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known so many years ago. It made her sad to realize what his opinion of her must have been, even at the beginning. He wouldn’t have walked off without a goodbye if there had been any feeling in him for her. He’d hated her the night they’d broken up. He’d hated her more when she accused his friend Webb of being behind Garner’s murder. Probably he still hated her. She didn’t care.
    â€œThanks,” she said and turned away.
    â€œHave you come across any clue in those files that would point to a potential execution?” he asked deliberately.
    Josette came back to face him at once. “You think somebody put out a contract on him,” she said confidently, her voice deliberately lowered.
    Brannon nodded. “It was a professional job, not some drive-by shooting or a gang-related conflict. He was on work detail and escaped, apparently with help from some unknown accomplice, made his way to San Antonio, and ended up with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head at point-blank range, just around the corner from our most notorious mobster’s nightclub.”
    â€œBut what would be the motive?” she asked curiously. “He was in prison, out of the way. Why wouldsomebody break him out just to kill him? They could have done that at the prison.”
    â€œI don’t know,” he had to admit. “That’s what I have to find out.”
    â€œPoor Dale,” she said heavily. “And his poor mother…!”
    â€œWhat’s in those files?” he asked, deliberately changing the subject.
    â€œBackground checks on all the people who called and wrote to him before his escape, and dossiers on mob figures he was rumored to be connected with,” she said. “We’ll speak to these people, of course, and the police are going to canvas the area where he was found to see if they can turn up any witnesses.”
    â€œWhich they won’t find, if it was professional.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWhy did you choose law enforcement for a career?” he asked unexpectedly.
    Her dark eyes narrowed on his face. “Because there are so many innocent people convicted of crimes,” Josette said deliberately. “And so many guilty people go free.”
    Brannon stiffened at the innuendo. “Jennings was a mobster and he had a record,” he reminded her.
    â€œHe had a felony battery conviction, and first offender status,” she corrected. “He was just a teenagerat the time. He got drunk, got into a fight and got arrested. He didn’t even go to jail. After a year’s probation, he was turned loose. But that, and his connection with Jake Marsh, went against him when he was arrested for Garner’s murder.”
    â€œHe was cold sober when Garner drowned,” he countered. “They did a breath-analyzer test on him and it registered zilch. Jennings had opportunity and the means—Garner was elderly and couldn’t swim. Being knocked over the head and pushed in the lake in that condition would have been instantly fatal, especially where he went off the pier. It’s twenty-feet deep there.”
    â€œWhere’s the motive?” she persisted.
    â€œGarner owed him money, he said, and he couldn’t get his check,” Brannon replied with a cold smile. “Garner had fired him, and they’d already had one argument. They may have argued on the pier. Your memory of the events was questioned. You were drunk, I believe?” he chided.
    Josette was still ashamed to admit that she’d been stupid enough to drink spiked punch. Not being used to hard liquor, the vodka had made her disoriented and weak. When she was fifteen, she’d unknowingly been given LSD in her soft drink and almost ended up raped. These days she never took a drink unless shewas completely confident of where it had come from. “I wasn’t totally sober,” she admitted in a guilt-ridden tone. “But, then,