Page 37 of Protecting the Newborn

“You were spotted on a security camera near Marty’s around the same time he was killed,” Ruston said, figuring it was something Allie might already know.

She did.

“Devin called and told me. He said that’s why the cops wanted to talk to me.”

Ruston and Gracelyn exchanged glances, and he saw the question in her eyes. Had SAPD released that info about Allie being on the security feed? He shook his head, though that was something that likely would have happened soon if the cops hadn’t been able to locate Allie.

So, how had Devin known?

It was something Ruston would have Noah ask Devin if and when the man came back in to be interviewed.

“Why were you at Marty’s?” Gracelyn asked her sister.

“Well, it wasn’t to kill him,” Allie was quick to say. “That’d be like killing the golden goose.” She glanced away. “I was going to try to get a loan from Marty. I needed money so I could get back on my feet.”

Interesting. “And you knew Marty loaned money because he’d done that for Devin?” Ruston wanted to know.

“Devin,” Allie spit out. She said the man’s name like profanity. “Yeah, Devin owes Marty lots and lots of money. Some kind of investment deal gone wrong,” she added in a mutter.

“Really?” Gracelyn asked. “I was under the impression that Devin had paid off his debts to Marty.”

“As if,” Allie snarled. “And if Devin told you that, he’s lying. Then again, he lies about a lot of stuff.” The tears came again, and she sank down into one of the chairs. “He told me he loved me, and then he kicked me out.”

Gracelyn sat, too, probably so she’d be eye level with Allie. “Why did he do that?”

Allie stayed quiet for so long that Ruston thought she might just clam up, but she finally answered. “He claimed it was because I used just a little to help take the edge off my nerves. He called me names, said I’d never be anything but a screwup, and he kicked me out. That’s why I went to Marty.”

Ruston didn’t like having to rely on hearsay to try to figure out the big picture here, but it was possible that things had played out that way. If Devin did still owe Marty a lot of money and was trying to resolve that in some way, then he might not have wanted a loose cannon like Allie around.

“Tell me what happened when you went to Marty’s,” Gracelyn pressed.

Allie drank more water and then took several long breaths. “I saw him twice. First, two days ago, and he was fine then.” She had fixed her gaze on her thumbnail now and was scraping away some flakes of bright pink polish. “Then I went back last night to get the money, but Marty was dead when I got there.” The water and breaths didn’t help. Allie broke into a heavy sob. “He was dead, and there was so much blood. I’d never seen that much blood before.”

Ruston got an instant flash of his father’s murder. Of the blood. And he relived the shock of seeing that. The crushing pain in his chest that followed. But Ruston shoved that aside. Had to. He had to focus on what Allie was saying to finish creating that mental big picture.

“So, what did you do?” Gracelyn continued.

“I ran, of course,” Allie was quick to say. “I got out of there as fast as I could because I thought the killer could still be there. He could have killed me if he thought I was a witness or something.”

“He?”Gracelyn questioned. “You thought the killer was a man?”

Allie looked at her and then shook her head. “No. I mean, I didn’t know. I just assumed it was a man who’d done something like that. I didn’t want to hang around and end up like Marty.”

“Or answer questions from the cops who responded to the scene,” Duncan commented.

Allie’s mouth went into a flat line, but at least she stopped crying. “Or that,” she verified, her voice a snap now. “With my record, they would have thought I was responsible, and I’m not.”

The cops would have indeed thought that, and Allie would have become their prime suspect with the means and opportunity to have done the kill. But Ruston wasn’t sure of her motive.

“Where did you go when you ran from Marty’s?” Gracelyn asked.

“To a hotel about six blocks away. I used cash so there wouldn’t be a way to trace the room to me.”

“Cash?” Gracelyn repeated. “You had cash for a hotel room, but you went to Marty for a loan?”

Allie huffed. “I needed more than what I had on me.” She quickly waved that away as if she didn’t want to dwell on that particular subject. “With Marty out of the picture, I decided to try to convince Devin to give me some money. I still had a key to his place, and I slipped in. I wanted to make sure he was in a good mood before I asked him for a loan.”

Or she’d slipped in to steal from Devin. But since he didn’t want to disrupt the flow of her explanation, Ruston kept that to himself for the moment.

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