for only the burglary, but it’s more likely he needed an alibi for something else, some violent encounter.”
“Like a fight to the death with Foster,” Ledge said. “He also has a vendetta against your father. But he isn’t here, so Rusty’s going after Arden.”
“How so?” Lisa asked, turning to Arden.
She described the dog attack and their showdown with Hawkins. She was blunt, sparing her snooty sister none of the gorier details.
When she finished, Ledge said, “There’s a footnote. Hawkins was found dead this morning. You can guess who silenced him, and this fresh taste of blood has only emboldened him. Rusty all but confessed to us.”
Looking queasy, Lisa backed up to the wall. “He’s the district attorney, for godsake.”
“Which only gives him license to do what he wants with impunity,” Ledge said.
“Your fear for Arden’s safety is justified, then.”
“Thanks all the same, but I don’t need your okay. Not for anything, but especially not anything concerning Arden and me.”
Lisa gave him a dirty look, then turned back to Arden. “I told you repeatedly that moving back here was a terrible idea. You didn’t listen.”
“Because I had no idea of what I was walking into,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know I had a built-in enemy. Did you?”
Lisa held her ground for a time; then her shoulders slumped, and she gave a small nod.
Arden regarded her with incredulity. “You knew about Rusty, his part in the burglary? All that?”
“Yes. All that.”
“For how long?”
“From the night it took place.”
Arden gaped at her. “You allowed me to stumble into this blind, Lisa. All those times you tried to dissuade me, why didn’t you simply lay it all out?”
“I couldn’t ‘simply.’ I couldn’t warn you about Rusty without…without telling you that I saw Dad that night. With the stolen money.”
Lisa abruptly left the bedroom and went into the kitchen, where she helped herself to a soda from the refrigerator. Ledge and Arden followed her but declined anything to drink.
Ledge posted himself as lookout where he could see out onto the backyard as well as have a clear shot of the front door through the empty dining and living rooms.
The position also gave him a head-on view of Arden. He wanted to read her reactions to what Lisa had to tell her. She needed to hear it. At long last. But he dreaded the next few minutes for her. Apparently, she shared his apprehension. Seated across the table from each other, Arden was regarding Lisa as though she were a stranger she had never seen before.
Lisa fiddled with the soda can, idly turning it on the tabletop. Ledge wondered if she was buying time in order to fabricate a plausible partial truth that Arden would swallow. Or was she choosing words that would soften the blow of the hard facts?
She said, “I thought that by now Rusty would have given up the idea of regaining his booty.”
“He hasn’t,” Ledge said before Arden could speak. “She’s been in Rusty’s crosshairs from the day she moved back. If you know anything about how Joe wound up with the cash and made his escape, now would be the time to tell us.”
“Us? Whatever I tell my sister will be in private.”
“Nuh-uh,” he said. “I want to hear.”
“Anything relating to our father is between Arden and me.”
Arden said, “Lisa, Rusty has threatened to blame Hawkins’s murder on Ledge. He deserves to know what you know about that night. He stays.”
She relented. “All right. Where to start?” She took a sip of her soda, then began. “Directly after dinner, Dad left, saying he was going to the cemetery.”
“I remember.”
“You and I watched a movie. At bedtime, I tucked you in, secured the house, and went to my room. I worked on an assignment for one of my classes and didn’t go to bed until after Dad came back. That’s not when I saw him, though. He went straight to his room, I assumed to bed.”
“What time was that?” Ledge asked.
“I don’t remember,” she snapped. “At the time, I didn’t know it would be important to note.”
He stared back at her but made no further comment.
She continued. “Hours later, I woke up to a noise downstairs. I got up and checked your room. You were sound asleep. I came downstairs, and when I got here to the kitchen, I was stunned to see Dad. I thought he was still upstairs.
“But he hadn’t only left his room, he’d left the house without my being aware of it. His shoes were muddy, his pants