Page 25 of A Soldier's Pledge
“You think this is TV? The bad guys spilling their guts thinking they’ve already won. Nope. Sorry, bitch. If you can’t figure it out, we’re not going to help you.”
“Why did you kill Hugh?”
The sound of a cigarette being stamped out was all she heard for a bit. Just when she figured they wouldn’t answer her, he started talking again. Maybe he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. She was good at this game. She’d gotten Steele to come clean, and he was a trained professional. If this was Mr. Creepy Pants, there’s no way he was a professional anything. Other than a hired killer maybe.
“Hugh was a piece of shit and my brother. He thought he was in charge, but I showed him. Stupid fuck. Ran up thousands of dollars in gambling debt and needed a way to pay the loan sharks.”
Okay, well that made some sense anyway. Poor Betty.
“After your fuckin’ boyfriend showed up he got worried. Tried to pull the plug. I told him he was a fucking pussy and that I’d run things from now on. He didn’t like that idea so oops, night, night, Hugh.”
“I didn’t even know he had a brother. How could you kill your own blood?”
“We didn’t grow up together. Our whore of a mother put us up for adoption. I didn’t even track the fucker down ‘til a couple of years ago.”
It looked like getting him to talk wasn’t going to be that difficult after all. If she could keep it up, maybe she could get her hands free. From the echo, she knew he wasn’t close and hopefully he wouldn’t be able to see her working on the knot. But then she’d forgotten about the other one, and that betrayal cut her to the core.
“Dad, you need to shut the hell up.”
Dad? Dad? No wonder. But did he force her or was she a willing participant?
“It won’t matter; by the time they find her, she’ll be rat food.”
Ugh really? Rat food? She hated rodents, their creepy little faces and sharp teeth. Fear bubbled up inside her.Calm down. Deep breaths. One. Two. Three. One…
***
Ethan and Steele went inside and saw Anna’s note about going to Betty Johnson’s house. Obviously, she hadn’t made it out of the garage on her own, but did Betty know anything?
With her note with the address in his hand, they headed to Betty Johnson’s house. It was their best lead right now, and he needed to find Anna while she was still alive.
“It’ll be okay. We’ll find her,” Steele said from the passenger side as he hung on to the suicide handles. Ethan didn’t care if he broke every traffic law in the state, he wasn’t going to waste one minute.
“Hell yeah, we will.”
“Just remember, you’re about to charge in to the house of an old woman who just found out her husband was murdered. We have no proof she was involved at all. We don’t have proof he was either. Nothing turned up in the call logs.”
“I know. I’ve got this.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Ethan leveled a stare on Steele and the way the man blanched he was sure he looked as evil as he felt. Someone had his woman, and he was going to get her back, and God help anyone who stood in his way.
The lights were on at the Johnson’s house, and there was already a patrol car parked outside. The front door was open, and Ethan walked in with Steele following. The white-haired old woman was sitting on the sofa, with a uniform next to her. She looked frail. And innocent. But time would tell. Ethan was done playing these games.
“Mrs. Johnson?”
The woman looked up, tears welling in her eyes and his heart softened just a little. Tears. Fuck. “Yes. Who are you?”
“I’m Detective Price, and this is my partner, Detective Brennan. Is it okay if we ask you a few questions?”
She nodded, and the uniformed officer got up and left the room.
“We’re really sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. He wasn’t much, but I loved him. For over fifty years, too.” Ethan had a flash forward wondering if that’s how he and Anna would be in fifty years. But not if he didn’t find her.
“Did he have any enemies? Do you know why anyone would want to hurt him?”
