I Don't Want Your Love Out of Pity novel · Chapter 19 of 32

Chapter 19: The Evidence

The sheriff listened to the whole recording with his boots on his desk and his eyes on the ceiling.

When it ended, he took his boots down.

"That's a drunk man in a feed store," he said. "A lawyer would eat it."

"Eat this, then," the foreman said, and set the rusted can on the blotter.

The sheriff looked at it for a long time.

"Where?"

"Under the north beam, in the ash. Seven years and nobody looked."

"We didn't look because Dane's cousin was sheriff then."

The sheriff said it flatly, and I understood why the foreman had trusted him.

He was a lean man with a gray mustache, and he had not once looked at my cane.

"The man you caught at the playground in New York has asked for a deal," he said. "He's named Dane. Not the barn, only the playground. But he's scared, and a scared man keeps talking."

"So arrest Dane," I said.

"Ma'am, I need a judge's signature, and a judge won't sign for a feed store and a rusty can. I need Dane himself, saying it, or his daughter."

"Priscilla?"

"The way I hear it, she knew. People who know can't help saying so, if you give them the room."

"When can you take him?"

"Friday night, if I'm lucky. Dane will be at the Cattlemen's Gala in Cheyenne. He's never missed one in thirty years, and he'll be on the stage."

"And the note comes due the same day."

"I'd say he planned it that way."

I looked at the foreman.

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend