Page 8 of Deputies Under Fire
Eden nodded, stood and kissed her son. “Mama and Dada will be back,” she said, purposely not adding asoonto that.
Because Eden had no idea how long the trip would take, and after that, she wanted to observe Ike’s interview. Rory would no doubt want to do the same thing.
Rory gave their son a kiss, too, causing Tyler to beam a smile at him. That was usual as well. Tyler clearly loved his daddy, and while Eden couldn’t say it was exactly comfortable having Rory around and in such close contact, she knew they were doing what was best for their son. They were putting aside their differences and co-parenting.
Coinvestigating, too.
Which meant that close contact with Rory would continue for a while.
That also meant dealing with the constant rounds of this attraction that just wouldn’t go away.
Still silently cursing herself, they left the house, heading for his cruiser, which he’d parked in her driveway. “I talked to Dewey Galway on the drive to your place,” he said, referring to the medical examiner, and Eden heard the dread in his voice. “He’s still doing the postmortem, but he was able to tell me thatthe cause of Brenda’s death was the blood loss from the stab wounds. There were six of them.”
“Six,” she muttered. “A lot.”
“Yeah. Not what the ME would call a frenzy, and in fact, he thought the killer might have been trying to avoid any major organs. For instance, there were no wounds near the heart.”
She gave that some thought as they stood outside the cruiser. “So the killer didn’t want her dead right away. He wanted her to suffer?”
Rory shrugged. “Or the killer didn’t know what he was doing.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why stab a woman six times and leave without making sure she’s dead?”
Yes, that was puzzling. Unless the killer did indeed believe she was dead. Or perhaps he’d been interrupted and had had to flee. Though Eden couldn’t imagine what kind of interruption would pull a murderer away from his prey when they were in such a remote location like the barn. Still, it was possible the dog had startled him or had become aggressive, causing him to run.
“Brenda had also been drugged,” Rory went on. “She’d been roofied.”
Eden silently groaned. Rohypnol was a fairly easy drug to obtain, and it was even easier to slip into a drink. So did that mean Brenda had been in close contact with her killer, close enough for the killer to have spiked her drink?
She continued to mull over that scenario while she told Rory about a call she’d gotten earlier from the sheriff. “Grace is champing at the bit to come back to work,” she told him. “But thankfully, Dutton convinced her to stay put.”
“Yeah, I talked to Dutton on the way over. The doctor won’t clear Grace for duty yet.”
Not a surprise, since she’d needed a C-section to deliver her son, Nash, only three weeks ago. Grace needed to recover and spend time with her newborn.
“I also got a call from SAPD this morning,” Rory went on as they got in the cruiser and started the drive to the barn. “Brenda had a stalker. A guy named Carter Rooney. She had a restraining order against him.”
That got Eden’s attention. “An ex-boyfriend? And was there violence involved?”
“Not a boyfriend and no record of actual violence. Carter claims Brenda ruined him financially.” Rory paused. “However, he has left threatening voice mails and texts for Brenda, and he doesn’t have an alibi for last night. SAPD will be questioning him.”
“Good.” And since Eden still had plenty of contacts at SAPD, she shouldn’t have any problem getting a recording and summary report of that interview. “We’ll need to talk to Carter as well,” she added.
“Yes. I’ll set that up for later today. Depending on what comes out of his interview with SAPD, we might have to go to him.”
She made a sound of agreement. There might not be enough compelling evidence to force Carter to come to Renegade Canyon. Still, it would be worth the drive to talk to him in person.
Rory took the turn off the main road and onto the ranch trail. Where they immediately hit a huge pothole. The surface of the trail had gotten worse since their trip here the night before, no doubt from the influx of traffic. First the killer, then Rory and her, followed by the ambulance and now the CSIs.
They were still a good quarter of a mile from the barn when Rory’s phone rang and Dispatch popped up on the dash screen. Rory answered it right away on speaker.
“Deputy McClennan, you have a call from a Diedre Bennington,” the dispatcher said. “She wants to talk to you.”
The name was vaguely familiar to Eden, but she couldn’t quite recall who the woman was. Rory didn’t seem to have that problem because he muttered some profanity under his breath.
“Put the call through,” he instructed and glanced at her. “Diedre is another of my dad’s ex-girlfriends. In fact, he was having an affair with her at the time my mother died.”
Sweet heaven. Eden groaned. She had always known Ike was a jerk, but she hadn’t known that he’d cheated on his dying wife.
“There’s bad blood between Ike and Diedre?” she asked.
