Page 127 of Proof of Guilt

“No, it’s not,” Gabriel agreed. “And you’re not going anywhere just yet.” He ignored her protest and went into the hall, motioning for Cameron to join them. “I need you to continue this interview with Miss Vogel, and if she refuses, lock her up. Based on what I have here, we won’t have any trouble getting a court order.”

Lacey fired glances at all of them. “You’ll be sorry for this,” she spat out, and she slung off Cameron’s grip when he took hold of her arm.

However, Lacey didn’t head out the front door, something Theo had thought she might try to do. She followed Cameron to his desk.

Gabriel stepped back in his office and shut the door. “You think she’s lying?” he asked Theo and Ivy.

“I don’t know,” Theo admitted when Ivy shook her head. “But I don’t trust her.”

Both Gabriel and Ivy made sounds of agreement to that.

“Who could have left that watch for her?” Ivy asked, but she didn’t wait for them to answer. “August, maybe? I know he wasn’t at our old house the night of the murders, but maybe Travis gave it to him?”

No, August hadn’t been at either the Beckett or the Canton house. Instead, he’d been with a woman one town over, and she’d provided him with an alibi for the time of the murders. That didn’t mean, though, that August hadn’t run into Travis later, since Theo’s father hadn’t been found until the following morning. Those were a lot of hours when a transfer like that could have taken place, and there was no way August would have volunteered that Travis had had the watch because it would have added another nail to his conviction for the murders.

“If Travis gave him the watch, August wouldn’t have turned it over to Gabriel,” Theo pointed out. But Theo had some trouble finishing that theory. “Why wouldn’t August have planted the watch on someone who’s a more plausible suspect, someone we would actually believe could have killed your parents if my father hadn’t done it? Or he could have just tossed it in the river, where it probably would have never been found.”

Obviously, Theo wasn’t the only one having trouble coming up with a reason for August to do this.

“Now, Wesley—yes,” Theo went on. “I can see an angle for him on this. If he’d somehow managed to get the watch, then he could have used it to frame Lacey so it would take suspicion off him.”

“How would Wesley have gotten the watch, though?” Ivy asked.

Theo had the answer for this one. “Wesley was around during the murder investigation. In fact, he was a San Antonio cop then, and a group of them came out to help comb the area when everyone was looking for Travis. He could have found the watch then.”

That didn’t explain, though, why a cop would have kept something like that, but maybe Wesley had been dirty even back then. If so, he’d certainly kept his dirty deeds hidden away.

“There’s a third theory, though,” Theo continued a moment later. One that he hated to even consider. “Someone could be playing a cat-and-mouse game with us. Maybe a person my father has somehow managed to hire.” He paused, not really wanting to consider this one as well, but they needed to look at all of the possibilities. However, it was Gabriel who finished that train of thought for him.

“Or your father could be innocent, and the real killer is out there,” Gabriel said.

None of them believed that. Or at least they didn’t want to believe it. Because if it was true, it would turn this investigation—and their lives—upside down. Again. It also meant Theo had no way of protecting Ivy from a nameless, faceless monster who could have already butchered at least two people and had plenty of others in his or her sight.

Maybe even their son.

If this was truly someone wanting to spill Beckett blood, then Nathan could be a target. Of course, a killer could also use the boy to draw out Ivy and Theo. And it could work, since both of them would lay down their lives for the boy.

Theo hadn’t intended to do it, but he slid his hand over Ivy’s shoulder. Gabriel noticed, too. But then he was also the one who’d walked in on Ivy and him shortly after that kiss. Judging from Gabriel’s expression, he was about to dole out some big brother advice. Maybe even a big brother warning. However, his phone rang before he could do that.

Theo kept his hand in place, and Ivy looked up at him. Their gazes connected for just a second before Gabriel interrupted them.

“It’s the doctor who performed surgery on the injured woman.” Gabriel put the call on speaker.

Theo braced himself for the doc to say the woman was dead. That would be tragic not only because she might be truly innocent in all of this, but also because they would lose their chance to question her.

“She’s awake,” the doctor announced. “And she says her name is Belinda Travers.”

So she was the woman who’d gone missing from McKenzie’s place. “Did she say anything else?” Theo asked at the same moment Gabriel said, “How soon can I talk to her?”

“Give it another hour,” the doctor answered. “By then, she should be a little more alert. And as for the other question—yes, she told me something else. She said someone kidnapped her from a bar. She doesn’t know the person who did that, but the reason she was there was to meet August C

anton.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ivy wanted nothing more than to go back to the safe house so she could see Nathan. But there was no way her brother could spare the manpower right now. No way that Theo would let Ivy and him drive back there alone, either. Not after the other attack on the road and with the possibility of hired thugs still being in the area.

So she paced the hall in front of Gabriel’s office. Waited.

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