“Don’t be silly. It was bound to happen at some point, and I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me.” She saw the irony considering he had fought one last night for her. Though not on her say-so.
“Oh, I’m well aware of that. Just if I were there, maybe she wouldn’t have gone at you so hard.”
“You know Blair. She’s not exactly soft and timid. Your being there wouldn’t have made an ounce of difference. I can only imagine what it would be like in her place. I brought her son in under suspicion of murder and had him spend the night.”
“Technically, I did that part.”
“If we’re talkingtechnically, then circumstantial evidence against him did it.”
“Speaking of, she must know we’re only following the evidence.”
“I tried explaining that, but she didn’t want to hear it or believe it.”
“Well, I’m not sold on Spencer doing this. He explained deleting the text message, and I get that. I can even understand his pride holding him back from sharing how they were having a rough time recently.”
“You should have heard him when he first called about Christine. He was genuinely upset that he couldn’t reach her. I just can’t see him shooting her three times, wrapping her in a tarp, and pushing her under a bed.”
“Yeah, that’s another level. And Spencer’s not the only one who had a complicated relationship with Christine. We both felt we could eliminate the ex-boyfriend, but there are the ex-husband and the rival agent, Marcy Maxwell, we haven’t fully considered yet.”
“Not that the ex-husband sounded suspect to me. He’s moved on from what Riley said, even married again.”
“How a kid sees their father can be different from how things are.”
“True enough.” Amanda could agree from experience. She’d always idolized her father, wanted to follow his career path. Then she found out about the buried affair and the existence of a half-brother. Some underlying resentment remained at how he could do that to her mother, her siblings… her. “We’re still waiting on ballistics, and we can’t just afford to stall the investigation if it turns out Spencer is innocent. Let’s talk with the ex-husband and Marcy Maxwell.”
“I’ll just let the CSIs know that I’m leaving.”
“And I say we cut back to one car. Meet me at the station, and we’ll head out together from there.”
“You got it.” Trent walked back into the house while Amanda headed out.
On her drive to the station, she thought more about her father’s transgression. She’d say she’d forgiven him, but forgetting was the harder bit. It wasn’t his fault that she’d put him on a pedestal, elevated him above being human. When it came down to it, he was a mere mortal of flesh and blood, capable of hurting even those he loved. The strength of his character was revealed in the aftermath. He’d ended things with Emma Blair and stood by his wife and five children. As she thought when speaking to Blair, Spencer had gotten the shaft. He was raised by Emma’s husband, loved as his own from what she knew, but he’d never had a chance of developing a relationship with his biological father. This had to contribute to the underlying tension between her and Spencer. The one wedge that kept them apart. And that was before this case. Was it too much to hope their relationship could ever be mended and allowed to grow?
EIGHTEEN
Amanda rode shotgun while Trent drove them to Gerald and Stephanie Lane’s address. “By the way, thank you for the coffee.”
“You already said that, but you’re welcome. I’m glad you got it, and Detective Hudson didn’t steal it off your desk.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him, but I might have regifted it.”
“You gave away a Hannah’s coffee?”
“Well, Malone gave me these eyes…”
Trent laughed as he parked in front of a modest bungalow. “This is it.”
The front garden was full of overgrown hostas, and it brought back a memory of digging some up with her late husband. Getting those suckers out of the ground sure had worked up a sweat.
Trent rang the doorbell, and Gerald Lane came to the door wearing a gray T-shirt adorned with some baby spit-up. While those days were long gone for Amanda, she remembered them well. That sweet, putrid smell was her signature scent for months.
“Detectives Steele and Stenson?” Riley wedged into thedoorway next to her father. He moved to the side to accommodate her.
“Hi, Riley,” Amanda told her. To Gerald, she said, “We’d just like a few moments of your time.”
“Ah, sure.” Gerald stepped back into the home with a protective arm around Riley. “It’s tragic what happened to Christine. When Riley told me, I was shocked. Still am, truth be told.” He spoke while taking them to the living room. “Sit wherever you’d like.”
Father and daughter sat on the couch together. The faint cries of a newborn baby traveled from another part of the house. They were desperate and strangled, as if the baby was still experimenting with their voice.
