“More like moving quickly but not wanting to draw attention to themselves?” she asked.
“I think it’s more than a coincidence,” Ford said. “But that doesn’t mean this person is a killer. It could mean many things.”
“Like McGregors have someone on the payroll taking care of shit for them,” Rory said. “Logan said there is no way they’d get their hands dirty. I’m not sure I buy that.”
“I don’t think Daniel will,” Ford said. “I’ve done my digging over the years. More so now that I know they were trying to buythis land. The year before Daniel moved here, there had been a party at his house and a woman had been raped.”
“Was he a suspect?” he asked.
“No. But it was his house and his party. His wife talked him into giving a DNA sample so he could clear his name. Which he did. My point is, he left the area shortly after, fearful it would linger with him and his attempts to build a name and reputation there.”
“So he came here with all his money and could buy much more than he could downstate?” she asked.
“We are guessing. He hired attorneys back then to make sure his name was cleared of everything. There is almost no trace of what happened anywhere.”
“Did they ever find the man who raped that woman?” Gale asked.
“She later confessed that she wasn’t. She’d had too much to drink but remembers going into the room with the man. Things were different back then. Dropping her statement was all it took to end it.”
“Sounds as if she was bought off to keep quiet,” she said, crossing her arms.
“It’s not our concern about something that happened over three decades ago,” Ford said. “There were rumors Diana McGregor demanded the DNA because she thought her husband was cheating on her. That this was her way to get him in a divorce and that she was the one who wanted to leave the area.”
Gale laughed. “That wouldn’t surprise me. He’s a creepy old man.”
“We are getting off track,” Clay said. “What we know is the same stride was on this property before your sister’s murder. Was it a few days before, a few hours before, or at the same time? No one knows. But it matches who was at Rory’s place a few days ago.”
“And that doesn’t mean this person is a murderer, but it leads me to believe they’ve got some information,” Ford said.
“How do we find out who it is?” Gale asked. “We can’t go to the McGregors and ask them to walk in the dirt for us as if they are in a hurry.”
“And they wouldn’t,” he said.
“We can tail them and take pictures,” she said, smirking.
“And draw more attention to ourselves? I don’t think so,” Ford said.
“I should know by tomorrow if it’s the same person who wrote the last letters and the one left on your table on Saturday,” Clay said. “It was most likely done with your pen and I doubt there will be anything other than your prints on it.”
“We couldn’t get so lucky to have it be more.”
“We can have DNA run on it too. If there is more than one, you can submit to be eliminated.”
“My DNA is on file,” Rory said. “It was taken when I was suspected of Rene’s murder.”
Her shoulders dropped hearing that. She reached her hand over to lie on his on the table. Her brothers were watching and she didn’t care.
“That had to be horrible to be accused of that.”
“At the time it was. Looking back, I get it. None of us wanted to slow the investigation and did what was requested of us. As you know, there was no DNA on Rene anyway.”
“Don’t you find that odd?” she asked. “She didn’t hug your parents or anything? Nothing that day? Didn’t touch anyone?”
He frowned. “I nudged her that day. Her arm or shoulder. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Maybe I only touched her shirt though.”
“No DNA on her clothing either,” Ford said.
“That’s wrong. There had to be. I touched her.”
