Page 115 of Fatal Witness

“Anything wrong?”

She hadn’t heard Mark come up. “Depends on how you look at it. That was Crider. The slug found in Keith matched the ballistics here in Tennessee.”

“Okay, so we know for sure that the two cases are connected.”

“Yes.”

Half an hour later they reconvened in the room, minus Mae. She’d acquiesced to Alex’s request. “Any questions?” she asked the group.

“Do you know if Toby Mitchell was shot?” Nathan asked.

Alex nodded. “He was. Max didn’t know the caliber of the gun used yet. Once an autopsy is completed, we’ll have that information. Max indicated we might get an initial report tomorrow that will hopefully include the caliber of the gun used. We just received information from Sheriff Crider in Montana that the bullet that killed Keith came from the same gun that killed Dani’s parents.”

Taylor raised her hand. “Are any of the people on Mae’s list considered suspects in the Montana killing?”

“That investigation is ongoing and has now expanded here.” Then Alex nodded at the board. “Other than Toby, most of these people are upstanding citizens. It’s hard to imagine someone like Ben and his dad and uncle or Pastor Rick being involved.”

Nathan cleared his throat. “Just between us, I find it a little disturbing that less than a week after the murders twenty-fiveyears ago, Ralph Tennyson moved Ben and the rest of the family to Texas. And Carson said he quit his job at the plant without a notice.”

Her grandfather hadn’t mentioned that to her. Alex turned to Morgan. “What do you know about that?”

Morgan shook her head. “Nothing. Daddy never talked about why we moved, and he wasn’t someone you could easily ask. Craig or Ben might know something.”

“Was Ralph ever considered a suspect in the murders?” she asked Nathan.

“No. According to your grandfather, Ralph had an air-tight alibi, and as Mae said earlier, Ben and Craig alibied each other.”

Alex frowned. “When did you and my grandfather discuss this?”

“When I was his deputy. He and I were going over a few cold cases and this was one of them.”

“It appears we might need to interview Ben more in-depth. Craig too. Anything else?”

Jenna raised her pen. “Was Kyle Peterson ever a person of interest in the murders?”

“Gramps had a file on him, but since there wasn’t any evidence he participated in the thefts, there didn’t seem to be a motive, so my grandfather didn’t pursue it. I haven’t interviewed Kyle myself, but I did talk with Mr. Peterson, and the version he told me tallied with Gramps’s—the night of the murders, he spent the night with his girlfriend, plus he’d just gotten his car serviced and the odometer reading was on the receipt. The car hadn’t been driven enough to put him in Pearl Springs and back to Chattanooga.” Alex looked over her notes. “He also claimed he had a flat tire on his vehicle, and AAA confirmed a service call on the day of the murders.”

“He could have taken the girlfriend’s car,” Jenna said. “Maybe someone needs to interview her again, see if the alibi stands up.”

“Good idea.Ifhe was in on the thefts, and he thought Bobby Bennett was withholding the diamonds, he could’ve confronted him and things got out of hand. See if you can get a current address for her.”

“Do we have a name?”

Alex shuffled through her papers. “Here it is. Crystal Davis.”

Jenna jotted the name on her tablet. “I’ll see what I can find on the internet.”

“You might call Chattanooga PD. I’ve been talking to Detective Todd Madden. He might have a number.”

“Anything else before we move on to Dani?” Alex asked. When no one spoke up, she said, “There have been attempts made on her life. She thinks, and I agree, it’s the person who killed her parents, and now her uncle. He either doesn’t know she has no memory of that night and thinks she can identify him, or he knows and is afraid she’ll get her memory back.”

55

Dani wasn’t sure how much more of this she could listen to. Hearing all the details ...

Alex’s phone rang and she said, “It’s Max. Excuse me a minute.”

As she stepped out of the room, Jenna turned to Dani. “How much of your memory have you regained?”

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