“I’ll see what I can do,” Cash assured her just as there was a knock on her door.
The visitor didn’t wait for her to invite him in. Rocky threw open the door, his narrowed gaze spearing into Leigh.
“Thanks for everything,” she told her brother. “I’ll call you back later.”
And she turned to Rocky.
“Cullen,” she said, “could you step out while I speak with my deputy?”
Cullen moved toward the door, but Rocky stepped in front of him. “What the hell have you been telling her?” He jabbed his index finger at Leigh.
“Nothing,” Leigh assured him. “But I know you’ve met with Alexa.”
The shock widened Rocky’s eyes but only for a second. Then, the anger returned with a vengeance. “Nothing,” Rocky repeated, and it was coated with venom. Venom that he aimed at Cullen. “You’re bad-mouthing me to Leigh because you know it should be your butt that’s in jail right now.”
Oh, that was not the right thing to say, and it caused Cullen to send Rocky a steely, dangerous glare. “I don’t have to bad-mouth you, you idiot. You did this to yourself by meeting with Alexa.”
Since Cullen was apparently going to be part of this conversation, Leigh stepped around the men and shut the door. Yancy probably wouldn’t repeat anything he heard, but Leigh didn’t want to air this particular dirty laundry to anyone who happened to come into the police department.
“Sit down,” she ordered Rocky, and yes, she made sure it sounded like an order.
Rocky tossed out some glares of his own, both to Cullen and her, but he dropped down in the seat across from her desk.
“Before you deny meeting with Alexa,” Leigh continued, “you should know that Alexa was under surveillance by a PI. He took photographs. I’ve personally seen the photos, and I know it’s you.”
Part of her hadn’t wanted to give Rocky a cushion like that. A part of her had wanted him to go ahead and lie so she could reprimand him. But getting to the truth was more important than any discipline she doled out. Plus, she could dole out discipline later.
“I’m going to read you your rights,” Leigh told Rocky, and she proceeded to do just that. Of course, it didn’t improve his mood, and he grew angrier with each word she recited.
“You’re arresting me?” Rocky spat out when she’d finished. “Good luck making any bogus charges stick.”
“If I arrest you, the charges won’t be bogus,” she assured him. “Now, tell me why you met with Alexa, and then you can explain why you withheld this information during a murder investigation. You’ve been a cop long enough to know that could be considered obstruction of justice.”
Rocky didn’t jump to answer that, and Leigh half expected him to yell for a lawyer. But he didn’t. Leigh watched as Rocky seemed to make an effort to steady himself. Maybe because he remembered that how he handled this could determine if he kept his badge. Despite his attitude, Leigh knew that wearing the badge was important to Rocky.
“Alexa called me a couple of days ago and asked if I’d see her,” Rocky said. “We aren’t exactly friends, but I’ve met her a couple of times when she’s been in town with Kali. Alexa told me that she had some questions about you.”
It took Leigh a moment to realize the “you” was her and not Cullen.
“I had some business in Lubbock so I agreed to hook up with her at a diner,” Rocky went on. “Alexa had heard some rumors and wanted to know if Cullen and you had started seeing each other again. I told her you weren’t stupid so you wouldn’t get involved with Cullen. Guess I was wrong about that,” he added in a barely audible mutter.
Leigh didn’t bother to blister him with a scathing look. She just motioned for him to continue.
“That was it,” Rocky insisted. “Alexa just wanted to know if you two were sleeping together. When she figured out I didn’t have any gossip to dish up to her, she paid for my lunch and left. And as for obstruction of justice, that’s bull. I didn’t obstruct squat because the meeting wasn’t important. Hell, I’d forgotten all about it.”
Leigh figured that last part was a huge lie. When he’d seen Alexa’s dead body, it would have been logical for him to say something about the meeting he’d had with her just days earlier. Then again, maybe Rocky thought that might add him to the suspect list.
And it would have.
“Did you know that Alexa was going to the party at the Triple R?” Leigh pressed.
Rocky paused, shrugged. “She asked me about the party, wondered if me or any of the other deputies were doing security. You know, like Vance and Yancy sometimes do.”
She did indeed know about that. Vance and Yancy had done some off-duty work like that when there’d been big events at the Triple R, but none of her deputies had been tapped for the engagement party.
“In hindsight, I guess Alexa asked me about that because maybe she thought I could get her into the party, but I didn’t think of that until later. I didn’t think of a lot of things.” Rocky looked at Cullen. “I got the feeling that Alexa would do anything to get back at you.”
“Well, she didn’t kill herself,” Leigh pointed out.