Page 29 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

“I don’t know for sure, but Brighton would get texts when we were out together, and I think the texts were from another man. It was just a feeling I got. She never confirmed it.”

“How long were the two of you involved?” Duncan asked.

“Only about a month.” Manny shut his eyes for a moment. “I’d made dinner reservations at a place in Austin, and Brightondidn’t show. She didn’t call or text so I figured she was ghosting me.”

“And you didn’t call or text her?” Duncan wanted to know.

He shook his head. “I just assumed she was done with me.” Manny paused again. “Then, about two weeks later, I saw something online about her being murdered. The cops were asking anyone to come forward with information, but I didn’t know anything.”

“You should have let the cops decide that,” Duncan snarled. “You should have let us know about the relationship.”

“I didn’t kill her,” Manny snarled right back. “And I didn’t want to get caught up in an investigation.”

Bingo. That was the bottom line, and Bree had to wonder if he hadn’t wanted to be involved because he’d killed Brighton and didn’t want to be on the police’s radar. But he’d come on their radar when she had spotted Brighton on the video outside the bar.

Manny looked at Sandra. “How’d you know I was involved with Brighton? Did she tell you or something?”

Sandra took in some deep breaths as well. “Brighton’s mother and I were best friends, and after she died, I tried to keep an eye on Brighton. I was at her apartment and saw a photo of the two of you on her phone. I asked who you were, but she dodged the question. Why would she do that?”

“Well, it wasn’t because she was afraid I was going to kill her,” Manny protested. “Maybe she just didn’t want to talk to you about her personal life.”

“Possibly,” Sandra admitted. “During that visit with Brighton, she mentioned she’d been going to some interesting bars in Austin. Hush, Hush was one of them, but she named a couple of others. Then, a week or so later when I went to visit her, she was crying. Sobbing, really. And again, she wouldn’t get intospecifics, but I think she was having trouble with a man she’d been seeing.”

“Again, it wasn’t me,” Manny insisted. “Brighton and I didn’t have that kind of relationship. It was casual, barely more than friends with benefits.”

Of course, they had no proof that was true. At least, Bree didn’t have proof. Except...

“If it was so casual, then why would Brighton have a picture of the two of you on her phone?” Bree asked.

He leveled his gaze on her. “Who knows? Maybe she liked the way she looked in it, or, hell, maybe she was just in the mood for taking a picture and then didn’t bother to delete it. There’s all kinds of reasons for pictures to be on someone’s phone.”

True, but the photo could be an indicator that the relationship wasn’t as casual as Manny was making it out to be.

Bree turned to her mother. “You went to the Hush, Hush shortly before Brighton was killed. Did you hear anything about her involvement with Manny then?”

“No,” Sandra said. “And I didn’t see Manny either. I went to try to figure out what was going on with Brighton, but then that fight started, and I got spooked. I left.” Her mouth trembled. “If I’d stayed, I might have figured out who’d wanted to hurt her.” She looked at Manny. “I didn’t know who you were, so I couldn’t give your name to the police during the investigation.”

Manny jumped to his feet again. “This inquisition is over,” he snarled to Duncan. “If you want to talk to me again, go through my lawyer. Am I free to go, or do you plan on arresting me right now?”

Duncan took his time, though Bree knew what his answer was likely to be. There wasn’t enough evidence to arrest Manny. Yes, he’d lied, and Duncan could charge him with that, but it was probably best if Duncan used that for leverage to bring Manny back in if anything else did come to light.

“You can go,” Duncan finally said. “For now,” he immediately tacked onto that.

Manny stormed out, and Tara kept her eyes on him until he was out the door. “He wouldn’t have killed Brighton,” she muttered.

“You’re certain of that?” Duncan challenged.

Tara didn’t issue a quick, resounding yes. In fact, she didn’t verify that at all. She merely shrugged. “What about me? What if someone wants me dead?” Her gaze drifted to the door again where Manny had just made his exit, and Bree wondered if the woman was actually thinking—what if Manny wants me dead?

“I can’t provide police protection to you in Austin,” Duncan explained. “But I can call Austin PD and explain the situation. If they feel it’s warranted, they’ll assign someone to watch you.”

Bree figured the cops there wouldn’t consider it warranted, not when the only threat had been the text from an unknown number. Still, that seemed to placate Tara because she nodded.

“Thank you,” she muttered. “I’ll need my phone back, too.”

Duncan motioned for Sonya to bring it back in and the deputy did. “Did you get anything from it?” he asked Sonya.

She shook her head. “The text came from a burner.”

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