Page 18 of Coveted Justice

6

After hearing the news from Jason, Tanner had gone back into the cabin and told Maddie what was going on. Both of them had quickly dressed and packed. Luckily, it only took Tanner about five minutes to get ready to leave. It took Maddie a little longer, but she’d never been high maintenance. Within fifteen minutes, they were out the door.

Jason had brought along Seth Reilly to help pack their food and belongings and drive the vehicle back to town.

“Don’t worry about your bags and other things,” Seth assured them. “I’ll take care of all of it. You just worry about what in the hell you’re going to say to all the reporters when you get to town. They’re smelling blood in the water.”

“There is no way Abby killed her husband,” Tanner replied, exasperation in his tone. His ex-wife had the worst taste in men since their divorce. Her last boyfriend had been the head of a drug cartel and tried to have Tanner eliminated. “If she was the murdering kind, she would have offed me years ago when I was drinking.”

“Is that what you’re going to tell the reporters?” Seth asked, his gaze darting to where Maddie was talking to Jason. “She looks pretty calm. How’d she take the news?”

“You know how Maddie is, sensible and practical to the bone. Once she got over the shock, she took control of the situation and started barking out orders like a drill sergeant so we could get dressed and packed.”

“She’s an understanding woman. I doubt Presley would be near as understanding.”

Tanner fully expected Maddie to be angry and frustrated at the entire situation. She, of course, didn’t have to feel jealous when it came to Abby. Not at all. Tanner loved and adored his wife. His feelings for Abby were at most friendship and at worst tolerance. Now that the children were grown, they didn’t have to co-parent any longer. All they had to do was be in the same room and not snap at one another. So far, it had worked out fine.

He’d been rather surprised when she and Marty had shown up to support him last night, but Abby had always liked to get dressed up and party a little. From what he could see, Marty didn’t mind it either. They’d seemed like a happy couple, although they’d been arguing during the dinner. But what married couple didn’t have a tiff every now and then? Usually, no one got shot later.

“Maddie would have every right to give me a rash of shit,” Tanner finally replied. “Neither one of us has forgotten that Abby’s ex wanted me dead and was probably going to kill her, too.”

It had been years ago before they’d even married, but they’d purposefully kept their distance from Abby after that. Trouble always seemed to follow his ex-wife, even though most of it was minor stuff like not paying her parking tickets and getting her license revoked.

Tanner hadn’t intervened with the judge, either. He’d decided that she needed to work that one out herself.

Tanner handed Seth the keys to the SUV and he and Maddie climbed into the helicopter with Jason and the pilot. The bird lifted into the cloudless blue sky and swept over the lake and valley below. If he’d been in a different mood, he might have been able to enjoy the view from up this high, but instead his brain was going a mile a minute wondering just what had happened to Marty. And where had Abby been when her husband was shot?

The trip was surprisingly fast and soon they were touching down in a clearing just outside of town. Tanner’s old friend Sam was waiting for them, standing next to his official sheriff’s office SUV.

Sam had been the sheriff in Springwood since Tanner had hired him after he was elected mayor. He considered Sam Reynolds to be one of the finest lawmen he’d ever worked with. When Tanner had been the sheriff, Sam had been his best deputy by far.

Amanda and Josh were waiting there as well, his daughter throwing her arms around him when they exited the helicopter. Amanda hugged her mother as well, clearly upset.

“Your home and campaign office are both crawling with press,” Sam said. “I need to talk to you, but we can’t do it in those places. Unless you’re ready to make a statement, of course.”

“I’d like a little more information before I do,” Tanner replied. “Where can we go that’s quiet? The stationhouse?”

Sam laughed and shook his head. “Oh hell, no. There’s press there as well. If I take you into the station with me you’ll be on every newscast tonight. The reporters don’t have Sherry’s house staked out so I called and asked if we could meet there. She said absolutely. We can even park the vehicles behind the house so no one sees them from the road. I think it’s our best bet.”

“Do you want to go home?” Tanner asked Maddie. “I can have Amanda and Josh take you there if you like. If the reporters bother you just say no comment. I am going to make a statement today.”

She didn’t need to be dragged into this any more than she already was.

“I want to stay with you,” his wife said with a stubborn set of her chin. “If the press finds us, it will look better if I’m standing beside you.”

Tanner had seen all of those news conferences where the politician apologized for something shitty he’d done while his mortified spouse stood in the background. He hadn’t done anything to be ashamed of, but that didn’t mean he was going to use her as a prop, either. He had far too much respect for her to do that. If that meant he didn’t win, then so be it.

“I have a feeling this could get ugly,” he said. “I don’t want you to have to deal with it.”

“I’m going to deal with it either way,” she argued. “Do you think the reporters are going to leave me alone just because you tell them to? They’re going to come after me just like you. We might as well give them a united front and statement.”

“They’re still not going to leave us alone,” he growled, knowing she was right. She usually was. “Not until another juicy story comes along and takes the spotlight anyway.”

He didn’t argue any further, letting Josh navigate them to Sherry’s house, following Sam. Sherry was Maddie’s best friend in the world and had been for years. She was his friend, too, and he wouldn’t forget that she was doing this incredibly kind thing to let them meet at her place. She was the type of person that would give her last dollar to help someone.

She was standing in her driveway when they pulled up and she motioned for them to park behind the house.

“Looks like the shit has hit the fan,” she said, giving Maddie a hug. “You can always lie low here.”

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