Page 72 of A Mile of Ocean

Savannah wanted to be the voice of reason as she looked around the table at the faces of the others. “You’re talking about the woman who gave my 4-H kids the opportunity to see horses up close, invited us out here, and was nothing but nice.”

Like she’d done with Brock, Tate laid a hand on Savannah’s. “What are the key traits of a master manipulator?” She ticked them off on one hand. “Their self-importance tops anyone else’s. Their lack of empathy. They are charming one minute, cold and distant the next. They’re control freaks because being in charge helps them achieve their goals. And the fifth one is my personal favorite. They never admit they’re wrong.”

“Let’s say for a minute you’re right,” Birk pondered. “She knew we planned this trap to lure in Bohannon. What was her plan when he didn’t show?”

“Who says he won’t show?” Tate pondered.

“Let’s look at this logically,” Trent proposed. “There could be two possible scenarios. First, she warns off her accomplice to get the hell out of Dodge. Disappear. Second, if she is this master manipulator, she’d want to tie up loose ends. She would allow her accomplice to walk into the trap and start shooting. He’d be killed. She’d look like the hero, making everyone believe she took down Barrett’s killer. She walks away and gets away with murder. My vote is Option Two.”

“I’m going with Option Two,” Tate voted, looking at Savannah.

“I’m not sure I should get a vote,” Savannah said.

“Did you go out on patrol?” Birk snapped. “Because if you did, you risked your life like everyone else has. Don’t be a wuss now. Tell us what you think.”

Savannah cleared her throat and shifted in her chair. “I read the documents from the safe. I looked at the documents Cooper brought to the table. I think she’s devious enough to carry out Option Two.”

As they went around the table, the others went with Option Two until they reached Hawk. “It never even occurred to me that your grandmother could’ve pushed Slade down those stairs.”

“Same here,” Trent replied. “But the one thing that’s been nagging at me since I saw his body is wondering how the person doing this could’ve known about that staircase. It’s a detail that only a handful of people would know about. Like you said, someone on the inside. Colter Bohannon would never have known about that staircase.”

With his arms folded across his chest, Hawk nodded. “Okay, I vote for Option Two.”

Drum and Lincoln made the count a united front.

Trent leaned forward. “Okay, now that we’ve agreed on that, my guess is she won’t risk using the gun that killed Barrett because of ballistics. So what rifle has she been taking out with her on patrols? Whatever it is, we need to locate that weapon, unload it, and remove the firing pin. Then wait until she gives herself away trying to kill the guy.”

“Toby would know,” Brock offered. “I’ll text him.”

“No, text him to come to the dining room,” Trent instructed. “I don’t want anything to leak out. Cooper, why don’t you contact Eastlyn and let her know what’s going on? She’ll need to work on a search warrant for the entire property, looking for the murder weapon and possibly other corroborating evidence of the crimes. I’d start with a warrant for her cell phone data. She probably communicated regularly with this person.”

“I’m on it,” Cooper said, keying in the information to his wife.

Trent looked around the table. “Anybody else have anything to add?”

“So, I don’t get to snipe anyone,” Birk complained. “I was all set for a momentary return to my glory days, especially taking out someone who shot an old man in the head.”

“He wasn’t gonna kill anybody,” Beckett added. “Birk was just gonna wing him.”

Lucien slapped his buddy on the back. “Maybe next time. Not every case can be all fun and games. I can’t believe Duchess Callum had us all fooled from the beginning,” he muttered. “And I thought my family was warped.”

Savannah traded amused looks with Brogan. “Hey, me too. We’ve talked about our family issues since you guys found out who killed Owen.”

Brogan grinned. “I’m a firm believer that perfect families are an illusion. They don’t exist in real life.”

As they all sat in somber contemplation, the tension ran high. Trent tried to wrap his mind around how they had been manipulated. Had the signs always been there, just lurking under the surface? Had he ignored his grandmother’s lack of empathy and distant coldness all these years? Now, she loomed over his every thought like a dark cloud, her true motives coming to light in the most chilling way possible.

Cooper’s phone buzzed with a message from Eastlyn, confirming that she would begin working on obtaining search warrants for the property and phone. Clearly, they needed to act quickly and decisively if they were going to catch Duchess in the act. “Eastlyn will have the entire team, along with Brent, standing by.”

Just then, Toby entered the dining room, looking slightly confused but ready to help however he could.

Trent wasted no time getting straight to the point, asking Toby about the rifle Duchess had carried on her patrols.

Toby frowned, thinking back to the last night. “She carries that Winchester .30-30, pre-1964, with the hair trigger.It’s a collector’s item. She told me so. She said it belonged to her daddy, manufactured sometime before World War II.Man, is she ever accurate with that thing. She can hit center target practically every time.”

“I know the rifle,” Trent said with a nod. “I should’ve guessed that’s the one she’d use. I also know the gun safe where she keeps it.”

“Unless she put a new lock on it,” Tate cautioned. “There’s that possibility.”

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