Page 23 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

“No. I haven’t suddenly developed amnesia,” she said. “Just ask your questions, and if I decide I want my lawyer here, I’ll call him. But please be quick. Your mother’s flowers are still in my car, and I don’t want them to wilt.”

He didn’t bother to point out that they’d soon wilt in this heat. Or remind her that his mom hadn’t actually been a flower lover because of her allergies. No need to dive into the petty stuff since he had bigger fish to fry.

“What’s this about?” Helen demanded.

“The knife. Your knife,” he amended. “The one you pulled on Ike during the middle of an argument.”

She huffed. “I already explained that I didn’t pull it on him.

That makes it sound as if I planned on attacking him.

I didn’t. I simply wanted to scare him. It didn’t work.

He ripped the knife from my hand and took it.

” Helen leaned forward in the chair, pinning her gaze on Rory.

“And once again, I have to know if Ike is using that knife to set me up. Did he use it to kill Brenda and that dead man you found earlier?”

Rory went with a similar response to the one he’d given her at Diedre’s. “No proof of that. But I do have proof that Ike had the knife returned to you.”

That was close to the truth, anyway. The photo Ike’s assistant had taken showed something in an envelope being left on Helen’s doorstep.

Helen stared at him and shook her head. “He didn’t, and if Ike said he did, he’s lying.”

“Proof,” Rory repeated. “The knife was left at your house.”

Helen shook her head again. “No, it wasn’t. Or if it was, I never received it.” Her denial seemed genuine.

Seemed.

“If the knife was left at my house, then it was stolen,” Helen went on. “Or else Ike faked sending it. I’ll say it again—Ike will use that knife to try to set me up. Or murder me with it. Why haven’t you arrested him?”

“Because I need proof for that,” Rory said, honestly. “And so far, it looks more as if someone is setting up Ike, not you.”

If looks could kill, Helen would have ended him right then, right there. “Are you accusing me of murder?”

“Not accusing. Asking,” he clarified. “Did you kill Mellie and Brenda?” He didn’t add Carter’s name since the man’s family hadn’t been notified yet.

“No, I did not,” she snapped, and she stood. “And if that’s all you want—”

“It’s not,” Rory said, stepping in front of her to block her from leaving. “Have you had any recent conversations with anyone about explosives?”

For just a second, Helen got that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, but she quickly reined in her shock. “Why do you ask?”

“Just answer the question,” he insisted.

She took her time doing that. “Frank Mott. He told you I was asking about that.” Helen waved a dismissive hand. “I certainly didn’t want to know so I could blow something up.” She paused again. “I was trying to make a connection with him, all right?”

Rory was sure he looked confused, because he was. “Excuse me?”

Not shock this time from Helen, but what he thought was embarrassment.

“A connection. I wanted to talk about something that I thought would interest him since he has all these guns and military magazines around his house. Frank and I have been seeing each other, but he seemed to be losing interest so I wanted to…connect,” she explained.

Rory wasn’t sure he bought that, but he would now need to ask Frank about those magazines. They might turn out to be nothing, but since the killer had used IEDs twice now, that was definitely an angle that needed to be investigated.

“Would you agree to having your home searched?” Rory asked her.

Muscles stirred and tightened in Helen’s jaw.

“And what exactly would you hope to find in such a search?” But she didn’t wait for an answer.

She began to snap out the possibilities.

“A knife that I’ve already told you I don’t have?

Clothes with Brenda’s and Mellie’s blood on them?

A printed-out confession of crimes I didn’t do?

Or maybe you’ll actually find something that Ike planted to try to get back at me. How about all of the above?”

Rory ignored her sarcasm, but if she was innocent she shouldn’t have anything to hide. Well, unless she was truly worried that something had been planted. If so, they needed to find whatever that was and try to sort everything out.

“If you don’t agree to a search, I could request a warrant,” Rory told her.

Helen didn’t react. She just seemed to hold her ground, though he figured there was a firestorm of anger boiling inside her.

“Get the warrant,” she growled. “And I truly hope your mother isn’t watching you right now from her grave because she’d be sick at what her son is trying to do to her only sister.”

Rory had a comeback for that. “She’d be even sicker if her sister didn’t cooperate with a murder investigation that could save lives. Maybe even Eden’s and mine.”

Helen opened her mouth to say something, but with her jaw clenched, she was going to have trouble speaking. Maybe that’s why she didn’t add anything else for several long moments.

“Is there something else you want to badger me with, or am I free to leave this witch hunt?” Helen demanded.

Rory glanced at Eden to see if she had any other questions, and when she shook her head, he gave Helen a nod. She didn’t waste a second throwing open the door and heading out.

And nearly ran into Diedre.

The two women seemed to startle each other, and then they both stood there for a couple of seconds as if waiting for the other to speak.

“Your turn in the box,” Helen finally muttered before she walked away.

Part of Rory wanted to go after his aunt because, after all, she was his mother’s sister. But he had no idea what to say to her. He certainly couldn’t assure her that everything would be all right because there was a killer still at large.

And that killer could be Helen.

However, if it turned out not to be her, then he was going to owe her an apology when this was all over. But for now, he had to do his job, and part of that job was turning over every stone to stop a killer from striking again.

“You didn’t say anything to Helen about Frank and me, did you?” Diedre whispered, casting an uneasy glance at Helen from over her shoulder.

Rory was about to answer and let her know that he hadn’t, but he saw Livvy making her way to him, so he and Eden stepped out of the office to see what Livvy wanted.

“Wait in the office,” Rory told Diedre. “We won’t be long.”

Livvy waited until Diedre was out of earshot before she spoke. “The ME just called,” Livvy whispered, “and he used facial recognition to confirm that the body is Carter Rooney.”

Not a surprise since both he and Eden had recognized him, but the official confirmation from the ME was a necessary step in this process.

“Did the ME find anything else?” Rory asked.

Livvy shook her head. “Not yet. He hasn’t actually examined the body yet. The bomb squad just arrived, and they’re checking the area first. Once it’s clear, he’ll go in and do his initial assessment before the body is taken to the morgue for a postmortem.”

Good. Rory didn’t want any of the responders at risk because of other IEDs. Which made him think of something Helen had said.

“See if Bennie has the time to do some more digging into Frank’s background,” Rory said. “Helen told us that he was into explosives, and I’d like to know if that’s true. And if so, just how into it is he. I need to know if Frank has the expertise to have made those explosive devices.”

Again, Livvy nodded. “You also want me to try to get a search warrant for Frank’s house?”

Rory thought of the workload that was already on Livvy since she’d be the one who had to deal with Ike. “Have Bennie do that, too. And we need to try to get a search warrant for Helen’s house.”

Livvy sighed. Not because she was shocked by the news. She was aware Helen was a suspect. But the sigh was no doubt because the woman was his aunt, and that meant two of his family members were suspects in a triple murder.

“I’ll let Bennie know,” Livvy assured him, and then she showed him the sticky note she was holding. It had the names and contact number for Reva and Harry Rooney. “They’re Carter’s parents, but they live in Tucson.”

Part of Rory was relieved that he wouldn’t have to be doing a death notification, but it also meant losing out on the opportunity to ask the couple questions about their son. Still, he figured the Tucson cops would be doing that and passing along any info they got from the parents.

Rory took the sticky note. “When we’re done talking to Diedre, I’ll call Tucson PD and ask that someone there go out to speak with the Rooneys. Maybe by then, we’ll have a bit more from the ME that I can pass along.”

“All right. Let me touch base with Bennie on getting those warrants and doing the research on Frank,” Livvy said, checking the time, “and then I’ll go in and see if Ike is ready to give a statement. Anything specific you want me to press him on?”

Rory considered that a moment and shook his head. “His lawyers will keep him on a tight leash so he doesn’t say anything incriminating. Or rather, more incriminating since he was found at the scene with a dead body.”

Livvy made a sound of agreement. “I’ll press about that phone call he got,” she replied. “He might remember something that can help her ID whoever it was that called him.”

“Good luck,” Rory told her. “As soon as we’re done interviewing Diedre, we’ll try to observe the rest of the interview with Ike.”

Livvy glanced in the direction of Grace’s office. “Will you be arresting Diedre?” she asked.

“It’s possible. The knife was found in her house, but we have no confirmation yet that it was actually the murder weapon.”

But there was the human blood that’d been found on it. That and the fact the knife was technically in her possession were enough to make an arrest. Rory wanted more, though. Hell, he wanted a confession so he could put an end to this nightmare.