Page 15 of Deputies Under Fire
Of all the things Eden had been expecting him to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Bait? Last night she was terrified that Ike was going to kill her.”
He nodded, and his expression conveyed his mixed feelings about that. “She could have been exaggerating. And if she was,then I have to speculate as to why. Did she think she could convince us to arrest Ike? Maybe,” he concluded. “Or she could have just wanted to plant that seed in our minds.”
“The seed was already there,” Eden pointed out.
“Yeah, it was, but Diedre might have wanted to try to speed things up. She could be doing that with this bait idea, too.”
Eden gave that some thought. And she saw how this could play out. “Diedre allows herself to be in a position where Ike could come after her, and then she somehow arranges for Ike to be there, too, before the cops run in to rescue her.”
“That’s what I figure she had in mind, as well. She could have even planned to goad Ike into attacking her so that it would add to the evidence against him.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “I declined Diedre’s offer.”
Yes. Eden had known he would. Because for one thing it was dangerous. If Ike truly was the killer, he could murder Diedre before the cops could stop him. And if he was innocent and did little or nothing to the woman, Ike’s lawyers could add that it was entrapment. Either way, a bait situation like that wouldn’t end well for anyone.
“So is Diedre a suspect in the murders?” Eden asked.
Rory opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to answer because his phone rang. When he took it from his pocket, she saw Livvy’s name on the screen and knew he had to take it right away.
“You’re on speaker,” he said after issuing a greeting. “Eden is here with me, and she’s listening in.”
“Good,” Livvy said. “It’ll save you from having to update her. Ike is here with his lawyers,” she went on after gathering her breath. “I’ve put them in the interview room, but I’ll wait until Eden and you are here before I start. Any idea when that’ll be?”
“I’m guessing about fifteen or twenty minutes. We’re just waiting on some paperwork.”
“No rush,” Livvy told him. “It might do Ike some good to stew a while. The more riled he is, the more likely he is to blurt something out.”
“I agree,” Rory and Eden said in unison.
“And besides, there’s something we need to go over before the interview,” Livvy continued. “I just got Brenda’s phone records, and it includes copies of her texts for the past month.”
That was routine in a criminal investigation, so Eden figured Livvy must have found something. Hopefully, something that would help them confirm who’d killed the woman.
“In the past two weeks Brenda sent a half-dozen texts to a number that the techs have identified as a pay-as-you-go, a burner,” Livvy explained. She paused a heartbeat. “The messages are about Ike.”
She felt Rory go stiff. “Read them to us,” he insisted.
“All right. The first was sent exactly two weeks ago, and it seems to be a reply—‘Yes, I believe Ike is behind Mellie’s death.’ There’s no text or call from the unknown number or anyone else to tell us why Brenda sent that, but within five minutes, the unknown caller responds ‘You bet your life he is.’”
So this would have been someone who knew Ike. And that led them back to Helen, or maybe Diedre.
“There’s no name associated with the phone, and the phone is no longer in use,” Livvy added.
That sent up a huge red flag for Eden. It must have for Rory, too, because he asked, “Any idea when the phone was discontinued?”
“I can narrow it down. Brenda sent a text to the number at three p.m. yesterday. According to the ME, that would have likely been only a couple of hours before she was attacked and left for dead. This morning when the techs tried the number, it was out of service.”
So that could fit with…what? Eden had to mentally shake her head. Had this caller been connected to the killer? Or was the caller the actual killer?
“What do the rest of the texts say?” Rory asked.
“Text two again seems to be a reply with no corresponding text or phone call so it’s possible it was in response to another conversation,” Livvy explained. “It says ‘Ike is cleaning house, and I believe you’re right. He’ll come after me.’”
Eden wished the woman had taken this to the cops, and they could have tried to protect her. And they might now have Mellie’s killer in custody.
“The third text isn’t until a week later, and it’s a doozie,” Livvy went on. “It says ‘We need to find out who else is on Ike’s hit list. Any ideas how we can do that?’ The response came less than a minute later. ‘I think I know someone who can bug his office and hack into his computer. Not sure he’d be careless enough to write something down, though.’”
Eden groaned. This had certainly escalated. “Was the listening device put in place?” she asked Livvy.
“Yes, according to the next text. That came two days later from the unknown number. ‘Bugs have been planted in his office, truck and bedroom, and I’m listening. Will keep you posted.’ To that, Brenda sent a response of ‘Please do.’”
