Page 19 of Deputies Under Fire
“Have you visited Ike at his home in the past couple of months?” he asked, figuring he already knew the answer.
“No.” Yep, that was the answer Rory had expected all right, and there was still no anger in the man’s voice or expression. “I haven’t been to your family’s ranch in years. Why? Ike didn’t say I had, did he?”
Rory shook his head. “It’s just a routine question.” So was the next one, but Frank wasn’t going to care much for it. “Where were you late yesterday afternoon and last night?”
Frank sighed again. “You want to know if I have an alibi for that woman’s murder,” he stated. “I don’t. I was home alone, and before you ask, no one can verify that.” He paused. “Don’t you think if I was killing women as a vendetta against Ike, that I would have gone after his friends instead? I sure as hell wouldn’t eliminate people who feel like I do about Ike.”
Maybe. But murdering his friends wouldn’t accomplish one important thing—setting Ike up.
“Have there been any recent altercations or arguments between the two of you?” Rory asked.
Frank laughed but not from humor. It was all sarcasm. “Ike is always getting in my face about something. As you well know, Ike and I are both on the town council, and we disagree on pretty much everything on the agenda. Last month, it was the rezoning of that land just to the east of your family’s ranch. I didn’t want it classified as farmland, and Ike did.”
Rory knew about that. It was land Ike was trying to buy since he’d decided to get back in the ranching business. But Ike didn’t want just that one section of land, he wanted Frank’s place, too.
And the foster ranch that Mellie had run.
Because if Ike had all of that, the acreage would essentially coil around the McClennan family ranch, and Ike would control some of the water supply that Dutton needed for the livestock. Rory wasn’t certain Ike would actually cut off that supply, but knowing Ike, it was a card he might play if the rotten mood suited him.
“Any other disputes?” Rory persisted.
Frank shrugged. “A couple of months ago, Ike undercut me on a horse I was trying to buy.” Then, he paused. “And there was an, uh, incident at my wife’s grave.”
Rory knew about that as well. Frank’s wife, Miranda, had died in a car accident about two decades ago when she was in her thirties. From all accounts, Frank had been deeply in love with her, but Miranda had cheated on him.
With Ike.
And about six months ago, a fistfight had broken out between Frank and Ike at the cemetery where Miranda was buried. Neither man had fessed up to what the altercation had been about, and no charges had been filed. The only reason Rory was even aware of it was because someone had seen the fight and reported it.
“Look, Ike and I have been at odds for years,” Frank added a moment later. “I don’t have the time or breath to detail everyrun-in I’ve had with him. And if I’d wanted to start killing because of him, that killing would have started twenty years ago.”
When his wife had died.
Yeah, Rory could see that. But sometimes people just snapped. Sometimes, all the little things build up into something huge.
That could have happened with Frank.
“One more thing,” Rory went on, aware that the time was ticking down for Ike’s interview to start. “When was the last time you were at the barn on the old Sanderson Ranch?”
Frank didn’t react with anger, but rather resignation and maybe some frustration at being dragged into this. It was possible the frustration was warranted, but Rory still had to treat him like a person of interest.
“Aka, the Devil’s Hideout,” he said, using the nickname it’d been given. “Again, the answer is years ago. You’re asking because I worked there a couple of summers when I was a teenager.”
Rory did indeed recall that fact from the background check that had been run on Frank after Mellie’s murder.
“Mellie worked there, too, mucking stalls and grooming the palominos,” Frank added. “Hell, so did a lot of teenagers. And your aunt Helen used to come out there and ride the horses sometimes.”
Now, Rory didn’t remember that coming up in previous interviews. He shook his head. “Why would Helen have gone there to ride when she lived on a ranch with dozens of horses?”
Frank shifted uncomfortably, and he dodged Rory’s gaze for a couple of seconds. “You’d have to ask Helen about that.”
“I will. But I’m also asking you,” Rory retorted.
“All right.” Frank dragged in a long breath. “I believe Helen was there to see me.”
“See you?” Eden repeated. “As in romantically?”
Rory heard the surprise in Eden’s voice, and he thought he knew why. Helen had always had that to-the-manor-born vibe about her, and Frank had come from a blue-collar family. Yes, he’d earned enough to buy his own ranch and it was successful, but in those days, Frank wouldn’t have been in Helen’s economic circle.
