Tessa finished her slice of pizza, took a deep drink of the Cabernet, and exhaled. “There isn’t much to tell. I got home, and my door was unlocked.”
“Open and unlocked or shut and unlocked?” I asked.
She pursed her lips. “Shut and unlocked. I slipped my key in, discovered the door was unlocked, so I twisted the knob.” She shrugged, still looking young in her goofy T-shirt. “I do forget to lock it sometimes, so I wasn’t worried. In fact, I was thinking about a million things and stepped inside, almost shutting the door before I saw…Danny on the floor.” She gulped as if trying not to puke. Her face paled.
I tried to keep my voice level. “Okay. What happened next?”
“I kind of froze,” Tessa admitted. “I dropped my purse on the ground and just stared at him like I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, you know?”
“Yeah.” Boy did I ever know. “Then what?”
She rubbed her eyes. “I heard a noise to the left, by his feet, and I just reacted. The gun was on the floor next to Danny, and I grabbed it and jumped toward his head and away from the noise. It was all instinct.”
“Where was the gun when you grabbed it? By his head, his feet, what?” I kept my voice level even though fear for my sister made my throat hurt.
She frowned. “It was kind of by his shoulder. Not touching him but right next to him.”
Donna poured more wine for the three of us. “Didn’t I read somewhere that leaving a gun at the scene was smart, so long as you wiped it down? That it was better to drop it, if it’s untraceable, than take it after shooting someone?”
That sounds good, but hell if I know. It also sounds like something off a television show.” I checked out Tessa’s coloring to make sure she wasn’t too pale, and light pink still lingered in her Irish-looking cheeks. “What happened next, Tessa?”
“I, um, caught sight of Aiden, who I hadn’t even realized was in the room. So I grabbed the gun, pointed it at him, and I didn’t recognize him right away with the beard.” She shivered and rubbed her hands along her arms. “Then you came inside, and the police were there yelling at me to drop the gun. So I dropped the gun.”
What questions should I ask her? “Did Aiden say anything?”
She shook her head. “Neither of us had time to say a word.”
I bit my lip. “Aiden’s knuckles were bruised. Do you have any indication that Aiden hit Danny or shot him?”
“No,” Tessa said quietly. “Except that they were both in my apartment and kind of bloody.” Her very green eyes darkened. “How much trouble am I in?”
I patted her hand. “I don’t know, but since you didn’t kill Danny, we’ll figure this out.” I ran through the scene in my head. “How long had you been away from your apartment, and think really hard on whether or not you locked your door before leaving.”
“I was gone for a couple of hours—just shopping. And I think I locked the door, but I might not have.” Tessa reached for her wine.
“Good. Give me a list of where all you went during the afternoon, and we’ll find any security cameras that caught your image.” If we could establish that she wasn’t anywhere around when Danny was killed, she’d be okay. Of course, we had to be able to determine when he’d been shot. “When was the last time you talked to Danny?”
Tessa went from pale to tomato red.
Ah, crap. “Tessa?” I asked.
She looked away. “I talked to him just yesterday.”
I shut my eyes and then slowly reopened them. “For how long?”
She ducked her head. “I don’t know. Maybe for an hour?”
Donna’s lips tightened, but when she spoke, her tone was gentle. “Tessa.”
Tess sighed. “I know. I’ve been talking to him on the phone a few times the last month. He said he’s gone through anger management and changed, but we were just talking as friends and nothing more. I promise. I’d never try for something more with him.”
Donna looked at me. “Is it bad that they’ve been in contact recently?”
“It isn’t good,” I admitted. “Did you invite him over, Tessa?”
“No. I didn’t even know he was in town,” Tessa burst out. “He has been living in Washington state up in the mountains, and there was no discussion about him visiting. I promise.”
Okay. We could deal with this. “Do you know of anybody who would want Danny dead?”
