A Merciful Death (Mercy Kilpatrick #1)(77)

Two men?

“He left his friend behind? Dead?”

“Yes.”

“He never came back searching or asking for his accomplice?”

“No. We expected him to, but it was like the dead man belonged to no one. No one came looking for him. No one was reported missing.”

Mercy’s story was growing odder by the moment. Who doesn’t report their missing friend?

A murder accomplice.

“The man who escaped knew the other had been shot?”

“We heard the engine a few moments after the shots. I have no doubt the guns scared him off, but he had no way of knowing if his friend had been hit.”

“So you’re wrong that I’m the third person to know what happened. One other person knows—the guy you scared off.”

Mercy nodded.

“Start from the beginning.”

Mercy haltingly told him a story that made his hair stand on end. A break-in. An attack. First Rose and then herself. Gunfire. He’d seen the brutal pictures of Jennifer Sanders and Gwen Vargas. Mercy and Rose had come close to joining them.

Truman was silent as he absorbed the weight of what she’d told him. “Where’s the dead man?” he finally asked.

She seemed to crumble. “Levi hid the body.”

“Ah, jeez.” Truman stood and paced in a circle, running his hands through his hair. Another crime she and Levi could be tried for. “Where the fuck did he hide it?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Come on, Mercy.”

Her ponytail fell over her shoulder as she shook her head, her eyes distant. “It’s Levi’s burden. I won’t make it worse.”

No body, no proof.

She’s drawn the line. Her story is just a story unless a body supports it.

He sat back down and took her hands again. She tried to tug them away, but he held on. “I’m here to support you. We’ll figure out a way through all this.”

“No. No one can know.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone.”

He wasn’t. He’d decided on his role in her story.

It’d been a simple decision that surprised him. He should have mentally and emotionally struggled with the decision, but he’d looked in his heart and immediately known the answer.

Mercy was an honest person. If her shooting hadn’t been justified, she would have admitted it.

Damned if I’ll let her get hurt by this old crime.

It might be the wrong decision, but it was his decision and he’d stand by it.

People screw up, and she and Levi were guilty of some bad choices, but no one could deny that they had been within their rights to fire, since Mercy and Rose had been attacked.

Have I violated my own ethics?

He’d crossed a line he’d never thought he’d cross. As a member of law enforcement, he had a duty to report that he knew of a death and cover-up. As a decent member of the human race, he had the same obligation. But at the moment it seemed insignificant in light of the stress of the woman in front of him.

Can I live with my decision?

Definitely.

“Your father didn’t want to rock the boat any further with Joziah Bevins? Is that why he refused to talk to him?”

Mercy nodded as if her head weighed fifty pounds. “When I pointed out that the person who tried to break in might have murdered those other girls, he brushed it aside. I told him we were putting other women at risk by not looking into what we suspected. When he refused again, I knew I couldn’t live under his roof anymore.”

“What was his reasoning?” Truman had a hunch about her father’s attitude.

“He said other women weren’t our responsibility. We only focus on our own.”

His hunch was right.

“That didn’t sit well with you?”

The sour look she gave pleased him. It was the first sign of the old Mercy.

“I guess it’s a philosophical difference.” She shrugged. “If you see a nail in the road, you pick it up so it won’t lodge in someone else’s tire, right? Why on earth would you not do something about a possible murderer?”

“You were eighteen, right? And Levi was even older. You could have gone to the police,” he pointed out. “You didn’t need to wait for your father.”

She laughed. “We didn’t view the police as an authority back then. Police were the guys who handed out traffic tickets. The authority and enforcement in town was Joziah Bevins. If we wanted answers and action, Joziah is who we’d talk to.”

Truman started to contradict her and then closed his mouth. How many times had he heard the mayor and even Ina suggest they get input from Joziah Bevins before taking a new step? Truman had assumed it was because the man sat on the town council. Not because everyone was scared shitless of him.

Has Joziah influenced some of my decisions?

No. He could say that with confidence. He hadn’t crossed swords with Joziah Bevins. Yet.

I’m more of an outsider than I realized. No one had told him about Joziah. Was he expected to fall in line with the rest of the community? They’d be in for a surprise. Truman had no problem standing up for what he thought was right.

Does Mike know how powerful his father is?

Of course he does. It must be one of the reasons he wants to leave. “You think the second man at your house that night was one of Joziah’s men.”