Page 51 of Justice for Daesha

“I’ll be leavingin a few minutes. Sure you don’t want to come spend the night?”

Amos chuckled. “Actually, I do. But we really need to do this.” He wanted to ask?god, he wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to start something and not be able to finish it. “Hey, I meant to ask you, what does the Kelso brothers’ dad do?”

“Mr.Kelso? He’s a politician.”

No. It couldn’t be. “MarshallKelso?”

“Yeah. The U.S.congressman. He’s been a senator for as long as I can remember.”

Everything started to click into place and it all made sense. Amos couldn’t believe he hadn’t connected the dots, but it certainly looked like someone had gone to great lengths to hide the ties between the brothers and their father. Why was that? Daesha had never mentioned them having a rough childhood, and she said her parents were friends with theirs. If there’d been something wrong, her close friends would’ve confided in her. There could only be one reason, and he had to get to the senator if he was ever going to figure it out.

“Do you think you could get me an opportunity to talk to him?” Instead of answering him, she closed her eyes. “Daesha, this is important. They’re all implicating their father. I need to talk to him if I’m going to rule him out.”

The sigh she let out seemed to release her frustration. “I don’t think he had anything to do with it, but I’ll try.” Snapping her fingers, she smiled. “I’llgo talk to him! He’ll talk to me.”

“No. I don’t want you to…”

“Oh, come on, Amos! I can do this. Want me to wear a wire?” She gave him a cagey smile, but he was in no mood. This was no game.

“Oh, you can bet if I let you do that, you’ll be wearing a wire. No way would I send you to talk to him without one, not now that I believe he might’ve killed Dorinda.”

Her little snort was followed by a scowl. “He couldn’t have done it.”

“So you think one of the boys did?”

Her eyes went wide. “No! I’m not saying that!”

“Daesha, look, that ring hassomethingto do with why she’s dead, and it’s connected to the Kelsos. I don’t know how, but we’vegotto figure that out and, until I do, they’re all suspects as far as I’m concerned.”

“I just can’t believe it. I just can’t. Not Ainsley, Benson, or Chance. And I can’t believe it would be their dad either. Mr.Kelso has never been anything but sweet and helpful to me. To Dorinda too.” Grief lined her face, and Amos felt horrible. She’d lost her sister, then her mother. Now three men and their father, people she’d known and loved her whole lifetime, were obviously somehow involved in her sister’s murder. But there was one thing he was growing surer about by the minute.

Ainsley, Benson, and Chance might’ve played a part in what happened to Dorinda, but they didn’t kill her. There was a miserable feeling in the pit of his stomach because he was pretty sure he knew who did. “I’m not saying they did it, but I think they know who did.”

Daesha’s mouth dropped open. “You think they hired somebody to kill her?”

“I think there’s a very good possibility they did.”

She sat straight up and puffed up like a turkey. “Well, I’ve watched a lot of those true crime shows on TV, and they?”

“True crime shows?” A groan slipped through Amos’s lips. He tried to stop it, but he just couldn’t hold it in. “So you know all about criminal investigations?” God, for every time he’d heard that…

“No! But what I’m saying is that whoever it was, I know she fought them, but they strangled her, beat her with that glass block, and they fought violently. Hit men don’t do that. Hers is what’s generally called a crime of passion. Isn’t that right?” There was an authority in her voice that he found charming, but if he told her that he knew it would piss her off, so he fought the grin that was trying to pop out on his face.

Thing was, she was right. “That’s true. It’s indicative of someone who had a personal vendetta, not someone who picked up a stack of bills and got out his forty-five. Plus hit men tend to be a lot neater than that. That’s why I think it was one of them.”

“But what kind of vendetta, Amos? They were our friends.”

A singular thought kept coming back to Amos, and he didn’t want to voice it. It was an accusation that, if true, could very well have been the reason why MarshallKelso might’ve had Dorinda killed. “I get that, honey, but I think there was more going on there than either of us knows about, and I have every intention of finding out what that was.”

Hanging her head in defeat, she sighed. “Okay. Chase your rabbits. Just don’t hurt the careers and reputations of four fine men doing it.”

His hand went up in a mock salute, and that made her smile. “You have my word I will not.”

“Good. I’ve got to get to rehearsal.”

He stood and offered her his hand, then pulled her upright. “And I’ve got to gather up my laundry and get it done. I’ll see you tomorrow evening when I get off work.” He didn’t get a chance to grab her before she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, her tongue playing along the seam of his lips. When she broke the kiss, she grinned. “Sure you don’t want to stay?”

“God, girl, you’re killin’ me!” he said with a laugh and slapped her ass.

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