Page 30 of Deputies Under Fire
Yeah, Rory had gone there, too. “Since Brenda and Diedre had that semifriendship deal, they could have met. Diedre could have given her the drug, and then once it kicked in, she could have led Brenda to her Jeep. And even into the barn. No lifting required.”
Though that did leave them with a huge question. One that Eden voiced.
“Then, if she had Brenda drugged and in her Jeep, why would Diedre have returned to her house around four p.m.?”
Rory could only speculate about that. “Maybe she hadn’t drugged Brenda yet, and Diedre was on the way to meet Brenda when she remembered she had indeed forgotten something at her house.”
Maybe the search warrant could give them something else to work with to confirm or dispel that theory. The search should include a check of Diedre’s GPS so they could track where the woman had been.
Eden muttered an agreement and continued to look at the photos. Rory made occasional glances at her, but once he was off the highway and onto the rural road that led to Renegade Canyon, he had to keep watch around them. Eden and he had possibly rattled some cages today with Diedre, Helen and Carter, and that rattling could have made the killer desperate to silence them.
Not a comforting thought.
Eden made a sharp sound of surprise, causing Rory’s attention to zoom in her direction. It wasn’t something she spotted outside the cruiser but rather in one of the photos.
“It’s Frank,” Eden blurted.
She held up the photo that Carter had taken of Diedre’s Jeep speeding away from her house. Eden had enlarged not the Jeep, but the area on the other side of the street. There, tucked in along a cluster of cedar trees, stood Frank.
What the hell was he doing there?
“Should I call him and see if he’s home?” Eden asked. “We could stop by there and have a chat with him.”
“Do that,” Rory agreed even though it was a possibility the picture had been altered to add Frank’s image. But that only led to another question.
Why would Carter have done that?
Frank was a potential victim, not a suspect. At least he hadn’t been until Rory had seen this picture.
Yeah, he definitely wanted to talk to Frank, and then Detective Vernon could do the same with Carter.
“Frank’s not answering his phone,” Eden said, and then she left a voice mail for the man to contact them right away.
Rory would give him an hour, and then he intended to track Frank down. If the man had any connection to these murders, then Rory needed to know.
“I’ll reach out to the lab and light a fire, see if they can get working on the photos sooner rather than later,” Eden said, making that call.
Rory had to slow down as he approached a curve that had earned the nickname of Dead Man’s Bend, since over the years, it had been the site of two fatal car crashes. He came out the steep curve and immediately spotted something on the road.
Hell.
It was a strip of metal spikes stretched across the asphalt. A strip meant to take out the tires of a vehicle and bring it to a stop.
It sure as hell shouldn’t have been there.
Rory slammed on the brakes. But he was too late. He hit the strip, the spikes ripping through the tires and causing him to lose control. It was like having four blowouts at once. He had to fight the steering wheel just to stay on the road.
But even that became impossible.
Because of the second strip of spikes.
The cruiser ran over it, and this time there was the sound of the metal spikes gouging into the tire barrels and rims. The vehicle skidded and another jolt slung them around.
Finally, the cruiser came to a complete stop. And in that blink, Eden and he were now sitting ducks.
Rory drew his gun and waited for the attack.
Chapter Nine
