Page 16 of Child In Jeopardy
“There’s still no sign of him,” Detective Thayer remarked after checking her phone. “Buck,” she added, though no clarification was needed.
Lana wondered where he was. Wondered if he was trying to figure out how to get to Cameron or her. She doubted the man would just run and hide, and part of her hoped he didn’t. She didn’t want to have to look over her shoulder for years, waiting for Buck to attack.
“You’ve got enough to arrest him if you find him,” Slater said. Not a question. He was no doubt just looking for verification.
Thayer nodded. “We’ve got the security camera footage from the break-in at Lana’s. The footage, too, of his hit-and-run. That’ll be enough to hold him while we build a case for murder.”
Murder.
There it was. Another word all spelled out, and even though it wasn’t fresh info, just hearing it brought back the avalanche of emotions. Lana had spent half the night crying for a sister she wasn’t even sure she loved. That had brought on yet another mother lode of guilt, not loving her only sibling. But there’d been so many times when Stephanie just hadn’t been likable.
That lack of love didn’t extend to Cameron, though. Just the opposite. Lana had loved him from the moment she’d laid eyes on him. And now she had a fierce instinct to protect him from the scum who was his biological father.
Did Buck know that he was Cameron’s father?
Maybe.
That could be the reason he’d gone after Stephanie, but it was just as likely he would want to eliminate Stephanie and Cameron regardless if he or his brother was the father. Because any baby born to either of them would be a threat to the inheritance.
Thayer’s phone dinged with another text, and her face seemed to relax a little. “Your parents and Marsh Bray are coming in at one today for interviews. Their lawyers had been stonewalling that, but I guess they gave in.” The detective looked at Slater. “If you’re interested, I can let you observe the interviews.”
“I’m very interested. Thanks,” Slater added.
The detective sighed a little when she turned to Lana. “I’m afraid I can’t extend that offer to you. Slater’s a cop with a vested interest in the outcome of this investigation, but I can’t let civilians observe.”
“I understand,” Lana said, and she did. She wanted this all done by the book so that Buck wouldn’t be able to shake off some of the charges on a technicality. She wanted him to serve the maximum time possible.
Thayer checked her watch. “It’ll be at least four hours before the interviews,” she said. “You’re welcome to wait in the lounge, or you can come back. I can have a police escort follow you to wherever you want to go.”
“We have a deputy from Saddle Ridge waiting outside,” Slater explained, standing when Thayer did.
As planned, Sonya had returned to Austin to escort them to police headquarters for the statement, and she’d be following them when they drove back to Saddle Ridge.
“Any chance during the interviews you can bring up Alicia Monroe and any possible connection to my father’s murder?” Slater asked Thayer.
The detective certainly didn’t jump to agree to that. Nor did she ask who Alicia was. That was because she’d already mentioned that she had gone through all the case notes on Buck and had seen that Buck had once been involved with the murdered teenager.
“You can’t think that Leonard and Pamela Walsh know anything about that particular murder,” Thayer finally said. “Do you?”
Slater shrugged. “Stephanie was at a party at Alicia’s house, and Stephanie clearly knew Buck, so maybe her folks did, too.” He stopped, shook his head. “Yeah, it’s a long shot, but I’d like to know if they, well, have any details we don’t already knowabout. It’s possible when you bring up Alicia’s name, they might recall Stephanie mentioning Buck or her.”
Lana considered what he’d just said and had a theory. “When Stephanie and I were teenagers, our parents made a habit of hiring PIs to keep an eye on us. They didn’t want us getting into any trouble that would cause bad publicity. So they might have known about Stephanie going to that party.” She paused. “They might have known about Buck and Alicia, too.”
“If they did, why wouldn’t they have volunteered that sooner?” Thayer came out and asked.
Lana didn’t have to think about this. “Again, bad publicity. They might have hoped to keep my sister’s pregnancy under wraps, but when she was murdered, they would want to do any possible damage control.”
“Not lying to the police, though, right?” Thayer questioned.
Lana had no choice but to just spell this out. “Lying is second nature to them. And right now, their focus isn’t on losing a daughter but rather keeping a lid on unsavory details that might come out. They won’t be happy to learn that a thug like Buck fathered Stephanie’s child.”
Thayer stayed quiet a moment. “So, maybe I can use that. They don’t know he’s the father, right?”
“They didn’t learn it from us,” Lana assured her.
“Good. Then I can mention it and see how they react. That’d be a good lead-in to bringing up Alicia and that party.”
Lana wished she could see her parents’ reaction to that. And Marsh’s. She wondered if Marsh would see Stephanie’s pregnancy as a betrayal. If so, that would give him motive for murder.