Page 22 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Rory stared at his phone and filled Eden in on the rest of the conversation that he’d just had with the detective. “Vernon volunteered to have one of the uniformed officers who was already on the scene at her house escort Diedre here to Renegade Canyon. I took him up on that. She’ll be here soon.”

“Good,” Eden muttered.

Rory could practically hear Eden making a mental tally of what was on their slate today. Diedre was yet one more thing on their to-do list on what would undoubtedly turn out to be a hellishly long day. A day that had barely gotten started.

But he didn’t have an option when it came to talking to Diedre.

He had to get her in for an official interrogation not only about the knife, but also because of what Frank had said about them being in a relationship.

Along with that, he needed to confirm if Frank had been telling the truth.

Because if he’d lied, then that put the guilty spotlight right on the man since he could have planted the knife in Diedre’s house.

However, if Diedre was the killer, if she was the one responsible for those three deaths and for Eden and him nearly being killed, then Rory wanted to know so he could lock her up. That could prevent others from being killed.

Including Eden.

She was holding it together, but he could see the strain in her eyes. And the fear. Not for herself but because Tyler was potentially in danger as well. That was the worst kind of pressure for a parent.

Even though the timing sucked, he closed the office door and pulled her to him.

He didn’t kiss her. Nope. Not nearly enough time for that, but the hug was enough to steady him some.

When he eased back from her, he thought it’d done the same for her.

They would definitely need steadying because of what they had to do next.

“Did Vernon say if Diedre admitted that the knife was hers?” she asked.

He shook his head. “She insisted someone planted it, that maybe we even did it when we visited her.”

Eden sighed. “She’s reaching. We weren’t out of her sight the whole time we were there at her place.” She paused. “But Helen was.”

“Yep.” His aunt had come into the room while Eden and he had been talking to Diedre, so she would have had free rein of the rest of the house before her entrance. “And we’ll need to talk to her today, too.”

To get that ball rolling, Rory located his aunt’s number in his contacts and called her. Because it was still fairly early, he figured the call might go to voice mail, but she answered right away.

“Are Eden and you all right?” Helen asked, but there was no real concern, or even interest, in her voice. It seemed more like something she should say rather than something she especially wanted to know. “I heard there was another murder.”

Rory didn’t bother to huff. Yeah, bad news was definitely traveling fast. “We weren’t hurt,” he simply said, since they were far from all right. “But I need to talk to you.”

“About what?” she asked after a long pause.

“Some questions have come up, and I want to discuss a couple of things with you.” Rory made sure he used his cop’s tone so she’d know this was all business. “How soon can you come to the police station?”

He heard Helen take in a long breath. “I can be there in about ten minutes. I’m in Renegade Canyon,” she added. Judging from the background, he thought she was in her car.

Now, it was his turn to pause. “Were you visiting your friend in the hospital, the one who had an appendectomy?” Rory asked. “What was her name again?” he added.

“Sheila Mendoza,” Helen informed him without hesitation. “But, no, I wasn’t visiting her. I’m on the way to the cemetery to put flowers on my sister’s grave. She’s been on my mind a lot lately, and I brought her some roses.”

Rory knew that Helen had done that in the past, but he didn’t like the timing of this visit. Then again, with Ike being front and center in the investigation, his mother had been on Rory’s mind, too. So maybe Helen was telling the truth.

Maybe.

“I’ll be at the police station soon,” Helen assured him and ended the call.

Rory didn’t put his phone away, though. He accessed the database that had contact info for most people in town, and he located the number he was looking for.

“You’re calling Sheila Mendoza,” Eden murmured after glancing at what he was doing. She moved closer, so she’d be able to hear.

“Yep. I want to hear what she has to say…” He had to stop when Sheila answered on the first ring.

Since he didn’t know the woman that well, Rory made the greeting more formal. “Mrs. Mendoza, this is Deputy Rory McClennan.”

“Rory,” she said, sounding a whole lot friendlier than Helen had been. “I didn’t expect to hear from someone in the police station. Is everything all right?”

Maybe there was someone who hadn’t heard about the murder after all. “I just want to verify something. Are you still in the hospital?”

“Oh, no. I’m home. I just had that one night’s stay. Nothing serious. Why?” she asked.

Rory evaded the question and jumped straight to the reason for the call. “Did my Aunt Helen visit you while you were still in the hospital?”

“Yes, she did,” Sheila confirmed. “That was so sweet of her.”

So Helen was telling the truth. That nixed his theory that Helen had murdered Brenda and then shown up at the hospital only to give herself a possible alibi if someone had indeed spotted her near or in town.

“A sweet surprise,” Sheila went on.

“A surprise, how?” Rory persisted.

“Well, I mean because I didn’t know she was coming.

And we’re not exactly friends. Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “she’s always been friendly enough to me, but I hadn’t actually talked to her since your mom’s funeral, and that was just to say hello and how sorry I was.

It was so kind of her to think of visiting me on a trip to town. ”

“She didn’t mention if visiting you was the main reason for her trip?” Rory queried.

“Golly, I don’t think so. She just showed up, and we chatted for a while before she left.”

Rory had to put a mental question mark by his earlier conclusion of Helen telling the truth. The visit could have still been to cover up her presence in town.

“Was there, uh, anything unusual about Helen during that visit?” Rory went on. “I mean, did she seem upset or nervous? How did she look?”

He wasn’t surprised when the woman didn’t answer right away. She was no doubt wondering what this was all about. “I guess she seemed fine. She looked all right, too. What happened? What’s wrong? Did something happen to Helen?”

“Helen is okay,” he assured her. “I’m just trying to pinpoint a lot of different people’s movements that night, and you’ve helped with that. Thank you.”

He wrapped up the call with Sheila and then immediately groaned. “I should have found an excuse to have Helen’s clothes and hands tested for blood when we saw her in the hospital.”

Eden rolled her eyes. “There would have been no legal excuse for that. Helen wasn’t even a suspect at the time.”

“No, but she should have been. I should have had her on the suspect list right from the start, because of her extreme hatred for Ike. My mother’s death could have been the trigger that set all of these murders in motion.”

“Maybe, but why not just go after Ike?” Eden asked, clearly playing devil’s advocate.

“Having him rot in jail would be a lot more punishment,” Rory replied.

Of course, that didn’t explain why Helen hadn’t just gone after Diedre first since Diedre had caused Rory’s mom so much pain by having an affair with Ike.

Unless…

“Maybe Helen is planning on setting up Diedre for the murders, too,” he muttered. “That way, she could maybe get both Diedre and Ike behind bars.”

Eden didn’t disagree this time, and he could see her processing that theory. It had plenty of merit, but obviously there were some pieces that didn’t fit, and Eden voiced one of them.

“Why kill Carter?” she asked.

Rory had to shrug. “The man liked to take pictures, so maybe Helen thought he’d taken an incriminating one of her. Or one that would inadvertently give Diedre an alibi that Helen wouldn’t want her to have.”

Again, Eden didn’t disagree, but she also didn’t have a chance to dole out any more potential questions because they heard the voices in the squad room and turned in that direction.

It was Ike’s legal team, and Stephen Arnette was making a beeline toward them.

Judging from his irate expression and body language, Rory figured he knew what the lawyer was about to say.

“I demand that my client be immediately released,” Arnette snarled.

Yep, that’s exactly what Rory figured Arnette would demand. “It’s not happening. Your client was found at the scene with someone who’d been murdered. At minimum, he needs to be questioned and give a statement.”

Arnette’s eyes narrowed. “Is he under arrest?”

“Not at the moment, but it’s a possibility,” Rory admitted. He didn’t add more because he saw Helen come in. “Your client is in interview room one,” he said, and he stepped around the team to head toward Helen.

Helen’s eyes weren’t narrowed, not yet, anyway, but her hard expression made it clear she wasn’t happy to be here.

“This way,” Rory said, leading her toward Grace’s office. Thankfully, the lawyers were already on their way to interview so Rory didn’t have to deal with them.

Once he had Helen inside the office, he closed the door and motioned for her to take a seat next to the desk.

Eden took the one next to her, causing Helen to flick her a glance that seemed to be tinged with annoyance.

He wasn’t positive what Helen’s beef was with Eden, but he suspected it was because Eden was the mother of his child.

Any association with him would spur Helen’s disapproval, since his aunt blamed him for not doing more to save his mother’s life.

“Do you need me to go over your Miranda rights again?” Rory asked, leaning his hip against the edge of the desk.