Page 22 of Her Baby, Her Badge

The same could be said of his showing up at the police station like this. Then again, he might have done that to try to convince them that he’d been too drunk to kill his fiancée. It’d take more than that, though, to convince Grace of it.

“Observation,” Grace reminded Dutton. “Livvy, you’re with me in interview.” And Grace was about to head that way when the front door opened, and Ike came in.

Her first instinct was to groan, that he was there to give her some grief, but then she realized he had come for Jamie. He made a beeline to the girl, and when he saw she was still working with the sketch artist, Ike turned his attention to Dutton and her.

“I need to tell you something,” Ike said, aiming his statement at Grace.

So he might just dole out that grief after all.

Ike had his usual stony expression as he made his way toward them, but as he got closer, some of that look eased away. Grace thought he seemed almost hesitant. She was probably wrong about that, though. Ike McClennan wasn’t the hesitating sort.

“I thought of something,” he said, dodging Dutton’s gaze and fixing his attention on Grace. “It’s probably not important. But Cassie came to the ranch about two months ago.”

Of all the things Grace had expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them. And she latched right on to the timing. Two months ago was when her pregnancy had become public knowledge.

“What’d she want?” Dutton quickly asked.

“She wanted me to help her get back together with you,” Ike admitted after a long pause, and he kept his voice at a whisper.

Dutton groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. “I broke things off with Cassie a year ago,” he said, and then he paused as well. And added some under-the-breath profanity. “Cassie was riled about me getting Grace pregnant.”

Ike nodded. “Though riled is putting it mildly.” He shifted his gaze to Dutton. “She was spitting mad and thought Grace had tricked you. She said it would ruin you financially if you two got together.”

“We aren’t together,” Grace muttered just as Dutton insisted, “No trickery involved.”

Dutton opened his mouth to say more but then stopped. Maybe because he was about to say the culprit was lust or something along those lines. Yes, best not to spell that out loud, especially since the lust was still lingering around.

“So what did she expect you to do to help her get back together with Dutton?” Grace asked Ike.

“She was short on specifics and long on ranting.” Ike shook his head. “I think she just wanted to vent. She went on about how she’d always wanted kids and that Dutton didn’t and that’s why they broke up.”

Dutton’s next groan was laced with frustration. “I didn’t want kids with her,” he said and then sort of froze. Maybe because it sounded as if he didn’t mind Grace being the mother of his child.

But Grace understood what he meant. She’d wanted kids, too, but she’d never found the right relationship for it. Then, when she’d gotten pregnant, she realized she could have the baby with no relationship commitment. Well, there was the whole co-parenting side, but that didn’t mean she and Dutton had to be a couple.

“The reason I’m telling you all of this,” Ike went on, “is because I’m thinking the knife could have been taken then.”

Grace’s heart rate revved up. “What do you mean?”

Ike huffed. “I mean Cassie could have taken it. We had the meeting in my office, and I had to step out for a couple of minutes to take an important call. When I came back in, Cassie was acting funny. Nervous and rattled, and she said a quick goodbye and hurried off.”

“But you can’t say for sure she took the knife,” Grace concluded. It wasn’t a question.

“No,” Ike responded. “But she went from ranting to acting strange all within a matter of a couple of minutes. It’s possible she took the knife, figuring she could use it somehow to get back at Dutton and you.”

Grace played that all through. And felt a new wave of dread wash over her. Two months ago could have possibly been when the killer was plotting the murders. Of course, the plans could have happened well before that. And it didn’t mean Cassie was the one doing the planning, or that she’d even been the one to take the knife, but Dutton’s ex had to be questioned.

Feeling even more of that dread, she took out her phone and called Cassie’s office. Almost immediately, Cassie’s PA answered to say that Cassie wasn’t in yet, so Grace left a message for the woman to come into the police station for a chat.

If Cassie didn’t show soon, Grace would get the number for the woman’s personal phone and try to contact her that way. She didn’t think the woman was any kind of flight risk, so she wouldn’t go full throttle on this now, especially since there was no proof that Cassie had taken the knife, only that she’d had the opportunity to do so.

“Thank you for letting me know,” Grace told Ike.

He muttered something she didn’t catch, but it definitely wasn’t “you’re welcome.” There was still too much bitterness for that. It was possible Ike had held out hope of Dutton and Cassie getting back together, since Cassie was a much more palatable choice for Dutton than Grace would ever be. But Ike had come forward with this because he was also worried about Dutton’s safety. If Cassie had indeed taken the knife, and was the killer, then Dutton was on her hit list.

And the woman had motive.

Even though Cassie had never ranted to Grace about her being pregnant with Dutton’s baby, it was possible that Cassie was so enraged that she had crossed a very big line. She could be killing female cops to cover up that it was only one cop she wanted dead.

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