“You can be damn sure there’s a connection, Captain,” AJ said. He struggled to sit up. “I’ll find him—”
“AJ, no,” Shea said. She bent close, whispering to him. Dru caught the gist of it, that Shea wanted AJ to let the police handle it. “If he hurts you,” Dru heard AJ say, “I’ll kill the son of a bitch.” But finally he gave in and settled back, white-faced, tight-jawed.
Mackie said, “I’ve got to tell you, AJ, we’ve got a ton of evidence that suggests you have some involvement.”
Shea started to protest.
Mackie ignored her. “For instance, how do you explain the phone call you made to your mother asking her to bring you your passport?”
“It wasn’t me. I was in no shape to call anyone, not to mention the last I looked, there was no phone service at the fort.” AJ turned to Jeb. “You put in a phone out there, Granddad?”
Mackie wasn’t amused. He flicked his glance to Lily. “She swore it was you.”
“I don’t believe I swore it was,” Lily said.
Mackie returned his attention to AJ. “We have witnesses said they saw you at the bus station in Dallas, where your laptop and cell phone were recovered. Any idea how they got there?”
“None. I told you Erik took my phone. He must have gotten my laptop, too.” AJ indicated his leg. “Anyway, if I couldn’t get myself down the ladder at the fort except by falling on my ass, how would I make it to Dallas?”
“We have another witness says you were talking to a pilot at the Lake Hershey airfield yesterday. You going to tell me that wasn’t you, either?”
“Again, Clint, how would I get there?”
“Maybe you and Ayala are in this together.”
Dru’s breath caught. Her heart slid against the wall of her chest at hearing her own suspicion so baldly stated.
AJ stared at Mackie, as gape-mouthed and astonished as a fresh-caught fish. Shea and Lily were dumbfounded.
He seemed oblivious. “Maybe these girls, Kate and Becca, had something on you guys. You did know, didn’t you, that Becca Westin was pregnant? Was it your kid? Ayala’s kid? What was going on there?”
“Are you serious? Becca was pregnant?” AJ’s eyes shot to Shea’s.
“It’s true,” she said.
Dru wondered at the tremor in Shea’s voice. Was her faith at last beginning to crumble?
“They’re waiting for DNA test results to say for sure who the father is,” Shea said.
“Could I have some more water?” AJ asked.
Shea poured it, handing it to him to drink this time. His hand shook, taking it from her.
“The death of the fetus makes it a double homicide,” Mackie said. “So whoever is responsible is looking at three counts of murder.” He pocketed his cell phone, looking satisfied, Dru thought, as if in shaking everyone up, in putting them on the defense, he’d gotten the exact result he’d wanted.
Dru said, “Charla Kincaid might know where Erik is.”
“I talked to her,” Mackie said. “She indicated she hadn’t seen him since this morning.”
“You know Erik went there, that he volunteered to give her parents the news about their daughter’s death. Why would he do that if he’s responsible for it?”
“What are you trying to say, Mom?”
Dru put up her hands. “Nothing. I’m not trying to say anything.” But even as she spoke, she was thinking how little sense Erik’s involvement made. Was she the only one who saw it?
“I think I saw lights on at Winona’s house this morning,” Lily said. “If she’s home from Oaxaca, maybe she’s spoken to Erik.”
Captain Mackie said, “I’ll get someone out there. We’re issuing a BOLO for Ayala, too.”
“You need to find him, Clint,” Jeb said, startling everyone.
He’d been so quiet. Even Dru had forgotten his presence.
“The state he’s in, there’s no telling what he’ll do.” Jeb crossed the room to the door, and turning on the threshold, he addressed Dru. “I’d keep her close if I was you,” he said, nodding at Shea.
19
Lily followed her dad into the hallway, taking his elbow. “What was that about? Do you know where Erik is, what he’s done?”
He shook her off. “Shea needs to be careful, is all. If Erik’s behind this—look, he’s already killed two of the girls in her wedding party. It just makes sense—”
“Lily? Jeb?”
They turned at the sound of Paul’s voice. “How’s AJ? How did the surgery go?”
“Better than expected,” Lily said. “He’s doing really well, considering.”
Paul’s embrace, his kiss on Lily’s cheek, were perfunctory. He shook hands with her dad.
“I’ll let Lily fill you in,” her dad said when Paul began asking the litany of questions that was inevitable. “I’ve got to tend the horses. I’ll see you both later.”
“I’ve got a couple of fires burning and may have to drive back to Dallas tonight.” Paul avoided Lily’s gaze.
She put her hand on her dad’s arm. “What you said in there—”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he told her, and he left them, walking quickly. There was something agitated in his steps, in his posture.
Lily felt uneasy, watching him, but at Paul’s prompt, she walked with him toward AJ’s room, filling him in, giving him the gist of AJ’s statement to Mackie, and the captain’s seeming doubt of its credibility.
“You know, I always felt like Erik was jealous of AJ,” Paul said when she’d finished.
“You’re the only one.” Paul’s differing opinion annoyed Lily. “Even AJ is shocked, devastated, really. He thought of Erik like a brother.”
“Even brothers can be jealous of one another, Lily. Maybe you’re too close to the situation—to the two of them—to see what’s really going on here.”
“But whatever is motivating Erik—it goes a skosh beyond jealousy, don’t you think?” She kept searching her mind for a cause in Erik’s past, something large enough, horrible enough, to make him behave in such a monstrous way, but there was nothing. Times they’d spent together at the ranch, the boys had been treated the same. They’d been assigned chores and paid equally for them. They’d been equally praised and fairly disciplined when they broke the rules. Her dad, especially, knew about boys, knew the firm, steady hand they needed. Had Lily been asked, she would have said Erik looked up to her dad, idolized him, in fact. Now she wondered if she knew Erik at all, if she had ever known him.
“Is that Mackie?” Paul asked, nodding at the uniformed man exiting AJ’s room.
“Yes,” Lily said.
“I’ll get a uniformed officer up here on the door,” the police captain said, joining them.
“Why? Do you think AJ is going to try to escape?” Sarcasm sharpened Lily’s tone.
“It’s a precaution,” Mackie answered. “For his protection as much as anything. And Shea’s, too. She says she’s staying.”
“In addition to being the captain of the WPD,” Lily informed Paul, “Clint is also a longtime friend of my dad’s, and even though he’s known AJ most of his life and knows the sort of person he is, he thinks AJ was involved in the girls’ murders, that he and Erik were in collusion. Never mind that AJ was shot and left to bleed to death.”
“Really.” The word from Paul was caustic.