Page 25 of Montana Manhunt

“Two months ago. We met in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when Cami was attending a conference with her boss. We spent several hours together.”

“Would you characterize your relationship as close?” Ellis asked.

“Yes.”

Freeman snorted. “Close? You said you haven’t stepped foot in Morrison in years. How close can you be when you won’t come home to see your family?”

“Stay on point,” Noah warned. He could see where this line of questioning was going, and it wasn’t good. “Violet isn’t a suspect in her sister’s murder.”

“How do you know that?” Ellis demanded. “You don’t know the time of death.”

Actually, he did, but Noah didn’t intend to throw Zane under the bus. “Violet was notified about Camilla’s death yesterday afternoon. Before that, we were in Mexico for more than a week. Unless your police department is slow to notify family, we were out of the country when Camilla was killed.”

“Mexico.” Ellis folded his arms across his chest. “You were on vacation and couldn’t be bothered to answer your sister’s phone calls, Ms. Trevelyan?”

“I wasn’t on vacation, Detective. I was working.”

His eyes narrowed. “Doing what?”

“One of you called my workplace. You know I work for Fortress Security.”

Freeman rolled his eyes. “As some kind of administrative assistant? Come on. You weren’t too busy to answer your sister’s phone calls. You just didn’t bother to answer. What kind of sister does that make you?”

“That’s enough,” Noah said, fury roiling in his gut. “Either get back on point or this interview is over.”

“What is your job, Ms. Trevelyan?” Ellis asked.

“I’m a medic.”

The detectives stared. “You’re an EMT for a security company?”

“I’m a paramedic.”

Freeman snorted. “So you slap Band-Aids on paper cuts? Come on. What legitimate security company needs an EMT for that?”

“I’m a paramedic for a black ops unit,” she said flatly.

The detectives stared again. “Black ops,” Ellis repeated. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I lie about something you can check?”

“All right. Let’s say I believe you. If you’re in black ops, then you’re well trained and could sneak in and out of Morrison with no one knowing. You could have slipped into town, killed your sister, and left again with no one knowing.”

“Why would I?” Violet countered. “I loved my sister. I would never hurt her.”

“She called you twice in the past four days. You didn’t answer.”

“I couldn’t. I was on a mission with my unit.”

“Can anyone verify your claim?”

“All of us can,” Noah said.

More silence, then, “You’re all in the same black ops unit?” Ellis asked.

“I’m in the same unit as Violet,” Rayne said. “Noah and Grant are in a different unit.”

Ellis shifted his gaze to Noah. “You said you all could verify Ms. Trevelyan’s whereabouts for the past week. How can that be possible if the two of you are in separate units?”

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