“How does that help?” Ozzy throws up his arms.
Yardley shrugs. “I didn’t say it did.”
I’m getting a headache. It’s roaring in from the base of my skull. “Come on, Ella. I need a ride.”
“We’re all going,” Merlin says.
I turn to hold up a hand. “We are not all going. You stay here and stay safe. I’ll bail Alexei out with his own money, and we’ll figure this out.”
Exiting my comfortable home, we walk down the sidewalk and get into Ella’s banged-up car. She looks over at me. “What do you think the chances are that he killed Hendrix?”
I gulp. “I don’t know. He’s trying to consolidate power and Hendrix did set him up. If Alexei was furious enough, I can see him dumping Hendrix’s body at the family home, but there’s no way he would’ve left evidence.”
She sighs. “Things just get keeping more and more complicated, don’t they?”
“Yes. Not to mention how angry Alexei is with me at the moment.” He hid it well, but I felt his fury as he walked past me.
“Maybe we should leave him in jail,” Ella offers.
I sit back, my mind reeling. “It’s not a bad idea.”
We reach the police station, and I run immediately inside, my newish kitten heels clicking on the tiles. I show credentials and soon find myself in the interrogation room next to Alexei, sitting across from Detective Battlement.
Alexei looks calm and relaxed. I glance at the two-way mirror and wonder who’s videotaping us. Not that it matters. I note how strong and handsome, deadly so, Alexei looks. Mirrors love him.
“Your counselor is here. Now you can talk,” the detective says, his jowls moving with each consonant.
“My client has nothing to say.” Even though I feel vulnerable in the same outfit I wore yesterday with my hair in a ponytail and no makeup on my face, my voice is strong.
The detective shakes his head. “That’s not good enough, Alexei. We have you on video. It’s all over the news actually, of your brother getting into your car last night.”
“I’m aware of that,” Alexei says. “We had a nice talk and I dropped him off.”
Battlement makes a couple of notations. “Where?”
“At his home,” Alexei drawls.
“Stop speaking,” I say quietly.
He glances at me, one eyebrow rising.
I look at the detective. “All you have is Hendrix getting into his brother’s car after that same brother bailed him out?”
Battlement crosses his arms. “That and the fact that your client discovered that morning that his brother quite possibly set him up for an earlier murder.” He leans toward Alexei, his belly bumping the table. “You spent seven years in prison. You’re telling me you don’t want revenge?”
Alexei shrugs. “What I want doesn’t matter. We have a company to run.” He sounds smooth and believable, but the detective doesn’t look convinced.
“Your prints were found on the murder weapon,” Battlement says.
I blink. “What was Hendrix murdered with? Was he shot?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Battlement says.
Alexei snorts. “You found my prints on murder weapons before.”
It’s an excellent defense. I hope I don’t have to use it. “This doesn’t need to go any further, Detective,” I say. “You don’t have enough on my client to keep him.”
“The hell I don’t. Forget motive. Like I said, his prints are actually on the weapon.”
