Page 19 of Lone Star Witness

“Did the cops find your father?” she asked as they made their way to the garage and got into a sleek silver SUV.

He shook his head. “And let’s not call him that. Instead, we’ll call him Sonny, or the dipshit or any other unflattering term that comes to mind.”

“That works for me,” Marise said. She put her coffee in the cup holder and ate some of the bagel while Slade continued.

“I pulled up some background info on the dipshit. Since he left the Stronghold compound, he’s worked for various loan sharks and other seedy characters. He’s sixty-two, but he still gets jobs where muscle or no conscience is required.” Slade paused, and his jaw tensed. “I want to make him pay for a lot of things. Terrorizing you and the colonel. And for murdering my mother.”

“And I want to make him pay for what he did to you, so we’re of a like mind on this,” she added. Then, Marise threw out something she’d considered while giving her statement to the cops. “You think someone hired the dipshit to come after Rosa and us?”

“Either that, or the dipshit’s connected to Stephanie and/or her missing lover,” Slade readily answered, which meant he’d given this some thought, too.

Yes, the attack could indeed be linked with that. Sonny might have originally planned on Slade and her being targets. Maybe he’d only had Rosa in his sights. But once Sonny had seen Slade or realized she was friends with Slade, he might have decided to try to dole out some punishment.

Except…

“How would Sonny have known we’d be coming here to the lake?” she threw out there. “You have two places nearby, or we could have gone to my house. Or even to a hotel. And he couldn’t have followed us here because he was already in place behind the sign.”

Slade glanced at her while they drove through the gates of the neighborhood, and Marise tried not to think of what had gone on here the night before. She succeeded in shoving it to the back of her mind because Slade spoke, and the sound of his voice anchored her to the present.

“I mentioned coming here to the lake house while we were in your office,” he explained while he continued to keep watch around them. He was no doubt recalling the attack, too.

And that another one could happen.

Not exactly a comforting thought.

Instead of dwelling on that possibility, she forced her attention on Slade’s comment. Yes, he had indeed said that he wanted to go to his lake house. “But no one was around to hear it…”

Marise stopped when she saw the look in Slade’s eyes. A look that told her she was not going to like what she was about to hear.

“About three hours ago, Ruby had one of her tech specialists do a scan of your office from outside the building. That way, I didn’t have to wake you up to get the keys or access codes. Also, if the tech had asked the on-duty nurse to get him inside the facility, you would have been called.”

All of that was true, but for something this important, she wished he’d awoken her. “What did the tech find?”

“A listening device attached to the side of your nameplate on your door.”

Marise sat in stunned silence for a couple of seconds. “Who and how—” she started, but then she just stopped. “Sonny. After I confronted him, he stormed out the colonel’s room, and I stayed there for a couple minutes, just to make sure Rosa was all right. You think…”

But again she stopped because at that moment she could only think of one person who’d plant a listening device.

“The dipshit did this,” she muttered.

“Probably, but it’s also possible that Stephanie put it there,” Slade suggested.

Her mind shifted to that possibility. Yes. That could have happened. Well, it could have if Stephanie did indeed have something to hide, such as covering up the murder of her lover.

“Ruby’s alerted SAPD and they’ll retrieve the listening device,” Slade went on. “That way, there’s no issue of the chain of custody in case it’s needed as evidence in a trial.”

Trial. That one word drilled home the complexity of this. A dipshit thug trying to kill them. A missing man. A bug in her office. And a whole lot of unanswered questions.

Along with a huge concern that she had to run past Slade. It wasn’t something she wanted to be true, but they had to at least consider it.

“Do you think it’s possible the colonel killed his wife’s lover, and he’s faking the PTSD episodes?” she asked. “Maybe a way to cover his guilt?”

“Maybe.” He answered so quickly that she figured he’d been giving that some thought as well. “But I can’t see Stephanie covering for him. Unless she’s putting on an act, too.” Slade glanced at her. “I’m guessing you met Stephanie before last night? Was she doing the ice queen thing then?”

“Pretty much,” Marise said after she recalled the previous meetings. “During the first meeting though, she seemed shaken about Rosa having attacked her. Or at least she was pretending to be shaken anyway. Stephanie’s second visit was three days later, and she brought the colonel some personal things he’d requested. A laptop and phone charger. I don’t think she actually went up to see Rosa.”

At the time, Marise had believed that was simply because the woman was still shaken from the attack. Now, she had to wonder if it was because Stephanie despised her husband enough to put him in the facility and hope that no one would believe what he said he’d witnessed.

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