Laurel sat back and pressed her head against the headrest, her eyes closing. “You can’t come with me tomorrow to Santa Fe.”
“Yes, I can. I’m going, and that’s it.”
Laurel looked tired. “I think you should hire an attorney before you meet with anybody else. You are a suspect at this point, albeit a weak one. Rachel did a fairly decent job of connecting the dots.”
“I noticed,” Huck said dryly. “I wish Zeke Caine was a viable suspect, but he has a good alibi for Teri Bearing’s murder.”
Laurel nodded. “I agree. I found Uma Carrington to be a credible witness, and I believe the alibi she provided.”
“What about Abigail?” he asked hopefully. “She’s crazy. I can see her killing these people just to mess with our lives.”
Laurel kicked out her feet toward the heater. “I could see her playing that kind of game, but it seems like a lot of effort.” She placed her phone on the dash and called Agent Norrs on speaker phone.
“Hi, Agent Snow,” Agent Norrs said. “I’m wrapping up my cases and will head in your direction to help as soon as I can. We’re short staffed here as well.”
She swallowed. “I’m sorry, but for my own peace of mind, I need to ask you a couple of questions.”
He fell silent for a moment. “Okay. Go ahead.”
She tapped her fingers on her leg. “The night that Delta Rivers was killed. On the night of the thirty-first. Do you know where Abigail was?”
“Why?”
Laurel kept still as Huck watched her. “Please just answer the question.”
“Fine. Just a sec.” The sound of keys typing came through the line. “Oh, yeah. That was the night Abi and I went toWickedin Seattle. Great show. Have you seen it?”
Laurel’s shoulders slowly lowered. “Yes. I enjoyed the alternate concept of theWizard of Oz.”
He chuckled. “We went out to a nice dinner, saw the musical, and then stayed the night at my place. In fact, we took half of Monday off and watched movies in bed.” Then he stopped laughing. “Does that ease your mind?”
Laurel appeared relieved. “Yes. Thank you.”
Huck and Laurel had seen Abigail with Norrs the night Teri Bearing had disappeared.
“I look forward to working with you,” she said. “Have a nice day.”
“You, too.” He ended the call.
Laurel sighed. “Abigail was with Norrs the night your mother was killed. For just a second, I thought she might hate you enough to ruin your life and isolate me.”
Huck really didn’t like that woman. “She is diabolical.”
“I think Norrs is in love with her.”
“I agree,” Huck said. “But I don’t see Norrs lying for her, even though he’s obviously clueless when it comes to how dangerous she can be.”
Laurel stretched her neck. “I concur.”
Huck scratched his whiskered jaw. “That leaves us with Jason Abbott as our killer, which means that the murders will now stop. Or . . . there’s another killer. One we haven’t identified yet.”
Laurel sighed. “It’s possible Jason learned to change his MO, but to this degree? I am uncertain.”
“Unfortunately, we’re going to find out.” Now all they could do was wait and see.
Chapter 33
After an extremely early flight from Seattle to Santa Fe, with Huck sleeping the entire way, Laurel greeted the young man who’d arrived to pick them up and scooted to the middle of his truck as Huck lumbered inside and sat next to her. She’d been unable to dissuade him from accompanying her, and he was most certainly disobeying orders from a supervisor in doing so.
