Page 49 of Deputies Under Fire
Could it?
If so, how did Carter fit into it?
When Carter had been in Diedre’s neighborhood, she had said she didn’t know him. And maybe she didn’t. It was possible Carter had photographed something that he shouldn’t have. Like Frank and Diedre together. But Rory still couldn’t wrap his head around that being the motive for these murders.
To test those waters, though, Rory took out his phone and pulled up a photo of Carter to show Diedre. “Tell me about this man.”
Her forehead creased as she studied the picture. “It’s that guy who was near my house. Who is he?” The question might or might not have been genuine.
Rory didn’t give her the name since the next of kin likely hadn’t been notified yet. “He was murdered this morning.”
Diedre’s eyes widened. “That’s the dead man Frank mentioned.” She made a gasping sound. “You think Ike killed him?”
“Someone did,” Rory answered, and it put a knot in his gut to realize he could be seated across from the actual killer.
He let Diedre stew in the silence for a couple of moments while he kept his hard stare on her. She showed no signs of breaking. Then again, she had to be a tough woman to have ever gotten involved with Ike.
Rory decided to shift the conversation in a different direction. “Tell me about the knife that the CSIs found in your house.”
This time, Diedre didn’t hesitate. “It’s not mine, and I have no idea how it got there. Someone must have tried to frame me with it.”
Nothing about that response surprised him, but Rory kept pushing. “I know that Helen has been to your house. What about Frank or Brenda?”
Diedre nodded. “Yes, both have been there…” Her voice trailed off, and she started shaking her head. “You can’t think Frank would have left the knife there. He wouldn’t,” she insisted. “He just wouldn’t.”
“Maybe,” Rory muttered. “What about Brenda? Could she have left it?”
She shook her head, but there was a lot less resolve in her expression this time. “Why would she? And if it’s the murder weapon, then it would have been used on her, right? She couldn’t have been the one to leave it.”
Rory went with anothermaybe, but it was silent this time. They had no idea if Mellie and Brenda had been killed with the same weapon. But he had a problem believing Brenda would have murdered Mellie, tried to frame Diedre and then had been murdered herself. If so, that meant there were two killers.
Brenda. And the one who’d ended her life.
Rory was still considering that possibility when his phone rang, and when he saw Garrison’s name on the screen, he knew he had to take the call from the deputy.
“Interview paused,” Rory said for the recording. “Deputies McClennan and Gallagher exiting the room.” He and Eden stepped out into the hall before he answered and put the call on speaker.
“Rory,” Garrison said the moment he was on the line. “The bomb squad cleared the immediate area around the body, and the ME was able to start his exam. There’s a message of sorts on the dead guy.”
“What kind of message?” Rory asked.
“We’re not sure. It’s numbers. The ME found it beneath the bloody shirt. And it’s not a note,” Garrison said, the strain obvious in his voice. “It was, uh, cut into his body. I think you and Eden need to see it.”
Chapter Thirteen
Eden kept watch around their surroundings as Rory and she drove away from the police station and back to the crime scene. Rory was darting glances around, too. Because both of them were aware that a trip to, well, to pretty much anywhere could result in another attempt to kill them. Still, this “message” was something they wanted to see.
Numbers that’d been carved into Carter’s body.
After hearing that bit of detail from Garrison, they’d quickly postponed the interview with Frank and wrapped up the one with Diedre. While there was some circumstantial evidence against her, it hadn’t been enough for them to hold her. Eden suspected the same would be true for Ike, though if any of the four—Diedre, Helen, Frank or Ike—would be arrested today, Ike would likely be the one.
But an arrest was nowhere close to getting a conviction.
There were huge holes in the case against Ike. So either Ike had put those holes in place to assure a nonguilty verdict or he wasn’t the killer.
Eden was going with the second option on this. As much as she and Ike despised each other, she just couldn’t see him going about getting revenge this way. Too risky. Too cat-and-mouse. She figured if Ike turned killer, then the bodies would have never been discovered, much less placed where they’d be found.
Once they reached the crime scene, Rory pulled to a stop behind the line of vehicles. The other deputies’ cruiser, Ike’s truck, and the three vans from the ME, CSIs and the bombsquad. The road was still blocked off in both directions and would likely remain that way for most of the day.
