“Okay, but say Ayala was setting you up. He must have realized you’d show up before he was done. Seems odd that he’d wait till so close to your quitting time to make his move.”
“I left early, remember?”
“Did you see the note he pinned on her, the one that said, ‘Fixed you’?”
“No. What does it mean?”
Mackie studied AJ, not answering.
“Do you suspect me of something, Clint? Is that why you’re grilling me?”
“Isn’t it clear by now that AJ couldn’t have been involved?” Shea was pissed. “I guess next you’re going to say he was driving the truck that ran Mom and me off the road.”
“What truck? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, AJ.” Shea was stricken at having blindsided him again.
This time Dru explained, making less of the encounter with the truck than it had actually been. Looking at Mackie when she finished, she said, “The police are looking into it.”
“Was it Erik?” AJ’s gaze was locked on Mackie.
“We don’t know at this point, or whether there’s a connection to Erik.”
“You can be damn sure there’s a connection, Captain,” AJ said. He struggled to sit up. “I’ll find him—”
“AJ, no,” Shea said. She bent close, whispering to him. Dru caught the gist of it, that Shea wanted AJ to let the police handle it. “If he hurts you,” Dru heard AJ say, “I’ll kill the son of a bitch.” But finally he gave in and settled back, white-faced, tight-jawed.
Mackie said, “I’ve got to tell you, AJ, we’ve got a ton of evidence that suggests you have some involvement.”
Shea started to protest.
Mackie ignored her. “For instance, how do you explain the phone call you made to your mother asking her to bring you your passport?”
“It wasn’t me. I was in no shape to call anyone, not to mention the last I looked, there was no phone service at the fort.” AJ turned to Jeb. “You put in a phone out there, Granddad?”
Mackie wasn’t amused. He flicked his glance to Lily. “She swore it was you.”
“I don’t believe I swore it was,” Lily said.
Mackie returned his attention to AJ. “We have witnesses said they saw you at the bus station in Dallas, where your laptop and cell phone were recovered. Any idea how they got there?”
“None. I told you Erik took my phone. He must have gotten my laptop, too.” AJ indicated his leg. “Anyway, if I couldn’t get myself down the ladder at the fort except by falling on my ass, how would I make it to Dallas?”
“We have another witness says you were talking to a pilot at the Lake Hershey airfield yesterday. You going to tell me that wasn’t you, either?”
“Again, Clint, how would I get there?”
“Maybe you and Ayala are in this together.”
Dru’s breath caught. Her heart slid against the wall of her chest at hearing her own suspicion so baldly stated.
AJ stared at Mackie, as gape-mouthed and astonished as a fresh-caught fish. Shea and Lily were dumbfounded.
He seemed oblivious. “Maybe these girls, Kate and Becca, had something on you guys. You did know, didn’t you, that Becca Westin was pregnant? Was it your kid? Ayala’s kid? What was going on there?”
“Are you serious? Becca was pregnant?” AJ’s eyes shot to Shea’s.
“It’s true,” she said.
Dru wondered at the tremor in Shea’s voice. Was her faith at last beginning to crumble?
“They’re waiting for DNA test results to say for sure who the father is,” Shea said.
“Could I have some more water?” AJ asked.
Shea poured it, handing it to him to drink this time. His hand shook, taking it from her.
“The death of the fetus makes it a double homicide,” Mackie said. “So whoever is responsible is looking at three counts of murder.” He pocketed his cell phone, looking satisfied, Dru thought, as if in shaking everyone up, in putting them on the defense, he’d gotten the exact result he’d wanted.
Dru said, “Charla Kincaid might know where Erik is.”
“I talked to her,” Mackie said. “She indicated she hadn’t seen him since this morning.”
“You know Erik went there, that he volunteered to give her parents the news about their daughter’s death. Why would he do that if he’s responsible for it?”
“What are you trying to say, Mom?”
Dru put up her hands. “Nothing. I’m not trying to say anything.” But even as she spoke, she was thinking how little sense Erik’s involvement made. Was she the only one who saw it?
“I think I saw lights on at Winona’s house this morning,” Lily said. “If she’s home from Oaxaca, maybe she’s spoken to Erik.”
Captain Mackie said, “I’ll get someone out there. We’re issuing a BOLO for Ayala, too.”
“You need to find him, Clint,” Jeb said, startling everyone.
He’d been so quiet. Even Dru had forgotten his presence.
“The state he’s in, there’s no telling what he’ll do.” Jeb crossed the room to the door, and turning on the threshold, he addressed Dru. “I’d keep her close if I was you,” he said, nodding at Shea.
19
Lily followed her dad into the hallway, taking his elbow. “What was that about? Do you know where Erik is, what he’s done?”
He shook her off. “Shea needs to be careful, is all. If Erik’s behind this—look, he’s already killed two of the girls in her wedding party. It just makes sense—”
“Lily? Jeb?”
They turned at the sound of Paul’s voice. “How’s AJ? How did the surgery go?”
“Better than expected,” Lily said. “He’s doing really well, considering.”
Paul’s embrace, his kiss on Lily’s cheek, were perfunctory. He shook hands with her dad.
“I’ll let Lily fill you in,” her dad said when Paul began asking the litany of questions that was inevitable. “I’ve got to tend the horses. I’ll see you both later.”
“I’ve got a couple of fires burning and may have to drive back to Dallas tonight.” Paul avoided Lily’s gaze.
She put her hand on her dad’s arm. “What you said in there—”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he told her, and he left them, walking quickly. There was something agitated in his steps, in his posture.
Lily felt uneasy, watching him, but at Paul’s prompt, she walked with him toward AJ’s room, filling him in, giving him the gist of AJ’s statement to Mackie, and the captain’s seeming doubt of its credibility.
“You know, I always felt like Erik was jealous of AJ,” Paul said when she’d finished.
“You’re the only one.” Paul’s differing opinion annoyed Lily. “Even AJ is shocked, devastated, really. He thought of Erik like a brother.”
“Even brothers can be jealous of one another, Lily. Maybe you’re too close to the situation—to the two of them—to see what’s really going on here.”
“But whatever is motivating Erik—it goes a skosh beyond jealousy, don’t you think?” She kept searching her mind for a cause in Erik’s past, something large enough, horrible enough, to make him behave in such a monstrous way, but there was nothing. Times they’d spent together at the ranch, the boys had been treated the same. They’d been assigned chores and paid equally for them. They’d been equally praised and fairly disciplined when they broke the rules. Her dad, especially, knew about boys, knew the firm, steady hand they needed. Had Lily been asked, she would have said Erik looked up to her dad, idolized him, in fact. Now she wondered if she knew Erik at all, if she had ever known him.
“Is that Mackie?” Paul asked, nodding at the uniformed man exiting AJ’s room.
“Yes,” Lily said.
“I’ll get a uniformed officer up here on the door,” the police captain said, joining them.
“Why? Do you think AJ is going to try to escape?” Sarcasm sharpened Lily’s tone.
“It’s a precaution,” Mackie answered. “For his p
rotection as much as anything. And Shea’s, too. She says she’s staying.”
“In addition to being the captain of the WPD,” Lily informed Paul, “Clint is also a longtime friend of my dad’s, and even though he’s known AJ most of his life and knows the sort of person he is, he thinks AJ was involved in the girls’ murders, that he and Erik were in collusion. Never mind that AJ was shot and left to bleed to death.”
“Really.” The word from Paul was caustic.
“This is my husband, Clint,” Lily said. “Paul Isley.”
Clint’s nod was curt. “We can’t rule out any possibility at this point, Mr. Isley. Both your son and Erik Ayala were involved romantically with Ms. Westin. They both had ties to Ms. Kincaid.”
“So if Ayala and AJ are in it together, explain to me how my son ended up shot? Or maybe you think AJ shot himself?” Paul glanced at Lily. “Now there’s an idea.”
“They might have argued,” Clint said reasonably. “Any number of things could have gone wrong between them. Like I said before, nothing can be ruled out.”
There was a measure of silence, as if Clint was giving Paul time to consider the possibilities. But he didn’t need time, did he? Lily glanced at him, waiting for him to say there wasn’t a smidgen of evidence to suggest AJ had played any role in the murders of the two girls.
Instead, Paul said, “Let me tell you something, Mackie,” and Lily tensed with misgiving at his arrogance. “If anything happens to my son, or his fiancée, it’s on you. I’ll have your job. Do you understand me? I’ll see that you never work in law enforcement again.”
Clint’s eyes hardened, but his tone was civil when he said, “I understand you’re upset.”
Paul flung up a hand, dismissing the lawman’s effort at goodwill, even the man himself as unworthy. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see AJ.”
Lily was embarrassed by Paul’s blustering, yet on another level she felt it, too, the need for ultimatums: Protect my son or else.
“I’ll be in touch,” Mackie said.
“The truck,” Lily said, “that nearly ran Shea and Dru off the road earlier—”
“What about it?”
“Were you aware that Becca and Kate had a similar experience in Dallas right before Becca was killed?”
“We’re following up with the Dallas PD on it, Lily. Trust me, we’re doing our job regardless of what you, your husband, or Jeb thinks. If there’s a connection to the traffic altercation or anything else, we’ll find it. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Not if you can’t look farther than AJ, you won’t.”
“I’m not out to get him, okay? I want the truth like everyone else.”
Mackie sounded sincere enough. The trouble, Lily thought, watching him walk away, was that people could say anything, and when it came to saving themselves, most of them did.
Lily was outside AJ’s room and just about to step through the door when she caught the mention of Edward’s name and realized AJ and Paul were discussing him. She retreated, turning to lean against the wall, aware of her heart beating, the flush that warmed her neck and face.
“He did a good job for me before, Dad,” she heard AJ say. “If I need legal help, I don’t see a reason to find anyone else.”
Lily didn’t trust herself to join AJ in his defense of Edward. She wondered if he knew that AJ was safe. Looking down the corridor, she wondered if she could steal a few minutes to call him. But then she heard Dru say, “Shea told me you were arrested before,” in a sharp, accusatory voice, and she straightened. No, you aren’t doing this now.
“That’s got nothing to do with anything,” Paul said, barely glancing at Lily when she crossed the threshold. “The charges were dismissed.”
“She knows that,” Shea said. “Mom, I told you—”
“It’s unsettling.” Dru came away from the window. “I mean, that he was charged with murder before, and now this.”
“He was cleared—” Lily began.
“Please, Mom.” Shea’s eyes on her mother’s were half-angry, half-pleading.
Dru fanned a hand at her. Whatever. “I think we should go, let AJ rest.”
“I’m staying,” Shea said, “but you go. I know you’re tired.”
“I can’t leave you here, Shea. Not when we have no idea where Erik is, assuming he’s the one behind all of this.” Dru looked hard at AJ.
“He is, Mrs. Gallagher, as sick as it makes me. Everything I told Captain Mackie is the truth. I wish you could believe me. I wish I knew where Erik was. I want him caught as bad as you do.”
“I’m sorry”—Dru didn’t sound at all as if she was—“but I’m not taking chances with my daughter’s life.”
“Hold on—”
Paul began to speak even as Lily said, “That’s unfair—”
Shea’s voice overrode them both. “It’s not your call to make, Mom. It’s mine. Please, go home.”
It was a moment before Dru conceded. Lily watched as she lowered her gaze, then her shoulders. She let go a sigh, and Lily had the sense it was a struggle for her—giving up her parental authority. But Shea was grown now. It wasn’t as if Dru had a choice.
“I’m sorry.” Dru repeated her apology, crossing the room, pausing at the door to look back at Shea. “I’ll be the first to admit it if I’m wrong.”
An awkward silence lingered in her wake.
AJ broke it. “I didn’t have anything to do with any of this.” He was looking at his father, and following his gaze, Lily saw it, too, the flash of Paul’s doubt, the lack of faith that was very like Dru’s lack of faith that mere seconds ago Paul had decried.
Lily set her hand on AJ’s shoulder. “Your dad and I know that, honey.” She smoothed her voice over the rough saw of her fury.
“You need legal counsel, AJ.” Paul was equally cool. “The sooner the better. I’ll make some calls.”
“No, Dad—”
“Paul?” Lily interrupted. “Since Shea’s here to keep an eye on AJ, I think we should go.” She divided her glance between AJ and Shea. “Captain Mackie promised to have a uniformed officer outside the door. You’ll both be safe.”
“Thank you,” Shea said. “Thank you for letting me stay.”
“You didn’t cancel the wedding, did you?” AJ asked.
Lily exchanged a look with Shea and saw she was as unprepared as Lily to respond.
“We talked about it,” Shea said tentatively.
“You haven’t changed your mind?” AJ sounded panicky.
“No. No!” Shea repeated. “Never, it’s just—”
“Well, thank God.” He kissed her hand, set it against his cheek. “Because Doc Matthews says I’ll get out of here in a couple of days. I can get down the aisle on crutches. I’ll crawl if I have to, but we are getting married. Two weeks from tomorrow, right? Today is Friday?”
“Yes, and I want to, AJ, more than anything, but so much has happened.”
“I know, but—”
“It’s just—people are—they think—”
“I don’t care a damn what they think,” he said.
But Lily sensed he knew feeling in town was running against him. As Clint had said, the evidence was there to support AJ’s guilt. Paul thought AJ needed legal counsel. Even Lily had wavered. Only Shea had remained steadfast in her faith, and Lily loved her for it.
“Our life together—it’s all I thought about while I was trapped at the fort.” AJ’s voice was low and rough. “You’re my heart, babe.”
Lily glanced at Paul, but he was intent on his phone. When he looked up, she gestured toward the door, launching into a flurry of good-byes. She walked with Paul to the elevator. He pushed the “Down” button.
She shot him a heated look.
“What?”
“How do you suppose it makes AJ feel, knowing you think he’s guilty?”
“I can’t be concerned about his feelings, Lily. I want to keep him out of prison. Don’t you?”
She didn’t answer.
/> He punched the elevator button again. “I guess I’ll come to the ranch,” he said.
“Fine,” Lily said. “I’ll pick up something for dinner.”
20
Dru was sitting at the table in the breakfast nook early on Saturday morning, an untouched mug of coffee at her elbow, when Shea peeked in at her from the back door, looking worn-out, happy, contrite.
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“I was never mad, Shea,” Dru answered. “Worried and scared, but not mad.”
“There was a policeman outside AJ’s door the whole night.”
“Who brought you home?”
“Vanessa. I called her and Leigh last night to tell them about Erik so they’d know to be on the lookout for him.”
“You haven’t heard anything else?”
“No. I’m going to take a quick shower and go back to the hospital—that is, if I can borrow your car?”
“The service department is bringing over a loaner for you later this morning, if you can wait.”
Shea’s face fell.
“Fine,” Dru said. “I’ll drive the loaner.”
“AJ wants to go ahead with the wedding.” Shea sat down. “They had him up on crutches this morning. They’ll probably discharge him on Monday.”
Dru was nonplussed. “But the funerals—Becca’s and Kate’s funerals—will be next week, if not sooner. No one will want to come to a wedding after that.”
Shea looked away, blinking, clearing her throat. “Is there coffee? Do you want a refill?” Picking up Dru’s mug, she went into the kitchen.
“Maybe rather than cancel, we could postpone the wedding for a month or so.” Dru waited, and when Shea didn’t respond, she said, “I don’t see how we can have a wedding when Erik is still out there. It’s not safe.”
“I don’t think he’s the one who ran us off the road yesterday, Mom. I think he probably left town on Thursday after he did his little acting job at the ranch.” Shea brought the coffee to the table and sat down again. “The detectives from Dallas came to question AJ last night, and they said every law enforcement agency in Texas is looking for Erik. If he was around here, they’d have found him by now.”
“Well, maybe he’s just that good at hiding. I hope you won’t let your guard down.”
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