Page 59 of Deputies Under Fire
“No,” she blurted, but again, she stopped. “Sorry, that’s a knee-jerk reaction. It’s become second nature to deny I’ve been with Frank. But, yes, I was there. Briefly,” she added. “I was out for a drive and dropped by to see if he was busy. He was. He said he had a Zoom meeting with a cattle broker.”
“So you were in Renegade Canyon when Brenda was attacked?” Rory made sure he used his cop’s tone on that one.
“Good grief, you just don’t give up, do you?” She didn’t wait for him to respond to that. “Yes, I was there. Again, it was very brief. I went to Frank’s, talked to him for a couple of minutesand then I left. That’s it. I didn’t stop off on the way home to murder a woman I hardly knew.”
“But you did know her,” Rory argued. “You had lunch with her. The two of you discussed your mutual hatred for Ike.”
“So what?” Diedre growled at him. “I discussed that with Helen, too. And Frank. I haven’t murdered either of them.”
The sarcasm dripped from her voice, but Rory felt the icy chill go through him, and he resisted muttering “not yet.”
“Are you done accusing me of things I didn’t do?” Diedre snapped.
“No,” he snapped right back, and Rory moved on to the final thing on his list. “Think back to a couple of months ago to a fight that took place between Frank and Ike at the cemetery.”
“That,” she choked out, and the sarcasm was gone. In its place was a hefty amount of anger. “That’s when Ike acted like his usual SOB self and upset Frank.”
“Were you there?” Rory asked.
“No, but Frank told me all about it,” Diedre insisted, and he didn’t have to prompt the woman to continue. She just started spewing out the venom. “Ike’s a vile monster. First, he cheated on his wife with a lot of women. Yes, that included me, but I wasn’t married at the time. But he also cheated with Frank’s wife. And then he rubbed the cheating in Frank’s face.”
“You know this for sure?” Rory asked.
“I know Ike, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. And he hurt Frank that day at the cemetery.” The woman’s voice cracked on those last words.
Rory jumped right on that. “How did he hurt him?”
Diedre didn’t say anything for a long time. “Ike was there visiting your mom’s grave, and Frank was clear on the other side of the cemetery visiting Miranda’s. Ike made a point of walking over to him and blowing a kiss at Miranda’s tombstone. Ikedid that,” she snorted. Not a shout. But the anger was there. So much anger.
If Ike had truly done that, and Rory didn’t doubt that he had, then it was an SOB thing to do. Then again, Ike made a habit of doing whatever he could to hurt people. Nearly everyone in town had been on the receiving end of Ike’s wrath at one time or another.
“What’s wrong with him?” Diedre asked. “Is it just plain meanness?” Again, she didn’t wait for an answer, and she ended the call.
Rory and Eden sat in silence for a while, going over everything Diedre had just said. “That could be motive for the murders,” Eden muttered.
Yeah, it could be, but it was motive for both Diedre and Frank. As for Helen, she had a motive of a different kind. To get rid of any competition she might have for Frank. That’s why it was so critical for them to find her.
He took out his phone to try again to call her, but it rang before he could do that. “It’s Ike’s lawyer,” he told Eden, and he figured Arnette was calling to reschedule his client’s interview.
But Rory was wrong.
“Where’s your father?” Arnette demanded the moment Rory answered. There was a frantic urge to the lawyer’s normally cocky tone.
“He should be on his way here,” Rory said. “Why?” And because he suddenly had a bad feeling about this, he put the call on speaker so Eden could hear as well.
“Because we had a meeting scheduled for well over an hour ago, and when Ike didn’t show up or answer his phone, I started driving to the ranch. I figured he was maybe out riding or perhaps he’d lost track of time. But then I saw his truck,” Arnette added, the strain in his voice going up a significantnotch. “It was parked on a trail close to where that barn blew up.”
An icy chill raced through Rory. Yeah, that bad feeling was warranted. “I take it he wasn’t in the truck?” he asked, already standing. And Eden stood, too.
“No. He wasn’t in it.” Arnette’s voice was shaking now. “But there was blood. So much blood.” He made a loud groan. “Rory, I think somebody killed your father.”
Chapter Sixteen
Eden was ready to take hold of Rory’s arm to stop him from bolting out of the station and hurrying to get to Ike’s truck.
But he thankfully didn’t do that.
In fact, he muted the call with the lawyer and voiced the first thought that had occurred to her when she’d heard Arnette say “so much blood.”
