Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,36
with those dreams...and the threat of another attack.” Things that involved more than hugs and kisses. “I heard one of your phone calls. You’re bringing out some Ranger friends to search the grounds and keep watch. You’re adding some security cameras with motion detectors. And I suspect you’ll sleep on the hall floor outside the bedroom again.”
He frowned. “How’d you know I slept in the hall?”
“Because I know you.” Ashlyn ran a hand down his arm and felt the muscles respond beneath her touch. “You’ll do whatever it takes. So will I.”
His frown had lightened up a little, but it deepened again when she added that last sentence. “What do you mean by that?”
Since this would require a deep breath, she took it. “Owen said you were bringing in all the suspects. When?”
“ASAP. I told them if they didn’t get into the sheriff’s office that I’d arrest them and charge them with obstruction of justice.”
Ashlyn bet none of them cared much for that threat, but it might get them there sooner than later. “I think that’s a good idea, but I also believe I should be there when you talk to them.”
Now his eyes narrowed, too.
“We won’t take Cora with us,” she went on. “She’ll stay here with an army of law enforcement officers to protect her. She’ll be safe.” Ashlyn had to believe that because the alternative was unthinkable. “But I should be there to talk to Dominick. I know him. I’ve dealt with him. And if he’s lying, I believe I’d be able to tell.”
Eli didn’t jump to respond to that. Not verbally, anyway. However, he did grind out some profanity under his breath. “It might not even be Dominick. It could be Remy. Hell, or Oscar. I’m trying to get an ID on this latest shooter so I can see if he’s linked to Oscar like the others.”
She nodded. Ashlyn had heard bits of that conversation as well. “And if he is, maybe you’ll have enough to make an arrest.”
“Yeah.” Eli didn’t sound very hopeful about that, though. “I also asked the Rangers to do a deeper financial dig on Dominick and Remy.”
Good. She hadn’t heard that part of the call, but Dominick was definitely capable of hiding funds. She suspected Remy was, too, especially if he’d hired someone to murder the mortician and steal those files.
“It just seems stupid that Oscar would hire gunmen that we could so easily connect back to him,” Eli continued. He paused, groaned softly. “But then that might have been exactly why Oscar would do that.”
A sort of reverse psychology, she supposed, but it might not be as complicated as that. It could be that Oscar was reacting out of anger and hired the first people he could think of. Even as the owner of a seedy pawnshop, there probably wasn’t a slew of potential candidates for hit men so he might not have had a lot of options in that area.
“The timeline bothers me,” Eli went on. “I mean, Oscar waiting so long to come after us. It makes me wonder if he’s working with one of the other suspects.”
Interesting. Ashlyn hadn’t considered that, but it was possible either with Remy or Dominick. One of them could have stirred up Oscar’s old anger enough to cause the man to snap.
“If that’s true, maybe both of them paid the gunmen,” she threw out there. “If so, there would be smaller amounts withdrawn from their individual accounts.” Which wouldn’t be good because it would make those payments harder to find.
Eli nodded and absently ran his hand down her back. “Remy must have known that he’d be a suspect right from the get-go, so I’m betting he would have made sure a suspicious withdrawal didn’t show up in his account.”
Ashlyn made a sound of agreement. “It’s the same for Dominick.”
He nodded again, paused. “But if we go with the theory of two of them working together, Remy or Oscar could have given Dominick the names of the gunmen. Those men might have connections to Remy, too.”
Eli’s phone rang, the sound jangling her nerves more than it should have. Any unexpected noise was having that effect on her, which meant Eli was right, too, about this latest attack giving her another round of bad dreams.
“It’s Gus,” Eli said when he looked at his phone screen, and as he’d done with some of the other calls, he put it on speaker.
Ashlyn checked the clock on the stove. There’d been enough time for the exhumation, so