He looked at me incredulously. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” I shook my head. “It’s almost 1:00 pm. You’ve been asleep for 16 hours.”
My brows rose at his words. “Shit, brother. I guess we were both exhausted.” I moved out of his way so he could see Harper.
She was sitting in my bed looking sexy as hell in one of my t-shirts. She gave a little wave to her brother. “Hi, Dukie.”
“You two should get up and make yourselves presentable. Phoenix said one of the officers called and they’ll be here soon to discuss what they found at the house,” Duke informed us.
Right on cue, there were three crisp knocks on the door as soon as we entered the common room. Again, the officers were led to our Church room; however, this time I was allowed to tag along.
The officer began, “We were able to locate the property where Mr. Marks and Ms. Jackson were held. It was roughly a seven-mile hike to the property from the point where Mrs. Anderson picked you up. We did find the body of a young woman we believe to be Hilarie Thaxton, aka Valarie Vine. A search of the house turned up plenty of evidence to support your claims as well as other evidence that will need to be further investigated. Ms. Jackson, this was a clear case of self-defense, and no charges will be filed against you.”
Harper let out an audible sigh of relief and sagged against my chest. Then, I felt her body stiffen as she straightened. “What else needs to be investigated?”
The officer cleared his throat and glanced at his partner. “I don’t want to cause you any unnecessary distress after what you’ve been through, but in the interest of your safety, you should be aware that we believe Ms. Thaxton was not working alone.”
Phoenix was quick to ask, “Why do you think that?”
“We can’t explain how Ms. Thaxton could have possibly carried two unconscious bodies seven miles through the woods, particularly one the size of Mr. Marks. We found no evidence of any means of transportation on the property or anywhere in the surrounding area.”
“Do you have any suspects?” I asked.
“Not at this time. We do have a few questions for Mr. Marks and Ms. Jackson in regards to a possible suspect. Shall we take care of those now?” Harper and Shaker both nodded in agreement. “Did either one of you ever see or hear anyone else in the house?”
“No, I didn’t even know Shaker was there until I escaped from the basement,” Harper answered.
The officers perked up. “Who is Shaker?”
Shaker answered, “Me. Shaker is my road name. I didn’t see or hear anyone else in the house, either.”
“Ms. Jackson, you were friends with Ms. Thaxton for several years prior to this event, correct?”
Harper explained her recent history with Hilarie. I wondered if they were aware of Harper’s kidnapping by the same family in Arizona, but I wasn’t going to ask in front of everyone. Harper said Hilarie never mentioned any other friends in the Sugar Falls area, and she never shared many details about men she dated or hooked up with. “I didn’t even know she had been seeing Shaker until I ran into her at Ember’s wedding. Shaker and I were both in the wedding party, and she came as his date. At the time, I thought it was just a coincidence…” she trailed off.
“That’s all we have for now. The investigation is still open, and a team is still on site processing the house. We’ll be in contact when we have more updates,” the officer said and pushed his chair back to stand, his partner mimicking his actions. We shook their hands, and they handed us a card with their contact information and the case number.
As we filed out of the room, I heard one of the officers say, “Phoenix, I need to speak with you privately before we leave.” I made a mental note to ask about that, too.
Not even five minutes later, the officer and his partner left, and Phoenix called Harper, Duke, Shaker, and me back into Church.
“Harper, what I’m about to share with you cannot be shared with anyone outside of this room. Is that going to be a problem for you?” Phoenix asked sternly.
Harper grinned and said in a deep voice, “Club business, right, Prez?”
Phoenix threw his head back and laughed, his laughter echoing around the room. “Good one, Harper.” When his laughter died down, he continued, “The two officers assigned to your case are friends with Luke Johnson, who is a good friend of mine. Luke is an FBI agent, but that’s not relevant at the moment. Anyway, Luke got wind of the investigation and called in a favor on my behalf. He asked the officers to keep an eye out for anything that might be detrimental to the club.”
Phoenix paused and lifted a file folder from the chair beside him. He placed it on the table and pushed it toward Harper. “This folder is a copy of a journal found at the house. It’s assumed to be Hilarie’s. I haven’t read through it, but I was made aware of the highlights. In the back of the folder, you’ll find some original pages from the journal. As far as anyone else is concerned, those pages were not a part of the journal when it was found. The officers removed them because they implicate Duke in the murder of Vincent Vine. I promised to destroy the pages, but I wanted to give you the option to read them. If you want to, you have to do it now.”
Harper stared at the folder in silence for several beats and then shook her head. Her voice was quiet when she said, “I don’t need to read them. I was there. I know exactly what happened.”
“I don’t want to see them either,” Duke added, though I didn’t recall Phoenix offering that option to him.
“Understood,” Phoenix said, reaching for the papers. He pulled a thin stack from the back of the folder, dropped them all except one into a metal trash can, lit the remaining page, and dropped it into the can. “That takes care of that. Now, do you want to hear the highlights or do you want to find out by reading the journal?”
“I would like to read through the journal...eventually, but I would like to know the highlights now,” Harper answered.
“Shaker?” Phoenix asked.
“Now is good.”