Kieran sneered. “You would shoot such a magnificent creature?”
“Who said I would shoot the dog?” Lance reached behind him and pulled the door closed. But they didn’t move any closer to Kieran and Luther. “Now let’s get down to business. We know you were out all night Friday.”
Kieran scratched under his dog’s chin, but Luther was fixated on Lance. “I wasn’t watching the clock.”
“You left Beats at ten thirty and arrived home at four o’clock the following morning,” Lance pressed. “Where were you during all that time?”
“I told you I went for a long drive.”
“For nearly six hours?” Lance asked.
“What are you suggesting?” Kieran’s voice dropped an octave.
Lance took a step closer. “That you followed Haley and Noah to his house.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Kieran stood.
Luther growled. The two men stared at each other for a few seconds. As two alpha males, neither would back down.
Sensing a stalemate, Morgan butted in. “Mr. Hart, we’re not suggesting anything. But given your recent breakup with Haley, it would certainly ease our minds if you could verify your location at some point during the night.”
Kieran’s gaze shifted to her, his expression only slightly less aggressive. “I don’t have to give you an alibi. You aren’t the police. I don’t even have to speak to you.”
“This is true.” Morgan lifted her hands, palms out, surrendering. “We’ll be happy to pass our information along to the sheriff. Then you can speak directly with him.” She turned toward the door, taking Lance’s arm and spinning him around. Being charged with harassment would only hinder their investigation. Better to leave and try to get information from other sources.
“Wait,” Kieran called.
Morgan pivoted.
Kieran’s lip curled and his face pinched, as if cooperating with them was the equivalent of wading through raw sewage. He opened the center drawer of his desk and took out a slip of paper. He held it across the desk. “I found this in the console of my car after we spoke last time. It’s a copy of a gas receipt. I was in Syracuse at one a.m.”
Morgan reached for the receipt. The dog’s growl grew louder. Sweat dripped between her shoulder blades, and her shirt stuck to her back as she read the slip of paper. The receipt was time-stamped 1:17 a.m.
“I had nothing to do with that man’s death.” Kieran sat back in his leather chair. “I trust you’re satisfied?”
“Thank you for sharing the receipt,” Morgan said.
Kieran’s nod was curt. “We’re done here. I’ve been more than cooperative. I am not answering any more of your questions.”
Morgan took a step backward toward the door. The dog’s gaze shifted to her. Kieran’s eyes were cold, and there was a darkness in them that made her believe that deep down, he wanted to set the dog on them. She knew he wouldn’t. He wasn’t stupid. But he wanted to.
Lance moved sideways, angling his body between her and the dog.
“Oh, and Ms. Dane?” Kieran’s lip curled. “Thank you for the warning. I’ll put my attorney on notice in case the sheriff comes calling.”
“Do you think you’re going to need him?” His arrogance grated on Morgan. “Is that the same attorney who convinced the Connecticut authorities to drop the stalking charges?”
“It is.” Kieran smirked, then his expression darkened further. “Now please get out of my office. If you wish to speak with me again, you can contact my lawyer.”
“I’ll speak with your attorney anytime,” Morgan said. She wasn’t afraid of Kieran or his lawyer. The dog was another issue all together. Anyone with a brain would be wary of a huge, angry canine.
Kieran said nothing as Morgan and Lance backed out of the room. Lance shut the door behind them. He detoured to the blonde receptionist’s desk on the way out of the office. “Mr. Hart has one big dog. Does he bring it to the office often?”
“Yes.” The blonde’s forehead furrowed. “All the time.” She glanced back at her boss’s door, the set of her lips and curl of her shoulders implying she was not a fan of Luther.
Morgan led the way back to the elevator. Relief swept over her as the heavy steel doors closed. “I love dogs, but I’ll pass on petting that one.”
“Me too.” Lance wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “What do you think of Kieran’s alibi?”
“Syracuse is roughly two and a half hours from here.” Morgan buttoned her coat. “The receipt was time-stamped just after one a.m. His neighbor’s surveillance camera caught him arriving home at four a.m. That wouldn’t leave him much time to kill Noah.”
The elevator doors opened, and Lance followed Morgan through the lobby and outside. They crossed the parking lot and climbed into the car. “Assuming Kieran can’t be the killer because he was driving all over New York State while Noah was being stabbed, where does that leave us?”
“Is there any way he could have faked that receipt?”
“I suppose the slip could have been altered. But he used a credit card for payment. If the DNA on the dog hair is verified to be a Rottweiler, then we’ll have grounds to subpoena his credit card statement to support the transaction. There isn’t anything else we can do with Kieran until we get that report, which we both know could take weeks or months.”
“We’ll back-burner Kieran as the lead suspect for now.”
Morgan reached for her travel mug. She chugged the lukewarm liquid, then rubbed her temple. The dull ache in her head had returned. Extra-strength pain relievers had little effect. Sleep was the only remedy.
Lance frowned at her. “How’s the headache?”
“The same.” She dropped her hand. “It’s no worse. I’m just frustrated with the case.”
“Maybe we should call it a day? It’s getting late.”
She stared out the passenger window. Clouds had blown in during the afternoon. It would be dark soon. “That two-hour nap you let me take ate up too much of our afternoon. Let’s at least try to talk to Justin before we wrap up the day.” Morgan would spend the weekend reading and rereading every piece of evidence they had accumulated so far.
Her phone rang, and she answered the call. “Hi, Sharp. You’re on speaker.”
“I just left the pub. No one knew anything about Noah’s murder case. Colgate was furious when the initial case details were leaked to the press. Now he’s keeping information under tight wraps. But I did learn something very unexpected. Shannon Yates was at Beats the Saturday night before Noah was murdered.”
Morgan stared at the phone. “But the news report said she’d last been seen at work the previous Friday. The sheriff’s department claimed that’s when she went missing.”
“That’s what the sheriff’s department previously thought,” Sharp said. “Apparently she went to the bar alone and paid cash. There was no record of her visit. The police just learned she’d been there. One of the bouncers came forward yesterday after seeing her picture on the news.”
Static sounded over the connection.
Morgan leaned closer to the phone. “This is a surprising development.”
“That’s all I got.” Sharp’s words were broken with spaces of dead air. “The deputies I knew in the department have all quit. We need a leak from someone who is still there. I wonder . . .”
A few seconds of quiet passed.
“Sharp, are you still there?” Lance asked.
“Yes,” Sharp said. “Sorry. I was thinking. We’re losing our connection. I’ll get back to you.”
The line went dead.
Lance said, “I was curious about the Shannon Yates case, and I didn’t like its coincidental timing and similarities with Haley’s, but I didn’t predict a link this strong between the two cases.”
“No.” Morgan tapped her lower lip with a forefinger. “I don’t want to get ahead of the investigation, but this could change everything. We need to know where all of our suspects were the night Shannon Yates went missing.”
“Definitely.”