Chapter Five
While he drove toward San Antonio, Declan’s thoughts were in the F-5 tornado mode. Plenty to think about, and everything seemed to be moving way too fast for him to grab the details and work them out in his mind.
Cully was no doubt in the same mode, which was why she hadn’t been talking on this drive to see her mother. It’d be an unofficial chat to assess Alice’s condition to see if she was capable of being brought back to Outlaw Ridge for an official interview with the sheriff. Owen had given them the approval for the trip, no doubt because he wanted them away from the actual crime scene and the hub of the investigation.
Until he could rule them out as suspects.
Both Cully and he had motive to kill Jessica and Brandon. Her father and Savannah, too, since Declan had made no attempts to hide how furious he’d been at Derrick’s behavior when the asshole had walked out on Alice and Cully.
But neither Cully nor he had done the killing.
Someone else had though, and this visit to her mother was their part in trying to get answers. Of course, it would also be a death notification.
Alice had signed and turned in the divorce papers that Derrick had left her so they were no longer married, but Alice still needed to know he was dead. Then, Cully and he could gently question her mother to find out if she’d had any part in the four murders.
Because Alice had motive, too.
She could have gone after Derrick and Savannah, and then a year later, Alice could have done the same to Brandon and Jessica for hurting Cully.
But that didn’t feel right to Declan.
He just couldn’t see Alice doing something like that. Or maybe he felt that way because he didn’t want her to be guilty. Cully was already ripped to pieces, and it would do more ripping if she found out her mother was a killer.
“Would your mom have any clue how to build a fake wall?” Declan came out and asked.
Cully finally tore her gaze from the window—where he was sure she’d been looking at absolutely nothing. “Yes.”
Well, hell. That wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting. “How?”
She sighed. “After she moved in with me about ten years ago, she got on a DIY kick. She built a workshop in the garage so she could do stained glass. That included putting up a wall and a door, and she learned how to do that by watching videos on the internet.”
“But that was years after the murders, right? She didn’t know how to do that kind of stuff before then?” he pressed.
Cully shrugged. “Maybe.” That was all she said for several moments. “I just keep going over her threatening my father with that knife after he slapped me.”
Yeah, he’d gone there, too, and if Alice had stabbed Derrick then and there, Declan could understand it. Heck, Alice might not have even been charged with murder if she had a good lawyer who’d argue that she was defending her daughter. Still, it was no small leap to go from a heated encounter like that to quadruple murder.
“Alice would have had no reason to kill Brandon and Jessica,” he went on. “Lash out at them, yes. But not shoot them and put them behind that wall.”
“You’re right,” she said after another of those long pauses. “But the cops and the DA will be very interested in her DIY skills.”
They would be, and the best way to handle that was to volunteer the info to Owen, something Declan would do as soon as they finished talking to Alice.
Which wouldn’t be long.
According to the GPS, they were just five minutes out from Cully’s house. Five minutes that Declan hoped to put to good use. “Let’s come up with a list of names of anyone who would want these four people dead.”
“You mean other than us and my mother?” she murmured. But then she waved that off. “All right, this is a huge stretch, but Harley. He’s very protective of my mom and me, and he knew about my father slapping me. Harley could have murdered my dad and his girlfriend, walled them up and then a year later, did the same to Brandon and Jessica because they’d hurt me, too.”
Declan made a sound of agreement. While he couldn’t see Harley committing murder any more than he could Alice, the man did have motive. And he would have had fairly easy access to all four of the dead since they knew him.
“Your turn,” Cully said. “Give a name for the list.”
“Noah,” Declan said without hesitation. “He went missing two years before the first murders, but he could have sneaked back to the house. The first two, Savannah and your father, could have been at the wrong place, wrong time, and the loan sharks that Noah owed money to could have killed them. A year later, Jessica and Brandon could have discovered something they shouldn’t have, and they could’ve been killed because of it.”
As theories went, that was Declan’s favorite despite it lacking a whole bunch of details. If that particular theory turned out to be true though, they likely wouldn’t catch the killer. But a nameless, faceless hitman was better than it being someone they knew.
Cully nodded. “Yes, Noah might fit. Even though the house was in foreclosure at the time, it still belonged to him. Added to that, he might have even known my father and Savannah.”
True, but proving that would be damn hard. Her dad and Savannah were dead, and they didn’t know where Noah was. But Declan thought the man might be alive. After all, if he’d been murdered, the killer could have put him in the wall with the others.
He was still mulling all of that over when he took the turn into Cully’s neighborhood. Unlike his place that was in the country, she lived in an upscale subdivision, Morningstar Canyon, where prices were steep, and the houses and yards were kept in perfect condition. Declan was glad she’d made it so she could live in a place like this, especially considering the lean years that her mom and she had had after Derrick left.
Declan had never been here to her place so he followed the GPS and pulled into the driveway of a two-story white stucco and limestone house. Cully didn’t get out. She sat there, staring at the front door.
“Mom might not know you,” Cully admitted. “In fact, she might not know me.”
That felt like a punch to the gut. Declan hadn’t known Alice’s condition was that bad.
“She has a lot of good days though,” Cully added in a mutter. “Let’s hope this is one of them.”
After gathering her breath, Cully got out then, and Declan followed her to the door where she keyed in a security code to unlock it.
“It’s me,” she called out.
They stepped into a tiled foyer, and he glanced around at the open floor plan. It was upscale here, too, decorated in soft blues and pale yellows.
He saw the brunette-haired woman come out from the kitchen, and she went to them, pulling Cully into a hug. This had to be the caregiver, Tansy, whom Cully had spoken to as they were leaving the police station.
“Your mom’s in her room going through photo albums,” the woman told Cully before turning to him and extending her hand. “I’m Tansy McGill. You must be Declan.”
He nodded, shook her hand, and then he went with Tansy and Cully upstairs. Before they even reached the bedroom, Declan heard a familiar song. Different Drum by the Stone Ponies. Clearly, it was a favorite of Alice’s since he recalled her listening to it back when Cully and he had been teenagers.
Tansy stepped into the brightly decorated room ahead of them. “Alice, Cully’s here.”
Alice was sitting on the floor, a thick photo album on her lap and several others beside her. She looked up, smiled and practically jumped to her feet. She went to Cully and hugged her as if it’d been years since she’d seen her.
But her smile went south fast when Alice shifted her attention to him.
“Declan,” she said, and he could have sworn the temp in the room dropped a couple of degrees. Her mouth went tight. “You broke my daughter’s heart. I used to hear her sobbing at night after you two broke up. For months, she cried herself to sleep.”
“Mom,” Cully blurted, and she spun around to face Declan. “I’m sorry,” she said at the same time Declan told Alice, “I’m sorry.”
And he was. Deeply sorry if he’d hurt Cully. But it surprised him that he had. After all, she’d been the one to leave, not him, and she’d filed for a divorce.
“I’m sorry,” Declan repeated to Alice, and the woman seemed to warm a little to that.
Alice patted his arm but then slid her gaze from him to Cully. “Are you two back together?”
“No,” Cully and he said in unison.
Alice’s shoulders relaxed. “Good. After there’s too much hurt, it’s hard to start over. When Tansy said you were coming here with a visitor, I thought maybe you had come to tell me you were engaged. Or that something had gone wrong with the house in Outlaw Ridge.”
Cully cleared her throat. “No engagement. But something did happen at the house.” She stopped, drew in a breath. “Mom, they found some skeletal remains for Dad, Savannah, Brandon, and Jessica.”
Declan had been worried that Alice might not understand that. But she got it all right. Her eyes went wide, and she fumbled behind her to feel for the chair before she dropped down onto it.
“You’re sure it’s them?” Alice asked.
“Yes,” Cully answered. “They were IDed through dental records, and Dad’s wallet was next to him.”
Alice sat in stunned silence for close to a minute. “You found him and the others at the house. Where? Why?”
“The remains are still being investigated,” Cully responded, obviously not answering the questions and choosing her words carefully. “But they were murdered. That’s why we’re here. To tell you about Dad and to ask you about the last time you saw him.”
Alice volleyed her gaze at them again, and Declan saw nothing but clarity in those green eyes that were a genetic copy of her daughter’s.
“The cops will think I did this,” Alice concluded.
She held up her hand to stop them from saying anything, and she took another couple of seconds, obviously trying to steady herself.
“The last time I saw your dad was when he hit you,” Alice finally continued. “I grabbed a knife, told Derrick I’d kill him if he touched you again. I meant it. But I didn’t murder him,” she insisted. “And I certainly didn’t end Jessica’s and Brandon’s lives. They were kids. Stupid and careless with yours and Declan’s feelings, but they were kids all the same. Why were they killed?” she tacked onto that.
“We don’t know,” Declan admitted. “We don’t know a lot of things, and that’s one of the reasons we’re here. We’re hoping you can tell us who might have wanted to do something like this.”
Alice looked up at Cully, and there were tears shimmering in her eyes. “I think Brandon was cheating on you even before Jessica. So, there could have been a jealous girlfriend.”
Cully turned to him to get his take on that, and Declan wanted to curse. “That’s possible. I overheard a couple of phone calls where I think he was talking to another girl.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Cully snapped. But she stopped, shook her head. “Sorry, I get it. You were loyal to Brandon.”
“I was loyal to you, too. But I didn’t have any proof. I have no idea who he was talking to, and when I confronted Brandon about it, he blew it off, saying it was nothing.”
It felt, though, as if he should have done something. Declan should have pushed Brandon for a confession because it was possible even then that his best friend had been chatting up Jessica. If he’d outed the pair, they might not have wanted to keep their relationship in the dark and end up eloping.
Which meant they might still be alive.
“There’s also Roscoe,” Alice continued, drawing Declan’s and Cully’s attention back to her. “He could have killed your father.”
“Why?” Cully pressed when her mother fell silent.
Alice glanced at them, shook her head. “You didn’t know?”
“Know what?” Declan asked.
“It was a nasty mess,” Alice muttered. “When Savannah was ready to run off with your father, she was still involved with Roscoe. They’d been having an affair for nearly a year, and talk was that Roscoe was so head over heels in love with her that he was on the verge of divorcing his wife.”
Bingo. That was motive all right. And not just for Roscoe but for also for Renee.