Justice Delayed (Memphis Cold Case #1)(20)

“Nope. I’m not the anchor, and until Lacey’s death is ruled a homicide, I don’t have anything to report.”

Part of him wanted to relent. The drive to Nashville on I-40 was boring, something Andi was not. He wavered, remembering the thirteen-year-old Andi the night her sister was murdered. Pale with a blue tinge to her lips and fingernails, tears spilling from her huge brown eyes.

“All right,” he said, huffing the words out. “But anything we talk about has to be off the record.”

“No problem. I promise.”

She held his gaze with those incredible eyes as a puff of April wind brought the fragrance of her jasmine perfume. He swallowed hard. “My car is in the garage. Yours?”

Her lip twitched. “I rode with my cameraman.”

He turned without answering and strode inside the garage to his Ford Escape.



Andi glanced in the side mirror, checking for a dark SUV with tinted windows. None that she could see. She turned to Will, who was drumming the steering wheel. “Any leads on the man who broke in to my apartment?”

His fingers stilled. “No. None of your neighbors saw anything. You and Treece really need to leave your outside lights on.”

“Believe me, we will,” she said. The skin on her neck tingled, and she pulled the sun visor down, checking the traffic in the mirror again. “Can you tell if anyone is following us?”

“Haven’t seen anyone suspicious, and I’ve been watching.”

“Do you think it was a mistake? That he broke into the wrong house?”

He glanced over at her. “What do you think?”

“It’s what I want to believe.” Andi glanced in the side mirror again. “But he was so insistent that I had his diamonds.”

Anxiety squeezed her chest, and she sucked in a deep breath. She had to refocus. Fear would only freeze her mind, and she didn’t have time for that. Right now, she was safe with Will.

Refocus. Relax.

An incoming text dinged, and she read it. So much for getting her mind off the breakin. “Brad says the security system is in place, and that it’s hooked in to the police station.”

“Good. That relieves my mind.”

“Mine too.” Gingerly, she smoothed her hair over the stitches in her head, remembering the wave of fear that had washed over her when she woke this morning. Maybe she needed to talk about her feelings a little. “I didn’t know what a number someone breaking in to your house could do to you.”

“Violated is how I’ve heard victims describe their feelings.”

“Yes! That’s exactly it.” It’d been the same when Stephanie was killed, only worse, and in two hours she would be confronting the man convicted of killing her sister. Her thoughts jumped on another merry-go-round.

What if Jimmy didn’t kill Steph? She shook that question off. He killed her. Why else would he confess?

But what if he hadn’t? It would mean Steph’s murderer was running around free while an innocent man faced death. Her heart raced at the questions that wouldn’t go away. It was why she was in a car with Will Kincade driving down I-40 to Nashville. “Do you think the letter is legitimate?”

Her words sounded loud in the car, and Will jumped. “Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“You didn’t. I was thinking about something else, that’s all, and you jumped subjects. You have a habit of doing that, you know. But to answer your question, I don’t know.”

What could he have been thinking about? Maybe his last girlfriend? Brad had mentioned at dinner a couple of weeks ago that Will was seeing some secretary. “Having trouble with your latest conquest?”

“What?” He shot a quick look at her.

Heat flushed her face. What a dumb thing to say. “Never mind.”

“If you must know, my mother is back in town.”

“Oh. Are you going to see her?” Andi didn’t know why she was glad he wasn’t thinking about a girlfriend.

“No. Cass won’t be here long. Never is. Unless her last husband dumped her, then she might stay a month.” His jaw tightened. “If you don’t mind, let’s talk about something else.”

“Sure.” She didn’t know the whole story behind Will living with his aunt and uncle instead of his mother when he was growing up. But it must be bad for him to always call her Cass, never Mother or Mom.

She searched for something to say, but her mind blanked. Jimmy. They could talk about him. “Let’s suppose this letter your cousin received is real—not that I think it is, but just suppose. Why do you think he confessed to a crime he didn’t commit?”

This time Will laughed out loud. “That’s the third time you’ve switched subjects in five minutes.”

“Well, at least I got a laugh out of you.”

“Yeah. Jimmy,” he said. “Are we still on that subject?”

“Yes.”

“Why did he confess?” Will sucked in a deep breath. “Eighteen years ago, Jimmy had a bad alcohol problem. So bad that even though he was crazy-drunk when they arrested him, he was still on his feet—his body had built up a tolerance to high levels of alcohol. I went with my aunt to see him in jail after they arrested him, and he never remembered us being there. I don’t think there’s anything he actually remembers about that night.”