Chapter Ten
With his security shutters now rolled back up, Aiden sat in his kitchen, looking out the wall of windows at the chaos of what was now essentially a twelve-acre crime scene.
Usually, this was where he had his morning coffee and processed whatever Strike Force assignment that he’d just finished or was about to start. It was where he stood sometimes just to admire the amazing Texas Hill Country. That view from these windows was the reason he’d bought this house.
But at the moment, the view sucked.
And he was hurting. Bad.
The pain was from the popped stitches that were in the process of being cleaned and redone by the EMT, Brent Mendez, that Owen had sent to the house. Hell’s Bells. It felt as if the EMT was cleaning it with battery acid. But at least this ordeal would be over soon. He hoped. The chaos happening in and around his house would likely go on for hours or even days.
There was a team of CSIs combing the grounds and the surrounding woods, looking for any evidence that would help the cops piece together what the hell had happened. In their white protective suits, the team looked like ghosts haunting the place. They crept along, gazes sweeping around while they gave the ME folks a wide berth.
Because they were loading the body on a stretcher so it could be taken to the medical examiner’s van and then to the morgue.
Since Aiden and Lexa had made the trek down to those woods shortly after the gunfire had stopped, they had gotten a good a look at the dead woman. And they could both confirm it was indeed Chloe. Hudson had confirmed it as well with a photo that Owen had shown him. So, there was no doubt to her identity.
But there were questions.
Boatloads of them.
Other than the single gunshot wound to the head, Chloe had no other injuries. Not a cut, not a scratch. Not even a bruise. Which, of course, didn’t make sense in light of the bloody mess that’d been left at the manor. And now on his property.
And that’s where the questions started.
At first, Aiden had thought that maybe Chloe had been shot with one of the bullets that’d cooked-off in the fire. But the ME had noted there was stippling around the wound which meant the shot hadn’t come from a distance. This had been an up close, and judging from the angle of the shot, the ME believed she’d been shot while partially facing the barrel of the gun.
Why had Chloe allowed someone dangerous to get near her like that? Or had the person sneaked up on her, and then she’d turned to face them right before the shot had been fired?
Yep, too many questions and not nearly enough answers.
Part of Aiden wanted to be out there with the CSIs, searching for something. For anything . But Owen had had a different notion about that. His boss had wanted Lexa inside, chasing down reports, and Aiden to be treated for the popped stitches before he started scouring through any images that the drone might have captured when it’d been flying over the area where Chloe’s body had been found.
Aiden glanced over at Lexa, who was indeed attempting to chase down reports and results. She was on hold with the lab that would hopefully soon give them some answers. She had her phone sandwiched between her shoulder and her ear while she, too, stared out the window and watched the activity of the crime scene.
She looked exhausted. And no doubt was. Spent adrenaline was a pisser to deal with, and it could cause the fatigue to seep right into your bones. It was the reason Aiden was chugging a Coke and was hoping like hell that it’d give him the energy boost he needed, along with maybe taking the edge off his throbbing arm.
Torn stitches could be a pisser, too, but the EMT finally finished up and declared the job all done before he gathered his things. He didn’t issue Aiden any warnings as the nurse had done. Maybe because Brent knew him and figured he’d be wasting his breath. Aiden didn’t want to tear the new stitches, but he couldn’t be careful to a tee when it was obvious that someone wanted Lexa and him dead.
Brent gave them a wave and headed out, and the moment the EMT had shut the door behind him, Aiden voiced the command to Geralt to engage the locks and rearm the security system. No need to risk someone trying to sneak inside, and it’d be easy to do with all the people coming and going.
Because of the activity on the grounds, Aiden had shut down the motion sensors on the grounds while the CSIs and ME were working. That would prevent the alarms from going off every few seconds. However, he had left the security cam on at the top of the road to alert him if anyone else arrived.
Aiden turned in his chair, opened his laptop that he’d put on the counter, and loaded the drone feed so he could start picking through that. Emphasis on picking. Drone feed wasn’t that clear, and there was the added problem of the tiny camera maybe not being aimed where it needed to be. Still, the footage had to be reviewed, frame by frame.
He started, making it through the first hundred or so images, and finding nothing, when he saw movement from the side windows of his breakfast area. Like the ones in the kitchen, these had been designed to capture more of those views, but from this angle, he could also see the vehicles.
Lots of them.
Two cruisers, the ambulance, the ME’s van, and the CSIs’ SUVs and trucks were still parked there. Ditto for Hudson’s car.
According to one of the updates Aiden had gotten from Owen, Hudson had insisted on staying at the scene until Chloe’s body was on the way to the morgue. Owen had agreed, but Aiden suspected that was because it gave him a chance to question the man.
At the moment though, Owen wasn’t doing any questioning. Not to Hudson anyway. He wasn’t in sight, but Owen was in front of his cruiser and was having a conversation with the head CSI, Quentin Radford.
“Yes, I’m still here,” Lexa said when someone came on the line. She stayed quiet, obviously doing a lot of listening, and whatever she was hearing had caused her forehead to bunch up. “You’re sure? Never mind,” she quickly amended. “Of course, you’re sure. Could you please let Sheriff Striker know?” Another pause. “Thanks,” she added, ending the call.
Lexa sighed. “The lab confirmed that the blood at the manor belonged to Chloe.”
Well, that was interesting. “Have they tested the blood for additives? Because if she drew her own blood and stockpiled it so she could toss it around and stage an attack, she’d have to put in an anticoagulant.”
Lexi nodded. “They tested it, and the additives were there.” She stopped and fired off a text, no doubt to Owen, to let him know the results. “Normally, they wouldn’t look for something like that, but they did under the circumstances.”
Yeah, they would. Owen would have pressed for it. “Other than to fake her own murder, I can’t think of a reason for Chloe to do all of this.”
Lexa made a sound of agreement. “And that means she did it to set up Brady. Or Wylie. Maybe both.”
That’s what he figured, too, and if so, the motive could be the death of her mother. Chloe could blame Wylie and want to strike out at him through Brady.
“Brady,” Aiden muttered, getting to his feet so he could stretch. “I’ll have to call him soon.”
First though, he’d need to let Owen inform Brady of Chloe’s death and then re-interview him again. Because even if Chloe had faked her death, it wasn’t a fake now. And since there’d been no gun found near her body, it meant she hadn’t taken her own life.
So, someone had murdered her.
Who and why were yet more of those unanswered questions, but Aiden had yet another one to add to this puzzle.
“Why come after us like this?” he asked. “Wylie’s at the police station. Or at least he was right when you and I left. That’s a solid alibi. He couldn’t have been the one to kill Chloe.”
She nodded, reached over took his Coke and had a sip before she handed it back to him. “Maybe Chloe intended to plant some evidence that Wylie had hired someone to do this.” She paused, cursed. “And he could have.”
Yeah. But Aiden was having a hard time wrapping his head around Wylie wanting to kill him. He was Brady’s friend, and as far as Aiden knew, Lexa hadn’t been a threat or enemy to Wylie. So, that brought him back to Chloe.
“Chloe could have set all of this up,” Aiden spelled out. “Murder me and the lead investigator on her disappearance. Stir up outrage and fear in the town to pressure Owen into arresting Brady, Wylie or both.”
“But then something about this sick plan went wrong, and Chloe was murdered,” Lexa finished for him. “If she had help putting this together, perhaps the person decided he or she couldn’t trust Chloe. Maybe it was Hudson or a hired gun.”
That theory worked for him, too. But he had another one. “If Brady found out Chloe was alive, he would have had time to get here and take her out. So would Gillian.”
Lexa snapped toward him and reached for her phone. “I need to let Owen know to check and see if Gillian has an alibi.” She fired off a text and within seconds, she showed Aiden the thumbs up emoji she got from Owen.
They both turned back to the window, and from the corner of his eye, he saw Lexa shudder a little when the medical examiner’s team started moving the body toward the van. He knew for a fact that Lexa had seen at least two other dead bodies, but it never got easier.
“I owe you fifty bucks,” he said, and Aiden waited until she’d turned to him before he pointed to his stitches.
That earned him a very brief smile, followed by a much longer frown. Her gaze slid over the fresh bandage before it lifted and met his eyes. There was definitely exhaustion in those baby blues.
But that got shoved aside.
When the heat stirred there instead.
He saw the frustration that caused her, and it probably didn’t help that she had such recent memories of that kiss back at the police station. Nope. Didn’t help. Because it was needling away at him too.
Aiden set his Coke aside and went to her. The moment he reached her, he pulled her into his arm. The one that wasn’t stitched. He kissed her, the kind of kiss he’d been wanting from her for months.
And it didn’t disappoint.
The taste of her slammed through him, and he immediately wanted more. So much more. This was playing with fire, and the fire was winning.
Aiden wanted it to win.
He wanted to keep kissing Lexa until it led to a whole lot more. For now though, the kiss was more than enough. Scalding hot. Deep. Perfect. Lexa made it even better by hooking her arm around his neck and pulling him even closer to her. Her breasts landed against his chest, and his chest liked that very much. So much so that it shot up the heat even more.
Adjusting their position and mindful of his injured arm, he turned her so she was anchored against the kitchen island, and that allowed for even more of that body to body contact. Of course, a certain part of his body, his brainless dick, was pressing for the end of foreplay and some full-blown sex.
The sound of an incoming text put him and his dick on hold.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
The corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. “Nope. Saved by the text.”
That brought on his own smile, which went south pretty damn fast when he saw it was from Owen. And the content of the message.
“Owen says that Hudson wants to use the bathroom and claims he can’t wait until they get back to town,” Aiden relayed. “He wants to know if it’s okay to bring him here because he doesn’t want Hudson taking a leak anywhere on the crime scene.”
Aiden sent back an “OK” reply, and, nudging aside that urge to kiss Lexa, he headed for the door. “Geralt, disengage security on the front door.” The locks clicked, and Aiden opened it.
It didn’t take long for the cruiser to pull to a stop in front of the house, and Owen and Hudson exited. Hudson walked almost robotically behind Owen, and the man’s face was a mask of shock.
Or maybe fake shock.
It was hard to tell, but if Hudson hadn’t been the one to kill his sister, then he was likely stunned by her death. But just in case this was all an act, Aiden would keep a close eye on him. Or rather his security app would.
“Geralt, monitor our second guest at all times,” Aiden instructed.
There were no cameras in the bathrooms, but the app would make sure Hudson didn’t go anywhere else in the house and would also do a body scan in case Hudson decided to grab something in the bathroom and use it as a weapon.
When Hudson reached the foyer, he slid glances at both Lexa and Aiden. “Did you kill my sister?”
Aiden didn’t respond and motioned toward the powder room just off the hall. After tossing out a glare, Hudson stormed in that direction.
“You think he could have murdered Chloe?” Aiden asked Owen.
Owen lifted his shoulder. “So far, there’s nothing to indicate that, but it’s possible. Something could have happened with Chloe’s plan. Something to piss Hudson off. Like this. I found it when I demanded to see any recent calls or texts he’d gotten.”
He took out his phone and showed Lexa and him a picture of a text. It was from an unknown number to Hudson.
“ I’m sorry ,” Aiden read aloud before he looked at Owen. “You think that’s from Chloe?”
“Could be,” Owen replied. “The CSIs didn’t find a phone near Chloe’s body.”
Lexa and he had seen Chloe holding something on the camera footage, but that had turned out to be a detonator for the fires.
“They also haven’t found the vehicle that Chloe used to get here,” Owen added a moment later, “and a phone could be inside it. Hell, lots of stuff could be in it. I doubt Chloe thought she’d be murdered when she came here.”
True, and Chloe almost certainly hadn’t walked far to get here, especially not carrying the amount of ammo used in the cooking off fires. It was likely she’d parked nearby and made her way through the woods. Of course, another possibility was that Hudson or someone else had dropped her off. If so, there’d be no vehicle, and therefore no evidence, in the area.
“Hudson claimed that he thought the text was from someone who had the wrong number,” Owen continued. “And he didn’t reply. At least, he didn’t with this phone, and if he used a burner, it’s not in his car. He agreed to let me search it.”
No need to point out that Hudson could have discarded the burner on the drive over. Owen would have already thought of that possibility.
Aiden heard the bathroom door open, and Hudson made his way back to the foyer. “She’s dead, and no one is being punished for that,” the man muttered. Anger flashed through his eyes. “You should have arrested Brady. You should have never given him the chance to get to her.”
There were so many things wrong with that asshole comment that it took Aiden a moment to figure out where to start. “A couple of minutes ago, you accused Lexa and me of killing your sister.”
“You could have helped Brady. You’re friends with that sonofabitch.”
And there it was, the possible motive for why Hudson would want them dead. In Hudson’s eyes, a friendship with Brady was an unholy alliance.
“Are you forgetting that Chloe faked her own death?” Owen asked.
That took some of the fire from Hudson’s eyes. “I’m sure she had her reasons for doing that.”
“Yeah, and the reason was to set up Brady for something he didn’t do,” Lexa supplied. “Did you help her to that, Hudson? Did you help your sister with any part of her plan?”
“No,” he spat out. He started to stay something else but then seemed to change his mind. “I loved Chloe, and now she’s dead.”
“Like your bio-mother,” Aiden said, testing the waters to see if Hudson would react.
And he did.
There was another flash of anger. Too intense for Hudson’s claim that he hadn’t been close to his biological mom. But the man quickly shut it down and hurried out of the house and toward the cruiser.
“You hit a nerve there,” Owen commented. “Good. I’ll see if I can press it again.” He glanced at both of them, his gaze combing over their faces. “Was your security system damaged in the attack?” Owen asked.
Aiden shook his head, already aware of where this was going. “I can work,” he said as a preemptive strike.
“I’m sure you can, but I want both of you to have some downtime,” Owen insisted. “How close are you to being done with the images from the drone?”
“Close. Maybe another half hour,” Aiden replied.
“Good. Go through it, and then take the rest of the day off.” Owen shifted to Lexa. “I can give you a ride back to your place if you think you’ve got good enough security.”
Lexa did some glancing of her own then, starting with Owen and her gaze settling on Aiden. “I’d like to stay here if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind,” Aiden couldn’t say fast enough.
The relief came. So damn much of it. If Chloe’s killer wasn’t finished with them, Aiden didn’t want Lexa facing down the SOB alone.
“Good,” Owen said, sounding relived as well. He turned to leave, but his phone rang, stopping him inches from the door. “It’s Declan,” he said.
“Declan, I’m with Lexa and Aiden,” Owen let him know. “And you’re on speaker.”
“They’ll want to hear this,” Declan was quick to say. “I’ve been studying the feed from the town’s security cams, checking to see who might have been heading to the manor around the time that fire was set. And I might have found something. I’m sending a photo to you now.”
Within seconds, Owen’s phone sounded again, and the picture began to load.
“This particular shot was taken from a recently installed doorbell cam of the house just two blocks away,” Declan explained. “I’ve checked, and I can’t find a logical reason for her to have been out there on this street at that time of night.”
Aiden and Lexa both leaned in to check out the “her” that Declan was referring to. And they soon saw the woman driving straight toward the manor.
Gillian.