“His sister. That's why he became a cop.” Tanner’s voice was marred with tension and sadness. But mostly, so much anger. “He wanted to find the bastard who took her. Killed her.”
“They never did?” April asked.
Tanner shook his head. “No. Ethan is the straightest arrow I know. The best cop I know. He must’ve really pissed someone off…”
“A murderer?” April suggested.
“What?” Tanner glanced at her before turning his gaze back to the road.
“You mentioned he helps out in homicide.”
Tanner sighed. “He does, but it’s complicated.” It sounded like Tanner wanted to say more, but when he didn’t, April knew she had to make a choice.
If she believed Tanner’s version of who this Ethan guy was, then how could he work for Ned, and why would he have pulled her over in that Uber? But if Tanner was wrong about his friend, then he could be in real danger. After all the time she’d spent with him, the idea of someone hurting Tanner made her stomach hurt and her chest tighten. “Does it have something to do with Ned Dynam?”
The speed with which Tanner’s head jerked to look at her, and then back to the road, suggested Tanner knew exactly what she was talking about. “What do you know about him?”
April swallowed, hard. The right answer to that question right now would benothing. But she’d been trying to do the right thing for three years, and where had that gotten her? Nowhere. If she was going to trust anyone, it was going to be Tanner. And it had to be right now, because they were going to be pulling up to the hospital in less than two minutes at the speed they were going. “I know that Ned Dynam has half the Dallas police force in his pocket. I know he pays them to do his dirty work, or turn the other way so he can get away with whatever he wants.”
Tanner’s eyes got almost comically big. “How? How do you know this, April?”
“Because I work for him. The little girl I nanny for is his stepdaughter.”
Tanner pulled into an empty spot in front of the emergency room. “Dynam told you about the payoffs?”
“No, of course not. But Ethan is…” April knew what she was about to say would likely hurt Tanner since he seemed to trust the guy, but Tanner needed to know.
“What?” Tanner asked impatiently.
“He’s one of the officers on his payroll, Tanner. I’m sorry. I just thought you should know. Ned is no one to mess around with and the last thing I want is for you to get involved, or worse, get hurt.”
Tanner stared at her for a long moment. “What makes you think Ethan is on his payroll?”
“Because I saw him. He and another officer pulled over my Uber a few weeks ago. Ned has officers do that sometimes just to mess with me. To show me that he’s always in control. No matter where I am or who I’m with.”
“Ethan wouldn’t do that,” Tanner said.
The conviction in his voice was breaking April’s heart. “He recognized me today, just like I remembered him. I don’t know why he did it or what his true intentions were, but it was definitely Ethan that night. And he was…mean.”
“He hurt you?” Tanner asked, surprise and anger rising in his voice.
“No. He didn’t touch me. I never got out of the car. I only rolled down my window about an inch just so he could hear me tell him to get lost.”
Tanner swallowed hard and reached over to take her hand in his. “I don’t know what the hell is going on with him. I thought he was working a case, and that’s why he hasn’t been around much. But maybe… I don’t know. I will figure this out though. Until then, you tell no one about this conversation.”
Something loosened in April’s chest at the realization that she hadn’t made a mistake trusting Tanner. And that he was trusting her in return. “I won’t. I almost didn’t even tell you, but I didn’t want you to rush into something when you didn’t have all the facts.”
“I still don’t, April. I believe you saw Ethan that night. I just don’t believe he’s on Dynam’s payroll. No way. No how. Not after everything he and his family have been through.”
***
Tanner let April stay with him for a while, but then had a patrol officer he trusted drive her home. He needed some time alone before going in to talk to Ethan. He had a million questions for the guy, and that was before April had told him about her first encounter with him.
At least the doctors had been able to confirm based on the wound that the knife wasn’t serrated and didn’t have a notch near the hilt. So, this wasn’t the work of whoever had killed Arlo J.
The longer Tanner sat in the waiting area by himself, the more he thought about what April had said. He desperately wanted her to be wrong, but deep down, he knew she wasn’t. She wouldn’t lie to him about something like this, and the longer Tanner considered it, the more it seemed to be possible. Ethan was working homicide when Tanner first joined the force, but then he moved to the robbery division. Then he seemed to disappear for a while. And Tanner assumed he’d gone under cover, but then the guy popped back up again a few months ago in homicide. Ethan seemed to float around between departments, which Tanner found odd, but didn’t say anything. That ended now.
When a nurse finally told him that Ethan was stable enough to be questioned, Tanner practically ran into the room.
