Page 37 of Wild Justice

“Her ex-husband, Jay Bradford,” Kai offered. “And let’s not forget his girlfriend, Allie. She didn’t like Dana and even threatened her life.”

“She did,” Lulu agreed. “And I’m going to mark their alibis in red because we know one or both of them are lying. I think we also need to add in Glen Foster. Not because I think he’s a killer, but because I need to talk to him about what Dana and Jay were discussing the night before she died. At this point, he has information we need.”

“There are rumors about Glen and Dana,” Kai reminded her. “We need to talk to him about that, too.”

“And also, the mysterious boyfriend,” Lulu said, placing a paper with a large question mark on the board. “If she was seeing someone, we need to find out who it was and talk to them.”

“What else do we know?” Kai asked. “Can we say that she probably knew her attacker since it happened in her garage, and there is no sign of a struggle?”

“I’m not sure we can say that definitively yet,” Lulu replied. “They could have snuck up behind her. I do think it’s more likely that she knew them, but I’m not ready to hang my hat on that. Not yet.”

“Man or woman?” Kai challenged. “You were leaning toward a man because they would have had to move a dead body. Are you still thinking that way? Because we have a woman on the board lying about her alibi.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lulu sighed. “I still think it would be difficult for Allie to move Dana’s body to the lake. Not impossible, but damn difficult. Plus, we didn’t find any drag marks in the garage or driveway, only drops. To me, that means Dana was carried.”

“So…a man?”

“Or a man helping a woman,” Lulu replied. “What if Allie killed Dana, realized what she’d done?—”

“And called Jay for help,” Kai jumped in. “I see where you’re going with this. That’s a possibility.”

“There’s a huge problem with my theory though,” Lulu pointed out. “If they were in it together, you’d think they would have taken five minutes and got their stories straight. They didn’t do that.”

“They could be terrible criminals,” Kai suggested. “Frantic about what Allie had done, still in a state of shock. If it wasn’t murder in cold blood, they might not have thought about syncing their alibis. I doubt I’d be an effective killer.”

“I think you’d be good at it,” Lulu said with a shake of her head. “You’re organized, and you think things through. You’re detail-oriented. Not that I’m saying you have killer instincts or anything. I don’t think you’d kill anyone, but if you decided to, I think you’d probably have an excellent shot at getting away with it.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment because I think you meant it as one,” he replied with a laugh. “I’m not a killer, but I could be a good one. That’s…kind of nice in a weird way. Sort of like, I’m not a race car driver, but if I put my mind to it, I could be a good one.”

“A race car driver?” Lulu said, rolling her eyes. “Now I don’t know about that. That might be a stretch.”

“Would you be a good killer?”

Why on earth did he ask that? What a stupid question. What was it about this woman that made him forget how to pause his mouth until his brain caught up?

“Is this on the record or off?” she joked.

“Definitely off.”

“Then, yes. There’s a high probability I’d get away with it. Remember, I’ve studied murders since I was a kid, and I’ve made investigating murders my job. I could be overconfident. But the fact is, with modern forensics and investigation tools, still only about half of murders are solved. The other half go cold. Stranger murders are even harder to solve.”

“Do you think Dana was killed by a stranger?”

“No, I don’t. I think she was killed by someone she knew. Do you think she was killed by a stranger?”

Did he? He wasn’t sure. He’d never investigated a murder before, unless he counted one of the mystery books he liked to read when he had some free time.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I haven’t ruled it out in my head. I do agree that it’s not the most likely explanation. We would be saying that a stranger was driving around, came upon the long driveway to Dana’s house, decided to turn down it and saw the house, decided to kill the person in the house, and then waited until she came out to the garage and hit her over the head. Then he or she picked her up and transported her to a second location instead of leaving her body at the house and taking that time to get far away from the crime scene. It does seem far-fetched when I say it out loud.”

“If it was some sort of serial killer, he might have picked Dana out as a victim days or even weeks ago. He may have seen her in town, or at the bar she worked at,” Lulu explained. “He may have followed her for a few days to see her routine. He could have seen that she lived in a remote area, and began to plan how he would do it. Imagining it. Fantasizing about it. Then he gets the rush of killing, but the build-up just starts all over again with a fresh victim.”

“Jesus, that sounds horrifying,” Kai groaned. “That’s hunting a human being like an animal.”

“That’s exactly what it is, but I don’t think that’s what happened here,” Lulu replied. “My gut is telling me that it was someone she knew. Someone she trusted.”

“Maybe we should list out everyone Dana would have trusted,” Kai suggested.

“Orshouldhave trusted,” Lulu replied. “I want to talk to her friends about her relationship with her family. And I want to talk to her family - separately - about her relationship with her friends and co-workers. Tomorrow, I need to go to the bar where she worked. Maybe she was dating one of the customers but keeping it quiet.”

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