Page 35 of Marked For Revenge

“Of course not,” Duran insisted, but Ava had no idea whether or not he was telling the truth. If he was lying, maybe the Austin cops would be able to trip him up and ultimately get a confession.

“Then why were you there during the shooting?” Harley pressed. He didn’t add more, maybe waiting to see if Duran was going to deny it.

He didn’t.

Duran groaned. “I was in Austin because I was following Aaron. I got a heads-up from the PI, Darcel Harrison, that Aaron intended to make a trip to Austin to see Caleb. I knew you were heading there to interview the young man, and I wanted to be on hand in case things turned ugly.”

The whole explanation sounded rehearsed, which it no doubt had been. She didn’t press him on how the PI had found out about Aaron going to Austin, but she wouldn’t put it past Duran to have managed to plant eavesdropping devices in Aaron’s residence.

“Look, I’m giving the cops my guns so they can test them or whatever,” Duran went on, “and you’ll soon have proof that none of them has been recently fired. I didn’t shoot at Harley and you. I didn’t try to kill you.”

Ava heard the confidence in the man’s voice about the firearms and silently groaned. Because, of course, if Duran was the shooter, he would have already gotten rid of the weapon. And that meant there was little chance of them finding it.

“I didn’t actually reach the apartment building where Harley and you were,” Duran added a moment later. “I was walking there from the car park, and when I heard the shots, I stayed put for a while. Then I turned and ran back to my car after I heard the police sirens. I figured I wouldn’t be able to help if I arrived on scene.”

He’d no doubt rehearsed that part, too. All very pat. And, worse, it might all be very true. Ava had wanted to hear something, anything, that would clue her in that Duran had been there to kill her, but she hadn’t.

Not yet anyway.

“Tell me about Theresa Darnell.” Ava threw the name out there.

Duran didn’t jump in with a quick answer, but she thought she heard him mutter something under his breath. Profanity maybe. “I’m guessing you found out she was once involved with Aaron.”

“Yes, and I’m wondering why you didn’t mention it to me sooner,” Ava snapped. “The woman was murdered, and you didn’t think I’d want to know that she’d had a connection to Aaron. And to you,” she tacked on.

“Wait a minute,” he protested. “I didn’t have a connection with her. I simply read about her in a report that the PI sent me.”

Ava went with a theory that was starting to form. “If you thought that Aaron had spilled anything to Theresa about Caleb or what Edgar and you did, you might have been worried that she’d be angry enough to tell someone. Someone who’d be willing to make sure it hit the media.”

“That didn’t happen.” Duran sounded adamant about that. Again, though, Ava wasn’t sure if this was part of the façade that he was so very good at creating. “Yes, I had the PI keep an eye on her for a while. And, no, he didn’t see who killed her. He just listened in case she started making waves to get back at Aaron. She didn’t, so end of story.”

Maybe, but Ava would keep digging, and there might be something in the PI’s report about it.

“How about Monica Howell and Sandy Russo?” she continued, giving him the names of the other two murdered women. “Do you have a connection of any kind to either of them?”

His silence let her know that she’d hit pay dirt. “I don’t have a personal connection, no. But Sandy Russo and Theresa, they knew each other. Apparently, they went to the same school, and the PI reported they’d had dinner together shortly after Theresa and Aaron’s breakup.”

Ava had to get her teeth unclenched before she could speak. “Again, you didn’t think this was pertinent information in a murder investigation. I should have you charged with obstruction of justice.”

“I didn’t know any of this was important,” Duran fired back. “Aaron’s come in contact with a whole lot of people over the past twenty years, and I never met these women. They were merely names mentioned in a report that I would have skimmed.”

The skimming was possibly true since Duran would have been looking for any red flags on Aaron, but that didn’t mean the man hadn’t used the connections to select his victims. After all, Duran could have reasoned that Aaron could have told Theresa about Aaron, and then Monica could have passed along the info to Sandy since the two women were friends.

“You’re sure there’s nothing in the PI reports about Monica Howell?” Harley asked Duran.

“Not that I can recall.” Duran paused. “But I’ll check.”

“Do that. And, my advice if you find a connection, come clean, because right now, all this secrecy could land your butt in jail,” Harley warned him.

“Where’s Ava?” She heard someone call out.

She groaned because it was her father. “Edgar’s here,” she relayed to Duran.

“He’s worried about you,” Duran quickly supplied. “Tell him I’ll call him as soon as I’ve finished the interview.”

With that, Duran ended the call, and when her father called out her name again, she opened the interview room door and spotted Theo escorting Edgar toward her. Neither man looked pleased, but since Theo got a call, he handed Edgar off to her and stepped aside so he could answer his phone.

Edgar marched right into the interview room and slammed the door behind him. One look at him and Ava knew he was spitting mad, and it didn’t take him long to jump right into the reason for that anger.

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