“Secondly, we found Grant’s body, and I had Baumann perform an autopsy.”
He looked up sharply. “Did it have my bullet in it?”
“Yes. Not a clean kill – it only winged him – but the water did the rest. You must be slipping.”
“It was dark up there, and Ihadjust been stabbed.”
“Understood.” She winked at him, then was all business again. “Now, is it your view that Grant killed Dacre, or are we still looking for his killer?”
Josiah hesitated. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“I’ve got agents searching Grant’s house for anything that might tie him to Dacre.”
“He certainly had a motive – we’ve seen how obsessed he was with Alex, how determined he was to get his hands on him, and how utterly deluded he was about Alex’s feelings for him.”
“He also proved himself to be violent, judging by the condition Alex was in and the way he treated you, and he clearly knew how to get his hands on a gun.”
“Yes.” Josiah nodded slowly.
“So, can I file Dacre’s murder as closed?”
It all made sense, and he had no other suspect… so, why was he uncertain?
“Why didn’t Grant kill me when he had me tied up?” he asked. Esther raised an eyebrow. “If he’s a killer, then why didn’t he kill me? If he’d already killed Dacre, then he was clearly prepared to go that far.”
“Because he didn’t need to?” she suggested. “He had Alex, and you were tied up. Grant doesn’t strike me as having been a particularly ruthless man. Obsessive, yes, but I don’t think he killed for the sake of it.”
“True.” Josiah nodded.
“Do you believe him incapable of killing Dacre?” she pressed.
“No. I think he was completely capable of it.”
“Given his subsequent actions, it seems likely to me that he killed Dacre to get his hands on Alex.”
“I’d agree, but for the fact that hedidn’tget his hands on Alex,” Josiah mused. “If that was the plan, then why go and kill Dacre when Alex wasn’t even there?”
“Because he didn’t want Alex to see him as a killer? He didn’t want Alex in the house when he shot Dacre.”
“Possibly.” Josiah gave a thoughtful nod.
“Maybe he didn’t think it through. He might have been watching the house, waiting for Alex to return, but the housekeeper came along first, which he wasn’t expecting.”
“Why not?” Josiah glanced at her. “It seems ridiculous to be stymied by such a small detail. She came to the house at the same time most days, which would have been easy enough for him to find out, if he’d tried. I mean, this was a man who spent years embezzling money from a drug cartel with the intention of buying Alex back.”
“So?”
“So, he was patient. He had a plan.”
“Which didn’t work when Dacre refused to sell Alex’s contract to him.”
“So why not come up with another plan, rather than rush into murder?”
Esther flicked through some files on her holopad. “You updated your case report a few days ago to say that Grant and Dacre swapped indentured servants for the night at this show in Eden FC. It’s possible that seeing Alex again, spending the night with him, inflamed Grant’s obsessive need to control him. He had all the hallmarks of a dangerous stalker – we’ve seen how that behaviour can escalate rapidly.”
“Sure… but why kill Dacre at all? Grant could have abducted Alex from the gym if that was the motivation.”
“Hmm.” Esther gazed at him. “What’s your call, Joe? Do we close the case on Dacre’s murder or not?”
