The Texas Ranger. Diana Palmer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ know.”

      “Why did you choose law enforcement for a career?” he asked unexpectedly.

      Her dark eyes narrowed on his face. “Because there are so many innocent people convicted of crimes,” Josette said deliberately. “And so many guilty people go free.”

      Brannon stiffened at the innuendo. “Jennings was a mobster and he had a record,” he reminded her.

      “He had a felony battery conviction, and first offender status,” she corrected. “He was just a teenager at the time. He got drunk, got into a fight and got arrested. He didn’t even go to jail. After a year’s probation, he was turned loose. But that, and his connection with Jake Marsh, went against him when he was arrested for Garner’s murder.”

      “He was cold sober when Garner drowned,” he countered. “They did a breath-analyzer test on him and it registered zilch. Jennings had opportunity and the means—Garner was elderly and couldn’t swim. Being knocked over the head and pushed in the lake in that condition would have been instantly fatal, especially where he went off the pier. It’s twenty-feet deep there.”

      “Where’s the motive?” she persisted.

      “Garner owed him money, he said, and he couldn’t get his check,” Brannon replied with a cold smile. “Garner had fired him, and they’d already had one argument. They may have argued on the pier. Your memory of the events was questioned. You were drunk, I believe?” he chided.

      Josette was still ashamed to admit that she’d been stupid enough to drink spiked punch. Not being used to hard liquor, the vodka had made her disoriented and weak. When she was fifteen, she’d unknowingly been given LSD in her soft drink and almost ended up raped. These days she never took a drink unless she was completely confident of where it had come from. “I wasn’t totally sober,” she admitted in a guilt-ridden tone. “But, then, neither were most of the people at that party. Silvia said she saw Mr. Garner at his car before she took me home and even waved at him. I didn’t see that. She said it was because I was drunk.”

      “You didn’t say that at the trial,” he reminded her.

      “I didn’t have time to say much at the trial,” she replied. “I was immediately suppoenaed as a prosecution witness because I hadn’t seen Dale or Mrs. Webb at the time Garner was allegedly murdered, which was before she took me home, not after! And I didn’t see Henry Garner at his car as we left. I tried to point out that Dale hadn’t had a blackjack in his car when we arrived. But the prosecuting attorney took me apart, with your helpful suggestions about bringing up my testimony at the rape trial when I was fifteen,” she added pointedly and saw his eyelids flinch. “He destroyed me on the witness stand. I heard later that you and Bib Webb told him about the rape trial. I thought you wanted to help me.” She managed a bitter smile. “You taught me how to dance. You were friends with my father. When I went to college in San Antonio, you were always around. We went out for months together, before Mr. Garner…died.” She drew in a long breath. It hurt to remember how Marc had been with her. She’d thought they were in love. She certainly had been. What a joke! “But none of that mattered, did it? You believed that I lied to implicate Bib Webb. You never doubted it.”

      “Bib Webb is one of the most decent human beings I know,” Brannon said icily, refusing to face a truth that he knew for certain now about her credibility.

      “Even decent people can get into a circumstance where they’ll do something crazy. Especially if they’re desperate, or drunk. You of all people should know that people on drugs or alcohol frequently forget everything that happened until they sober up,” she added, pleading her case fervently. It was the first time he’d really spoken to her alone about what happened. He seemed to be listening, too, even if he didn’t believe a word she said.

      “Silvia wasn’t drunk enough to forget what she saw,” he told her. “She’d only had one drink. And she said she saw Garner by his car when she left the party to take you home.”

      “That’s right. She said she saw him there.”

      “What’s the difference?” he asked, out of patience. “You won’t change my mind.”

      “I know that,” Josette agreed finally. “I don’t know why I try.” She added, “I’ll overnight the information in these files to your San Antonio office before I leave today, so neither of us will have to lug it to San Antonio.” She turned away. “If you have any questions, I’ll be here tomorrow morning and in San Antonio tomorrow night, at the Madison Hotel. You can reach me there.”

      He was still stinging from the encounter. “If I have any questions, you’re the last person I’d ask,” he said coolly. “I wouldn’t trust you as far as the street.”

      “That never changes, does it?” She laughed. “But your low opinion of me doesn’t affect anything anymore. Basically,” she added with a pointed glance, “I don’t give a damn what you think of me. Go stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Brannon.”

      Josette walked down the hall and he watched her go, infuriated that she wouldn’t admit the truth. Maybe her pride wouldn’t let her. He thought about her father, who was disgraced because of her rape trial, and her mother’s fatal stroke after the Jennings trial. He felt sorry for her parents, but there had been nothing he could do for them. He thought of their last date, and her ardent response until he was out of his head with desire, until he found her so intact that he had to stop. He’d really hated her for that, although the time that passed had made it harder to believe that she’d set him up. She’d been as involved as he was. Maybe even more. But no matter how hard he worked at it, he simply couldn’t forget that she’d tried to have his best friend arrested for Henry Garner’s murder. He turned back to the elevator and reluctantly pressed the down button again. He didn’t like leaving with unanswered questions between them. He wanted…He sighed. Maybe he just wanted to sit and look at her for a while. The sight of her opened old wounds, but it also made a warm place in his heart.

      He turned from the elevator and went back down the hall.

      Chapter Three

      Simon Hart studied Josette quietly as she walked into his office and put the file folders down on his desk. She explained the information she’d gathered for the investigation.

      “I know this may be painful for you,” he told her quietly. “Since you were dating Jennings two years ago.”

      “We were friends, that’s all,” she assured him. “I’m sorry he was killed, and in such a way. I never thought he murdered Henry Garner in the first place.”

      “You paid a high price trying to defend him,” Simon said solemnly.

      “Yes, but I’d do it again. He was innocent. Someone framed him. The only thing that puzzles me is why he didn’t try harder to fight the conviction. It was as if he just gave up the minute he got in the courtroom,” she recalled pensively.

      “Did you see Marc Brannon on your way in here?” he said abruptly.

      Her heart jumped. “I saw him.” She forced herself to smile carelessly. “He still can’t believe that his best friend Bib Webb would be involved in anything underhanded. That was what put us on opposite sides of Dale’s trial. Marc’s loyal, I’ll give him that.”

      “Too loyal. He can’t be objective.”

      “It СКАЧАТЬ