Chapter Three
Leigh had intended to walk away from Bowen and his 24-7 bad attitude, but what the man said stopped her in her tracks.
“You know who killed Alexa?” Leigh demanded, her narrowed gaze drilling into Cullen’s father.
Bowen huffed, maybe because of her tone, maybe because of her glare. Then again, Bowen never had a positive reaction to her so he was often huffing and glaring around her.
“You need help, Sheriff Mercer?” Rocky asked. The deputy had obviously come back in the house and was eyeing Bowen as if he was a threat. Maybe Rocky thought she’d need some of his “manly” muscle to handle this situation.
She didn’t.
“No, thanks,” Leigh assured Rocky. “I was just asking Mr. Brodie a few questions.”
Rocky gave Bowen a hard stare which didn’t surprise Leigh. Rocky was loyal to Jeb, which meant the Brodies were the enemy. Plenty of people in Dark River felt the same way.
“It’s freezing,” Bowen snarled. “Let’s take this inside, and I can tell you all about the kind of woman Alexa was.”
Leigh didn’t want to go inside. She wanted Bowen to finish with this revelation so she could get to the hospital. Besides, what he had to say might not be a revelation at all but just some ploy to throw suspicion off Cullen. Still, Leigh couldn’t totally blow off something that might help with the investigation, so with the tip of her head for Bowen to follow her, she stepped through the patio doors. Rocky didn’t leave, but he did step to the side so there’d be room for Bowen and Cullen.
The guest room was quiet, but it wouldn’t stay that way. It’d likely be only a matter of minutes before the ME and CSIs arrived. Too bad this second crime scene had already been compromised. Rosa, Cullen and now Bowen had already been in the room. Rosa was no longer there, but, of course, Cullen was right there next to Leigh when she turned to his father.
“Make this quick,” Leigh told Bowen. “I’ll do a formal interview with you in the morning, but for now I want to hear about who wanted Alexa dead.”
“I don’t know his name,” Bowen explained. “But Alexa met with him.”
When he didn’t add more, Leigh made a circling motion with her index finger for him to continue. That gesture earned her another huff.
“I hired a PI to follow Alexa,” Bowen blurted out, his gaze shifting to Cullen. “She was threatening you, and I wanted to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid.”
Leigh volleyed glances at the two men, and she saw the surprise on Cullen’s face, the steely resolve on Bowen’s. Bowen clearly didn’t think he’d done anything wrong by trying to micromanage his son’s life.
“I wanted to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid,” Bowen repeated, the resolve also in his voice. “I didn’t want Alexa to try to smear your name. Or worse. Have her try to do something violent. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” he added.
Leigh wasn’t sure Alexa had actually been scorned, but she wanted to hear more. “I take it this PI found out something about her?”
Bowen nodded, kept his unapologetic eyes on his son. “Yesterday, Alexa had a meeting with a man in a café in Lubbock. The PI said the guy was carrying concealed, that he saw the bulge from a shoulder holster beneath his coat.”
“Maybe he had a license to carry concealed,” Leigh pointed out when Bowen paused again.
“Maybe,” Bowen agreed. “But when the PI took a table near them, he heard Alexa and this man mention Cullen. Specifically, Alexa said she wanted the man to deal with Cullen.”
“Deal with?”Leigh and Cullen repeated in unison.
“Yeah, and I don’t have specific details of what she meant by that. The PI said that Alexa and this man quit talking when someone else took a table nearby, and they went outside to finish their conversation. The PI wasn’t able to hear anything else they said.”
Leigh looked at Cullen to see what his take on this was, but he only shook his head. “You believe Alexa was hiring this man to do something to me?” Cullen asked his father.
“Yes, I do. I think that’s obvious. She wanted this guy to hurt or kill you.”
Well, it wasn’t obvious to Leigh. Possible, yes. But not absolute proof of the woman’s guilt. Still, Alexa was dead so this could very well be connected.
“I’ll want the name of your PI,” Leigh insisted.
“Thought you would.” Bowen extracted a business card from his coat pocket and handed it to her.
Leigh glanced at the card only to note the PI’s name, Tyson Saylor. She’d be calling him very soon.
“This should be enough for you to back off Cullen,” Bowen went on. “Alexa probably had her hired goon bring her here tonight. So she could witness him killing or hurting Cullen. Then, I’m guessing something went wrong. Maybe the goon wanted more money, and when Alexa wouldn’t pony up, he killed her.”