Lord Have Mercy (The Southern Gentleman #2)(62)

Thank God.

I stepped around Dooley and hit the flashlight app on my phone, blinking owlishly when I realized that the man Dooley had pinned was none other than Carver Brown.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Carver?” I barked.

Obviously, nothing good.

If he’d had good intentions, he sure the fuck wouldn’t have been hiding in the darkened shadows of my truck with a metal bar in his hand. He also wouldn’t have waited until I was nearly on top of him to announce himself.

Thank God I had Dooley with me.

If he hadn’t been there…

I shuddered to think what would have happened.

“Cops are called!” I heard Camryn call from the porch steps.

She didn’t come down, and I was thankful.

Carver may be pinned to the ground, but I didn’t want to take the chance that he was actually more dangerous than he let on.

The sirens in the distance had me backing away, not wanting to be confused for the intruder that meant to hurt me.

And by the time Schultz showed up, looking hacked off and tired at the end of his shift, I couldn’t help but grin.

“What’s up, buddy?” I asked casually.

He looked from me to the perp on the ground, to Dooley and then to Camryn and back.

“Why is it that you always seem to get into trouble?” he goaded.

And that was when it clicked.

***

“Ask him where his Suburban went,” I said softly.

Schultz looked at me in surprise.

“What? Why?” he asked.

“Just do it,” I ordered.

Schultz shrugged then walked into the interrogation room.

Carver Brown, after being deemed healthy by a paramedic, was taken straight to an interrogation room the moment he walked into the police station.

I’d followed behind with Camryn at my heels, calling my sister and her not-boyfriend Croft with orders to open the gym.

After hearing that I was almost brained with a lead pipe—that came with us as evidence—she was more than understanding.

“Do you think he’s what woke me?” Camryn asked. “It was only about thirty minutes before.”

“Possibly,” I said. “But we won’t know until Schultz begins to question him.”

“He’ll lawyer up,” she muttered. “He’s too bitchy not to.”

I snorted, nearly inhaling the coffee that was pressed against my mouth.

“Jesus,” I muttered.

“Why’d you want to know about his Suburban?” she questioned.

I looked at the window that Carver was seated beyond and said, “I don’t know.”

Well, I did know.

It was a hunch.

But I was going to follow it even though it might be a possibility that my hunch was wrong.

“Huh,” she muttered, side-eyeing me with a look that said she didn’t believe me.

My lips twitched. “Just give me a few minutes. If I’m right, you’ll know any second.”

She sniffed, then sat back in her chair as she looked at the window right along with me.

“Hello, Carver,” Schultz said as he tossed the file folder down onto the table in front of the man. “Can you tell me why you were hiding beside Officer Stone’s vehicle with a lead pipe in your hand?”

Carver said nothing.

“No?” he asked. “This would all go better if you just cooperated.”

Carver snorted. “I want my lawyer.”

Schultz sighed. “Do you have one in mind, or do you want one appointed to you?”

Schultz was nothing if by the book.

“I have one,” he muttered, then rattled off the number.

“I don’t know what that says about you that you have your lawyer’s number memorized,” Schultz muttered as he jerked his chin up toward the two-way glass. “But I’ll get him here. In the meantime, I’m just going to talk. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Carver remained stubbornly silent.

If he was smart, he’d continue to stay that way until his lawyer arrived.

“I was informed that you used to have a black Suburban SUV.” Schultz leaned one hip casually against the metal table. “Is that true?”

Carver damn near jolted straight out of his chair as he whipped around and looked at Schultz with a panicked expression on his face.

Schultz didn’t miss it, and I didn’t, either.

I sighed and stood up, walking out of the observation room and to the interrogation room’s entrance.

I didn’t bother to pause outside, instead pushed straight in and closed the door behind me.

The minute Carver saw me, he flinched.

“Tell me why you did it?” I suggested. “I already know that it was you. It’s all making sense now, only I don’t know what I ever did to you to warrant being run over by your SUV.”

I could practically hear Camryn’s gasp of outrage through the wall.

I just hoped she stayed put and didn’t try to burst through the door causing me to break off my line of questioning before I got what I wanted.

Luckily, my girl stayed where she was, though I could tell she was fuming.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carver lied, looking away.