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She recognized Jacob’s voice as she swung down the hall.
“What kind of information could you be giving her?” Jacob asked, his face practically in Quinn’s.
“Hey, he did bring me the information I asked for.” Dela stopped in the middle of the living room.
Jacob took a step toward her. “You look like you’re made up for a ceremony.”
She gave him a weak smile. “Not any ceremony I want to do. What are you doing here?”
“You were pretty out of it last night when I was at the hospital. I heard you went home and just wanted to check on you.” Jacob sent a glare toward Quinn, then returned his gaze to her.
“I’m glad you did. Go grab something to drink and come visit with us.” Dela swung over to the recliner. “Did you find the piece of paper?” She asked Quinn.
He nodded and pointed to a folded piece of paper on the table by her chair.
Dela lowered her body into the chair as gracefully as she could on one leg and crutches. Then she opened the paper on her lap and took the picture. She texted it to Heath and replaced the paper on the table.
Quinn sat back down on the couch. Jacob brought a chair in from the dining room and placed it in the middle of the room where he was facing both her and Quinn.
“Have you learned any more about the Kindale murder?” Dela asked.
Jacob flicked a gaze at Quinn. “Not that I can talk about.”
“I’ve been working on it, too, which you should know,” Quinn said. “I told Seaver today that as far as we can determine there are two people who might be the parents to the little girl. They are in different towns in the same state and they both recognized the name Marilyn Rathman. She worked for the cleaning company they’d hired.”
“Do both these families have money?” Dela asked. Thinking what had gone wrong that she kidnapped the child to collect ransom and ended up keeping her.
“Yes. They said they did receive ransom calls, but when they went to deliver the money, no one showed up.” Quinn drank his iced tea.
“Athena must have had a partner and something happened to keep them from collecting the money. But why keep the child?” Dela didn’t think it was a ransom gone wrong. Keeping the child and not ditching or killing her meant she wanted the child to hurt someone.
She studied Jacob. “Everything we’ve found out about Athena, she didn’t really care about anyone but herself.”
He nodded.
She sat sideways and said to Quinn, “I think you need to get someone investigating Marilyn Rathman. Her ruthlessness makes me think she took the child to hurt someone. I bet she sends this person photos of the child every now and then.” She faced Jacob. “Has anyone looked at the information on the phone Harper had?”
“Yeah, it was only local calls to work and people she knew.” Jacob shrugged.
“None of the people she was blackmailing?” Dela asked.
“Nope.”
“Then she had another phone she took care of business on.” Dela tapped a finger on the arm of the chair. “Have you tried looking for phone records for Marilyn Rathman?”
“Or she could have used a burner phone,” Quinn stated.
“Yes, there is that.” She studied Jacob again. “Did you hear what Alex said about how he came to have her phone?”
“Yeah, he said it was laying on the ground next to where she parked when she left for work. He picked it up and put it in the house.” Jacob sipped his drink.
“But Harper found it in her dad’s bedroom. To me, that means he was looking to see who his wife called.” She sipped her drink and said, “There has to be another phone. The killer must have taken it knowing their number was in the phone.”
“You’re saying if we find the phone we find the killer?” Jacob asked.
“I think so. But in the meantime, we need to learn more about Athena before she hooked Alex.” Dela reclined in the chair. She was feeling tired from all this brain work. “I’m tired. You can both leave if you want. Heath should be here pretty soon.” Mugshot had been laying on his bed by her chair. He stood up and walked to the door as if telling the two they needed to leave.
“Go ahead and go,” Jacob said. “I’ll stay here until Heath gets home.”
“I can get the search started on Marilyn Rathman.” Quinn rose off the couch, put his glass in the kitchen, and stopped at the front door. “Let me know if you come up with any more good ideas.”
“I will,” Dela said, closing her eyes. She was in good hands with Jacob and Mugshot.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Her phone ringing woke her. Dela rubbed a hand over her face and winced. She stuck out an arm to grasp the phone when she heard voices talking in the kitchen.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Stay out of other people’s business,” a raspy, muffled voice said and the line went dead.
“Heath!” she called out.
He and Jacob ran into the room. “What? Are you okay?”
“Write down this number.” She held her phone up for him to read the number that had called her.
“Why am I writing this down?” Jacob asked.
“The voice on the other end told me to stay out of people’s business. That sounds like a threat to me.” She studied Heath’s face. His jaw muscle twitched as he peered back at her.
“It does to me, too.” Heath pointed to the pad Jacob had jotted the number on. “See if you can find out where the call came from.”
“I’ll get on it. See you later, Dela. Don’t go back to work too soon.” Jacob was out the front door before she could respond.
“I think it was the person who hit me last night.” She didn’t know why she felt that way but she did. And the only person who would want her out of his business was Gus Sanders.
“Did you find out if Gus borrowed a vehicle from the wrecking yard?” Dela sat up and scooted to the edge of the chair. She grabbed the crutches leaning against the end of the couch and stood.
“I talked to the owner. He said he hasn’t seen or heard from Gus in three months. Sanders doesn’t own the wrecking yard, he owns the land underneath. He did receive notice from Mrs. Sanders that when the land becomes hers through divorce proceedings that he will have to move.” Heath led the way into the kitchen where it appeared that he and Jacob were having a beer and going over the Kindale case.
“How’s the case going?” she asked, waving a hand toward the files on the table.
“Slow. Jacob told me about your thoughts on the second phone and digging into Athena’s earlier name. Good ideas. Both of them.” He held out a chair and she sat. “I’ll get something whipped up for dinner.”
“Just some soup and a sandwich is good enough.” Dela pulled the file over to her and began reading the autopsy report. She scanned the photos of the scene, the body, and the murder weapon. “I don’t think this was a planned murder. I would bet she was filing her nails ignoring the person sitting in the car with her and said something that angered the other person. The killer grabbed the file out of Athena’s hand and stabbed in rage. That’s what it would have taken to plunge that file hard enough to sever an artery.” Dela studied the blood in the car. “And that person had to have been covered in blood when they left.”
Heath took the file out of her hands and placed a microwaved bowl of soup and a ham sandwich on the table in front of her. “We’ve come up with the same theory.”
“Did you inspect Alex’s laundry room for blood? At that time of night, he could have gone in, stripped, and put the clothes in the washer, then showered and Harper would have been sound asleep.” Dela picked up her spoon. Harper was a sharp girl. She would have noticed something off. Like when her dad was arguing with someone on the phone and she’d become scared.
“We did have forensics check for blood in the house. There wasn’t any.” Heath placed a bowl of soup and a sandwich on the table beside her and sat. “There wasn’t any trail of blood leading from the car to follow.”
“While the murder was committed out of rage, the person then became thoughtful enough to not leave any trace of blood outside the car to show how they got away.” She stared into the bowl of soup she was stirring. “Of your suspects, who do you feel could detach after killing someone and logically cover their tracks?” Dela raised her gaze to Heath.
“Alex. While he does seem to have a quick temper, he tends to settle down quickly. I could say the same for Todd.”
“What about Gus?” Dela asked.
Heath shook his head. “No. He has proven every time we’ve pushed him that he doesn’t think clearly. I honestly don’t think it’s Gus. He’s pissed at you over his divorce.”
Dela had the same feeling. “Do you have any other suspects, besides Alex and Todd?” She hated to think that Todd was still on the list. He was a good security person.
“If Todd’s wife didn’t have an alibi, I would have her on the list. She was the only wife who knew what was going on. And it was before Todd told her.” Heath picked up his spoon. “Can you think of anyone else who would want Athena dead?”
“All the men she was blackmailing. But if you say they all have alibis then that rules them out. Unless you haven’t found everyone.” She picked up her sandwich and took a bite.
“We checked off everyone that was in her book. They are all accounted for and extremely happy she is gone.” Heath started eating his soup.
Dela chewed the bite in her mouth and ran things over in her mind. A thought came to her and she swallowed, took a drink, and said, “What if the person who Athena took Harper from found her?”
“But wouldn’t they also take the child?” Heath asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“Well, wouldn’t it seem strange if they came forward now that Athena is dead? And they wouldn’t have a chance to take Harper because Alex isn’t letting her leave the house except to go to Rae’s.” Dela liked this idea. It made more sense than anything else. The woman’s death was caused by taking a child five years earlier or more. “Does anyone know how long Athena had Harper before she married Alex? We may be looking at the wrong year for her being kidnapped.”
“You mean she took the child a year or more before she married Alex?” Heath picked up his phone.
“She could have used another name in between Marilyn Rathman and Athena,” Dela said.
“I’ll see what Pierce has found.” Heath stood and walked into the other room.
Dela knew it wasn’t so she didn’t hear. He was a pacer when he was on the phone. She caught his side of the conversation. It appeared the FBI had found another alias for Athena.
Her phone rang. It was Jacob.
“Hey, did you find out the number already?” she asked.
“No. It’s a burner phone and I’ve asked the phone company to see if they can figure out where the call originated. I tried Heath’s phone but it’s busy.”
“He’s talking to Quinn,” she said, picking up her sandwich. “What did you want to tell him?”
“State Police found a pickup registered to Alex abandoned going west off the Interstate. The front end is smashed in. Looks like that’s as far as the person got before the radiator ran out of water and the vehicle overheated.”
Dela’s muscles tightened. How had Alex slipped out of his house and waited for her? She swallowed and said, “I’ll let Heath know.”
“Ask him if he wants me to pick Alex up for questioning.”
“Ok.”
Heath walked into the kitchen. He pointed at the phone in her hand. She handed it to him and sat staring at the food that moments before tasted wonderful but now, she wasn’t sure if she could eat it. Not having a name to put to the person who had tried to kill her, she’d felt bulletproof. Now, knowing it was Alex, she wondered why. Did he think she had proof he’d killed his wife? She didn’t. What would make him think she did?