He lowered to the mattress at her side. Even with grease staining his T-shirt and smudging his jaw, he looked good to her. Just having him next to her made her relax a fraction. Beneath the smell of grease, motoroil, and hard-earned sweat, she could still smell his skin. The intimate knowledge of his body made her feel more at home than she had since before her life ended that night.
“I couldn’t get out of the courthouse with the entire box of case files.” He held out his hands and indicated the size. “So I carefully looked through the documents until I found what I figured would help us the most. Then I put everything back just as it had been so no one would know I’d looked—unless they inventoried every single page and photo.”
She shuddered at the mention of photos. But Clint had been right to be cautious. She wouldn’t put inventorying those particular files past Ray.
“How did you get out?” She wanted to know what Clint had found, but she needed to know how he’d managed to escape more.
“First I had to outsmart Ray’s officers.”
“They came in there looking for you?”Damn.Ray really had believed she was lying. Not that she could blame him. She never had been a very good liar.
Clint nodded. “But I’ve had a lot of experience in making myself invisible.”
She wished there were a way to even begin to make that up to him. The one thing she could do was help him solve the crime that had devastated his life. But she was doing that as much for Heather and her family ... and herself as for anyone.
“Lucky for me, they searched the files room first. As soon as they moved on to another room, I got the hell out of there.
“I barely squeezed through one of those dinky windows. Once I was outside I wasn’t worried. They were still inside. I got back to my place just a couple minutes before Ray showed up to make sure I was in the barn.”
A chill swept over her skin at the idea of how close he’d come to getting caught. He’d gone to work today like always. Higgins probably hadorders to notify both Ray and Lee Brady if Clint didn’t show. Waiting until he’d gotten off work had driven her nuts!
“So where is it?” He hadn’t brought anything in with him. If he said they had to go someplace else she was going to scream with frustration. He tugged the front of his T-shirt from his jeans and reached underneath. His hand reappeared with what looked like a single document folded multiple times and tucked into a sandwich bag.
“Is that it?”
He shot her a sidelong glance. “The idea was to get what wasn’t consistent with anything we already knew. A lot of the other stuff I had seen during the second trial.” He tapped the small plastic bag. “This is an evidence report. I kept it taped under my dash all day. I stuck it under my shirt before coming in here just in case I was being watched.”
“Good idea.” She reached for the bag, but he held it away. “Let’s talk about one thing first.”
Her patience thinned, but he obviously had a point to make. “Fine, but hurry.”
Those intense gray eyes flashed his appreciation. “Who knew about your window? I mean, the fact that you used it for sneaking in and out at night.”
Emily felt the weight of regret.
“Don’t go there,” he ordered. “Leave out the emotion. Concentrate. Who knew?”
She tried hard to do as he asked, but it wasn’t easy. “The girls. It was kind of mine and Heather’s secret, but that night the others knew because of the finagling required to get out of the house after my parents had given me strict orders to stay home with my brother.”
“By ‘the others’ you mean the cheerleaders?”
“Not everyone, just the seniors.”
“None of the guys knew?”
He meant Keith. He didn’t have to say his name. “No. We didn’t tell just anyone. I mean I can’t be certain one of the others didn’t tell but they weren’t supposed to.”
“You left that night, did your hazing duty, and then you came back. The window was open when it should have been closed. Do you remember anything else? Any other items outside or in the room that shouldn’t have been there?”
She thought long and hard, made herself look at those painful recollections for a whole minute, then two. Her stomach roiled viciously; then she shook her head. “Nothing. I was too caught up in trying to escape Principal Call and then trying to save Heather and trying to get you away from her.”
The ache in his eyes told Emily he remembered that part well. “I was told,” he began, his eyes clearing as he moved past those details, “that the only evidence recovered from the room was the knife.”
She nodded. That was right. She’d heard the same thing in the courtroom—both times. A generic kitchen knife. No prints, nothing but Heather’s blood. They’d used the fact that Clint had been wearing gloves against him. Given his alibi, the gloves made perfect sense. He had been in the middle of stealing a car to hold as hostage for a loan shark. Of course, Clint had worn gloves.
“Well,” Clint went on grimly, “they lied to us.”
“What?” Emily had known Chief Ledbetter. He’d gone to the same church as she and her family. “Chief Ledbetter lied? Maybe there wasn’t anything else, Clint.” But then he wouldn’t have made the statement. She felt cold, cold and afraid of what he might be about to tell her.
