Connor shook his head.“No.”
“Her mother lives about three hours away.Amanda says Marlene texted her around eleven-thirty to say Victor’s car was home.Your staff verified the text is real.”
“No,” Connor said again, but quieter this time.“This is a nightmare.”
“Connor, listen to me.”
“I am listening.I’m hearing you try to turn a grieving widow into a killer because Amanda Lee likes being at the center of a story.”
“Marlene lied about her movements.”
“Maybe because she was ashamed,” he said.
“Maybe.Or maybe because she killed him.”
The sentence cut through the room.
Connor looked at her as if she had slapped him.
“You don’t know Marlene.”
“I know what people are capable of.”
He paced once toward the door, then back.“Marlene adored Vic.”
“Marlene may also have believed Vic was humiliating her.”
“Lots of people get cheated on.They don’t shoot their husbands.”
“And lots of men lose contracts without being killed by rivals.Yet you went after Carl.”
“That’s different.”
“It isn’t.You want Carl to be viable because you can stomach him as a suspect.You can’t stomach Marlene.”
Connor’s face flushed.“Careful, Selena.”
Selena continued: “Someone killed Victor.The likelihood is that whoever killed Warren and whoever killed Victor, whether it’s two killers or not, they’re likely someone you know in town.If you’re not up to the task of doing this above board and keeping distance, then we have a serious problem.”
Connor stared at her.
For a moment, the years between them seemed to compress into one familiar look.Pride wounded.Trust withdrawn.The old fight waiting in a new room.
“I shouldn’t have come,” he said.
He went to the door.
Selena stood.“Connor.”
His hand closed around the handle.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Connor opened the door, then stopped with one foot over the threshold.His shoulders shifted.
“It’s too late for that, isn’t it?”
No answer came in time.
