AJ broke it. “I saw a lot in Afghanistan, but that was war—different somehow.” He thought about it. “But maybe not,” he amended quietly. “We all bleed the same.”
“Did you know the victim was Becca?” Mackie was staying on task.
“Not until he told me.”
“Did he say why he killed her?”
“Not really. He said she was yelling, and he was scared the neighbors would hear and call the cops. It was like he blamed her. He told me we had to get rid of her body, that I had to help him, that I owed him. He said he knew stuff about us, that he could blow our family to hell.”
“What did he mean?” Lily asked.
“I wish I knew,” AJ said. “I told him he was talking crazy, that I was calling 911, and that’s when he went off. He got my .45—he knew it was in the bedside table. He made me give him my phone, then he walked me out to my truck. He had me drive, and I thought I might get a chance to—I don’t know, get away or something, but he kept the pistol on me the whole time. He had me take him to Mickey D’s. We rolled through the takeout, and the son of a bitch ate two Big Macs and a double order of fries. The smell, watching him eat—I don’t know how I kept from being sick.”
“Sounds like y’all had quite a conversation, but you’re telling me in all that time he never said why he murdered Becca?” Mackie didn’t bother hiding his skepticism.
“No, Clint, he never did. He just kept shoving the burger in his mouth. He was calm by then, so I kind of pushed him some more about going to the cops. I said we could say it was an accident. I’d back him up. You know, Becca fell on the knife or something.” AJ’s laugh was wry, harsh. “I was grabbing at straws, trying anything. I still don’t know why he didn’t kill me.”
“Thank God he didn’t,” Shea whispered.
“He couldn’t,” Jeb said softly.
“Why not?” AJ asked.
Jeb looked up, startled, as if he hadn’t expected to be heard.
“You mean because he lost his nerve?” Lily gathered them all in her glance. “Dad said earlier that sometimes people can’t bring themselves to pull the trigger.”
“Yes,” Jeb said. “That’s what I meant.”
But looking at him, Dru sensed there was more to it.
Captain Mackie directed AJ back to the night of Becca’s murder, and AJ related how Erik had made him drive around Dallas, eventually ordering him to head south on I-35 to Wyatt. There had been little conversation. When they got into town, they’d driven around as aimlessly as they had in Dallas.
“We went by your mom’s house,” AJ said, looking at Shea.
The thought of how close Erik and AJ had been to Shea, to her home, startled Dru. A couple of madmen, she thought—because how did she know AJ wasn’t part of it, involved some way? Jeb Axel, too. He was acting so odd. Dru had a bad feeling. It kept growing. She didn’t know whether to trust it. Or even whom to trust.
AJ said it was after that when Erik started talking about the fort. How he wanted to see it again, how he and AJ could camp out the way they used to in the old days. “I was so tired by then,” AJ said. “It was getting light outside. I just wanted to stop driving.”
“He was with us,” Shea said in a voice soft with disbelief. “Erik was with us when we rode out that way, looking for you.”
“It couldn’t have been more than a few hours since he’d left you there,” Jeb said. “If I’d only known, if I’d gone on, I would have found you then.”
Jeb’s bleak astonishment seemed genuine. But he would do anything for AJ, Dru thought. She didn’t doubt Jeb Axel would lie for his grandson. She thought of the missing contents of the safe at the xL. Suppose Jeb was pretending senility in order to put the blame for that on himself to cover for AJ?
“You guys were close, I thought.” Mackie was puzzled.
“Yeah, like brothers, but when I said that, Erik said I better think again, and then he shot me. I wasn’t sure what happened until my leg buckled. I heard him leave, but after that, I passed out for a while. When I came to, it was full daylight; my mouth was as dry as dirt, and I knew I’d lost a lot of blood, that I had to get help. I used my shirt to tourniquet my leg, then crawled to the ladder, thinking I could get myself down. It didn’t work out too well.” AJ looked toward his ankle. “After I fell, I passed out again, and when I woke up it was night. I thought I saw coyotes. Scared me enough to get me back up the ladder.”
“Erik said you were going to be his best man.” Lily’s voice was faint with disbelief.
“He said he loved Kate, too,” Shea said, “but then he killed her.”
“What?” AJ turned to stare at Shea. “What are you saying?”
“Oh no—” Shea was mortified. “I didn’t think. Of course you don’t know—”
When Shea didn’t seem able, Lily explained what had happened to Kate.
Shea touched the hollow at the base of AJ’s throat. “He took your necklace—”
“Yeah, I don’t know why.”
“After he pushed Kate off the ridge—”
“Allegedly.”
Shea shot Mackie a look of disgust. “Erik left the charm there to make you look guilty.” She addressed AJ.
“He’s trying to frame me?”
“Maybe,” Mackie said. “But why? Why would he do that?”
Dru got the sense that, like her, the police captain was weighing the odds that AJ was telling the truth.
Again, AJ said he didn’t know. “Erik’s got it in for me, for whatever reason.”
“You have any idea where he is?” Mackie asked.
“Have you checked his apartment?”
“First place we went, but if he’s there, he’s not answering his door. He’s not at work, either.”
“I think AJ should rest,” Lily said.
“Just a couple more questions.” Mackie looked back at AJ. “How do you think Erik talked Becca into coming to your apartment? How did they get in?”
“There’s a spare key. Becca knew—several people knew I kept one in the gaslight out front.”
“Okay, but say Ayala was setting you up. He must have realized you’d show up before he was done. Seems odd that he’d wait till so close to your quitting time to make his move.”
“I left early, remember?”
“Did you see the note he pinned on her, the one that said, ‘Fixed you’?”
“No. What does it mean?”
Mackie studied AJ, not answering.
“Do you suspect me of something, Clint? Is that why you’re grilling me?”
“Isn’t it clear by now that AJ couldn’t have been involved?” Shea was pissed. “I guess next you’re going to say he was driving the truck that ran Mom and me off the road.”
“What truck? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, AJ.” Shea was stricken at having blindsided him again.
This time Dru explained, making less of the encounter with the truck than it had actually been. Looking at Mackie when she finished, she said, “The police are looking into it.”
“Was it Erik?” AJ’s gaze was locked on Mackie.
“We don’t know at this point, or whether there’s a connection to Erik.”