Jace sat up straight on the sofa beside Shana. “Are you saying Dalton actually spotted the man who had an affair with Mom at the boathouse on one of those videos?”
Dalton nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what she’s saying.” Once he and Jules had come out of the kitchen with the coffee, he’d given Jules the floor before anyone could ask any nosy questions about their relationship. When she started by saying she’d asked them to come by this morning because of a new development in the on-going investigation, everyone in the room had a one-track mind.
“And he was at our party?” Jace asked, reaching out for Shana’s hand.
“No,” Dalton said, getting out of his seat to stand beside Jules. “He was at Shiloh’s open house for her wine boutique.”
“What?” Caden and Shiloh said simultaneously with startled looks on their faces.
“Who is he?” Caden asked, his eyes filling with confusion.
Dalton glanced over at Jules, nodding for her to continue the story. “He is Nannette Gaither’s fiancé. Vance Clayburn.”
“Vance Clayburn?” Caden said, jumping up out of his seat. “That night at the opening, I knew I remembered him from somewhere, and I even asked him if we’d met before, and he said no. Now it’s all coming back. It’s been years, but I’m certain I’ve seen him before.”
Jace lifted a brow. “Had you, like Dalton, seen him before with Mom?”
“No,” Caden said, shaking his head. “Not with our mother, no,” he said, with a grim look on his face. He then turned to his wife, who was sitting on the sofa. “He was with yours, Shiloh. And they were kissing. Neither of them saw me.”
Shiloh looked shocked. “Kissing? My mom and another man?”
Caden nodded. “Yes, your mom and another man. I had come over to your house to see if you wanted to go riding and figured you were in the stables so I headed right over there. That’s when I walked in on them.”
“But...but you never told me about it.”
Caden drew in a deep breath and sat back down on the sofa, pulling Shiloh into his arms. “Because it was years ago, when we were in our early teens. Before Mom died. I was just a young guy, and I was probably thinking more about seeing you than anything else. Anyway, the truth is I had honestly forgotten what I’d seen. Until now.”
Thirty-Seven
The plot thickens, Jules thought, back at her office a few hours later, standing in front of the investigation wall. Using the touch screen, she moved the image of Sandra Timmons to the side where the suspects were shown. Could Sandra have killed Sylvia in a bout of jealous rage? After all, it now seemed they had been having an affair with the same man.
Jules turned when there was a knock at her office door. “Yes?”
Manning came in smiling. “I got that information you wanted on the Gaithers, and you’re right. They are strapped for money, big-time.”
Jules nodded. “No wonder Nannette needs a rich husband.”
“And I can’t find anything on a Gary Coughlin. I questioned Ron Zimmons and he said he didn’t know the guy. They arrived at Shana and Jace’s party at the same time and walked in together.”
“Umm, interesting. Pull a still shot of him from the video. I want to give Coughlin’s photo to Marcel to see if the Bureau can ID him.”
After Manning left, Jules returned to studying her wall, but her gaze shifted to Dalton’s profile. When Shana had pulled her aside after the meeting and told her that she had a hickey on the side of her neck—a real one this time—she had dashed off to the nearest bathroom to check for herself. Shana had been right. No wonder everyone had been looking at her strangely.
She’d spent the night at his place on Sunday, and then she had gone home to get dressed for work after the meeting, making sure she’d worn a turtleneck sweater to the office. Manning could be just as observant as Shana.
She turned when the buzzer on her desk went off. She walked over and pressed a button. “Yes, Manning?”
“Shiloh Granger is on line one.”
“Thanks.”