“I heard some homeless guy killed her.” He gripped the edge of the table with stubby fingers sporting tattoos on every space before the first knuckle. “That guy who was squatting in the apartment next to hers. I told Mel to rat him out, but she felt sorry for him.”
“That was Mel.” She shredded the edge of a napkin. “When was the last time you saw her?”
His jaw hardened, and his dark eyes narrowed. “Not sure. You tell the cops about me?”
“No.” Now she proceeded to fold the tattered napkin, unable to keep her fingers still. “No reason to tell them. They got their man.”
“You tell her brother Wade?” As he finished pronouncing her cousin’s name, his lips stretched into a grimace.
“I didn’t tell anyone—not then, not now. Just thought you should know in case you hadn’t heard about her death.”
“I heard.” He gulped down some beer from his bottle and slammed it down on the table.
Jolene flinched. Is that what he wanted? To scare her off?
Not so fast.
“Was Melody doing drugs? I know she’d started drinking again.”
He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “You blaming me for that?”
“No.” She rubbed her sweaty palms on her skirt. Now it was time for her gaze to dart, and she did a double take when she noticed a cute coed sidling up to Sam, a bottle of beer clutched in his hand.
When her eyes made it back to Gabe’s face, his nostrils flared and his eye twitched. He hunched forward and grabbed her wrist, his tattooed fingers biting into her skin. “What the hell are you doing here, and what do you want from me?”
As Jolene wrenched her arm from his grasp, a couple of girls squealed behind her and a chair banged to the floor.
Gabe looked up and swore. As Sam swooped down on their table, Gabe launched himself over the ledge of the balcony.
Jolene shot up in her chair and leaned over in time to see Gabe land on top of a canvas umbrella on the restaurant’s patio and roll off to the sidewalk.
Sam flew past her and shouted over his shoulder. “Stay here.”
He took the same path as Gabe, landing on the same umbrella, now with a little less bounce, and scrambled to his feet to give chase.
The students took the chaos in stride, and a couple were already moving in to claim the prime table. “You leaving?”
“Damn right I am.” Jolene snatched up her purse and took the safe route down to the street.
She looked both ways when she hit the sidewalk. Would Gabe run back to his house? Probably wouldn’t want to lead Sam back there, but he wouldn’t want to be running through campus, either, with the campus police on watch.
She hustled down the street and veered around the next corner. She’d guessed right. Sam was running ahead of her with a weird, halting gait. As she opened her mouth to call out to him, the sound of gunshots cracked through the night.
Sam dropped to the ground and Jolene screamed, her whole world collapsing in front of her. The adrenaline fueled her system, and her legs pumped harder and faster.
When she reached Sam, she crouched beside him. With a sob in her voice, she asked, “Are you hurt? Did he shoot you?”
“I’m fine.” Lifting his head, he aimed his gaze down the street. “They got Contreras.”
Jolene jerked up her head, noticing Gabe in a heap in the middle of the road. A few neighbors had poked their heads out their front doors, too scared to come outside. She didn’t blame them.
“Where’d the shot come from?”
“I saw a car slow down on the block ahead, and I’m pretty sure that’s where the shots came from. I don’t know why the shooter didn’t turn the gun on me or, God forbid, you, but he could circle around.”
Jolene rose to her haunches. “Gabe might still be alive. We have to talk to him. These neighbors probably already called the police. I’m not done with him.”
As she launched forward, Sam made a grab for her leg and missed. “Jolene, stop.”
Her sneakers slapped on the pavement as she ran crouched over toward Gabe’s fallen form. As she reached his side, she glanced up to see Sam hobbling after her. Had he lied about getting hit?
Gabe’s chest rose and fell with each tortured breath he took, blood spurting from the wound in his chest.
Jolene grabbed his hand and put her face close to his. “What do you know about Pink Lady?”
Gabe gasped, but his lips began moving through the blood.
Sam had reached them, his body coiled and tensed, standing over her, his head swiveling from side to side. He had her back.
She hissed in Gabe’s ear as the sirens started bearing down on them. “Pink Lady. The casino property. What do you know?”
“The thumb drive.” Gabe choked. “I have a video on the thumb drive. Couldn’t touch me. EGV couldn’t touch me. Video from the drone.”
Gabe’s body slumped, and the blood stopped pumping from his chest.
As the red-and-blue lights bathed the scene and the sirens wound down to an echo, Jolene cranked her head around to stare into Sam’s face. “The thumb drive? What does he mean?”
Sam raised his dark eyebrows. “Thumb, drum, crumb. Tucker had incriminating video of the casino property—and I’d bet my life it’s in the vacant apartment next to Melody’s.”
Chapter Seventeen
With the police on the scene, a few neighbors had gathered in their driveways. A patrol car squealed to a stop, feet from Sam and Jolene.
When the officer exited the vehicle, hand hovering over his weapon, he shouted, “What happened here?”
Sam tipped his head toward Contreras laid out in the street. Jolene still crouched beside him. “Gunshot victim.”
“Did you shoot him?”
Sam raised his hands. “No, we just stumbled onto the scene. When we heard the shots, we hit the
