The Cabin by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online

corruption and incompetence—well, let
    them hear you threatening a Texas Ranger’s wife.”
    “I didn’t threaten her.”
    “You were subtle,” Alice said, “but not that subtle.”
    “Get off my property. You’re trying to set me up
    again. I’ve been under suspicion for months of killing
    my own wife—”
    “You did kill your own wife, Mr. Beau. You killed her
    because you’re paranoid and crazy. Not twenty-four
    hours before I found her dead out here, I told you that
    if I were her, I’d smother you with a pillow while you
    slept, and you killed her—”
    “I’m calling the police.” He turned to go back inside.
    She held up a hand, breathing hard. “No, wait. I’m
    sorry. That’s all over with. Let me finish.”

    48
    Carla Neggers
    He said nothing, but he stayed put.
    Alice went on. “I happened to show up at the Gal-
    way house right after you left—I was hoping to catch
    Ranger Jack and plead my case to him. It was just a few
    hours before I was arrested, and here’s Mrs. Jack Gal-
    way, all pale and scared, telling me how you’d just
    walked into her kitchen and she’d taped you. I assumed
    she’d give the tape to her husband, but she never did,
    probably because everything was such a big mess by
    then. Why drag herself into it?”
    Beau straightened, recovering a bit from his shock.
    “This tape. You believe Mrs. Galway still has it in her
    possession?”
    This was the tricky part. Alice remembered how Ra-
    chel had often warned her against making things too
    complicated. But she couldn’t tell Beau that Susanna
    Galway had thrust the tape at her that day at her front
    door—Susanna obviously had thought Alice was still on
    Rachel’s murder investigation and wanted to be rid of
    the damn thing. “I don’t know if it’s any good,” she’d
    said, “but, please, take it.”
    Alice had gone out and bought a tape recorder and
    listened to the DAT herself. There was nothing on it that
    would pull her own hide out of the fire, nothing a pros-
    ecutor would bother with as far as Beau went. The Texas
    Rangers wouldn’t like it, a murder suspect trying to get
    under the skin of the wife of one of their lieutenants.
    Jack Galway really wouldn’t like it. But, too bad.
    She’d expected Jack to get around to asking her about
    it when he’d come to arrest her, but he never did. Alice
    didn’t volunteer. Let the Texas Rangers work for every

    The Cabin
    49
    damn thing they got out of her. Her world had crashed
    in on her while Beau McGarrity got away with murder,
    everything.
    She’d put the tape out of her mind. It was worthless.
    Irrelevant.
    Then, in prison, she’d started dreaming of Australia.
    She still had the tape, and she was betting Beau would
    want it. It wasn’t enough to nail him for murder, but it was
    plenty to ruin his chances of any kind of political come-
    back—provided no one realized Alice Parker, corrupt
    cop, had had it all this time. If he knew that, Beau would
    never pay. He wouldn’t have to. He’d just say she was back
    to her old tricks, tampering with another bit of “evidence.”
    She shifted away from him, looking out at the
    sprawling, shaded lawn. She loved the smells. “I hap-
    pen to know Susanna still has the tape. That’s why I’m
    here. I can get it for you.”
    “Miss Parker, you managed to get yourself thrown in
    prison because of your own incompetence and your zeal
    to pin my wife’s murder on me. Why should I believe
    anything’s changed? Why shouldn’t I believe this is just
    a ploy on your part to entrap me, frame me for some-
    thing I didn’t do?”
    “You can quit professing your innocence, Mr. Beau.
    You already got away with murder. There’s nothing I
    can do about that—I don’t even care anymore. It’s time
    I looked after my own interests.” Alice shifted back to
    him, squinting, noting that she wasn’t even slightly ner-
    vous. “I want fifty thousand dollars to start a new life.”
    He scoffed. “Do you actually