Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,143
time.
And if they could prove she ordered the murders of the Albright family, she very well may fry, as Jennifer said.
“We need to separate them,” Lucy said.
“We can’t compel a spouse to testify against another spouse.”
“No, but if we tell Harrison what we have, he might spontaneously give us something we can use.”
“She’s not going to let him out of her sight.”
“I will take full responsibility for this,” Lucy said.
“Wh—” Jennifer began as Lucy bumped into a vase that came crashing down to the floor.
Faith Parker ran from the study. “Do you know how much that vase cost? More than your annual salary! I will charge you and your department and you will pay for it out of your own pocket!” She was screaming at Jennifer.
Lucy said, “It was me, I’m so sorry, it was an accident.”
“Bullshit!” Faith screamed. She turned to Jennifer and started yelling at her, since she had established that she was in charge.
Lucy moved out of her line of sight and went down the hall in the direction that Faith came from.
Harrison Monroe was sitting in a small study that was really more of a reading room in the large home. “Agent,” he said formally.
She closed the door. “I’m going to be honest with you, Mr. Monroe.” She had to put aside the fact that he ran a criminal enterprise and might have been party to Denise Albright’s murder. At this point she didn’t know if Harrison had ordered it, or Faith, or if Carl Chavez had acted on his own.
“We have two witnesses, one who is extremely believable.” She didn’t say which one. “First, one states that Faith used his property to access the house where Victoria was preparing for an open house. He then picked her up in his car—we found Victoria’s blood under his passenger seat—and brought her home. The other witness stated that Faith asked her to give that man an alibi for the evening, after a neighbor came forward who saw his car in the driveway.” She let that sink in. “Victoria was stabbed and pushed into a pool where she drowned. Did your wife know that you were having an affair with her?”
He didn’t say anything. But his face was surprisingly expressive for someone who took great pains to remain neutral and calm in everything he did. He was in pain—stunned. In disbelief.
“Go away.”
“You shouldn’t stay here tonight. You don’t want to do anything that you’ll regret.”
“Finish your job and leave,” he said.
Faith burst into the room. “How dare you question my husband without our lawyer present! Nothing he says is admissible.”
Lucy looked her in the eye. “Your husband isn’t a suspect in the murder of Victoria Mills.”
Jennifer stepped into the doorway. “Lucy, Ash found something.”
Lucy followed Jennifer to the kitchen.
Ash had every knife lined up on the expansive counter. Three were pulled aside.
“What is it?” Lucy asked.
Please be the murder weapon.
“These three knives match the dimensions of the wound. I sprayed them. Look.” He shined a UV light over them.
One had spots near the hilt that fluoresced.
“This doesn’t mean this was the knife that killed Victoria, but it has blood under the grip and I can take it apart and test it.”
“I love you, Ash,” Jennifer said.
“Shucks, thanks, but I’m seeing someone,” Ash teased.
“You are?” Lucy asked.
Ash blushed. “Melanie, the forensic anthropologist. You met her once, I think.”
Lucy smiled. “She’s both smart and cute.”
He blushed deeper, and then Jennifer said, “Take pictures, bag it, tag it, test it ASAP.”
“I can tell you as soon as I get to the lab whether the blood type matches Victoria Mills’s today, but it’ll take a couple days for a DNA comparison.”
Two officers came down the stairs. “No shoes or clothes test positive for blood,” one said.
“She got rid of them,” Lucy said, “but why keep the knife?”
“It’s a beautiful set,” Ash said. “Henckels, pricey but worth it.”
“I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that they were a wedding present,” Lucy said.
Jennifer stared at her.
“I’m a psychologist. It fits her. She wanted to kill her husband’s lover—the lover he was first engaged to—with something that had meaning to her, and to him. And she kept it so that every time he used the knife, she could remember how she killed the woman he loved more than her.”
“Wow,” Jennifer said. “You think?”
“Yeah, I think that’s exactly what she was thinking, and after spending ten minutes with her I think she consciously thought it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Victoria was the one who gave them