“Not a bad last stand, I figure,” Lee says.
I nod to that too.
“It would have been a good frame job if Kissy and I hadn’t started with our snooping.” It’s something Kissy and I already talked about briefly. A part of me aches. “But I guess that should be said about Ryan too. If he hadn’t gotten suspicious of Alice, no one would have known about Guidry killing Connor Dylan.”
“If he hadn’t left us the ranch too.” Lee’s words are hard. I suspect he hasn’t dealt with the news about Ryan’s murder yet. Then again, have I? Or are we both just holding it down until we can process later?
I’m not too sure, and I’m not sure I can know until that time comes.
“He was a loving man,” I say.
“And an easy man to love,” Lee adds.
“I guess Alice didn’t know too much about either.”
We let a small silence fill the space between us. Love sure makes a difference in a person. We know that better than most.
Our words are less heavy when we finally speak again.
“There’s still somethings I don’t get,” I say. “Who shot Alice at Low Low the first time, andwhywas that place so damn popular? First her, then the sheriffforher. And what doeshehave to say about all of this? Has he lawyered up yet?”
At this, Lee laughs.
“I actually know some of these answers.” He holds up three fingers and puts them down as he ticks off each answer. “Well, this is a theory, but I think Alice shot herself. Or maybe got one of her lackeys to do it.”
I feel my eyebrow raise high. He keeps on. “Because, think about it, if Alice finally decided to make a play for the book of blackmail andLa Lumiere, what better way to take Guidry out of his normal routine without completely making him lose it? Attack his second in command, Alice. He goes around to start looking for an attacker and finds Grant and Louis and figures out their involvement with Dan Cleary and figures out what happened to Ryan. Then, when she can’t get the book that way, she goes for Guidry’s kryptonite, ready to use it against him to force him to give over the book.”
“Kissy,” I say.
Lee nods.
“At least, that’s what Ally and I were thinking. There’s no proof. Yet. Grant still is alive and kicking. We’ll see what he ends up saying, if anything.”
I think about commenting about how close Detective Wayland and Lee have seemed to have gotten in the past two days, but I want to hear the rest of Lee’s answers. Plus, I can always bug him about women later. I’m sure he’s dying to do the same to me about one particular blonde woman who I’ve been hanging around lately.
“Sheriff Bailey Roland has indeed lawyered up,” he continues. “But apparently, he’s the one who lured Deputy Myers out of his cruiser, attacked him, and drove him all the way to the Fulton house until he could figure out what to do with him. Myers was rearing to go when I showed up to meet Ally there when no one could get either you or Kissy on the phone. So not sure what a lawyer can do against that.”
He’s down to one finger, and he’s made it the middle one to be funny.
I’d laugh more if it wasn’t for the fact that this one question has been really eating at me.
“And, why the animal shelter, you ask?” Lee knows he’s teasing. “Before the sheriff called in a suit, he got kind of heated and tried to place more focus on Guidry.Apparently, there’s a chance that a damning piece of evidence surrounding the murder of Connor Dylan might have washed away the night he died in the flood. Andapparently, Alice thought that all those years ago, it might have ended up on Blue Lolita in the lowest part of the ranch closest to the main road.”
I can’t know it for sure, but I make a guess. I think is right.
“That’s why she wanted the ranch. She was looking for the ultimate blackmail to hold over Guidry. Something to implicate him for the murder of her father.”
Lee puts his hand down and shrugs.
“It’s a lot of blackmail to try and get blackmail, but I guess it is what it is.”
We don’t talk about it now, but later we’ll decide as a family whether to drain the field. Ethan Watson will come out, and despite years having passed since the original flood that might have hidden evidence, he’ll give us another good warning.
“When enough violent efforts are put into finding someone, or something, that violence doesn’t usually stay away until that person or thing is found,” he’ll say to me, looking out from Low Low’s parking lot. “My suggestion to you is to hire people you can trust to search the field inch by inch until you found that thing or can confidently say it’s not there.”
“Is that your way of telling me that searching a field isn’t exactly in the Eagle Point Search and Rescue’s offered services?” I’ll joke.
Ethan will laugh and shake his head.
