Page 25 of Deputies Under Fire
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Diedre said. “I mean, it’s the reason Mellie and I got close.”
Eden had known that Diedre and Mellie sometimes talked, but she wasn’t sure Mellie considered the woman an actual friend. She could be wrong about that, though, and Mellie and Diedre could have indeed bonded over Ike’s mutual hatred for them and vice versa.
“And now Ike is trying to destroy me,” Helen interjected. “Did he claim Diedre and I are setting him up for the murders?”
Neither Rory nor Eden responded to that, but Eden decided to backtrack a little, and she read Helen her rights just as Rory had done to Diedre. Helen didn’t seem bothered by that, and she didn’t request a lawyer. She just gave Eden a cool stare.
“Why was Brenda at the lunch with you two?” Eden asked once she’d finished with the Miranda.
“Another enemy of my enemy,” Helen said quickly. “In fact, it was Brenda who wanted to meet with us. The lunch was all her idea.”
“I made the reservation because I eat there often and already had the app on my phone,” Diedre added. “But, yes, Brenda arranged it. She wanted to find out if there was a way to make Ike pay. Nothing criminal,” she added.
“Then, what did she have in mind?” Rory replied.
Helen and Diedre exchanged a glance. “She wanted to hire someone, a PR expert, who could start a smear campaign. She had already tried to talk Mellie and Frank Mott into going along with it, too, but I think they both turned her down. That didn’t stop Brenda, though.” She paused. “Simply put, she wanted to ruin your father.”
“And did you want that, too?” Rory asked.
“We did,” Helen admitted.
“Yes,” Diedre confirmed. “And we even tried a second time to encourage Mellie to join us.” She turned her attention to Eden. “After all, Ike was horrible to her for years. But Mellie turned us down again.”
Eden couldn’t ask the question fast enough. “When was this?”
“A couple of days after the lunch,” Helen offered. “Yes, the timing is terrible, isn’t it? I mean with Mellie being murdered shortly thereafter.”
The timing was indeed suspicious, and it made Eden wonder if Mellie had said something when she had turned them down. Something that had spooked Helen, Diedre or Brenda. If the three had brought up anything about framing Ike for a crime, no way would Mellie have gone along with that.
Had that been the reason Mellie was murdered?
Sweet heaven, it was possible.
“So why are you here now?” Rory asked, turning toward his aunt. “More planning on how to get back at Ike?”
Helen shook her head. “No, Diedre is worried about being killed. It’s obvious Ike is on a murder spree, and we’re both in danger.”
Eden wasn’t so sure about Ike’s involvement, but the spree part might be what was happening. Still, it didn’t mean Ike was behind it.The enemy of my enemy is my frienddidn’t always pan out.
And that put Helen at the top of their suspect list.
“Tell me about the altercation you had with Ike,” Rory said to his aunt. “The one that involved a knife.”
Helen’s mouth went tight. “Altercation? Is that what he called it?”
“No, a witness did,” Rory replied.
“Dutton,” Helen grumbled. “Well, if altercation is the label you want to put on it, fine, but it was just another round of Ike being Ike.” She gathered her breath. “I stopped by the house to pick up a locket that I’d given my sister years ago. She’d given me an identical one, and I wanted the set as a memento. Ike started slinging insults at me, and when I felt threatened by him, I took out my knife.”
“Threatened?” Eden asked. “How?”
“Getting in my face. Telling me I was a whiny brat.” She paused. “And then he said my sister hated my guts, that she would make fun of me whenever I wasn’t around.”
Eden could see that the last insult had truly gotten to the woman. Even now, there was a mix of both anger and hurt on her face.
“My sister loved me, and I loved her,” Helen went on, “and I was sick of Ike and his toxic ways. So I drew the knife, not intending to use it. For just a second, I wanted him to be afraid.”
“And was he?” Eden persisted.
