Page 139 of State of Alert

“Was he frustrated by the restrictions placed on Zoe by her mother?”

“Everyone who knows Zoe was frustrated by it. She’s lost friends over it. I mean, who wants to be friends with someone who isn’t allowed to do anything?”

“One thing keeps nagging at me.”

“What?”

“Elaine must’ve known that Zoe was at Zeke’s on Sunday afternoon. Zoe told me herself that her mother would freak out if she knew they were having sex, and yet, Elaine hadnothing to say about her being there alone with him for six hours?”

“She didn’t know they were alone. Zoe told Elaine that his parents and sisters would be home.”

“And Elaine wouldn’t have checked that to be sure?”

“She was trying to be more trusting of her.”

Sam felt for Elaine, who’d been deceived by her family, but she also had empathy for Frank and the girls, who’d struggled to live under Elaine’s unreasonable rules. Her empathy ended when it came to murder, however. If the girls had killed their mother, or arranged to have someone else do it, Sam would make sure they paid for their crime.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

When it became clear they were moving in circles with Frank and that the girls had made a run for it, Sam decided to make Frank their guest for the evening.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I haven’t done anything. My wife has been murdered, and you want to lock me up in jail?”

“Here’s the deal, Frank. I don’t trust you. You lied to me. You held back vital information, and you may or may not know where your daughters are. Since we don’t need another person attached to this case running from us, you’ll be our guest for the next little while until we sort this out.”

“Can you do that without charging me?”

“Do you want me to charge you with obstruction or being a flight risk since your daughters already took off? I can easily make a case for both those things.”

“No, I don’t want that.”

“So go with Detective Cruz, and we’ll talk to you in the morning. In the meantime, if you happen to think of where your daughters might be, I’d recommend coming clean on that. If I find out you’ve known all along, youwillbe charged with obstruction. Do we understand each other?”

“Yeah.”

“Right this way,” Freddie said.

Frank got up and followed him from the room.

Sam went to find Carlucci and Dominguez. “Evening, ladies.”

“Hey, LT. What’s up?”

She briefed them on the day’s events and filled them in on the BOLO for the Myerson girls and Zeke Bellamy.

“So we’re thinking they did it, and now they’re on the run?”

“Possibly, or they didn’t do it and are scared they’re going to be charged.”

“What’s your gut saying?”

“They did it, they thought they were in the clear because they had alibis, and now they’re running scared. We’ll continue to look for them tonight, and if we don’t get anywhere, I’ll bring in the marshals in the morning. Keep me posted on any developments overnight.”

“Will do, LT,” Carlucci said.

Freddie came to join them. “Bellamy’s Mustang was found at a mall in West Virginia with no sign of him or the girls anywhere near it. It’s being seized and brought in for analysis.”

“Well, that’s something, anyway,” Sam said. “Now we know they’re heading west.”

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