Page 50 of Last Seen Alive
“A few, I guess. Why?”
“Was she ever called Roo?”
He pressed his lips and shook his head. “Never heard that one. Why are you here anyway? You mentioned an investigation and brought up Claire… And you never did say what unit you’re with.”
“Homicide.” Trent had a feeling that was all it would take to get the wheels turning in Austin’s mind.
“Homicide,” Austin parroted as if he needed to say it out loud for it to sink in. He swallowed and licked his lips. “And you are asking about my wife’s crash… Did someone cause her accident on purpose?” He grimaced like a sharp pain bit his side, and maybe one had.
“That we don’t know. What we know is Claire was murdered last Friday night and your wife died Thursday. They were close, as you just told us. We think that theremaybe some connection between their deaths.” Trent presented the possibility as tactfully as he could.
“Like I said, they haven’t been in touch for years.”
“We’re still working to sort everything out,” Amanda said.
Trent considered his next words carefully. “We have reason to believe that Claire may have been caught up in something illegal. Do you have any idea what that might have been?”
“No.”
The next bit would require a skilled dance of diplomacy and persuasiveness. “It seems Claire was involved with something for several years. Your wife ever mention concern about her friend?”
“No, and if Rita had known Claire was up to something illegal, she would have turned her in. My wife was an honorable woman, a university professor, part of the parents’ committee at our children’s school, she volunteered at the homeless shelter—and not just during holidays.”
“We’re not saying your wife had nefarious dealings,” Trent said.
“You’re insinuating it.” Austin stood. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
“We’ll leave.” Amanda stood and motioned for Trent to join her. He didn’t want to go, feeling like they were just getting to the meat of things.
He pulled his card and handed it to Austin. “Call if you think of anything, no matter how small it might seem.”
“Sure.” The way Austin tossed out the word, Trent wouldn’t be holding his breath for a phone call. The man might have suspicions about his wife’s car accident, but he wasn’t ready to navigate the rocky path to see them through.
They got in the car, Trent confirmed the lawyer’s office was their next stop and started driving. “So what was with that look you gave me in there around the time you were talking about the brake failure? It was like there was more you wanted to say but not in front of Flynn.”
“You’re getting spooky-good at reading my mind, you know that?” Her lips set in a thin, straight line, and she turned to him. “Those caps don’t just come off. One, a mechanic is going to tighten the cap. Two, say if there was human error, the brake failure would have happened before her accident took place. Austin told us the car service was a week before. She has two young children and had a job. She would have driven that car several times before the brakes ended up failing.”
“Someone tampered with her car.”
Amanda nodded. “I’d say so.”
“The same person who was behind Logan’s crash in Nebraska?”
“I think so. Also the person who has shown up to kill Claire Hunter.”
He took a right at the light and glanced in his rearview mirror. The sun bounced off the windshield of a silver sedan a few cars back, catching his eye. “What the hell is going on? And who else might be in danger?”
“Please don’t even go there.”
“Oh, I’m not thinking there’s some mad serial killer out there.” Lord knows they’d run into enough of them, and he was a little twitchy around the subject on the best of days. He’d been shot years ago when he’d assisted the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in hunting one in Prince William County.
“Claire and Rita very well may be as far as this thing goes. Let’s hope the killing stops with them.”
“So who’s behind the deaths and why?” He took another right, checked his mirror again, and saw the sedan take the turn on a red.
“The questions,” she said. “Whoever it is, though, they are not beyond taking efforts to cast the light off themselves. Not the way they’d lined everything up to make Logan look guilty. We need to take a close look at everything left at that scene. I’ll text CSI Blair about the lingerie, see if there’s any potential lead there. Maybe we can determine where it was bought and who purchased it.” Amanda pulled out her phone and started pecking away, presumably doing just that.
“Be nice to have ballistics and prints back on that gun in Claire’s purse sooner rather than later too.”
