Page 24 of Marked For Revenge

“Bingo,” Ava verified. “Please tell me there’s some inconsistencies you can use to open an investigation on one of them.”

“Nothing on Edgar. His alibis checked out. Apparently, Valerie spends a lot of nights at his place, and she was there all three of the nights of the murders. Her driver dropped her off and picked her up the following mornings, and he confirmed that she was at that location.”

“Is it possible Edgar left when she was asleep?” Harley asked.

“Possible but not likely. Valerie claims to be a light sleeper and insists she would have known if Edgar had left the bed. Also, once I pressed Edgar, he said he’d provide me with security footage to prove he arrived at and didn’t leave the premises on the nights of the murders. Oh, and of course, he demanded I keep the footage private or he’d sue me.”

Yep, that sounded like Edgar. It also sounded as if his alibis were fairly solid. Considering that Caleb’s had checked out, too, both men had moved way down on their suspect list. However, there was one person directly connected to Edgar who was still firmly a suspect.

“What about Duran’s alibis?” Harley asked.

“His aren’t nearly as airtight as Edgar’s,” Theo explained. “In fact, he doesn’t have one for two of the nights. Claimed he was home alone and, unlike Edgar, he doesn’t have any security footage that might substantiate that. For one of the other nights, the last one, Duran was on the phone with a colleague who will confirm he had a lengthy conversation with Duran.”

“Duran could have been on the phone while he was in Silver Creek,” Ava quickly pointed out.

“Yep, and that’s why I’ve asked Duran to voluntarily give me his phone records. He said he needed to consult with his attorney first.”

That sounded like a possible red flag. Possible. But there were also people who didn’t automatically cooperate with law enforcement even if that cooperation would help clear their name and catch a killer.

“If I don’t have Duran’s phone records by tomorrow,” Theo went on, “I’ll press to get a warrant. That won’t be easy,” he added. “Because I’m sure Duran has contacts in high places.”

True, but he wasn’t a senator, and Edgar could possibly be persuaded to press Duran to cough up the records. Might. Edgar and Duran were close, but since Edgar had had his privacy violated, he might insist his campaign manager do the same. Edgar might especially go for that if it gave him some good press to prove he was cooperating with the investigation.

“I just got an update from Austin PD on the shooting,” Theo advised. “There was no rifle on the building. Nor was one found in the general area. There are no witnesses who can put Aaron on that roof.”

That didn’t mean, though, that Aaron hadn’t been there and fired those shots. “How’d the shooter get up on that building?” Ava asked.

“Probably used the fire escape. Unless he was up there all night, it means he went up in broad daylight, but the back of the building doesn’t have any visibility from any of the streets that crisscross that area.”

Still, that was a gutsy move. Unless the shooter blended in so well that no one would have been suspicious. With Caleb ruled out, Harley went with another possibility.

“The shooter could have been a hired gun,” Harley interjected, throwing it out there. “If so, then he was hired to purposely miss us because he would have had a clean enough shot of Ava, you or me when we left Caleb’s apartment.”

Both Ava and Theo made a sound of agreement. “The motive could have been just to terrorize me,” Ava added. “Or to make us believe it was connected to Caleb. Even though Caleb couldn’t have fired the shots, the shooter might have wanted us to believe he was trying to silence us for something Caleb might have told us.”

Yes, and that took them back to Aaron. “Is there anything Caleb could have said that would have incriminated Aaron in some way? Or,” Harley tacked onto that, “incriminated any of our suspects?”

Ava clearly didn’t know because she shook her head. “Nothing I can think of,” she conceded, spelling it out. “But I might not be the best judge of that.”

She didn’t spell out that it was hard to be objective about her own son, but Theo picked up on it.

“How are you dealing with all of this?” Theo came out and asked.

She paused a long time. “I’m not sure. What I’m feeling for him is getting mixed up with the attack and the murders. I considered asking him to come and stay here so I can better protect him, but since I’m the target, that would be like putting him straight in a path of danger.”

Harley couldn’t argue with that. Apparently, neither could Theo.

“The Rangers are keeping an eye on Caleb,” Harley reminded her. And, while that wasn’t a foolproof plan, the alternative was sending Caleb to a safe house. That might still happen if there was even a hint of an attack aimed at him.

“And I’m keeping in regular contact with both the Rangers and Austin PD,” Theo assured her. “One more thing. I called Marnie on the drive back to Silver Creek, and I’m having her come in for an interview tomorrow.”

“She agreed to come here?” Harley asked.

“I didn’t give her much of a choice. I said there were some inconsistencies in what she reported to Ava and you, and that I needed her to clarify it face to face. Aaron might have just been tossing around accusations about Marnie to try to get himself out of hot water, but I still want to hear what the woman has to say. If she truly does hate Aaron, he could be right about her trying to set him up for the murders.”

Harley tried to work that out in his mind. He’d read Marnie’s bio and knew she’d once taught martial arts, so it was possible she would have been strong enough to abduct and kill three women. Strong enough to pose them, too. But for Marnie to set something like this in motion, it meant she’s known all about Aaron and Ava having a child together. Maybe that was something Aaron had revealed during one of his self-confessed drunken talks with the woman. Or, if he’d told Christina, she could have passed along the info to her sister.

“Marnie is coming in at nine tomorrow morning, and I told her she was more than welcome to bring a lawyer with her,” Theo added. “I’d like you both in the interview room.”

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