Page 56 of Dead Man's Alibi

God, he just wanted to touch her.“Going to have to control yourself, champ.I’m going to need one of us on the outside.”

She only grunted, but the bailiff announced the arrival of the judge, which meant the court proceedings would start.

Sam reached out, squeezed his arm.Some of that belligerence fading into worry he wished he wasn’t the cause of.“I love you,” she said earnestly.

He smiled reassuringly.“I love you too.”

They went through what felt like an incredibly unnecessary rigamarole of explaining the charge.Entering the plea.Did this really have to be a performance?

At least he got to see Sam, even if it was only briefly.She wouldn’t be able to visit him in jail until she was on some kind of approval list, and even then, there’d be restrictions.Not that he wanted her having to relive all the times she’d visited her father.

So he’d think of this as an opportunity to see her in a kind of neutral setting, if you took away the jail uniform he was wearing.

He was trying really hard to think on the positive side.So that whenever this was all over, he didn’t return to her some shell of himself.Traumatized, like he’d been after his military career.He was going to do everything to just… beokay.

For her.

When the court adjourned, he encouraged her to leave.Mostly because he didn’t want her to see him led away in cuffs.

“I’ll visit as soon as they approve it.”

He nodded.“Sure.”But he was going to tell Cal to talk her out of it, if he could.

He watched her go, couldn’t help himself.Tried to smile when she looked back one last time.He’d be fine.He could get through it.

Hopefully.

Once Sam was gone, Nate looked over at Cal.Who was frowning deeply.He had been oddly detached this whole afternoon.Something was going on, and Nate had a feeling SambitingCal had something to do with it.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Cal flicked a glance at Nate.Then over to Hayes across the room talking with the prosecutor.Cal’s expression hardened exponentially.

“Hayes claims to have physical evidence,” Cal muttered.

Shock hit him hard.He knew there had to be some kind of circumstantial evidence against him for a warrant to have been applied, but… physical evidence?“That isn’t possible.”

“I know.I’ll find out what it is during discovery in the next few days.We’ll argue it.”

But arguing meant getting to trial, and who knew how long that could take.He glanced at where Sam had disappeared.How long would she hold up under all this?

“You hate Hayes.”

He looked back at his brother, unsure of the change of subject.“Sure, who doesn’t?”

“Do you have any reason to believe he might hate you enough to plant evidence that would hurt you?”

“Plantevidence?”Nate swore.“That seems like a leap.”

“Maybe it is,” Cal agreed.“But something isn’t adding up, Nate.And I’m starting to wonder if that begins and ends with Jake Hayes.”

*

Cal knew heshouldn’t.Heknewhe shouldn’t do what he was about to do.

But sometimes a man couldn’t help but dive headfirst into all thatshouldn’t.

“Hey there, buddy.”Cal fell into step next to Hayes in the courtroom hallway.“How’s it hanging?”