Page 23 of Last Seen Alive
“Yes. You have a connection to the suspect, thereby creating a conflict of interest.”
“If looked at one way, but I haven’t seen Logan for months. Haven’t even kept in contact.”
He didn’t say anything.
She continued. “We just ran into each other at the Tipsy Moose Alehouse in Woodbridge last night.”
“Uh-huh, I know the place.”
He wasn’t going to make this easy…“Well, one thing led to another, and we decided to go back to his place.”
“And that’s when you found this woman shot in his bed?”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re sure he didn’t arrange the entire thing to make it look like he was innocent?”
It sounded like he was reading a book Graves had written. “I believe heisinnocent.” There was the lack of an alibi and Logan’s gun, but to her they were all that was working against him. The unknown, the unanswered questions raised by anomalies in the case, supported Logan’s claim of innocence.
“It’s natural to want to believe in those close to us.”
“As I said, Hunter and I aren’t close.” She halted at the flicker dancing across his eyes. How she must look—about to sleep with a man she didn’t consider herself close to. She’d stick to the business at hand. If she was going to get anywhere with Buchanan, she needed to share some enigmas. “Claire Hunter was the victim, though ID in her purse said she was Deb Smith.”
“All right. Not sure where you’re going with this.”
“Logan’s quite certain the woman was his wife, Claire Hunter. Well, she and Logan had a complicated history.” She shared how Claire had uprooted from Dumfries to Nebraska for a fictional job, only to disappear two-and-a-half years later, after Logan had an accident that could have killed him. She also filled him in on Logan’s return to Dumfries and that he’d hired private investigators. She summed up with, “And now you have an ID saying one thing, while Mr.Hunter positively identifies her as his wife. There was a note she left Mr.Hunter back in Nebraska about not being the woman he thought she was. To me, this sounds like a woman with a past to hide. Then there’s the unregistered gun in her purse, which coincidentally was loaded with the same ammo as Mr.Hunter’s gun.” She bit back the urge to add,That’s a stretch on its own.
“Okay,” Buchanan eventually said. “But what brought her to Logan’s house? If they weren’t in contact at all, how did she even know where it was? You said that Mr.Hunter returned to Dumfries, did he buy the house he’d shared briefly with his wife?”
Amanda hadn’t even thought to ask about that, but she’d guess if it had been the case Logan would have said as much. In the least if someone was trying to frame Logan, that person knew where he lived. “That’s a good question, and I don’t have the answer.”
She let silence fall between them, but all was not quiet. Birdsong filled the air, along with the nattering of squirrels close by.
“I want this investigation, sir,” she said, cutting through nature’s symphony.
“You are close to the situation.”
The way he said it now, she sensed there was some wiggle room. “I know Logan Hunter, yes, but I also don’t have tunnel vision about the case. I can see there’s a lot more here than what first meets the eye. The autopsy hasn’t even been conducted, and he’s been charged? We want to close cases, but we want them to stay shut. And, honestly, I think the real killer is still out there, and who knows what his or her plans are now? Claire may have been their only target, but maybe someone else is in danger? And even if her murder was a single, isolated incident, she deserves justice. So does Logan Hunter.” Her little speech flowed with ease, and she hoped grace.
Buchanan’s mouth twitched, a trait she’d observed gave him away as being deep in thought.
“It took a lot for me to come here, to ask this of you,” she said. “The only reason I did is because there are too many unanswered questions. I want the answers. It’s our job as the police to get them.” Talking to him for this length of time had apparently emboldened her.
“I appreciate your forthrightness, Steele, and I admire your courage.”
She sensed abutwas coming and felt a cold dread run through her.
“But at the same time, it’s important that I’m able to trust the people who work under me.”
Her chest tightened. “You can trust me. I assure you.” She didn’t want to pull out mention of her father, former police chief for the PWCPD, but she would if it would help.
“I feel I can trust you, Detective.”
With those words, she could breathe again.
He went on. “But what I’ve been told by others about this case doesn’t completely line up with what you’re saying.”
Tight ball… right in her chest. She didn’t like Graves, but her intention here wasn’t to steamroll her. “I’m sure whatever you were told was said with good intentions.”
