Wakefield College 01 - Where It May Lead by Janice Kay Johnson Page B

had some other reason for lying. By morning,
he might have found out about King’s death and was afraid he’d be suspected,
especially if it was commonly known he didn’t like the guy.”
    Madison absorbed what he said. His voice, low, resonant and
soothing, had calmed her somewhat. At least he wasn’t automatically accusing Dad
of murder. He was saying, I acknowledge there are
alternative explanations. Thank God.
    “But if that’s the case,” she heard herself say reluctantly,
“and it really was Dad, why would he have ‘rushed away’ and then not come back
to meet your father, the way he’d promised?”
    “I don’t know.”
    The pity wasn’t soft. Instead it glinted, she thought in alarm,
like the steel barrel of a gun.
    “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
    “How can I?” Troy’s face had never looked harder. “I wear a
badge every day, Madison. Today, for the first time in my life, I’m ashamed of
my father. But at least he was a private citizen. I’m not. My job is to catch
killers.”
    She shot to her feet. “My father is not a killer! He’s... You
don’t know him, or you wouldn’t even say that!”
    He rose, too, more slowly. “Somebody murdered Mitchell King.
Bludgeoned him to death.” He paused to give emphasis to the brutal reality. “And
odds are, it was somebody who knew him. Who wasn’t even noticed in the gym
because he belonged there by rights. He damn near had to be a member of the college community, Madison.” His head cocked
slightly to one side. “Of course you don’t want to think your father could have
done something like that. Nobody would want to.”
    Her legs gave out and she collapsed back onto the sofa. She was
trying to be furious on her father’s behalf, but mostly she felt scared. She
understood Troy’s point, but somehow, she had to make him understand that Dad,
of all men, couldn’t have done this. It was simply
impossible.
    “Dad doesn’t cheat on his taxes,” she said. “If a restaurant
bill leaves an item off, he draws the waiter’s attention to it. Dad is
unrelentingly honest. He held me to standards as high as his own. If I tried to
lie even to myself, he called me on it. As a businessman, he has a tough
reputation because he can be ruthless and maybe hard, but he’s also known to
live up to his promises. I have spent my entire life...” Her voice caught. She
couldn’t finish.
    “Trying to live up to his standards?” Troy circled the coffee
table and sat down on the cushion beside her, taking her hand in a warm grip.
“I’ve tried to live up to my dad’s, too. And I’ve just discovered he made one
hell of a mistake. He didn’t live up to his own standards.”
    “Murder is a much bigger mistake.” If her father had committed
murder, her entire world was undercut. “No,” she said aloud, strongly. “Not
Dad.”
    Troy shook his head. “I can’t ignore this, Madison. That’s all
I came to tell you. I have to go to my police chief.”
    She pulled her hand from his. “Do you know what this would do
to my father’s reputation?”
    He grunted. “It won’t do much for my father’s either.”
    “That’s not the same!” she cried.
    His jaw tightened and he shook his head. “I have no
choice.”
    “Please,” Madison begged.
    “What kind of cop would I be if I shrugged and decided I could
let this guy off because, hey, I don’t want to get my girlfriend’s dad in
trouble?” His eyes bored into hers. “Tell me that.”
    Girlfriend? Was that how he thought of her already?
Inexplicably, her heart warmed. Even so, she couldn’t quit fighting.
    “Can’t we, I don’t know, investigate quietly instead? I could
ask Dad about the murder, even tell him I knew somebody had seen him at the gym
that night. Then, if he has a good explanation, nobody would have to know.”
While she meant to sound reasonable, she knew she was coming off as pathetic.
Her voice was even shaking, and she despised herself for it.
    “This isn’t only