Page 92 of Only One More Lie
“The upcoming trial of oil tycoon and business mogul Victor Goodman is slated to start in three months,” the reporter said. “Many experts think this will be the trial of the decade, and the media storm around the event has already begun.”
His picture flashed on the screen, and her gut churned with revulsion. If that monster had had his way, she’d be dead right now.
Duke squeezed her hand. “He’s behind bars. He’s going to pay for everything he did. You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Andi offered a faint smile, wishing she believed him. But Victor was clever, and she wouldn’t put it past him to figure out a way to be cleared of the charges—including witness intimidation. She’d be testifying also.
She’d been keeping her eyes open for any signs of trouble, knowing good and well the lengths Victor would go through.
“I know,” Andi finally said. “I just put so much energy into bringing him down . . . now that it’s done, I hardly know what to do with myself.”
“You got your license to practice law back. You’re working to get it here in Alaska. You’ve been busy with new cases. I’d say you’re adjusting pretty well.”
She couldn’t argue with his statement. Duke always knew how to help ground her when her thoughts got out of control.
Was she beginning to need him? She’d never felt that way before. She’d always prided herself on being self-sufficient. But so much had changed in the past couple of years.
Andi studied his face a moment. The familiar rush of attraction swept through her—the one she always felt when she looked at him. She’d never felt this way about anyone before.
But right now, she felt damaged. She hated that feeling. The sentiment was foreign to her. She’d always been the confident one who’d charged forward, even when it was foolhardy.
“What are you thinking?” Duke took a sip of his water.
Her heart pounded harder. Was he talking about their relationship?
When he didn’t explain, she realized he was referring to the case.
She nearly laughed at herself. Why was she acting so paranoid?
She absently began to straighten her silverware. “There’s so much to sort through, really. I feel like we’re looking for Calvin and Mary’s killer. But I still have trouble connecting him with the person who murdered Pepper. Something is missing, and I really don’t understand why.”
“Itisperplexing. This guy has to have some type of reason for what he’s doing.”
She used her index finger to absently trace the condensation on her glass. “If we don’t figure it out soon, he’ll strike again.”
“Maybe the gang found something back at the camp.”
“We can hope,” Andi said. “Or maybe Jared will have more answers for Gibson than he had for us. Maybe he even knows where his father is.”
Duke’s phone rang. “It’s Ranger. Maybe they discovered something.”
Andi wanted to ask him to put it on speaker, but since they were in public, she didn’t. Instead, she listened to the one-sided conversation with bated breath.
When the call ended, Duke locked gazes with her. She knew whatever Ranger had told Duke excited him.
“It turns out that Tim has a history of being a bit of a nomad. He worked as a janitor at the planetarium for a while, and he worked maintenance for the hospital—both places where the December Dismemberer’s victims worked.”
“And he works at the camp. Now he’s missing . . .” Her voice caught.
His eyes glimmered with hope. “Maybe the killer has been right under our nose the whole time . . . only we didn’t realize it until too late because now he’s missing.”
As Duke ate his salmon and baked potato, his mind raced with possibilities. Maybe they were finally onto something.
They just needed to figure out where Tim had gone.
But they could do none of that right now. Instead, he decided to relax just a moment and to enjoy this time with Andi. Between the holidays and Andi working on passing the Alaska state bar exam, they hadn’t had a lot of quality time together. Plus, signing over ownership of his travel company to the man who’d bought it had been more time consuming than he’d thought.
“We’ve come a long way haven’t we?” Duke studied Andi’s face from across the table as the gentle candlelight softened her features.