It was then that Tate realized that Finn hadn’t been there last night. He’d gone to school with Tate’s older brother Zack, butlater moved out of town. He was still friends with Rachel and Josh, though.
Finn must have noticed Tate’s expression because he chuckled and shook his head.
“Relax. I was invited, but I ended up having to work. Several of my deputies have the stomach flu. There are no hard feelings anywhere. It’s all good. Except for the fact that they might have infected everyone at the station, and we might all be sick soon.”
Now that Finn had mentioned illness, Tate noticed that the man was rather pale with a line of sweat at his brow. The sheriff might be sicker than he thought.
“I’ll cross my fingers for you.”
“I usually have good luck with viruses, but a man never knows when his luck will run out. Anyway, you were saying who attended last night.”
“Right.” Tate thought back to the night before. “Obviously, Josh and Rachel. Lindsay was there, along with Leo and Shelly. Tyler, of course. Also, Winnie and Glen, Keith and Tracy, Larry and Diane. Marnie. Cat. Then their neighbors, Bert and Lucy. The parents, too, plus a few cousins, aunts, and uncles. That’s all I remember, but there could have been others.”
“What can you tell me about Josh’s run-in with his business partner Leo?”
It wasn’t a surprise that Finn was asking about that confrontation. Had Rachel told him, or had it already hit the gossip mill?
“They argued. It got loud, but I didn’t hear most of it.”
“Did Leo threaten Josh?”
“Yes,” Tate admitted. “But he didn’t say he was going to try and kill him or anything.”
“What were his exact words? Do you remember?”
“He said that Josh would be sorry.”
Which could mean anything. Leo could be a jerk, but was he a killer? Tate would be shocked if Leo were responsible for this incident.
“You’re going to talk to Leo?” Tate asked. “He was supposed to be here this morning.”
“And he’s not here,” Finn replied. “I’m going to need to talk to him and also ask him where he was during the shooting. You were in the car, correct?”
“Yes, on my way here.”
Tate answered a few more questions before they were finished. He stood to leave but hesitated for a moment.
“What are you thinking, Finn? Was someone trying to hurt Josh? Or was it Tyler?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Finn confessed. “I’m going to have to go down the two separate paths until I can rule out one. I do wonder about Tyler because he doesn’t even live here. Who would want to hurt him? But he does visit often enough that he knows people, and they would be aware he was in town.”
“He usually stays with his parents,” Tate pointed out. “He was only staying here because his mom and dad are renovating the house. Plus, he was wearing Josh’s clothes since the airline lost his luggage.”
“You think the shooter was aiming for Josh then?”
“I have no idea. It’s easy to see why Josh thinks he was the target. If they meant to hurt Tyler, it had to be someone close enough that would know he was here this morning.”
“And you don’t want to think that one of your friends did this,” Finn replied knowingly. “I get it. I don’t want to think that either, but someone pulled the trigger this morning. I don’t think it was a warning shot.”
Too many questions, and few answers.
It didn’t matter what had been intended, to be honest. Tyler was in the hospital fighting for his life. Was he the victim? Orhad he just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong sweatshirt?
If that was the case, then Josh might still be in danger.
Chapter
Six
