LEDUC WOULDN’T ALLOW any of the Coalition people, including Nicky, to see the new evidence. It was police evidence, and they weren’t police. None of us could argue with that, so Newman recommended a bed-and-breakfast just up the road. “It’s also the closest and has the most pleasant rooms. There’s a motel just up the way and some Airbnbs, but they aren’t as nice, and I can’t guarantee anything will have rooms.”
Leduc reluctantly agreed and even called the owners of the bed-and-breakfast since he knew them like he seemed to know everybody. They had two rooms available for tonight, and a third would open up tomorrow. Nicky took all three rooms for the time they were available, and Angel called the motel. For security reasons, the SEALs didn’t like splitting the group up.
Olaf asked Nicky, “Why aren’t you worried?”
“I’ll be wherever Anita is tonight, so she’s covered.”
I had a moment of worrying about who would keep the other two women safe. Pierette was one of our guards; she’d put herself up as bait because everyone thought she could take Olaf. The hard feeling in my gut wasn’t so sure. Angel didn’t fit his profile, so I was less worried about her, but once Nicky assured everyone that he’d be by my side when and if I got to sleep, they all stopped arguing about security and just went to check into the rooms at the bed-and-breakfast down the road. There were enough available rooms at the local motel that they didn’t have to call anywhere else. No one kissed me good-bye, because Leduc was there watching for more PDA. Ethan and Angel did make me promise to text or call when the evidence reveal was done.
“We can’t help you with Bobby if we aren’t here,” Angel had said.
“I know and I promise,” I said, and I meant it.
Leduc made us wait until they’d driven away before he’d share the new evidence with us. He punched in a code to unlock a phone and showed us more damning evidence against Bobby: pictures of Jocelyn asleep taken from the angle of someone who was looking down at her or who was next to her. Leduc wouldn’t let the rest of us touch the phone so that the number of extra fingerprints would be lower. I couldn’t argue with his logic, but he was acting as if the proof would actually see a courtroom. Every picture was another nail in Bobby’s coffin, showing he was obsessed with his stepsister. There was even a selfie that Bobby had taken of him smiling up at the camera with Jocelyn obviously asleep beside him. It looked like he’d been sneaking into her room after she fell asleep and taking pictures for at least a month, maybe longer. There was even a video at the end in which he was lying in her disheveled bed with the sheets and covers crumpled around him while he was talking into the camera.
“What’s he saying?” I asked.
“Does it matter?” Sheriff Leduc asked.
He was probably right, but . . . “We’re talking about killing him, so yeah, it matters.”
Leduc didn’t argue again; he just turned the sound up.
“We just made love, and it was amazing. I am so in love with her!” Bobby’s face was full of emotion to match the words. His voice rose. “Nothing. No, just talking to myself, Joshie. Yeah, I know I’m weird. I’m just happy you love me.” He laughed and then sat up, the phone half forgotten in his hand so that the angle was suddenly odd. He was shirtless at the very least, and she was within hearing range. “Anything you say, Joshie,” he said, and then the video ended.
“What more proof do you want that he was obsessed with his own sister?” Leduc asked.
Newman looked pale.
“How did you get the phone?” I asked.
“Helen Grimes, the Marchands’ cook, brought it in, along with her own eyewitness account of the stalking,” Leduc said.
“She’s in the interrogation room waiting to repeat it to the four of us,” Edward said.
“Play the video again first,” Olaf said.
“You’ve seen and heard all of it,” Leduc said.
“I heard all of it, but none of you did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My hearing is superior to yours. There is another voice on the video.”
“I’m older than any of you, but I’m not losing my hearing, not yet,” the sheriff said.
“Otto’s hearing is better than any straight human’s, Sheriff,” I said.
“You mean because he’s a wereanimal?”
“Yes.”
Edward said, “Let’s hear the video again with the sound all the way up.”
Leduc sighed as if we were all being incredibly demanding, but he did what Edward asked. The video played again, almost too loud. Bobby’s declaration of love sounded worse, crazier, more delusional, and then just at the end, I heard a female voice.
“Play it again,” I said.
Edward put his ear so it was almost touching the phone. “Anita” was all he said, but I took my turn almost touching the phone, straining to hear, and it was a woman’s voice. I couldn’t have sworn it was Jocelyn Marchand’s voice, but I could hear what she was saying: “What are you doing in there?”
Bobby: “Nothing. No, just talking to myself, Joshie.”
Woman, maybe Jocelyn: “Bobby, you are so weird. I don’t know why I love you sometimes.” She laughed, and I knew it was a sexy or, rather, an after-sex laugh. I heard water start to run. “Come join me in the shower, weirdo.” She gave that sexy, intimate laugh again.
“Anything you say, Joshie.”
Edward said, “Newman or Duke.”
Newman let the sheriff go next. Duke was frowning before he finished listening. He stood up without a word. “What the hell?” he said softly.
Newman listened, and he looked relieved at first. “I’d swear that was Jocelyn’s voice.”
“I’d swear it was, too,” Duke said.
“Then she’s lying,” I said.
“No, she’s not just lying. She’s setting him up,” Edward said.
“Why would she do that?” Newman asked.
“If this was a normal case with no supernaturals involved, what would you say?” Edward asked.
“Money,” Leduc said.
We all looked at him. “If Ray had been shot or stabbed or almost anything else, we’d be following the money,” he said.
“Would the attorneys tell us who stands to gain from Ray’s and Bobby’s deaths?” Newman asked.
“Officially, I think we’d need a warrant, but I know the attorneys Ray used. I coached their sons.”
“We need to know what changes if Bobby dies with Ray,” Newman said.
Leduc nodded. “I’ll try to find out. I just can’t believe Joshie would do something this . . . cold-blooded.”
“We’ll talk to the cook, and then we have to talk to Bobby again,” I said.
“This may not be enough to get another stay of execution, Anita,” Newman said.
“I know.”
“We can’t kill Bobby if we have evidence of a conspiracy to murder by someone else,” Leduc said.
“Conspiracy?” I asked.
“If Joshie was out with girlfriends, then she wasn’t home killing Ray. If Bobby didn’t do it, then someone else did. She had to have an accomplice, so it’s a conspiracy.”
“Unless she was able to leave the club long enough to do it herself,” I said.
“We need to talk to the dancer she was with,” Newman said.
“Wait a minute,” Leduc said. “I’ll believe what I heard on the video, so she’s involved, but she couldn’t have done that to Ray. Human hands and fingernails could not have done that.”
“Duke is right,” Newman said.
“We need to see the body and the crime scene,” Edward said.
“We need to find a murder weapon that would explain the wounds,” I said.
“If I’d used something to commit murder, I’d have dumped it by now,” Newman said.
“What do you need to help Bobby?” Duke asked.
“We need a smoking gun, and we need it soon,” Newman said.
“I’ll chase the money,” Duke said.
“We’ll talk to Helen Grimes,” I said.
Olaf said, “Could she be the accomplice?”
“We’ll find out,” I said.
“Yes,” he said, “we will.”
And then he smiled, an anticipatory, predatory smile. He was hoping that we’d get to hurt the cook to make her tell the truth. A few minutes ago, I’d have been certain that I’d never help him torture another person, but if it was a choice between terrorizing a woman I’d never met or having to kill Bobby, then I knew what my choice would be. I hate that sometimes the path to hell really is paved with good intentions.