Page 13 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

“Yes,” Diedre confirmed. “And we even tried a second time to encourage Mellie to join us.” She turned her attention to Eden. “After all, Ike was horrible to her for years. But Mellie turned us down again.”

Eden couldn’t ask the question fast enough. “When was this?”

“A couple of days after the lunch,” Helen offered. “Yes, the timing is terrible, isn’t it? I mean with Mellie being murdered shortly thereafter.”

The timing was indeed suspicious, and it made Eden wonder if Mellie had said something when she had turned them down. Something that had spooked Helen, Diedre or Brenda. If the three had brought up anything about framing Ike for a crime, no way would Mellie have gone along with that.

Had that been the reason Mellie was murdered?

Sweet heaven, it was possible.

“So why are you here now?” Rory asked, turning toward his aunt. “More planning on how to get back at Ike?”

Helen shook her head. “No, Diedre is worried about being killed. It’s obvious Ike is on a murder spree, and we’re both in danger.”

Eden wasn’t so sure about Ike’s involvement, but the spree part might be what was happening. Still, it didn’t mean Ike was behind it. The enemy of my enemy is my friend didn’t always pan out.

And that put Helen at the top of their suspect list.

“Tell me about the altercation you had with Ike,” Rory said to his aunt. “The one that involved a knife.”

Helen’s mouth went tight. “Altercation? Is that what he called it?”

“No, a witness did,” Rory replied.

“Dutton,” Helen grumbled. “Well, if altercation is the label you want to put on it, fine, but it was just another round of Ike being Ike.” She gathered her breath.

“I stopped by the house to pick up a locket that I’d given my sister years ago.

She’d given me an identical one, and I wanted the set as a memento.

Ike started slinging insults at me, and when I felt threatened by him, I took out my knife. ”

“Threatened?” Eden asked. “How?”

“Getting in my face. Telling me I was a whiny brat.” She paused. “And then he said my sister hated my guts, that she would make fun of me whenever I wasn’t around.”

Eden could see that the last insult had truly gotten to the woman. Even now, there was a mix of both anger and hurt on her face.

“My sister loved me, and I loved her,” Helen went on, “and I was sick of Ike and his toxic ways. So I drew the knife, not intending to use it. For just a second, I wanted him to be afraid.”

“And was he?” Eden persisted.

Helen shook her head, sighed. “No, he punched my hand, and I dropped the knife. He picked it up, and I thought he was going to use it against me, so I left.”

That meshed with the account Dutton had told them. Of course, Dutton hadn’t known what Helen’s actual motives were for pulling that knife. It was possible the woman had indeed planned on harming Ike.

“What happened to the knife?” Rory asked.

“I have no idea. You’d have to ask Ike about that.” She stopped, the anger overtaking the hurt in her expression. “Is he using that knife to try to set me up?”

“As far as I know, there’s no proof whatsoever that Ike or anyone else is trying to set you up,” Rory told her.

That was true. No proof. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

Rory’s phone dinged with a text, and when he glanced at it, he stood. “All right. If you recall anything else about that lunch or if Ike attempts to contact you, please let us know.”

Helen didn’t react to that, but Diedre seemed relieved that the questions were over. They were for now. But Eden figured they’d be talking to Helen and Diedre again very soon.

“That was a text from Sanchez, the CSI,” Rory said once they were outside. “The bugs they found at Ike’s were tapped into his Wi-Fi, and they’ve traced the output from the eavesdropping devices to an internet server.”

“To Helen?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, to Brenda.”

Eden didn’t bother to groan, and that meant the listening devices couldn’t be used in the case against Ike.

Or Helen.

It was essentially a dead end, leaving them to speculate about what had possibly happened.

“So if we’re to believe Helen and Diedre,” Eden said as they got into the cruiser, “Brenda arranged that lunch to gain support to launch a smear campaign against Ike. She might or might not have gotten that support. Either way, she bought the burner and set up those fake texts that she was presumably going to make sure the police saw.”

“She could have brought them in when asking for protection because she was in fear for her life,” Rory suggested. “Then, she planted the bugs and waited until she was certain Ike didn’t have an alibi, and she attacked Mellie.”

Yes, Eden could see that playing out. Mellie wouldn’t have been afraid of opening the door to Brenda.

“She waited for the cops to arrest Ike,” Rory went on as he drove away from the house, “but when that didn’t happen, she could have planned another attack on Helen or Diedre.”

“But someone killed Brenda first,” Eden said, finishing.

She would have said more had she not spotted the young blond-haired man by the subdivision gate. He was frantically trying to wave them down.

“Hell,” Rory muttered. “I recognize him from his photo. That’s the man who was stalking Brenda.”

“Carter Rooney,” Eden related. SAPD had interviewed him after Brenda’s death, but Carter was also on the list of people they needed to see.

“Get your gun ready,” Rory told her.

She did, and he pulled to a stop next to Carter, who immediately came closer. Rory didn’t lower the window, and they both gave Carter a once-over. If he was carrying a weapon, he had it well hidden.

“Deputy McClennan?” he asked.

Rory nodded but still didn’t put down the window.

“Good. Because I have something you need to see.” The man took out his phone. “I believe I have proof that Diedre was the one who murdered Brenda.”