Page 11 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed
“Yes,” Hallie immediately agreed. She looked up at him. “Luther’s been sucked into Tami’s web. That’s her MO, remember? My father’s, too. To charm their way into lonely people’s hearts and lives, make them fall in love with them, and then my father and she could move in to rob and kill.”
“I remember,” he said.
He also remembered hearing about the physical abuse they’d subjected Hallie to when she’d been a kid. That had come out during her testimony at the trials. Nothing life-threatening. Slaps and bruises. But Hallie had been forced to relive all of that when she had been questioned under oath. Apparently, those slaps and bruises and her sterling record as a cop hadn’t been enough to convince some people that Hallie hadn’t known what her parents had been up to.
But Reed knew.
Hallie had had no part in that, and he hadn’t needed her testimony or her police record to be certain of that. He’d seen firsthand the way she’d reacted to learning of the murders Tami and Kip had committed. And it had brought her to her knees.
Literally.
No, she hadn’t known.
Hallie’s phone rang, the sound knifing through the silence that’d settled between them, and he saw the ME’s name on the screen. She took the call right away and put it on speaker.
“Sheriff,” Dr. Martinez said, “both of our victims had fingerprints in the system so we were able to get IDs from the remains. The male is indeed Walt Garner, and the female is Elenore Pierce.”
The last name instantly rang a bell with Reed, and he initiated a quick search. And got a quick answer.
Hell.
Elenore Pierce’s mother had been one of Tami’s and Kip’s victims. And she was the sister of one of the names already on their suspect list. A name on Luther’s list, too, since he’d threatened the reporter.
It was time to pay Corman Pierce a visit.
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Chapter Five
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Hallie read some incoming reports on her phone while Reed drove toward San Antonio. Her mind was whirling. Every muscle in her body, tight. And the bruises on her back were making themselves known since they were pressed against the cruiser seat.
She certainly hadn’t expected her first day on the job to be soeventful. Two dead bodies. A critically injured deputy. A near death escape for Reed and her from an exploding house.
And way too many questions for which she didn’t have answers.
It was possible this trip to see Corman Pierce might lead to getting her some answers, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant visit. The last time Hallie had seen the man, he’d tried to spit in her face and had called her an accomplice to the murders that her parents had committed.
The attempt to spit in her face had landed him in jail for the night, followed by a couple of months of community service and mandatory anger management counseling. Hallie was certain those things hadn’t lessened the venom that he felt for her but had likely only added to it.
Still, unlike Jay, Corman hadn’t been a thorn in her side over the years. Just the opposite. She’d had no contact with him. And that made her think of the old saying of revenge best beingserved up cold. Was Corman out for revenge because she hadn’t been able to prevent his mother’s murder?
Maybe.
But she seriously doubted he would just confess to that even if it were indeed true.
“Anything in those reports that could help us?” Reed asked, yanking her out of her thoughts.
Good thing, too, since all those thoughts were just circling in her head. That kind of mental hamster wheel was never helpful. Just frustration. But then, the reports also fell into that frustration zone.
“Nothing yet from the bomb squad or the CSIs,” she let him know. “And we still don’t know how Elenore got into Walt’s house. There’s no record of any Uber or taxis taking her there, and her car was still in her garage at her house in San Antonio.”
That pointed to abduction, but there were no eyewitness accounts about that either. Still, it meant focusing on traffic camera feed to try to pick up something useful.
“There’s maybe something here in the background check on Elenore,” Hallie continued. “Maybe,” she emphasized. She started with a quick snapshot of the woman. “She was 41, divorced, no criminal record. The reason her prints were in the system was because five years ago, she started working as a counselor in a prison.”
Reed jumped right on that. “The prisons where your parents are?”
