Page 25 of Lone Star Witness

And with Ruby’s timeline, Marise could piece together what she thought might have happened. Hutton had arrived at the Rosa’s, there’d then been some kind of altercation that’d left Hutton dead. An altercation the colonel had likely witnessed and one that Sonny might have been responsible for creating.

Unfortunately, Ruby hadn’t been able to locate Rosa or Sonny to ask them about that. Nor had she been able to confirm the exact timing of Sonny’s visit to see the colonel. Of course, they only had Stephanie’s word that such a visit had happened. There were no traffic cameras near the house to either confirm it or prove that Stephanie had been lying about that as well.

Marise continued to scan through the report and stopped when she saw a familiar name. Annalisa Hutton, Carlyle’s wife. She wasn’t surprised that SAPD was questioning Annalisa about her husband’s murder. After all, if Annalisa knew about her husband’s affair with Stephanie, that was motive.

Motive for Rosa, too.

Maybe even Julian if he had been protecting his boss from either a scandal or some kind of confrontation from Hutton.

Of course, Stephanie would be questioned as well, especially now that the cops knew about the affair. Ruby had seen to that.

Marise went on to the next report from the obviously efficient and thorough Ruby. In this one, Ruby had ruled out any connection between Colonel Rosa’s disappearance and Wally Neville, the veteran who’d befriended Rosa and then abruptly left Patriots’ Retreat. Ruby had learned that Wally’s sister was having some serious domestic problems with her spouse and had left to help her.

So, that was one puzzle solved.

However, the next report did no solving whatsoever. Somehow, Ruby had gotten access to Rosa’s recent medical tests. The ones that’d been done on him after he’d been admitted to the hospital. The lab had found nothing. No drugs of any kind.

Of course, that didn’t mean there hadn’t been something in the glass of water. It simply meant it was no longer detectable in Rosa’s system by the time he’d gotten to the hospital.

Marise stopped reading when she heard Slade finish his phone call, and she swiveled around in the chair to face him. Judging from his expression, he didn’t have good news.

“No one saw Rosa leave the hospital,” Slade spelled out for her. “But Rosa did manage to get a neighbor to confirm that Sonny did visit the Rosa house, and the neighbor believes it was the same day that Stephanie had the colonel admitted to Patriot’s Retreat.”

So, it was all connected. Then again, Marise had figured it had to be if the visit had actually happened.

“This neighbor is reliable?” Marise had to ask.

“Ruby believes he is. His house is across the street from the Rosa’s, and he was home that day. Across a very wide street with his house set far back on a large lot,” Slade emphasized. “Which means the neighbor didn’t hear the sound of a gunshot.”

Too bad about that because if he had heard, that could point to Hutton having been murdered at the Rosa’s. And that might or might not have happened during that visit from Sonny.

“I’m guessing the cops want to talk to Sonny about Hutton’s murder?” Marise asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Slade confirmed. He went to her and sank down on the chair beside her. “About that and the attack on us. If Sonny’s smart, he’ll go underground until some of the heat dies down.”

She agreed, but Marise had also heard what Slade hadn’t said. “But you don’t think he’ll do that. You believe Sonny will come after us.”

Slade nodded. Then, cursed. “Spock, access the most recent file on Sonny McKenna.”

The screen went blank for a second, and when it popped back on, Hutton’s picture was gone, and Sonny’s was in its place.

“Ruby has ruled out that Sonny is staying with the handful of people he considers friends,” Slade explained, touching the screen to scroll down to possible locations. One of them jumped out at her.

Stronghold compound.

The place where Slade and his brothers had been raised and where their mother had died.

“You really think Sonny would go back there?” she asked.

Slade lifted his shoulder. “Most residents have a strong distrust of cops. Added to that, there aren’t many phones or ways to communicate with the outside world. Still, if he’s there, he’s probably lurking somewhere outside the actual compound. Jericho is checking that as we speak,” he tacked onto that.

She hadn’t expected that last part of the explanation. “Jericho’s back from his mission?”

“Back and ready to pitch in and help now that he has his fiancée, Rachel, tucked away safely at the training facility with Caroline.” He turned to her. “You could stay there as well.”

“So could you,” she pointed out.

That resulted in a staring contest that ended with her sigh. “Look, I know I’m not a trained operative, but it doesn’t feel right to put all of this on you. Sonny has his own bone to pick with me, something separate from whatever his deal is with Rosa. Separate, too, from the son he wants to avenge.”

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