Page 195 of State of Alert

Jada nodded. “She said we could either run or wait to be arrested. She scared me enough that I went along with it.”

“You didn’t want to?”

“Not really. I’m pretty sure she’s the one who did it, but I wouldn’t put it past her to stick it on me. I figured if I went, I could keep an eye on her.”

“Why is there money missing from both your college funds?” Sam asked.

Jada cast a guilty look at her dad. “We were making plans to move out when Zoe turned eighteen. She was going to petition the court for custody of me.”

“Jesus,” Frank said. “I was afraid she was using again.”

“She’s not,” Jada said. “She’s very determined to stay drug-free. She found out that didn’t help anything.”

“I can’t help but wonder,” Sam said, “how you two, who seemed to hate each other, got past that to make plans like these.”

“We were desperate,” Jada said. “We still don’t like each other, but we couldn’t live like that any longer.”

“How’d you end up left alone in a motel room?”

“I wasn’t sure that she didn’t kill Mom, so I kept needling her, trying to get her to admit that she did it, but she wouldn’t. She kept telling me to shut up and that I didn’t know what I was talking about, but I kept it up until she snapped. We got into a fight, and she managed to overpower me. She used a sock to tie my wrists and another to gag me. I couldn’t believe they were actually going to leave me there. They fought over that. Zeke thought they should bring me, but Zoe said she’d had enough of my bullshit and that the housekeepers would find me eventually.” She hiccupped on a sob. “I was there for a long time before anyone came to the room.”

Frank put an arm around her carefully. “Oh God, honey. I’m so sorry you went through that.”

“Did you arrest Zoe and Zeke?” Jada asked as she wiped away tears with a tissue Sam had given her.

“No.”

“Why not? It’s obvious she did it, and he helped her.”

“We don’t think that’s what happened.”

Jada glanced at her dad, incredulous. “How could it be anyone else?”

“We’ve learned that your mom was investigating her sister’s murder,” Sam said, “and that she recently visited a man she considered a suspect. He took out a restraining order against her to keep her away from him. Our cameras put him in the vicinity of your home on Sunday afternoon, shortly before your mother returned home from doing errands.” A new detail clicked into place for Sam as she recited the details.

Sam showed them a photo of the baseball bat that’d been used to kill Elaine.

“Does this look familiar?”

Frank gasped. “That’s Zoe’s from when she played softball.”

“It’s possible he snuck into the garage when she opened the door to put her car in and then picked up the bat.” That would explain the lack of forced entry.

“It wasn’t Zoe?” Jada asked softly.

“We haven’t got all the details on the suspect yet, but we don’t believe she was involved.”

“Oh my God.” Jada dissolved into deep, wrenching sobs. “The things I said to her. I accused her of being a monster.”

“I was pretty sure she’d done it, too,” Frank said. “I hated to think it was possible, but she was so angry with Mom all the time. I thought maybe she and Zeke had decided to get her out of the way.”

Jada fell into his arms, sobbing. “I hate her for leaving me in that motel room, but she’ll hate me more for what I thought she did.”

To Frank, Sam said, “We’ve located Zoe and Zeke and are working on getting them home.”

She left the room and called Zeke’s father.

“Greg Bellamy.”

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