Page 28 of Beyond Her Reach (Bree Taggert #10)

“Somebody had set up a folding table for food. Everyone brings a dish to these things. Kelly was putting a brownie on her plate, and Harrison asked her if she thought she should be eating it.” Jeff’s mouth flattened in disapproval.

“Sure, she’d gained a few pounds over the years.

Who doesn’t change after a couple of decades?

Harrison doesn’t exactly look the same. Neither do I.

Kelly was a beautiful woman. I thought she was aging just fine. ”

“What did Kelly say?”

“Nothing. But she looked like she was going to cry. Then she pulled herself together and threw out her whole plate. I could tell what he said really hurt her.” He blew air out of his nostrils like an angry horse.

“I should have hit him, but I thought that might make things worse for her. Now it feels like I picked the wrong time to exercise some self-control. I should’ve punched him in the face.

Maybe he would have thought twice about killing her if he knew he had to answer to me. ”

Matt didn’t even try to make sense out of that argument.

Bree followed up. “Why do you think he killed her?”

“He wanted a younger wife, and he already has one in the queue. But Kelly was making the divorce hard. She was pissed off—and rightly so. Plus, she didn’t have any way to support herself. She raised his kids, and he didn’t think he owed her anything.”

“Was she dragging out the renovation to get even?”

“No.” He drew his head back, as if that idea were unfathomable. “Kelly wasn’t like that. But she wanted a fair settlement.”

Bree asked, “How do you know this?”

“They had a fight a few weeks ago, right out in the driveway ’cause she refused to let him inside.

I was in my garage. I heard every word.” He sounded proud of his eavesdropping.

“Harrison didn’t think she was entitled to any money.

He kept saying he earned it all. It should be his.

Kelly was mad—which was better than sad, right?

She refused to sign divorce papers until the settlement was even.

“He was angry. Got in her face and yelled. I almost went over there, but Kelly handled him.” Pride oozed from his words.

“She stood her ground, and he backed off.” His face hardened again.

“So I think he killed her to get her out of the way and so that he didn’t have to split the assets with her.

With Kelly gone, Harrison can sell the house.

He doesn’t have to worry about paying any alimony either. ”

“Did he threaten her?”

Jeff waggled his head back and forth. “Not exactly. He said stuff like, ‘My lawyer will get you out of this house.’” His imitation of Harrison’s voice was decent. Jeff brightened. “At the end, he did say she’d be sorry.”

Weak, but better than nothing.

“Tell me about the other man you saw at Kelly’s house recently,” Bree said.

The question seemed to knock the air out of Jeff.

His whole body slumped. “Drove a fancy car. Dressed in fancy clothes.” A sigh shook him.

“I never expected Kelly to latch on to a rich guy. I know she was tight on money, but I still didn’t expect her to look for money in a man.

But then, maybe she was just ... tired. ”

Bree spread six photographs on the table. All of the men fit Troy Ryder’s basic physical description.

Jeff didn’t hesitate. “Third from the left. My left.”

Bingo. Troy.

Bree asked a few more questions, but Jeff didn’t seem to know anything.

“What’s going to happen to me now?” he asked.

“Deputy Juarez will take you to the jail for processing. You’ll be arraigned. If you can’t afford a lawyer, one will be appointed free of charge.”

Jeff scoffed. “My cousin is a lawyer.”

“Don’t give my deputies any more trouble,” Bree warned.

“I won’t,” Jeff promised. But Matt didn’t have much faith in his self-control.

Now that Bree had gotten all the information she could out of Jeff, Matt asked his one question. “How did you get the bruises on your knuckles?”

Jeff’s expression switched from cooperative to raw rage when he turned his gaze from Bree to Matt.

If looks could kill . . .

Jeff’s voice was cold enough to freeze rain. “I hit them on the concrete when the sheriff knocked me down.”

“They look less recent than that,” Matt pointed out.

“They’re not,” Jeff snapped. He turned back to Bree, his face compliant again.

After Jeff was led away, Matt and Bree walked to the conference room.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Moody as hell.”

“Yes,” she agreed.

“He was definitely too focused on Kelly.”

“Stalkerish, right?”

“Yep.”

“But that doesn’t mean he’s guilty.”

“Nope,” Matt said. “Except for the animal fur found at the scene, the physical evidence suggests Troy is more likely the killer.”

“Harrison lives with cats on his mother’s farm,” Bree added. “For that matter, Kelly could have picked up that fur anywhere and brought it home with her. The fur could be meaningless.”

As was the case with all trace evidence. Anytime there was contact between two objects, trace evidence could be transferred. Kelly could have stopped to pet a stray cat outside the grocery store. Their job in an investigation was to sift through the facts and know which ones mattered.

“Jeff will be out of jail fast,” Bree mused. “And Troy and Harrison are free to do as they please.”

The brutality of Kelly’s murder would haunt Matt forever. “Whoever did that to Kelly Gibson should never see the outside of a prison cell again.”

“Agreed.”

Matt turned to the murder board. “Then we’d better get cracking.”

Before he could even update the board, his phone buzzed. Hoping it was forensics, Matt dug his phone from his pocket. Cady’s picture stared back at him and nerves curled in his belly as he pressed “Answer.” “Tell me you’re Ok .”