Page 24 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Since Rory wanted to do this by the book, he stepped back into the office and motioned for Diedre to follow him. “We’ll talk in interview room three,” he insisted. “This way.”

Diedre did follow Eden and him, but she also glanced back over her shoulder. “Is Helen gone?”

Rory frowned and found it strange that Diedre seemed to be more concerned about Helen than she was an interview with the cops about a murder investigation.

Still, Rory didn’t question her about that.

He led Diedre into interview, and he started the recording.

After he’d recited the time, date and the names of those present, he repeated the Miranda warning to Diedre.

“Did you tell Helen about me seeing Frank?” Diedre asked the moment Rory had finished.

Again, he was puzzled by both the woman’s reaction and why she would be asking that particular question. But since she’d brought up the subject, he decided to go with it for now.

“You’re in a relationship with Frank Mott?” Rory asked.

She huffed. “You know I am. Frank told you, and he called me when the officer was driving me here.”

“What exactly did Frank say?” Because Rory needed to know if Frank had coached Diedre about the info she was telling them.

Annoyance, and concern, put some steel in the muscles of her jaw, and she was also nibbling on her bottom lip. “I don’t remember his exact words, but he said he’d confessed to seeing me. We don’t want Helen to know.”

“And why is that?” Eden asked.

The annoyance went up a notch. “Because Helen can be a spiteful woman, and she’d try to get back at Frank and me. You know she would,” Diedre insisted. “And I don’t want to get on her bad side again.”

Yes, Rory did indeed know that Helen could be spiteful, but he figured Diedre would always be on his aunt’s bad side. Helen was playing nice with Diedre now for the sake of getting back at Ike, but that didn’t mean Helen was finished with hating the woman who was her dead sister’s rival.

“You have to promise you won’t tell Helen about Frank and me,” Diedre added a moment later.

Rory looked her straight in the eyes. “This is a murder investigation,” he said coldly. “And I can’t promise what info will or won’t be divulged.”

Alarm shot through Diedre’s eyes. “But Helen might kill me if she finds out.”

“Kill you for sleeping with a man she had a casual relationship with?” Rory said, lacing his question with some obvious skepticism.

Diedre looked ready to blurt something out, but then she seemed to rethink her response. Rory didn’t give her much time before he fired off another question.

“Did Helen kill Mellie, Brenda and Carter? Is that why you’re afraid she’ll murder you, too?”

Diedre didn’t jump to answer, but that alarm was still there. Rory had no idea if it was fake or real. And if it was warranted. Diedre could be reacting this way simply to make them more suspicious of Helen.

“Have you ever seen Helen be violent toward anyone or anything?” Eden said.

“Well, no,” Diedre admitted after a long pause. “But she did pull that knife on Ike, and because of my affair with Ike, she already has a reason to hate me. I just don’t want her coming after Frank and me.”

Rory took a moment to process that. “Does anyone else know about your relationship with Frank?”

Diedre did more chewing on her lip. “I told Mellie. And then a few months later, I told Brenda,” she finally admitted.

Well, hell. That was either a seriously bad coincidence or a motive for murder, since both women were now dead. But an affair between two consenting adults couldn’t spur a murdering spree.

Could it?

If so, how did Carter fit into it?

When Carter had been in Diedre’s neighborhood, she had said she didn’t know him. And maybe she didn’t. It was possible Carter had photographed something that he shouldn’t have. Like Frank and Diedre together. But Rory still couldn’t wrap his head around that being the motive for these murders.

To test those waters, though, Rory took out his phone and pulled up a photo of Carter to show Diedre. “Tell me about this man.”

Her forehead creased as she studied the picture. “It’s that guy who was near my house. Who is he?” The question might or might not have been genuine.

Rory didn’t give her the name since the next of kin likely hadn’t been notified yet. “He was murdered this morning.”

Diedre’s eyes widened. “That’s the dead man Frank mentioned.” She made a gasping sound. “You think Ike killed him?”

“Someone did,” Rory answered, and it put a knot in his gut to realize he could be seated across from the actual killer.

He let Diedre stew in the silence for a couple of moments while he kept his hard stare on her. She showed no signs of breaking. Then again, she had to be a tough woman to have ever gotten involved with Ike.

Rory decided to shift the conversation in a different direction. “Tell me about the knife that the CSIs found in your house.”

This time, Diedre didn’t hesitate. “It’s not mine, and I have no idea how it got there. Someone must have tried to frame me with it.”

Nothing about that response surprised him, but Rory kept pushing. “I know that Helen has been to your house. What about Frank or Brenda?”

Diedre nodded. “Yes, both have been there…” Her voice trailed off, and she started shaking her head. “You can’t think Frank would have left the knife there. He wouldn’t,” she insisted. “He just wouldn’t.”

“Maybe,” Rory muttered. “What about Brenda? Could she have left it?”

She shook her head, but there was a lot less resolve in her expression this time. “Why would she? And if it’s the murder weapon, then it would have been used on her, right? She couldn’t have been the one to leave it.”

Rory went with another maybe , but it was silent this time.

They had no idea if Mellie and Brenda had been killed with the same weapon.

But he had a problem believing Brenda would have murdered Mellie, tried to frame Diedre and then had been murdered herself.

If so, that meant there were two killers.

Brenda. And the one who’d ended her life.

Rory was still considering that possibility when his phone rang, and when he saw Garrison’s name on the screen, he knew he had to take the call from the deputy.

“Interview paused,” Rory said for the recording. “Deputies McClennan and Gallagher exiting the room.” He and Eden stepped out into the hall before he answered and put the call on speaker.

“Rory,” Garrison said the moment he was on the line. “The bomb squad cleared the immediate area around the body, and the ME was able to start his exam. There’s a message of sorts on the dead guy.”

“What kind of message?” Rory asked.

“We’re not sure. It’s numbers. The ME found it beneath the bloody shirt. And it’s not a note,” Garrison said, the strain obvious in his voice. “It was, uh, cut into his body. I think you and Eden need to see it.”