Mean Streak(114)

“Time enough for Jeff to intercept her, do his thing, and get away without you seeing him,” Grange said.

“Obviously.”

Knight snapped the rubber band. “Okay, let’s assume—optimistically, because I’m afraid that a defense lawyer will brutalize that timeline—let’s assume that if we can place him on that trail, we’ve also got a classic motive. You’re loaded.”

Emory flinched at the word but didn’t make an issue of it. “Jeff also has been having an affair.”

Grange said, “So you do know about that? We weren’t sure.”

“I suspected. He’s now admitted it. He told me it was over, but I don’t believe anything he says at this point.”

“The romance might be over, but he still needs her as his alibi. Alice Butler vowed to me that she and Jeff were together from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.”

Later, Emory wondered how she managed not to cry out and give herself away. Without realizing the blunder he’d made, Grange continued talking, but she was deaf to what he was saying and insensible to everything except the soul-crushing betrayal.

She felt the pain of Alice’s betrayal even more keenly than Jeff’s. Alice was the trusted and admired colleague with whom she’d built a practice. She’d poured out her heart to Alice about Hayes. Worse, she was the friend to whom she’d shared doubts about Jeff’s fidelity, the future of their marriage, and her suspicion of his culpability.

As though reading her mind, Hayes interrupted Grange. “Alice knows that Emory suspects him.”

Everyone looked to her for an explanation, but when she didn’t immediately launch one, Hayes told them about her phone conversation with Alice. “She attributed Emory’s distress to fatigue, medications, like that. Poo-pooed her suspicions, said no way could Jeff have harmed her.”

“Love can make you stupid,” Connell said. “Maybe she truly believes that.”

“Maybe. But she’s still lying to protect him.”

“Up to us to prove she’s lying, though,” Knight said.

“Put her love to the test. If Jeff is actually arrested and charged, she may rethink her story.”

Grange seemed to like Hayes’s suggestion. “Let’s get a warrant for him and see what happens.”

“Do you know where he is?” Jack asked.

“At the suite hotel,” Knight said. “We stopped there on our way here, asked him if he’d heard from his wife overnight. We didn’t expect he had,” he said, dividing a droll look between her and Hayes. “But we wanted to test his reaction. He told us he’d been going crazy with worry all night. So much so that as soon as it got light this morning, he went to the hospital to see if she’d been admitted to the ER as a Jane Doe.”

“He’s putting on quite a performance,” Jack said.

Grange pulled his cell phone off his belt. “I’ll get a deputy over to the hotel to watch his room, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere while we’re waiting on that warrant.”

As he turned away to make the call, Knight said to Jack, “If an FBI agent was waiting on that warrant, too, it might add some heft and speed things along.”

Jack looked over at Hayes, posing a silent question. Hayes shrugged. “Can’t hurt.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Stick around here where it’s safe.”

“We’ve canceled the BOLO,” Knight told him. “Reason we gave was that last night’s incident had been a domestic misunderstanding. We didn’t let on who you were. Agent Connell here said you’d be royally pissed if word got out and a big to-do was made of you. Anyhow, you’re safe.”

“I didn’t mean safe for me,” Hayes said, his lips barely moving. “I meant for Jeff. If I see him, I’m liable to kill him.”

At that point Grange rejoined them and reported that a deputy was in place. “He’s got Jeff’s suite and car in plain sight.”

As Connell was pulling on his coat, he said to Hayes, “I’ll call when we’ve got him in custody. What’s your current phone number?”

Hayes hesitated.

Connell rolled his eyes. “Look, I know you leave Rebecca a way to contact you.”

Hayes pulled a cell phone from his pocket, and when the number showed up on the readout, he held it out for Connell to see and commit to memory. “Got it.” Turning to the detectives, he said, “Let’s go get this done, gentlemen.”

Grange opened the door and stood aside for Connell to go first. “You can ride with us.” The three filed out and pulled the door closed. None of them had seemed to notice that Emory hadn’t spoken a word since the mention of Alice.

But Hayes had.





Chapter 39



Looking like trick-or-treaters, Will and Norman arrived at their aunt and uncle’s house just as Lisa was about to leave for school.

“Ma’s sick,” Norman announced. “You gotta come home with us now.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

Bypassing the question, he asked their uncle for the loan of his pickup.

“How did you get here?” the man asked as he reluctantly handed over the keys.

“A friend dropped us.”