Page 5 of Deputies Under Fire
“I know,” he agreed.
No way would he let Ike get anywhere near Brenda, but it would mean a showdown of sorts at the hospital. Then again, just about every face-to-face meeting with his father qualified as a showdown.
Rory heard the swooshing sound to indicate she’d sent the text to the hospital, and Eden continued typing on her phone. Like him, she was also keeping check around them in case Brenda’s attacker was still in the area.
But there were no signs of anyone or anything out of the ordinary.
“All right, here’s the background on Brenda,” Eden said, reading from the report she’d obviously just accessed. “Brenda Elise Watford, no police record. Owner of Watford Real Estate in San Antonio. Blond hair and blue eyes. Five-three, one hundred and twenty pounds, according to her driver’s license. Divorced, no kids. Aged forty-one.” She stopped, looked at him. “That’s a big age difference between Ike and her. Ike’s what…seventy?”
Rory nodded. “He will be in a few weeks.”
But it was hard for him to think of Ike as a senior citizen since he was a big, imposing man who still had a lot of muscle on him. Ike was plenty strong enough to have lifted a woman Brenda’s size and carried her into that barn. Then again, Brenda could have been lured there and attacked, which would have meant that no carrying had been involved.
“Ike’s girlfriends are usually a lot younger than he is,” Rory added on to that. “And, yes, he had those girlfriends even when he was married to my mom. His relationships don’t last long, though, because the women seem to grasp his true colors soon enough and dump him.”
She stayed quiet a moment. “You said the last time you saw Brenda that Ike threatened to kill her.”
Rory had known this was coming, and what he had to add to that comment was going to make Ike look even guiltier. “About six weeks ago, I went to the ranch to visit Dutton.”
No need for him to explain that while Dutton owned Towering Oaks, he didn’t live in the main house. Dutton had had his own place built, and it was as far away from Ike as possible, while still remaining on the actual ranch.
“I have to drive past the main house to get to Dutton’s,” Rory went on, “and that day, I saw Ike and Brenda in the driveway. They were clearly arguing, and I stopped when I saw Brenda slap and push him.”
That put some fresh alarm on Eden’s face. “Did Ike slap and push her back?”
“Not that I saw. But I don’t know exactly what went on before I arrived.” He paused, gathered his breath. “Ike told me to get lost.” Of course, his father had added a lot of profanity to go along with that barked order. “I stayed put and talked to Brenda. She was fuming and said that Ike was turning her clients against her, that he was doing a smear campaign to ruin her name and that he’d even leaked some risqué photos of her on the internet.”
“Did he?” Eden asked.
“Someone did. Brenda was in her underwear, doing what I guess you’d call a drunken sexy dance. Maybe for Ike.” Though Rory definitely didn’t like to think about that. “Maybe for someone else. But Brenda was convinced Ike had been the oneto post them. I didn’t get the chance to question her more on that because Ike and she got into a shouting match with some name calling and threats.”
“Threats?” Eden repeated. “Like Ike saying he would kill her?”
“That and other things. Brenda said she was going to start her own smear campaign and that when she was done with him, Ike would regret he’d ever met her.” Rory recalled the rage he’d seen on the woman’s face. Then again, there had been fury on Ike’s face, too. “That’s when Ike said she’d better back off or she’d end up dead.”
Eden didn’t seem the least bit surprised by that. Then again, she’d heard Ike issue similar threats to Mellie when they’d gotten into disputes, usually when Ike accused one of Mellie’sbratsof trespassing on the ranch. Of course, the irony was Ike didn’t own the ranch, and Dutton would have never caved to file trespassing charges against anyone in the foster home.
“Did Brenda back off?” Eden asked.
“I’m not sure.” Hopefully, that was something they’d soon find out from the woman herself.
They finally reached the end of the trail and got onto the main road. The ambulance was able to pick up some speed. So was Rory, and he knew it wouldn’t be long now before they reached the hospital.
“All right,” Eden said, typing on her phone. “I’ll start a deep dive on Brenda and go through all her social media.”
That was one of Eden’s specialties—data mining to come up with info and insights into victims, suspects and persons of interest. She’d no doubt honed that skill while working as a detective at SAPD, but she’d also developed some solid investigative expertise there as well.
And she would go at Ike with both barrels loaded.
Not literally. Eden wouldn’t get violent with him, but she would dig, and dig hard, to prove Ike was responsible for the attack onBrenda. Because if he had indeed done it, that might also lead to his arrest for Mellie’s murder. Not being able to solve that had no doubt been a constant, painful thorn in her side.
In his, too.
There’d been no physical evidence to tie Ike or anyone else to her death. Ike had been home alone at the time so he had no alibi, but there was also no proof that he’d gone out that night. The CSIs hadn’t been able to find squat to get justice for a good woman who’d devoted her life to helping kids.
So, yeah, a thorn in his side as well.
“I’m not seeing any photos or posts about Ike on Brenda’s Facebook page,” Eden muttered. “She probably deleted them, but once I’m back at the station, I’ll see if I can recover anything useful.”
