Page 31 of Lone Star Witness

“What about the glass that was in the colonel’s room?” Marise asked. “Did SAPD pick that up?”

“They did, but the cleaning staff had already washed it,” Slade let her know. “Still, they might get something so it’s being sent for testing anyway.”

Rosa’s eyes widened. “You think Sonny could have put something in my water when he visited Patriot’s Retreat.”

“I do,” Marise verified. “Until that visit, you’d showed no signs of aggressive behavior since your admission, but you went after Slade.” She paused. “Did you think he might be Sonny?”

The colonel got that distressed look in his eyes again. “I’m not sure. That’s muddled, too.”

“Slade, you have a visitor at the gate,” Spock said, cutting off anything else Rosa had been about to offer.

Slade sighed and made a mental note to touch base with SAPD to try to expedite the processing of that glass. “Who is it?”

“Annalisa Hutton,” Spock replied.

Even given a multiple choice, Slade wouldn’t have guessed she would be here, and he had an immediate question. Well, two of them actually.

How the hell had Annalisa known where to find him?

And what the hell did she want?

“Mrs. Hutton is driving a black Audi,” Spock added.

So, that meant she’d likely followed Rosa here. Because Slade doubted it was a coincidence that she was in a vehicle that the colonel had described.

“We should talk to her,” the colonel insisted, getting to his feet. “If she was actually there in Stephanie’s office, she might admit to what happened.”

She might indeed, and Slade weighed that possibility against the bad feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.

“Spock, put the feed and audio from the security gate on the monitor,” Slade instructed.

Within seconds, the feed appeared, and Slade saw the woman behind the wheel. She was chewing on her bottom lip and drumming her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

“Mrs. Hutton?” Slade greeted.

Annalisa made a slight gasp of surprise at the sound of his voice. “Mr. McKenna?” she asked.

“Yes,” Slade verified and then immediately asked, “Why are you here?”

“I need to see Colonel Rosa. It’s important.” Her words rushed out as if she couldn’t say them fast enough. “I think I know who murdered my husband.”

Chapter Ten

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Marise could see the debate that Slade was having with himself as to what to do about their latest visitor. Slade and she didn’t know Annalisa, didn’t know if they could trust her. And there was also the possibility that Sonny was using her visit as a ploy to try to come at them again.

Still, Annalisa might have answers that they badly needed.

“Who murdered your husband?” Slade came out and asked the woman.

Since her image was clear enough on the monitor, Marise saw Annalisa blinking back tears. “That’s what I need to talk to the colonel about.” She swallowed hard. “I need to go over what happened the night Carlyle disappeared.”

Slade didn’t volunteer anything about Rosa not remembering a lot of what went on. In fact, he volunteered nothing and went with another question.

“How will talking to the colonel help you figure out things?” Slade demanded. “Either you know who killed your husband or you don’t.”

“I suspect someone,” Annalisa snapped. Then, she quickly added, “I suspect his wife. Tell him that. Tell him I think Stephanie did it, and if he doesn’t see me, I’m going to the police to have her arrested for murder.”

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