Her Frozen Cry (Detective Amanda Steele)

THIRTY-NINE

If Amanda caught an hour of sleep last night, it would have been a miracle. There was far too much weighing on her mind. At least she’d had the wherewithal to get ahold of Libby and have Zoe spend the night at her house again. Amanda felt bad for this, but she was in no emotional state to be around Zoe, who was also struggling with her own feelings these days.

She finally pulled herself from bed at eight o’clock. She had filled in Chief Buchanan on Malone’s prognosis last night, and he told her that she and Trent could show up later today. And that came as a relief. She was still exhausted and not even particularly motivated. That was, until she heard Malone’s voice in her head telling her to get the investigation closed. That was one wish she could make sure happened—even if she was a little late getting started this morning.

Two suspects in custody, but the light of a new day brought on the doubts about both Tony Bishop and Harold Armstrong.

It could be that she was just struggling to accept that her former friend was a killer. Tony Bishop did have access to the drug. He also could have very well gone into Harold’s office and printed the threat to himself, then claimed he’d discovered it in his drawer. He benefited financially from Alicia’s death.

But Harold also had motive. Even possible opportunity. Though it would be more of a challenge for him to taint Alicia’s bottles of Sleep Tight than it would be for Tony to print the threat.

Tony could fit the proportions of the mystery figure in the videos from Pixie Winks and Caffeine Café, but Harold was heavyset. Where did that leave him?

Both men had lied or withheld information from her and Trent, hindering the investigation’s progress.

But where would Harold get pentobarbital? In fact, they couldn’t even prove that Tony had stolen it from the vet clinic. They only had speculation and extenuating circumstances.

She sank into the couch at her house, put her feet up on the coffee table. She was sipping a coffee, staring blankly into space, and thinking.

Besides Tony or Harold, who had motive to kill Alicia Gordon and Eve Kelley?

It still seemed to her it was someone who didn’t want the sale of New Belle to go through. Threats were sent to the bidders to back away, even after Alicia’s murder. Thankfully, it would seem the killing stopped with Eve Kelley.

She sipped her coffee.

Harold’s office was never locked, which meant anyone could have slipped in there, printed the threat, then placed it in Tony’s drawer. If so, that person could have intended to frame Harold. Though that would imply they knew about the distinct crease his printer made in the paper. Then again, maybe his printer was just chosen without that knowledge, though still in the hopes the threat would lead back to his desk. If that happened, the real killer might have seen Harold as a good mark to take the fall. And they might have known about Harold’s visit to the cabin.

There were conceivably two visitors to the cabin while Alicia was there—the person who left the tire marks and the one who left the shoeprints. They knew the tires matched to Harold’s truck. But what about the shoes?

CSI Donnelly said the sole impressions were a match to Cloud Footwear and their Ithan shoes. They had yet to conduct a search of Harold’s home, but when asked, he hadn’t even heard of the brand.

Amanda wasn’t familiar with them either. She decided now was as good a time as any to google them. She retrieved her laptop and sat at the kitchen counter while she did the search. Now seeing what the shoes looked like, she knew she’d seen them before. She nearly fell off her chair when she realized where.

And then it was as if all the pieces of the case finally clicked together.

Amanda picked up Tony Bishop from holding and was somewhat relieved Trent wasn’t in yet. She told Tony her theory, then warned him that if he took one step out of line, she’d have him back behind bars before he could blink. But she wanted him with her when she followed through on her very strong hunch.

“I can’t believe this. I’m in shock.” Tony kept repeating this the entire way to his house.

They went in the front door, and Brad came down the stairs and stopped short.

“Tony?” He dragged his gaze to Amanda, back to Tony. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m being released.”

That’s what Amanda had told him to say, and he would be if her theory was right.

“Oh. That’s…” Brad’s brow pinched. “We don’t know who killed Mom, then?”

“You leave that concern to me.” Amanda smiled pleasantly at him.

The three of them went to the sitting room.

Just as she took a seat on that dark-gray couch, her phone rang. It was Trent, and she was torn about answering. Maybe she should have messaged him about where she was going and her hunch. That might have been the smart thing to do, and it was the least of what she owed him for his loyalty. But he’d also had the right to sleep in… She rejected the call, sending Trent to voicemail.

Tony sat on the other couch, but she found herself wishing he’d dropped next to her.

Brad came in and sat beside Tony. “So you have no leads at all?” Brad asked her. “What about Mr. Armstrong?”

It was interesting that Brad went right to Harold. It was starting to feel like her hunch was spot on. As she thought at her house, the killer might have used Harold’s printer for the threat against Tony in the hopes it would incriminate Harold. If Amanda’s theory was right, the killer also knew about Harold being at the cabin. “What about him?” she asked, putting it out there casually. She hoped Tony would pick up on her body language, the unspoken communication to relax.

“I’m quite sure he was jealous of all Mom had going.” Brad crossed his legs, getting comfortable. Cocky.

“You don’t even know what you’re talking about, Brad. You’re just a kid,” Tony said.

“I’m not a freakin’ kid, Tony,” Brad spat. “If you didn’t kill Mom, he probably did.”

Yet, this was the first time Brad had come forward with his suspicions about Harold. Amanda was sure she knew why—self-preservation because he could feel time running out. “Well, there is circumstantial evidence,” she said.

“See?” Brad waved a hand toward Amanda.

“There are also some unanswered questions.”

Brad’s face hardened. “Like what? He deserves to pay for what he did to my mother—and that other woman.”

Eve Kelley always seemed like the postscript in this investigation, and it wasn’t right. “It’s hard to say, but you let me worry about that.” She smiled tightly at Brad, who didn’t return the expression. “I wonder why he would have killed Eve, though. Mr. Armstrong didn’t have a relationship with her like he did with your mother.”

“She was suing New Belle, you know.”

Tony turned to him. “How did you know that?”

“I know a lot more about what goes on around here than you think.”

Then it wasn’t too much a stretch to believe that Brad had uncovered the identities of the bidders, Lopez and Reynolds. “So you think Mr. Armstrong was upset about the lawsuit?” Amanda asked to steer the conversation back around. She hoped that Brad didn’t realize she was actually probing his motive.

“She would have destroyed my mother’s legacy. Someone needed to protect it.” Brad sniffed and glanced away, just briefly, then locked eye contact with Amanda once again.

Amanda bobbed her head slowly as if considering. “I can see that.”

“Yep.” Brad leaned back into the couch, relaxing just a little, but there was something wild in his eyes.

Amanda needed to detour to less volatile ground. “Your girlfriend seems like a nice person. It was great of her to come for a visit to support you.”

“Rachel is great.” Brad spoke this as if wary for some reason, and he had reason.