Murder at Granite Falls by Roxanne Rustand Read Free Book Online Page B

as heat started creepingup the back of her neck. Way to go…now you’re babbling. “Uh, well…some things just brand you for life in a small town.”
    As if he didn’t already know that from recent, bitter experience—a fact that he’d made perfectly clear. Even more embarrassed, she clamped her mouth shut.
    He met her gaze squarely, as if he’d just read her thoughts, a muscle ticking along the side of his jaw. “If you want to tear up your lease contract, I’ll refund the deposit. But if you have any questions that could help set your mind at ease, fire away.”
    “How well did you know Sheryl?”
    “We ran into each other on Main Street now and then, and she came out for a couple of float trips. Once with her boy, then she came again alone. That’s it. End of story. We were just casual acquaintances. And on both raft trips there was a full load of passengers—tourists from all over the country, so neither trip included the intimate interlude that the prosecutor implied.”
    “You were the guide?”
    “Just by chance, both times. Tina hadn’t finished her training and safety certification yet.”
    “So…what was Sheryl like?”
    “As I said, she was a nice lady. Quiet. I don’t think she asked a single question during either trip. In fact, she seemed a little scared of the water. And when we beached the raft at our midway point for a riverside lunch, the other passengers took a hike up to Badger Peak rather than take time to eat. She was the only one who stayed behind, and she read a book the whole time. Said she didn’t like heights.”
    “I suppose the other passengers were questioned, and said you two had…plenty of time alone together.”
    “Right. The prosecutor tried to prove it was the start of an ongoing affair, if that’s what you’re getting at it.” Logan snorted. “So given the supposed affair, she later committed suicide? OrI killed her in a jealous rage because she wouldn’t leave her husband? None of that makes sense.”
    “And if there was no proof—”
    “Oh, there was ‘proof’ all right. An imprint of a Chaco sandal near where she fell off the cliff. In my size…as if most outdoors enthusiasts around here don’t wear that kind of sandal.”
    “That’s it?”
    “A scout troop saw me in the area earlier, while they were out working on a hiking badge.” He heaved a sigh. “I was out hiking myself. And since I was up in the mountains alone most of the day, I had no alibi for the hours in question. A witness claimed Sheryl said she’d been seeing me on the sly. There was more, but none of it was true.”
    Carrie had watched enough old Law & Order reruns to know that some serial killers possessed enough charm to gain their victims’ confidence. But if Logan was lying about this, he was incredibly good at it. Even with her gaze riveted on his face she hadn’t seen so much as a flicker of guilt or deceit.
    “I guess…I just don’t know what to say,” she said finally.
    “All I know is that I’m innocent, and that I’m not going to stop searching until I find the guy who did kill her.” A corner of his mouth lifted wryly. “Though there’s a saying about how there are no guilty prisoners on death row, so I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself just what you want to believe.”
     
    Before talking to Logan on Saturday, Carrie would’ve automatically believed the sheriff’s department over a claim of innocence by a man she barely knew.
    Yet she’d already seen Logan’s gentleness with the local kids and his teasing banter with Penny. His wry, self-deprecating humor and quiet sense of honor. She’d been drawn to him for those very reasons, and that feeling had grown with every passing day.

    Those surely couldn’t be traits of a killer.
    All day Sunday she’d been able to think of nothing else. Wavering from one hour to the next as to whether or not she’d be wise to just leave. Praying for guidance.
    And then, in the evening, she’d happened to look