Page 29 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Bennie huffed. “She’s not here. According to the CSIs, she left shortly after the search began. And they say she’s not answering her phone.”

“Hell,” Rory grumbled. “Put out an APB on Helen. I wanted her found now .”

R ORY TRIED NOT to curse when he read the latest text from Detective Vernon. Tried and failed. Because it wasn’t good news.

Still no sign of Helen.

It’d been hours since his aunt had walked out of her house during a CSI search. Hours since the CSIs had found the components that had been used to make those deadly IEDs. And after she’d walked out, Helen had seemingly vanished.

Was she out setting up another murder?

Or had Helen been set up by someone who’d planted that plastic bag in her trash bin? Her outdoor trash bin that was on the side of her garage where anyone could have gotten to it.

Either of those were possible, but Rory couldn’t ask her about them because she couldn’t be found.

He looked over at Eden and showed her the text from the detective. She seemed to be on the verge of cursing, too.

“I’m not having any better luck,” she told him.

She was seated at Grace’s desk at the police station, with not one but two laptops in front of her.

One was for the reports and updates that seemed to be coming in nonstop—Rory was dealing with those and fielding the calls.

Eden was using the other laptop to review the traffic camera feed around Helen’s neighborhood to see if she could spot anyone coming or going from Helen’s house.

“The problem is there isn’t a traffic cam right at her subdivision,” Eden explained. “The closest one is a quarter of a mile away so even if I don’t see, say, Diedre or Frank, it doesn’t mean they weren’t there. They could have just used an alternate route.”

Yeah, and if one of them was the killer, they might have scoped out where the cameras were and made sure to avoid them.

Rory heard the dinging sound on the second laptop, an indication that a new report had arrived, so he dropped down in the chair he’d pulled next to Eden’s and saw the latest from Livvy.

Again, he had to clamp down the urge to curse.

“No unusual withdrawals from Helen’s bank account,” he advised Eden. “Ditto for Ike, Diedre and Frank.”

Eden stopped the traffic camera feed and looked at him. “These weren’t expensive attacks. Well, unless one of them hired someone to make the IEDs. But any of them could have made smaller withdrawals for that months in advance so it wouldn’t send up any red flags.”

“True. And Helen, Ike, Frank and Diedre all should have known they’d be persons of interest or suspects for these killings.”

“Ike,” Eden repeated under her breath. “Where is he? He’s not missing, too, is he?”

“He’s not. He’s at his lawyers’ firm. He’ll be coming back in soon to finish up his interview with Livvy.” Though Rory wasn’t holding out much hope they’d get anything useful from him.

Rory checked the time and saw they’d been at this for going on six hours now. It was midafternoon, and Eden looked more than ready for a break. He was about to suggest calling in an order from the diner up the street, but his phone rang.

“Diedre,” he told Eden, and he took the call on speaker. “Where are you?” Rory demanded.

The woman huffed loud enough for him to hear it. Rory could also hear a car engine, which meant she was likely driving. “Look, I’m tired of you calling and leaving me messages. Can’t you just leave me in peace?”

“No,” he snarled, “and I wouldn’t have to keep calling you if you’d just answer your phone. FYI, you’re on speaker, and Deputy Gallagher is with me.”

“Of course, she is,” Diedre groaned. “She left me a voice mail, too.”

Eden had indeed done that, but that had been hours ago. “Where are you?” Rory repeated.

Another loud huff. “I’m driving back from a business meeting. And, no, you don’t need to verify if I had one or not because I mixed up the dates. The meeting isn’t until next week. When I realized that, I turned around, and now, I’m heading back home. Why are you calling me?” she snorted.

Rory had a couple of things he needed to ask her, but he went with the most important one. “Where is Helen?”

“How should I know…?” But she stopped at what had sounded as if it might be a rant. “Is something wrong?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. She’s not answering her phone. Has she been in touch with you?”

“No.” And now, Diedre sounded concerned. Of course, that might be a pretense. “I can try to call her.”

“Do that once you answer a few more questions.” And Rory went with the second thing on his list. “Were you at Frank’s two nights ago?”

“No,” she blurted, but again, she stopped.

“Sorry, that’s a knee-jerk reaction. It’s become second nature to deny I’ve been with Frank.

But, yes, I was there. Briefly,” she added.

“I was out for a drive and dropped by to see if he was busy. He was. He said he had a Zoom meeting with a cattle broker.”

“So you were in Renegade Canyon when Brenda was attacked?” Rory made sure he used his cop’s tone on that one.

“Good grief, you just don’t give up, do you?” She didn’t wait for him to respond to that. “Yes, I was there. Again, it was very brief. I went to Frank’s, talked to him for a couple of minutes and then I left. That’s it. I didn’t stop off on the way home to murder a woman I hardly knew.”

“But you did know her,” Rory argued. “You had lunch with her. The two of you discussed your mutual hatred for Ike.”

“So what?” Diedre growled at him. “I discussed that with Helen, too. And Frank. I haven’t murdered either of them.”

The sarcasm dripped from her voice, but Rory felt the icy chill go through him, and he resisted muttering “not yet.”

“Are you done accusing me of things I didn’t do?” Diedre snapped.

“No,” he snapped right back, and Rory moved on to the final thing on his list. “Think back to a couple of months ago to a fight that took place between Frank and Ike at the cemetery.”

“That,” she choked out, and the sarcasm was gone. In its place was a hefty amount of anger. “That’s when Ike acted like his usual SOB self and upset Frank.”

“Were you there?” Rory asked.

“No, but Frank told me all about it,” Diedre insisted, and he didn’t have to prompt the woman to continue.

She just started spewing out the venom. “Ike’s a vile monster.

First, he cheated on his wife with a lot of women.

Yes, that included me, but I wasn’t married at the time.

But he also cheated with Frank’s wife. And then he rubbed the cheating in Frank’s face. ”

“You know this for sure?” Rory asked.

“I know Ike, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. And he hurt Frank that day at the cemetery.” The woman’s voice cracked on those last words.

Rory jumped right on that. “How did he hurt him?”

Diedre didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Ike was there visiting your mom’s grave, and Frank was clear on the other side of the cemetery visiting Miranda’s.

Ike made a point of walking over to him and blowing a kiss at Miranda’s tombstone.

Ike did that,” she snorted. Not a shout. But the anger was there. So much anger.

If Ike had truly done that, and Rory didn’t doubt that he had, then it was an SOB thing to do. Then again, Ike made a habit of doing whatever he could to hurt people. Nearly everyone in town had been on the receiving end of Ike’s wrath at one time or another.

“What’s wrong with him?” Diedre asked. “Is it just plain meanness?” Again, she didn’t wait for an answer, and she ended the call.

Rory and Eden sat in silence for a while, going over everything Diedre had just said. “That could be motive for the murders,” Eden muttered.

Yeah, it could be, but it was motive for both Diedre and Frank. As for Helen, she had a motive of a different kind. To get rid of any competition she might have for Frank. That’s why it was so critical for them to find her.

He took out his phone to try again to call her, but it rang before he could do that. “It’s Ike’s lawyer,” he told Eden, and he figured Arnette was calling to reschedule his client’s interview.

But Rory was wrong.

“Where’s your father?” Arnette demanded the moment Rory answered. There was a frantic urge to the lawyer’s normally cocky tone.

“He should be on his way here,” Rory said. “Why?” And because he suddenly had a bad feeling about this, he put the call on speaker so Eden could hear as well.

“Because we had a meeting scheduled for well over an hour ago, and when Ike didn’t show up or answer his phone, I started driving to the ranch.

I figured he was maybe out riding or perhaps he’d lost track of time.

But then I saw his truck,” Arnette added, the strain in his voice going up a significant notch.

“It was parked on a trail close to where that barn blew up.”

An icy chill raced through Rory. Yeah, that bad feeling was warranted. “I take it he wasn’t in the truck?” he asked, already standing. And Eden stood, too.

“No. He wasn’t in it.” Arnette’s voice was shaking now. “But there was blood. So much blood.” He made a loud groan. “Rory, I think somebody killed your father.”