Chapter 49 Part 49
Maggie
“What do you mean he’s been arrested?”
Maggie looked at the Fitzgerald men gathered in her small office. Finn was there, too, no longer wearing his uniform. Sheriff Bill Connely had temporarily relieved him of his duties.
“They found blood in the shed and on the back of his truck. Asher refused to say anything, so the sheriff arrested him,” Blair said.
Maggie closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands. “No.”
“Maggie. You know something,” Thomas said.
Maggie looked up at him guiltily, and swallowed. “Not for sure.”
“You better tell us what you do know. This is murder, Maggie. Asher’s life hangs in the balance,” Colt said.
“I woke up at 3 a.m. that morning after Malcolm was killed. Asher wasn’t in the house. I went downstairs at around 6 a.m. with Melody, and I found him burning his shirt in the fireplace. He smelled like bleach, and he had this hollow look in his eyes. He wasn’t himself, and he didn’t want to talk about it,” she said.
Thomas closed his eyes and leaned his hands on her desk. “Maggie, you can never say that out loud again. Do you understand?”
“Of course I won’t!”
“That still doesn’t prove anything,” Dylan said.
“It’s circumstantial,” Finn said. “But even so, it’s enough to arrest and hold him on. If that blood comes back as being Malcolm’s, then Asher’s going away for a long time.”
“I thought the plan was to pay him off,” Blair said, angrily.
“Clearly, Asher didn’t think so,” Thomas said.
“There are no cameras down by the safe. They’d store the blood there before having it tested,” Finn said.
“No! You will not do that. Bill will know immediately that one of us had something to do with it,” Thomas said. He sat down on a chair and looked at Finn. “Tell me again exactly what you found that day at the river.”
It took Finn barely an hour to repeat everything he knew about the crime scene, and everything else he knew, which wasn’t much. By that time, Eden had joined them, and Melody was now firmly planted on Thomas’ lap. Dakota was right next to him, but his ears pricked every time they said Asher’s name.
“What new evidence did Bill find that gave him that search warrant?” Colt asked.
“I haven’t seen it, but I overheard Sheriff Bill say that it was video footage from across the street of the bed and breakfast, where that man was staying,” Finn answered him.
Blair shook his head. “If Asher could be identified clearly on whatever videotape there is, the sheriff would have arrested him immediately, and then done a search.”
“Maybe it’s someone that just looks like Asher,” Dylan said.
“Still doesn’t explain the blood,” Eden said.
“They’ll compare the blood to Malcolm’s; before then, we won’t really know anything more,” Thomas said.
“I don’t think Asher did it,” Colt said. “He’s the calmest of us all.”
Thomas glanced at Maggie. “Love makes men do stupid things.”
“When can I see Asher?” Maggie already had her handbag in her hands, and was now standing behind her desk.
“They’ll process him first, then they’ll question him. My guess would be after that. The sheriff won’t stop you from seeing him. He’s known Asher his whole life; I don’t see why he’d refuse you,” Finn said.
“Then I’ll wait at the station until I can see him,” Maggie said, marching out of the barn.
“I’ll keep Melody with me!” Eden yelled after her.
Blair turned toward his father, and crossed his arms over his chest. “You think Asher did it to keep Maggie safe?”
“Wouldn’t you if you were in his shoes?” Thomas fired back.
“Probably,” Blair admitted.
“I see Asher killing him if he had tried to break into the house in the heat of the moment. I don’t see him planning this in cold blood,” Colt said, glaring at his father and brother.
“Yeah, I’m with Colt,” Dylan said.
“It doesn’t matter what we think. Asher’s in jail because evidence pointed the sheriff toward him,” Finn said, clearing his throat. “And that might be my fault.”
“How?”
Finn shifted as everyone looked at him. “I told Sheriff Connely about the man in town looking for Maggie. I only did it so that if Malcolm Walters made any trouble, the sheriff would already know if something happened on the ranch. I never thought Asher would go kill the man.”
“We don’t share our troubles with the outside world, Finn!” Colt was in his face now, anger radiating from him.
“I didn’t tell him anything else; I just thought that if Asher decked him one, and he called the sheriff, he’d already know the man was a troublemaker. I didn’t say a word about Maggie’s past, and I never would. I was the one who called Asher and told him that the sheriff was on his way!”
“Well, now that makes everything all right. You put a target on Asher’s back!”
“Stop it! Both of you!” Thomas yelled.
Maggie parked the truck in front of the station and got out. The people currently on the street had to know Asher had been arrested, and it felt like they were there, waiting, salivating to hear something.
She held her head up high and marched into the station. A young man stood behind the counter, and recognition flashed in his eyes when he saw her. At that moment, she didn’t care about manners or being nice.
“Good afternoon, Ma’am,” he said.
“I want to know when I can see Asher,” Maggie said.
“The sheriff’s in the interrogation room with Asher and his lawyer; it might take a while,” he said.
“I’ll wait. I’m not leaving until I see Asher with my own two eyes.”
Maggie sat down on one of the hard, plastic chairs, which stood in a straight line against the wall, adjacent to the door. She placed her handbag on her lap and looked the deputy in the eye.
“I heard you got engaged,” he said and gave her a small smile. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Deputy, but I’m still not moving until I see Asher,” she said.
“I’ll let the sheriff know you’re here.”
Maggie nodded her head. She’d been prepared to fight her way in. She needed to know what they knew, and how much trouble Asher was really in.