“Why have her take the babies only to give them to someone else?” Judson wanted to know.
“The brats weren’t the goal,Deputy.” Elijah said the title as if it were the worst kind of poison. “Giving Yvette a motive to off herself was. After the drugs wore off and she came to what little senses she had, she was supposed to be so overcome with guilt that she couldn’t live with herself. Of course, I would have encouraged her to do that.”
That explained the note found in Yvette’s car. Maybe the woman had written it on her own, but Judson suspected Elijah hadhelpedwith that, too. It’d been why it was so impersonal.
“And the visits to see Rowena in jail?” Addie asked. “Did youencourageYvette to do that?”
“I did,” Elijah admitted. “I figured Rowena could stir up the old feelings for Yvette over losing custody of her kids.”
“But why?” Addie pressed.
Elijah cursed, clearly growing more impatient, but he answered. “I needed that trail,” he spat out. “After Yvette was dead and the cops started digging, I needed there to be some kind of reason why Yvette was spurred to take the kids. I figured the cops would think it was because of her conversations withRowena. I didn’t expect Shane to start going with her on those visits,” he added in a grumble.
“What about Courtney?” Judson pressed just as Elijah got to the phone.
Hooking his arm around Addie’s throat, Elijah reached down, and with Addie in tow, he snagged the phone and shoved it into her hand.
“Sugar, find that picture,” Elijah ordered her. He gave her a third jab, no doubt to prod her to be quick about it.
Judson didn’t wantquick. He needed some time to try to figure out how to put an end to this jerk. And all the backup wouldn’t help with that. In fact, backup could make things worse for Addie.
“Courtney,” Judson repeated. “How does she fit into this?”
“She doesn’t. She was collateral damage. A total accident, I swear,” Elijah explained, his attention on Addie as Elijah tried to open Judson’s phone. “What’s your PIN?” he barked out to Judson.
Judson rattled off the four numbers. The real ones. Because while a false answer would buy him some time, it might set Elijah off. The man obviously had a short fuse on that vicious temper.
“Where was I?” Elijah muttered as Addie unlocked the phone.
“You were saying how Courtney’s death was a total accident,” Judson provided, and no way did he sound convinced of that.
“Oh, yeah. It was,” Elijah insisted. “She was there at the house when Yvette and I got back. I was going to convince Yvette to take her own life and leave that suicide note. But that social worker was there, and she demanded to know if we took the babies. She was going to call the cops, so I had to stop her.”
“But you didn’t stop her,” Judson pointed out. “She got away.”
A flash of that quick temper darkened Elijah’s face. “She did, but that was thanks to Yvette, who tried to hit me with a damn lamp. She gave me a hard knock on the head, and then she ran off, too. That’s when I decided I’d have to find both of them and silence them for good. Courtney died on her own, bless her heart, but Yvette took a little more work.”
“You gunned her down on the road,” Judson spelled out.
Another shrug from Elijah, but he seemed to be getting more and more frustrated that Addie hadn’t gotten to the picture he wanted. Since it was one of the last ones Judson had taken, it shouldn’t have taken her long to find it, which meant Addie was stalling, too.
“And now with Yvette dead, Jennifer and Shane will inherit her money,” Judson added, hoping to yank Elijah’s attention back to him. “Were Shane and Jennifer in on it?”
“No, hell, no. Shane blabbered on and on about doing something to cut Trevor out of his mommy’s life, but he’s all talk. No way does he deserve a penny of that money. And it’ll be hard for him to collect with his sorry butt in a jail cell. There should be enough evidence to point to him murdering Trevor.”
“But Shane didn’t kill Trevor,” Judson said. “You did.”
“The man was in the way. He wanted justice for Yvette. Oh, boo-hoo,” Elijah mocked. “So, now he’ll help make me rich by being dead, and Shane will be going to jail for his murder.”
Judson didn’t know what evidence Elijah had planted, but he was sure the CSIs would find it when this was over. And he intended for this to be over with Addie alive and this SOB either under arrest or dead.
“There,” Elijah said when Addie got to the picture. “Delete that and check for others taken from a slightly different angle. Then go to his sent folder to make sure he didn’t forward them to anyone.”
There had only been that one picture, and he hadn’t sent it to anyone, but Judson was glad Elijah was searching for others. It bought him more time. Time he needed, because he still couldn’t figure out how to get that gun away from Addie’s head.
One possible move would be for Addie to drop down, to give Judson a clean shot to take out Elijah. That was a hell of a risk, but anything they did at this point was. Once she made it to the end of the photos and Elijah was certain there hadn’t been any forwarded copies, he would kill them.
“You shouldn’t have used the drug dealer with a connection to Jennifer,” Judson threw out there, unsure if it would distract.
