“That’s what that guard claimed.”
“So are you saying that it was Davey who hired somebody to plant those explosives at my parents house? To try to take me out?”
“According to that guard he handled that too, yes. He said that’s why David only wanted him to take out the front part of that house. Because he knew you would be asleep in your childhood bedroom up front. But you moved to that back room, unbeknownst to Davey.”
Ricki sat back. Vince was anguished, too, at how close a call that was. He placed his arm around her waist.
“Did he mention Dr. Proctor?” asked Vince.
“Only in the sense that David implied that was why he wanted Erica dead. If they acquitted her or found her not guilty, they just might find out who was guilty. They would find out who actually killed Dr. Proctor.”
“Davey?” asked Vince.
Milo nodded. “That’s what the man said, yes sir.”
Vince exhaled, but Ricki was shaking her head. “It’s not true,” she said. “I don’t care what he said, it’s not true. Davey wouldn’t do any of that.”
“We’ll find out soon enough, Rasheda.”
“But why would he do it, Vince? It makes no sense!” Then she looked at Milo. “What did my brother say when you told him all of this?”
“The boss said we should wait. He felt that you should approach your brother with this information. We’ll be there in case things go south, but we’ll leave it up to you.”
Ricki was at least comforted by that consideration. “Thank you,” she said.
“Yes ma’am,” Milo said.
And they sat back for a quiet, tense ride to Milton.
CHAPTER THIRTY
When they drove up to the rental home the Richardson’s owned, and they saw Davey sitting on the right edge of the front porch carving down a bamboo rod with a knife, Ricki’s heart dropped for her brother. He’d always been odd. He’d always been creepy and strange, let other people tell it. But one thing she knew for sure was that he was harmless. She didn’t care what they said about her brother, but Davey wouldn’t harm a flea.
“It’s not a flea he’s being accused of harming,” said Vince when she pointed that out to him. Then he looked at her. “And don’t you forget that.”
Ricki wasn’t trying to hear it. “I know my brother, Vince.”
But that attitude concerned Vince. “You haven’t seen any of your family in years. You weren’t even close to Erica by your own account. But yet in still they’re all as innocent as the driven snow in your eyes. You don’t know these people anymore. You don’t know anything about them. And people do change, Rasheda. All the time, people change. Don’t you forget that.”
Ricki didn’t argue with Vince because she knew she had no real argument to make. Because it wasn’t about empirical evidence. It was about her gut feeling and the belief she still had in her siblings. He could say what he wanted, but she was going with her own instincts, not his or anybody else’s.
“Be alert, Milo,” said George, “in case he tries something with that knife.”
“He better not shoot my brother,” Ricki said. “He always makes his own fishing poles since he was a kid. He’s not gonna harm anybody with that knife.”
Milo and George glanced at each other. Then they looked at Vince. Why was he putting up with this chick and her big mouth? It was still incomprehensible to them.
Vince looked at them as they all were getting out of the Bentley. “Has she been wrong yet?” he asked his two employees.
George exhaled. “Not yet. But there’s a first time for everything,” he said as the men in the detail car got out and walked up to the Bentley too.
“Stay here,” Milo ordered them as he and George followed Ricki and Vince toward the porch.
Ricki heard all of their naysaying about those allegations, but George nor Milo nor even Vince was her concern in that moment. Davey was. She walked briskly up to that porch. The men had to hustle to keep up with her.
Davey had already stopped carving as he looked at them approach. “What you doing here?” he asked his sister.
“We need to talk to you, Davey.”
