Page 20 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed
“Where did you get this?” she repeated, and she made sure that sounded like the order that it was.
Luther didn’t answer, but he hurriedly pulled up another picture. “This was taken at that same party.”
Reed and she leaned it, and everything inside her went still. Because it was another photo of her father wearing the same clothes as in the first picture. But this time, he was standing next to Corman.
Hell.
Unlike his sister, Corman wasn’t smiling in the photo. Just the opposite. He looked nervous and extremely uncomfortable.
“Corman never said anything about knowing your father during the trials,” Luther reminded them.
Pointing that out hadn’t been necessary. Hallie already knew that detail, nor had the photos come up in any of the testimonies. And it should have when Corman had been on the stand to explain how Kip and Tami had wormed their way into his mother’s life.
“Don’t you see what this could mean?” Luther went on. “Corman could have been helping your father. His mother had money, and it’s my guess that Corman wanted to speed up getting a piece of his inheritance.”
“That’s a stretch,” Reed commented, but Hallie heard the doubt in his voice. She had plenty of doubts, too.
“Why wouldn’t Corman have mentioned this in the trial?” Luther questioned. “I’ll tell you why,” he went on before Reed or she could respond. “It’s because he’s got something to hide, that’s why.”
“Or maybe he just didn’t recall going to this party since this was obviously years ago,” Hallie argued. She huffed. “Where did you get these pictures?” she asked for the third time. “This time, give me an answer. Give me the truth,” she amended when she saw Luther’s gaze shift to the left which could indicate he was about to lie.
Luther didn’t look at her, and he shook his head. “I’d rather not say.”
Reed huffed. “And we’re rather you did say. In fact, we’re insisting you tell us now, or you’ll be charged with obstruction of justice.”
Hallie waited, wondering if Luther was about to play the reporter card and say that he couldn’t reveal a source. Unfortunately, this might work in this situation. But after several snail-crawling moments, Luther finally responded.
“I got them from your mother,” he whispered.
The shock came. Mercy, did it. Of all the things she’d been expecting Luther to say, that hadn’t even been on her radar.
“Explain that,” she ordered.
Again, Luther took his time, and he cleared his throat first. “I asked your mother if there was anything she had that I could use to help me write some articles to clear her name, and she told me about this storage facility where she’d put some of her personal things.”
Hallie cursed. “What storage facility?” Because that sure as hell hadn’t come up in the trial either, and this was the first she was hearing about it.
“The one out by the interstate, not far from here,” Luther admitted, still dodging their hard stares. “I’ve been going through it, but the only thing I found are these pictures. I showed them to Corman—”
“You what?” Reed snapped.
Luther finally looked at them, but he seemed confused as to why his doing that would alarm them. “I showed them to Corman about two weeks ago. I wanted to know about the party, when and where it was and who was in the pictures.”
“Tami didn’t give you that info?” Reed snapped.
Now, he paused again. “No. She didn’t remember them being taken, but she said it must have been years ago, maybe even when you were still living at home,” he added to Hallie.
That put a knot in her gut. Until she gave it some thought. She’d left home twenty years ago, and she didn’t think the photos were that old.
Maybe though that was wishful thinking. Even now, after all this time, it was torture for her to think of herself sitting in that house they called home while her parents were out murdering people.
“Since Tami didn’t recall any details about the pictures,” Luther went on, snapping her attention back to him. “I took them to Corman, and I asked him point blank if Elenore hadbeen…involved with Kip. I mean, they look chummy, don’t they?”
Well, Elenore didn’t look uncomfortable in the photo as her brother had, and Kip had had his arm around her.
“And what did Corman say?” Hallie pressed.
Luther lifted his shoulder and made a sound of frustration. “Corman claimed he didn’t recall the party, the people or the pictures. But he was pissed, I could tell. His mouth went all tight and he cursed when he saw the one of his sister with Kip.”
