Spencer’s phone sounded and he looked at Holden. “I’ve got to take this. I’ll be in touch.”
“Same.”
Holden turned back and was almost to the front door when he realized what mattered most to him in this moment wasn’t the investigation and getting to his next rank in the FBI.
It was the woman in the modest adobe house.
Bella.
“Holden, hold up!” Spencer’s voice shook him out of his revelation as he trotted up to him, phone in hand.
“What’s up?”
“That was the head of the MVPD forensics team. The lab results are in and we have an ID on the prints that are on the file cabinet.”
“Whose are they?”
“Becky’s. She’s voluntarily turned over several boxes of paper files from the pageant. She admitted that she didn’t want the pageant to become fodder for tabloid gossip, which is what she said she considers the Gabber to be. She suspected Bella was reporting on the pageant the minute she signed up as a contestant.” Spencer had a look of disgust on his face. “All Becky had to do was read the Gabber. She’d see it’s a reputable news source.”
“Those are the files Bella has been searching for.” Holden felt a sense of pride. Bella had trusted her gut, and Gio’s information, and she’d been correct. The pageant’s archives had been in that file cabinet.
“We can have them to her as soon as we get through the red tape. Will you tell her?”
“Tell me what?” Of course Bella was standing in the threshold. Holden tried not to glare at her. “What? I’m not outside, not completely.”
* * *
As Holden repeated what Spencer had told him, she felt both men watching her, gauging her reaction.
“Becky?” Bella couldn’t believe it. And yet, she’d never seen her attacker. “Holden, is it possible that Becky was the attacker you talked to?”
Holden frowned. “It’s possible, yes, but improbable. I remember the assailant as wider, more muscular.”
“This doesn’t explain how she fell, or who pushed her, or how the explosion was set off at the same time, or even why she’d want to kill the victims.”
“If she was pushed. It’s possible she jumped, faked being pushed. But I’ve never had a case where someone intentionally hurt themselves, to distract from the real crime. Becky really wanted to win the pageant.” Spencer shook his head. “Nothing is as it seems in this case.”
“That’s exactly what the attacker said to me.” Holden’s mouth was a straight line, white around the edges from pressing his lips together.
Chills assailed her. Holden was the one person she counted on to know what the heck was happening.
“Spencer has an officer at her place now, questioning her. She’s already turned over several boxes of pageant files. Spencer said you’ll have them as soon as he takes care of the administrative and legal details.”
“Is it possible that we don’t have a serial killer, but a woman who is for some reason bent on keeping the history of Ms. Mustang Valley a secret?” She had to ask the obvious.
Holden expelled a breath. “Possible, yes. Probable? No.”
Spencer shook his head. “I’m a local cop, you’re the serial-killer expert.”
“The majority of participants are really just trying to get ahead. It’s often their last hope. We have no reason to think Becky didn’t want the same. So of course she wanted to protect the files, and the pageant—she didn’t want it shut down.” Bella blurted out her thoughts before she thought twice about it. Both men turned and faced her. Standing on the threshold, she saw Jarvis sitting in the SUV with Boris.
“That wasn’t your opinion when you signed up for this.” Spencer’s exasperation made her wish she’d kept her mouth shut. He had enough on his shoulders with Payne Colton still in a coma from a gunshot and the shooter still on the loose. Not to mention the other everyday myriad petty crimes that kept MVPD busy on a slow day.
“It’s my job
to keep my opinion out of it. I’m learning as I go along.” She paused, afraid to ask the next question. “Can you get me the files as soon as possible? I’m willing to come in to the station and copy them myself.”
“I’ll see what we can do, but my first priority isn’t an old stack of paperwork, Bella.”