Page 34 of Lone Star Witness

That got her attention, but before she could press him for info, Slade joined them. And the colonel.

“I remembered something,” Rosa blurted. “Blood. Lots of it. It was on the floor of Stephanie’s office.”

Jace, Slade, and she all volleyed glances at each other. “You’re sure?” Marise asked.

Rosa nodded. “The memory is clear, not muddled up like the rest of them. I heard the arguing and the gunshot, and when I went running into her office, I saw the blood. It was pooling on the floor near my feet.”

“Did you see a body?” Slade pressed.

The colonel’s forehead bunched up, and he was obviously trying to recall that. But he finally sighed. “No. That’s a blank. But the blood was real. And even if Stephanie cleaned the office, there’d still be evidence of it, right?”

“There should be,” Jace answered.

“Then, we need to get into the house and check for it,” Rosa insisted. “We wouldn’t need a warrant since I own the place.”

“No,” Slade agreed. “But if we alert Stephanie to what we’re going to do and she’s guilty of killing Hutton, she might burn the house down.”

Rosa’s expression fell. “She would do that, yes.” He stayed quiet for several seconds. “So, that means we need to get in without her knowing. Maybe I can lure her out by arranging for her to meet me, and once she’s out of the house, then we can go in and check.”

“Are there any housekeepers or staff to alert her?” Jace asked.

Rosa shook his head. “We have a cleaning crew who comes in on Mondays, so they won’t be there today.”

The colonel seemed to have regained some of the spark that Marise hadn’t seen in him in a long time. It definitely hadn’t been there when he’d been staying at Patriot’s Retreat.

“My former foster brother is a cop at SAPD,” Jace threw out there. “This is his last week on the job since he’ll soon start working for Maverick Ops as well, but since he’s still technically on duty, I could get him to go into the house with us just to make sure any evidence is preserved.”

“Do that,” Slade said, and he turned to the colonel. “And you send a text to Stephanie to set up the meeting. Not for now but for tonight so it’ll give us time to arrange everything. Tell her you’re at my townhouse on the Riverwalk. I’m sure she’ll be able to find the address. That way, I’ll be able to watch the security cameras to make sure she shows up.”

Good idea and that way the woman couldn’t walk in on them and surprise their covert mission.

With yet even more of that spark in his eyes, the colonel went back to sit on the sofa to compose the text.

“Jericho said you had something to talk to us about,” Marise reminded Jace.

Jace nodded. “It’s about Sonny. I had a run-in with him about two and a half weeks ago when I questioned him about the murder of a local loan shark. It was my last active case with SAPD before I left to join Maverick Ops. Anyway, I didn’t have any evidence to hold Sonny so I cut him loose, but I’m sure he did the kill.”

Slade didn’t seem one bit surprised by that. “Murder for hire or a personal reason?” he asked.

“The first,” Jace confirmed. “When Jericho mentioned Sonny’s name, I recalled something about him.” He took out his phone. “During the investigation of the loan shark’s murder, I accessed a lot of camera feed to try to pinpoint Sonny’s location so I could put him in or near the scene of the kill. I didn’t find it, but I did find this.”

Jace held out the screen for them to see. It was a still photo of Sonny and someone else she instantly recognized.

Julian.

“The actual camera footage is in the case file at SAPD,” Jace went on. “And it shows some kind of exchange going on between the men. Julian gives Sonny an envelope that I believe was filled with cash.”

“Any connection between Julian and the dead loan shark?” Marise asked.

“None,” Jace verified. “But less than thirty-six hours later, Carlyle Hutton was killed.” He tipped his head to the photo. “I think what we’re seeing here is Julian hiring Sonny to kill Stephanie’s lover.”

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Chapter Eleven

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Slade read through a report on the monitor while Marise cleaned the cut on his head. Obviously, she was cleaning it with some kind of acid because it stung like the hottest fires in hell. He wasn’t quite able to choke back a grunt of pain, or two, and he was definitely doing some grimacing.

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