Page 18 of Cornered

He shot her a sad little smile. “No one does. It’s okay. Youdon’t have to search for them. You won’t find any that will help.” He drew in a ragged breath. “What will help is catching who did this.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Cole said.

“Yes. Thank you. So, on the phone, you said someone ran her off the road. That there were traces of green paint on her white vehicle. I just washed her car the day before yesterday, and I assure you that wasn’t there.”

Tate nodded. “That’s helpful to know. We thought the paint looked fresh, but your confirmation is good to have.” He waved a hand to Steph. “She wanted to come along and offer support. She’s also the one who found a pink notebook that Brenda had been making notes in. Last night, someone broke into Steph’s house and then mine looking for it. They managed to steal it from my kitchen.”

Greg’s jaw dropped. “What?” he whispered.

“But I took pictures of it,” Steph said. She scooted closer to Greg and held out her phone so he could see one of the pages. “Do you have any idea what kind of code this is?”

He took her phone and studied the pictures. “That’s her handwriting, but I couldn’t tell you what it means or why she would feel the need to use code.”

“Do you know why she was on Youngstown Road at that time of night?” Cole asked.

Greg shook his head, then raked a hand over his short dark curls. “No. We had dinner and then she asked me to put the kids to bed because she had an errand to run. I tried to talk her out of going, but she said it was something that couldn’t wait. I fell asleep in the recliner. Only woke up when an officer rang my doorbell to tell me she’d crashed her car on that curve.” Tate and Cole exchanged a look. Greg caught it. “What?”

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it wasn’t an accident,” Tate said, his voice soft. “We can’t prove it, but evidence suggests someone deliberately made her crash.”

Greg blinked. “Wait, what? How are you getting that from a side swipe? It could have been an accident.”

“If there had just been one area where there was paint, then yeah,” Tate said, “but there were two. Like Brenda managed to keep it on the road after the first one, so the person came back and tried again. This time succeeding in pushing her over the side.”

Greg stared and Cole cleared his throat. “The ME will have more information on her exact cause of death, but I’m sorry, Greg, it looks like Brenda was murdered.”

The man gasped and Steph’s heart broke for him.

He looked at each of them and spread his hands. “But ... but why?”

“We don’t know,” Cole said. “We think it may be related to something she was working on. Something she wrote down in that notebook, since someone went to so much trouble to steal it.”

“I have no idea.” Greg shuddered. “She never talked about her work much, but...”

“But?”

“But she was making and getting phone calls. Calls that she obviously didn’t want me to hear. I never suspected an affair. Brenda wouldn’t do that to me. Every time I asked her about the calls, she would just shrug and say, ‘Difficult client.’ Or ‘Work,’ and then go in another room to talk.”

“We didn’t find her cell phone in the vehicle. Do you have it?”

“No.” He tapped his screen and turned it for them to see. “I tried to check her location. The phone is offline.”

“Yeah,” Cole said. “It’s okay. Will you allow us access to her personal phone records?”

“Absolutely. I can print them off for you.”

“That would be a huge time-saver if we didn’t have to get them from the phone company. Can you go back three months?”

“Of course.” Greg rose, went to the desk in the corner of the room, and with the click of a few keys, sent the printer whirring.

While they waited for the pages to print, Steph let her gaze roam over the pictures lining the mantel. So many of Brenda and her family and friends. Steph was in a few. Tears threatened and she sniffed. “Greg,” she said, “are you certain the break-in a couple of weeks ago was Mark climbing back in his window and not something else?”

He frowned and rubbed his head. “I never saw any evidence that it was anything other than Mark. I’ll admit, Beau barking like he did was disconcerting, but I walked around outside and didn’t see anything or anyone else.”

“Hmm. Weird, but okay.”

“It was weird, but all was quiet up until ... well ... her accident.” Greg went to get the papers from the printer and handed them to Cole. “If you need to go back farther, just let me know.”

“Thanks.” Cole stood. “Appreciate your time. And I’m real sorry about Brenda. I only met her a few times, but she was always so kind.”

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