Page 47 of Her Baby, Her Badge

Grace lifted an eyebrow. “You think the killer is someone from Renegade Canyon? Someone who hates me? Someone who has a skill set that allows him or her to plan attacks like these?” She pinned her gaze to Wilson, letting him know that he fit that criteria to aT.

Wilson cursed, but before he could lash out, Bailey spoke. “Wilson told me you consider him a suspect because of the drawing the sketch artist did. The drawing based on what a little girl said.”

“His cousin.” Wilson jabbed his index finger at Dutton.

“Jamie,” Dutton stated. “She’s a good kid with an excellent memory and attention to detail. She wants to be a cop,” he added.

That caused Bailey to smile just a little, but it was very short-lived, because Wilson went into anger overdrive.

“And the man she described just happened to look like me,” Wilson growled at Dutton. “It reeks of a setup. If you get rid of me, then your girlfriend gets to keep her job. Well, I won’t letyou railroad me.” He shifted his attention back to Grace. “This little chat is over. And you won’t be the one interviewing her. Get one of the deputies to do that, but it’ll have to wait. I’m calling a lawyer to sit in when Bailey gives her account of this nightmare you let happen to her.”

With that, Wilson stood and practically hauled Bailey to her feet. Bailey’s eyes widened in surprise, and for a moment Grace thought she might protest. She didn’t. It seemed she had little fight left in her. Bailey allowed Wilson to lead her back in the direction of the break room.

Grace dragged in a long breath and got up to get a bottle of water from the fridge and take a moment to calm down. That didn’t happen, though, because as Bailey and Wilson moved out of Grace’s line of sight, someone else moved into it.

Cassie.

Great. Another round of what had been a hellish day. Cassie was probably there to gloat about getting the town council to consider a recall vote.

“You have a minute?” Cassie asked.

Much to Grace’s surprise, there wasn’t any gloating or anger in her tone. Not even after Cassie got Grace’s nod to enter and she stepped into the office, where she obviously spotted Dutton. Normally, Cassie’s expression and mood turned sour when she saw them together, but apparently, the woman had something else on her mind.

“I heard about what happened at the church,” Cassie said, easing the door shut behind her.

“I can’t discuss the details of an investigation with you,” Grace told her.

Cassie made a sound to indicate that’s what she was expecting—that Grace wouldn’t be sharing that kind of info. “Reverend Michaels said you were going to review the church’s security cameras.”

Grace didn’t quite manage to suppress a groan, and wished the pastor hadn’t revealed any information. Of course, it wasn’t possible to keep something like that secret in a small town. Still, Grace didn’t confirm that they would indeed be looking at the footage.

“I’ll be on it,” Cassie blurted. “On the security feed, I mean. I’ll probably be on it.”

That got Grace’s attention, and she automatically adjusted her stance in case she had to draw her gun. From the corner of her eye, she saw Dutton do the same. Was Cassie here to confess to the murders? And was she about to launch into some last-ditch attack?

Grace prepared herself for just that.

Cassie would have had to go through the metal detector when she entered the building and likely wouldn’t have been able to bring in a gun, but there were other weapons that could possibly be concealed.

“Why are you on the security feed?” Grace asked when the woman didn’t continue.

Cassie huffed, but again, she didn’t seem to be angry. “Because I was visiting my grandmother’s grave. It’s something I do on her birthday. Her birthday’s not for another two weeks,” she added quickly. “But I had some free time in my schedule so I went.” She paused to draw breath. “I just wanted you to know in case you saw my car on the feed and, well, thought the worst.”

Grace did think the worst, but then she was doing that about all of the suspects. This could be a clever move on Cassie’s part—to dismiss why she was in the very location where an attack had occurred.

“When were you there?” Grace asked, though she would verify it once they had the footage.

Cassie checked her watch. “About four hours ago.”

That could have been about the time the killer was setting up the firetrap and tying Bailey to a tombstone. But Bailey had said a man had taken her. One who was about six feet tall. Cassie was on the tall side, but she wasn’t built like a man. It was possible, though, that Cassie had been there to assist someone she’d hired to help. Grace really needed to try to get a better timeline of events from Bailey once the woman was ready for a full interview.

“Did you see anyone or anything suspicious when you were at the cemetery?” Grace pressed.

“Of course not. With the murders going on, I would have reported it right away. It was just a routine visit to my grandmother’s grave, and I had no idea about the cameras until the reverend mentioned them.”

Grace considered all of that for a moment. If Cassie was the killer, then there might be something on the footage that would indicate she had been there to help her henchman set up an attack. It was even possible the henchman had been with her in the vehicle.

“Alright,” Grace said. “We should have the security footage soon, and I’ll review it.” And she wondered if it was just her imagination, but Cassie seemed very uncomfortable when Grace said that.

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