Page 58 of Deputies Under Fire
RORY TRIED NOTto curse when he read the latest text from Detective Vernon. Tried and failed. Because it wasn’t good news.
Still no sign of Helen.
It’d been hours since his aunt had walked out of her house during a CSI search. Hours since the CSIs had found the components that had been used to make those deadly IEDs. And after she’d walked out, Helen had seemingly vanished.
Was she out setting up another murder?
Or had Helen been set up by someone who’d planted that plastic bag in her trash bin? Her outdoor trash bin that was on the side of her garage where anyone could have gotten to it.
Either of those were possible, but Rory couldn’t ask her about them because she couldn’t be found.
He looked over at Eden and showed her the text from the detective. She seemed to be on the verge of cursing, too.
“I’m not having any better luck,” she told him.
She was seated at Grace’s desk at the police station, with not one but two laptops in front of her. One was for the reports and updates that seemed to be coming in nonstop—Rory was dealing with those and fielding the calls. Eden was using the other laptop to review the traffic camera feed around Helen’s neighborhood to see if she could spot anyone coming or going from Helen’s house.
“The problem is there isn’t a traffic cam right at her subdivision,” Eden explained. “The closest one is a quarter of a mile away so even if I don’t see, say, Diedre or Frank, it doesn’t mean they weren’t there. They could have just used an alternate route.”
Yeah, and if one of them was the killer, they might have scopedout where the cameras were and made sure to avoid them.
Rory heard the dinging sound on the second laptop, an indication that a new report had arrived, so he dropped down in the chair he’d pulled next to Eden’s and saw the latest from Livvy.
Again, he had to clamp down the urge to curse.
“No unusual withdrawals from Helen’s bank account,” he advised Eden. “Ditto for Ike, Diedre and Frank.”
Eden stopped the traffic camera feed and looked at him. “These weren’t expensive attacks. Well, unless one of them hired someone to make the IEDs. But any of them could have made smaller withdrawals for that months in advance so it wouldn’t send up any red flags.”
“True. And Helen, Ike, Frank and Diedre all should have known they’d be persons of interest or suspects for these killings.”
“Ike,” Eden repeated under her breath. “Where is he? He’s not missing, too, is he?”
“He’s not. He’s at his lawyers’ firm. He’ll be coming back in soon to finish up his interview with Livvy.” Though Rory wasn’t holding out much hope they’d get anything useful from him.
Rory checked the time and saw they’d been at this for going on six hours now. It was midafternoon, and Eden looked more than ready for a break. He was about to suggest calling in an order from the diner up the street, but his phone rang.
“Diedre,” he told Eden, and he took the call on speaker. “Where are you?” Rory demanded.
The woman huffed loud enough for him to hear it. Rory could also hear a car engine, which meant she was likely driving. “Look, I’m tired of you calling and leaving me messages. Can’t you just leave me in peace?”
“No,” he snarled, “and I wouldn’t have to keep calling you if you’d just answer your phone. FYI, you’re on speaker, and Deputy Gallagher is with me.”
“Of course, she is,” Diedre groaned. “She left me a voice mail, too.”
Eden had indeed done that, but that had been hours ago. “Where are you?” Rory repeated.
Another loud huff. “I’m driving back from a business meeting. And, no, you don’t need to verify if I had one or not because I mixed up the dates. The meeting isn’t until next week. When I realized that, I turned around, and now, I’m heading back home. Why are you calling me?” she snorted.
Rory had a couple of things he needed to ask her, but he went with the most important one. “Where is Helen?”
“How should I know…?” But she stopped at what had sounded as if it might be a rant. “Is something wrong?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out. She’s not answering her phone. Has she been in touch with you?”
“No.” And now, Diedre sounded concerned. Of course, that might be a pretense. “I can try to call her.”
“Do that once you answer a few more questions.” And Rory went with the second thing on his list. “Were you at Frank’s two nights ago?”
