But why?
It was beyond frustrating that they still didn’t know the motive for these deaths, the two attacks on Judson and her, and now the blood found at the hotel. Heck, they didn’t even know if Courtney’s murder was connected to Yvette’s. It could have been two different killers.
Or even a single killer working with a hired gun.
Shane, Jennifer and Elijah didn’t have huge bank accounts, but Addie figured the money might not play into it. There were other ways to entice an accomplice.
Such as the babies.
It crushed her heart to think that someone wanted to get their hands on the twins so they could offer them up on the black market. If Yvette had had any part in setting that in motion, then Addie wished the woman a thousand deaths. She felt the same way about anyone else who had that as their motive.
“How much blood did the deputies find?” Judson asked, yanking Addie’s attention back to the conversation.
“Nowhere near the amount found at the scene where Courtney was murdered,” Grace answered.
So, maybe Trevor wasn’t dead after all. And it was possible that it wasn’t even his blood. Trevor could have been the attacker, and the blood could belong to someone else. Maybe that accomplice. Or even one of their other suspects.
“There’s some spatter and maybe cast-off on the walls and floor,” Grace continued a moment later. “That could indicate some kind of blunt-force trauma. And before you ask, the hotel didn’t have any security cameras except in the lobby. The manager is handing over the feed to the techs as we speak, so they might be able to see Trevor and/or the killer coming and going.”
Good. And Addie hoped that feed was better at capturing the image of the attacker than the cruisers’ dash cams had been.
“What’s the time frame for this possible attack?” Judson asked.
Grace’s groan was a sound of pure frustration. “Anywhere from when Trevor stormed away from the ranch until about an hour ago, when the deputies found the blood.”
Judson echoed that frustration. “I’m guessing Shane, Elijah and Jennifer don’t have alibis?”
“They don’t. I just had phone conversations with all three of them. Elijah and Jennifer can’t even corroborate each other’s whereabouts. Apparently, they haven’t seen each other since they were at the police station doing the GSR test. Shane claims after he did the test, he went home to grieve his mother’s death, saying, and I quote, ‘I didn’t want an audience for that.’”
So, plenty of time for any of them to have gone after Trevor. Or vice versa.
“Is there any evidence whatsoever that Trevor might have staged the attack?” Judson asked.
“Nothing direct,” Grace supplied. “But there’s also nothing to rule it out, either. There was some toppled furniture to make it appear there’d been a struggle.Appear,” she emphasized. “But no one in the hotel heard any sounds of an altercation or anyone shouting for help. Those walls aren’t exactly soundproof, so someone should have heard something.”
Addie considered that a moment. If Shane, Jennifer or Elijah had come to the hotel room door, Trevor might not have had the chance to call out before it was too late. One blow to the head could have possibly knocked him out and caused the blood loss. After that, Trevor could have been carried or led away from the scene.
Or walked away, if he’d staged this.
If he’d done that, then he was likely in the wind, and Addie thought the main reason he would do that was because he was the killer. But did that mean he was trying to evade capture? Or had he gone into hiding so he could plan another way of coming after them again?
“Now, to the good news,” Grace announced. “Well, good for us, anyway.”
Addie’s hopes soared again, and she pushed aside that possibility of Trevor launching another attack. They needed a break in this investigation, and maybe this was it.
“The lab was able to come up with a partial fingerprint on one of the bags of drugs found in the nightstand at the Cateses’ house, and it was enough to get a match,” Grace explained. “The print belonged to a woman named Sienna Flanagan, age twenty-six, who…ta-da, is a friend of Jennifer’s. They’ve known each other since elementary school, and Sienna has a record for drug possession. That’s why her prints were in the system.”
Judson blew out a long breath. “Have you had a chance to talk to Sienna or Jennifer about this yet?”
“Not Sienna, but when she didn’t respond to attempts to contact her, I had an APB put out on her. And I got phone records to confirm that Jennifer and she had a conversation as recently as three days ago. Before that, they texted about once a month.”
That seemed like a solid link. Despite what Jennifer had said on that recording with Shane, she’d possibly wanted to push her mother over the edge. Maybe so she could be declared mentally incompetent. Maybe just to get her to do something reckless that would get her killed or incarcerated. Going to her old friends for the drugs would have been the first step.
“As for Jennifer,” Grace added, “SAPD is sending officers to her place now, but I spoke to her on the phone when I first got the results on that fingerprint. She denies everything and claims she’s being set up, either by Shane or Trevor. She also told me that Sienna and Shane are friends, too, but there’s no phone record of him contacting the woman. Of course, he could have used a burner or met with her face-to-face, but for now, I’m following the evidence.”
“And that evidence points to Jennifer,” Judson concluded. “She’s got means, motive and opportunity for killing her mother.”
Grace made a sound of agreement. “Maybe for killing Courtney if the social worker saw something incriminating whenshe went to the Cateses’ house.” Then, she stopped and sighed. “It’s all wrapped up in a neat little package except for one thing. Jennifer couldn’t have been the one who fired those shots at Addie and you at the ranch.”
