Page 22 of Deputies Under Fire
“Because it’s possible something was planted inside her house.” Livvy slid a look at Arnette. “Guess your anonymous tipster didn’t come through on that one for you. Or that person you rely on to confirm things.” She shook her head, shifted her attention back to Ike. “Shoddy work on your lawyers’ part. As much as you’re paying this crew, you’d think they would be more on top of things.”
Arnette muttered something under his breath that Eden didn’t catch, but she figured he’d just cursed. He stood and went back into the hall, no doubt to make a call to find out what Livvy was talking about.
“Stephen Arnette exiting the interview,” Livvy said for the benefit of the recording, and she shifted back to Ike. “Whatabout your ex-lover, Diedre Bennington? When’s the last time you’ve been to her place?”
“Months,” Ike snapped. “Why? Did she lie and say I’d been there? Is she the one feeding you lies about me being a killer?”
Livvy shrugged. “She’s indicated she might have some concerns about her safety when it comes to you.”
Ike laughed, but there was no humor in it. “She’s a liar. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“You scorned her?” Livvy asked.
Ike’s mouth went tight. “I ended a relationship with her that I should have never started.”
Livvy jumped right on that. “Because you were married at the time. And your wife was dying. Yes, probably not a good idea to spend time with your mistress rather than be by your wife’s bedside.”
Oh, Ike didn’t care for that being thrown in his face. And she heard the slight shift in Rory’s breathing. It had touched a nerve for him, too.
“Yeah,” Ike growled. “And being with her was a mistake.”
It was indeed, and that affair had been the final straw for Rory. Before that, he’d more or less tolerated his dad. But afterward, all civility was gone between them.
Ike shook his head in disgust. “Trust me,” he went on, “I’ve paid over and over for that mistake. Diedre has hounded me for nearly a year, trying to make my life miserable, and she turned my wife’s sister against me.” He jabbed his index finger at Livvy. “Those are the two you should be questioning right now. Diedre and Helen. You can bet your bottom dollar they’d recently visited Brenda.”
“Why?” Livvy ventured. “Did they form an I-hate-Ike’s-guts club?”
“Something like that,” Ike grumbled. “I saw the three of them together in a restaurant in San Antonio.”
“When was that?” Livvy persisted.
Ike lifted his shoulder. “A couple of months back. Since you’re so hell-bent, why don’t you check traffic-camera feed for that? It was at the Elm, downtown. That’s a reservations-only place so they might even have a record of it.”
“Interesting,” Eden muttered.
Rory muttered his agreement, and he took out his phone to text a question to Livvy.Ask Ike about the knife he took from Helen.
He watched as Livvy read the text, and then she turned her attention back to Ike. “I understand you were in an altercation with your former sister-in-law, Helen. Tell me about that.”
“Altercation,” Ike spluttered like it was a profanity. “More like all bark and no bite. Helen threatened me with a knife, and I knocked it out of her hand. I told her to leave or I’d call the cops and have her arrested for attempted assault with a deadly weapon. Not that you cops would have done anything about it,” he grumbled. “But the threat worked. She tucked tail and got out of there fast.”
“What did you argue about?” Livvy asked.
“Same ol’, same ol’. You did my sister wrong. Boo-hoo. Helen hasn’t learned how to shake off the past.” But there was something in Ike’s tone that made Eden believe Ike hadn’t quite managed to shake it off, either.
“So you argued. Helen took out the knife, you grabbed it and she left,” Livvy said, summarizing. “What happened then? What did you do with the knife?”
“I was going to throw it away, but then I thought maybe it’d sting for her to see it again. You know, a reminder that I bested her. So I put it in a plastic bag and had my assistant take it to her house. She wasn’t home so he left it by her front door.”
“Where anyone could have taken it,” Eden muttered and then groaned.
“Your assistant will confirm he left it?” Livvy asked.
“Damn right, he will. He even got a picture of it, like delivery drivers do.” Ike took out his phone, and after thumbing through his pictures, he pulled up the shot.
Eden couldn’t see it from where she was standing, but judging from Livvy’s expression, it was exactly what Ike had said it was.
“It was the damndest thing,” Ike went on after Livvy requested that he forward the photo to her. “My assistant said as he was driving out of Helen’s neighborhood he thought he saw Diedre. Not sure what she would have been doing there,” he added in a mutter.
