Free Truth-Stained Lies by Terri Blackstock Page B

talked them into waiting.”
    “Good,” Juliet whispered. “I appreciate that.”
    “Come sit down with me a minute,” Holly said. “I need to show you something.”
    They pulled chairs together next to the pool so they could keep an eye on the kids. Jackson had floaties on his arms and played near the steps at the shallow end. Abe splashed around him.
    “What is it?” Juliet said.
    Holly handed her her cell phone with the email pulled up. “I just noticed this email. Jay sent it, minute s before the murder.”
    Juliet stiffened and took the phone, read it. Holly watched the color in her face change.
    “Oh no,” she whispered. She stared at the phone. “He didn’t mean he was going to kill her. He probably had some new strategy for working things out with her.”
    “I’m just worried how it looks,” Holly said.
    “Who did he send it to?”
    “All three of us.”
    “No! This is bad.”
    “Aunt Juliet! Look at me!” Jackson called from the pool. “I can do a somersault in the water.”
    Juliet forced a smile, then nodded as Jackson did a somersault. “That’s good, Jackson! Do another one!”
    She waited as he did, then cheered again. After a second, her expression crashed again. “What should we do? Should we call Cathy?”
    “Probably,” Holly said. “I’m thinking I could go to Jay’s house, get on his computer, and delete it.”
    “No, that’s not right. We can’t tamper with evidence.”
    “But we can’t let them find it …”
    “They’d find it anyway. Besides, it’s wrong. We can’t do that.”
    Holly’s face twisted. “Why did he write it?”
    “I don’t know,” Juliet said. “But I think our brother is in a lot of trouble.”

C HAPTER 14
    C athy took Michael’s advice and showed the police the email that came from Jay’s account.
    “So let me get this straight,” Al said, studying Jay. “You want us to believe you didn’t send this email?”
    “I
didn’t
send it,” Jay said. “The killer sent this email. This is evidence you can’t ignore.”
    “Sure is,” Max muttered, his chin in his palm.
    “Not evidence indicting Jay,” Cathy said. “Max, you have to connect the dots here. The email that came to Jay from Annalee’s computer. The email that supposedly came from Jay. It all leads somewhere. You can track down servers. You can use this to find the real killer.”
    “And so what if the server they were all sent from was Annalee’s?” Max asked. “That doesn’t prove anything. Jay still could have sent them from the house before he called 911.”
    Jay slammed his hand on the table. “Aren’t you listening? Are you deaf?”
    Cathy put her hand over Jay’s. “Max, the killer’s jerking you around too. You can check the timing of Jay’s story. What time he sent his reply to Annalee from his office server, what time this email came from wherever it came from. You can talk to his secretary about when he left. You can check his gas station receipt. This clown is playing an intricately planned game. If you don’t follow these leads, he’s going to make
you
look like a clown. He’s probably getting a real laugh out of all this right now.”
    “Maybe you’re the one laughing at us, Jay,” Al said.
    “Al, you have to listen,” Cathy said. “If you care that there’s a murderer out there getting away with it on your watch, then you’ll check out Jay’s story.”
    Max looked at Jay. “We’re gonna need your computer and all your login information.”
    “No problem,” Jay said.
    “We’ll go get it and bring it back to you,” Cathy said.
    “Or we could go get it,” Max said. “You don’t mind us going into your apartment, do you?”
    Jay started to answer, but Cathy touched his hand, stopping him. “You don’t have a warrant, gentlemen. We’ll bring you the computer.”
    “I don’t have anything to hide,” Jay said. “I’ll give them my key.”
    “Absolutely not,” Cathy said.
    Max looked at Jay again. “It’s your call, Jay.