Page 26 of Everyone Loved Her
“I don’t doubt that, but right now, I don’t even have any suspects,” Blaze said, which was partially true. He had a bad feeling about Garrett Myers, but there was nothing concrete to put him near Sarah—and regardless of what he thought of the guy, he was just one of many when it came to Sarah’s group. Everyone knew her, and everyone seemed to well,loveher.
“Well, it ain’t me,” Lucas chuckled, shaking his head. “And it ain’t Ty, Evan, Gabriel?—”
“And how do you know that?” he cut Lucas off before he could finish naming off every shady, drug doing or dealing man in town.
“Because they’re my friends, and none of my friends would do nothin’ to Sarah. Sure, they all might’ve wanted their turn. They were jealous like that, but… She wasmine. They knew that, even if they got with her a time or two.”
Blaze’s expression didn’t budge, but his thoughts definitely did.Jeez. Lucas, a small town pimp.He pursed his lips. “Can you tell me those names again?Fullnames, if you don’t mind.”
Lucas sighed, and then went through his list again, giving full names when he knew them. Blaze jotted them down, making a mental note that he would try and find time to hunt each one down and ask them what they knew about Sarah. It would be a daunting task, but at this rate, what else did the department have to do?
“Is that all the names you want to include?” Blaze asked once Lucas had gone quiet.
He nodded. “Yep.”
Blaze scanned the list, one name noticeably absent. “What about Garrett Myers?”
Lucas’s gaze lit up. “What about him?”
“Ain’t he one of your buddies?”
Lucas let out a throaty laugh. “Let me get something straight with you, Blaze, the cowboy deputy from God Knows Where. Me and Garrett Myers? We ain’tneverbeen friends.”
Blaze couldn’t help himself, surprised by the sudden animosity. “Why’s that?”
Lucas met his gaze, his eyes growing dark and angry. “He killed Sam Young.”
Blaze nodded, slowly. “From what I understand there was a car accident? Garrett just happened to be the driver, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what theysayhappened.”
“Sam’s sister, Beth, was there and corroborated the story, right?”
Lucas snorted. “Again, you clearly ain’t from around here. Garrett killed Sam, then he went and wrecked his truck a few miles down from Sarah’s place—which is where we were all partying.”
“I see…” Blaze wasn’t sure if he should keep digging or not, but he had nothing better to do. “And you believe he…murderedSam Young? Then covered it up?”
“Only reason you ain’t in the know, is ‘cause you work under his daddy’s nose and with his little brother. If you’d come hang out with some of us real, upstanding folks, you’d find real fast what the truth is.”
He pursed his lips. Most of theupstandingfolks Lucas was referring to had rap sheets a mile long. “Okay, well, let’s just say what you’re getting at has some merit, why would Garrett want to kill Sam? They were best friends, right? Like family?”
“So they say,” Lucas hummed, his tone eerie as he pushed back from the table. “But I heard they was in a big ole fight that night. I watched the two of ‘em get into a good scuffle. Garrett got himself a bloody nose, and Sam took a real good punch to the side of the head.”
Blaze made another mental note to dig up the case file on the accident. “But Sam was living when he got in vehicle?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow as he stood to his feet. “Never sawhim get into that truck that night. Nobody did. All we saw was them tearing out of Sarah’s grandma’s back field.”
“And Beth?”
“What about her?”
“Well, she would know the truth.”
“Sure, and why do ya think she lit out of here the week after the funeral? The girl changed schools from the local community college to some big ole state university in Oklahoma. She was runnin’ from somethin’, and she never did come back. We heard rumors she went back to the ranch to see her folks, a couple of times, but most of their visitin’ had Peter and Andrea goin’ up there to see her.”
“Sounds like a mess,” Blaze remarked, following Lucas up to the front of the office. He didn’t want to believe a word that came out of Lucas’s mouth, but why did some of the pieces seem to fit?
“Goodnight,” Lucas said with a nod. “Hope you start findin’ some answers soon. I’d hate for you to have to keep skippin’ towns.”