We’re not personal. I thought I made that clear.” Her scent was killing him.
She chuckled. “You did, and I agreed. However, there’s a decent chance Casey Morgan was killed by the Snowblood Peak killer. You dated her, and there are people making noises that you should be a suspect. What do you think about that?”
Fire lanced down Huck’s arms. “Wait a minute. I insult you this morning, and now you’re going after me for murder?” Man, he’d misread her. Like completely.
She turned toward him. “Insult me? How did you insult me?”
It took him two heartbeats to realize that her question was genuine, not sarcastic. His mouth nearly dropped open. “By calling last night a one-off.”
“Oh.” Her face cleared. “That’s a fact and not an insult.”
Nowhefelt insulted. Should he feel insulted? This woman was running him in circles . . . without trying to do so. He coughed, took a drink of his coffee, and settled his ass down. “Wait a minute. You think Casey was one of the Snowblood Peak victims?” His brain quickly made the connections. It was possible. “Okay. Let’s see. Casey and I met during a search and rescue operation on Tilton Hill, looking for a lost hiker. She was a volunteer from the church, and she ended up in my squad.”
“Everything keeps coming back to the Genesis Community Church, doesn’t it?” Laurel asked.
“It’s a big church.” Huck eyed a couple of deer on the side of the road, ready to slow down if one decided to jump across the road. They usually did. “Casey attended services periodically but wasn’t immersed in the faith.” The deer wisely stayed in place, their gazes frozen on the truck.
Laurel took another drink. “You met her searching for a lost hiker?”
“Yeah. An older guy named Eugene. Don’t remember his last name, but Casey was actually the one who found him. Nice guy who just got turned around.”
“Okay,” she said, yanking on her ponytail hard enough that it had to hurt. “Did you ever threaten her?”
He slowed for another icy curve. “Wait a minute. I’mreallya suspect in your mind?” Every ounce of amusement fled right out of his body.
“I didn’t say that.” She also didn’t look at him.
He looked right at her. “After last night, you still think I’m a suspect? Do you honestly believe I could’ve strangled all of those women, including Casey, after raping and torturing them?”
She turned to face him, her green eye lighter than ever. “No. I don’t think you’re a rapist and a cold-blooded killer, Huck. It’d just be nice to prove it so I can move on to the next suspect.”
Well, at least that was something. The heat spiraling through his chest dissipated. “After the search, I asked Casey out for a drink, and we started things from there. We were pretty hot and heavy for about a month, and then she started talking about marriage and babies, and I wasn’t there. Wasn’t planning to ever go there. She agreed, but apparently she was lying.” A hawk flew above the truck, and he admired its wide wingspan. “So I called it quits as nicely as I could.”
Laurel stretched her boots toward the heat bursting from the floor. “Meyer Jackson said that you continued to have a sexual relationship and also threatened Casey.”
“Nope. Never threatened her, and we didn’t have sex again after we broke up. She called quite a bit, but I was done.” He eyed the darkening clouds. The rain was coming soon. “She showed up on my doorstep twice, but I sent her away. It was a relief when she started dating somebody else.”
“Was there any reason for her to have been afraid of you?” Laurel asked.
“No.” Huck turned through the wooden archway to the quaint square owned by the church. “I never threatened her, and I certainly never put hands on her. That was all in Meyer Jackson’s head, and don’t ask me why. Best guess was that Casey was trying to make him jealous by using me. She liked to play games, a fact I discovered and did not like. It’s another reason I broke things off with her sooner rather than later.”
“That makes sense,” Laurel allowed. “Were those her boots I borrowed?”
He winced. “Yes. Sorry about that.”
Laurel made a noncommittal sound.
“I should’ve thought of her for this case,” Huck murmured. “When the bodies were found. But I heard that they’d caught the guy, and the facts of the cases were so different that . . .” He shook his head.
