Page 12 of Marked For Revenge

He sighed, and while he wished they’d been able to dive into the more personal parts of this situation, Ava did have a valid question. “No,” he assured her. “They’re all in jail and are being monitored closely for any attempts at retaliation.”

“Closely monitored doesn’t mean they couldn’t find a way,” she quickly pointed out.

Harley made an equally quick sound of agreement. “True, but I don’t think they’d do that because I also believe your father might have paid them to take the fall for him. They won’t spend that much time in jail, and your father could have made sure they were well compensated for their silence.”

That got her attention and Ava’s gaze speared right to his. “Is there any proof of that?”

“None,” he said.

What he didn’t add was that he was still digging, still looking for any connection whatsoever that his gut feeling was right. And that gut feeling was that Edgar was a dangerous criminal. Unfortunately, Harley couldn’t see how murdering three women and linking those murders to his daughter would earn him anything.

Unless...

“Just how mad was your father when he found out you were carrying my baby?” Harley asked.

“Mad,” she answered while she studied him. He saw the exact moment she realized where Harley was going with this. “You think Edgar’s so enraged that he plans to murder me and make it look as if it’s a serial killer’s doing.” She shook her head. “Then, why drag Caleb into it by leaving that Mom note?”

Harley hadn’t thought that far into this possible theory, but he instantly made a connection. A bad one. “What if Edgar’s worried that the way he handled your teen pregnancy will come to light? He won’t come out looking good in the eyes of the voters. After all, he forced his daughter into giving up her child and threatened her boyfriend with jail time.”

Her forehead bunched up while she obviously gave that some thought. “It’s possible Edgar’s worried about that,” she finally conceded. “But that would mean something has happened to make him believe that what he did is about to come out.”

“Secrets get uncovered all the time,” Harley pointed out. Even though it was a stretch for him to believe that Edgar would want his own daughter dead because of an ugly secret being revealed. Then again, Edgar wasn’t a loving, devoted father, and he might be willing to go to any lengths to prevent himself from being dragged into a scandal.

“If this is about getting revenge by killing me,” Ava said, “or wanting to cover up what he did all those years ago, then Edgar wouldn’t want anything to be made public about Caleb.”

“True.” Harley had to give it some thought as well. “This theory might be out there, but maybe Edgar intends for Caleb to be blamed.”

He was about to expand that theory when his phone dinged with a text. Since it was from Theo, Harley figured the sheriff hadn’t taken his own advice about getting some rest.

Harley froze when he read the single sentence Theo had sent. Froze and then cursed. “Caleb’s adoptive parents were both killed in a car crash seven months ago.”

Judging from the way Ava sucked in her breath, she hadn’t had a clue. But she certainly knew what it could mean. Losing one’s parents was traumatic and it could have triggered some kind of break.

Ava groaned and would have no doubt tried to wrap her mind around that, but her phone rang. Considering how late it was, he figured this wouldn’t be good news, and his stomach automatically knotted. He hoped like hell there hadn’t been another murder.

“It’s Marnie,” Ava relayed to him. “I added her info to my contacts because I’d given her my number,” she explained while she took the call and put it on speaker.

“Ava Lawson?” the woman immediately asked. There was an urgency in her voice.

“Yes, it’s me. Marnie, how can I help you?”

Despite that urgency, Marnie didn’t jump to answer. “This might be nothing, but after we talked, I got to thinking about Aaron. About the last time I saw him. It wasn’t long after Christina died, and he came over to drop off some of Christina’s clothes and personal items that he thought I might want. He was drunk and rambling, so I’m not even sure what he said was important.”

“What did he say?” Now, Ava was doling out some of her own urgency.

“Remember, he was rambling,” Marnie reminded her, “and he was going on about talking to somebody who was connected to some things that happened to him when he was a teenager. After your call where you told me you were once involved with him, I wondered if Aaron was talking about you.”

Harley wanted to jump in with a bunch of questions. Specifically questions that might connect anything Aaron had said to the murders, but he held back because he figured Ava would be able to get more from the woman without him interrupting.

“Did Aaron give you any details about what happened to him?” Ava prompted. “And did he say who the person was and why he was talking to him or her?”

“Sort of. He talked about being scared, that he had to stay quiet about something or that he could be in big trouble. I thought he maybe meant Christina’s drug dealer, but Aaron kept going on and on about being a teenager and making a mistake. A mistake he said that’d come back to haunt him because now he was being threatened.”

“‘Threatened,’” Ava repeated in a murmur. She cleared her throat before she asked, “Did Aaron mention the name of the person who was threatening him?”

Harley automatically moved closer to the phone, wondering if the woman was about to tell them it was Ava’s father.

But it wasn’t Edgar’s name that came out of Marnie’s mouth.

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