Emmy didn’t need to hear it. She dropped her duty vest in the front seat. “Bill admitted to everything but the shooting.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know.” The admission took something out of Emmy. Her brain had been working the puzzle with Bill in the back of Julian’s ride, but nothing had started clicking together. “He didn’t know about the money in the attic or he would’ve taken it.”
“The plastic bin isn’t small, and it’s heavy. When the police are outside the door, you have to make quick decisions.” Jude shrugged. “There’s a lot of things that could still break your way. You’re waiting on DNA, blood and fingerprint analysis. The family devices will be unlocked. And Mandy’s memory should come back eventually.”
Emmy buckled her belt, adjusted her holster. “Are you really trying to talk me out of this?”
Jude shrugged, but she clearly thought Bill wasn’t the right fit, either.
“Russell’s got a long record. He has a documented history of violence. He’s been in and out of prison. Allison screwed him over. She didn’t tell him Mitch gave up the CD and the money. She didn’t tell Bill, either. What do you think?”
Jude’s hesitation had returned. She crossed her arms. She wasn’t just pulling away physically. She was pulling away emotionally, too. It was like basking in the warmth of the sun one moment, then falling into shade the next.
“Walk the scene with me.” Emmy tried to keep the desperation out of her voice. She couldn’t hear Jude say she was leaving again. “Let’s call Sherry and see if anything’s come back from the lab.”
Emmy went into the house before Jude had a chance to create an excuse. It’s not like she could leave on her own anyway. They’d driven here in Emmy’s cruiser. Taybee’s Mercedes was back at the nursing home. She started turning on the lights. Walked down the hallway toward the kitchen. She dialed Sherry’s number, put her on speakerphone.
“Emmy,” Sherry said. “I was about to call you.”
“I’m at Allison’s house with my sister.”
“Great. We analyzed the doorbell camera footage. There’s the sound of glass breaking on the fourth gunshot. It’s changed our thinking a bit on what happened upstairs.”
Emmy looked for Jude. She was hanging back in the foyer. Almost the embodiment of one foot out the door.
“Hold on,” Emmy said. “We’re gonna go upstairs.”
Emmy walked to the foyer. Gestured for Jude to go ahead of her. The hesitation didn’t seem to go away so much as get stifled. They both went up the stairs. The hallway had a coppery smell of blood. Emmy hung back so Jude would go into Allison’s bedroom ahead of her. She felt like a damn stalker, but whatever was going on inside her body was telling her that she needed her sister.
Sherry asked, “You in the room?”
“Yeah.” Emmy looked around.
Only a fine sheen of white powder remained of the bustedceiling. The Sheetrock had been taken back to the lab so they could reassemble it. The section of bloody handprints that had clawed at the window had been sawed off and taken away. A piece of plywood covered the broken glass on the left window. The pool of Mandy’s blood that Emmy had stepped in had been cut away from the carpet and taken to the lab.
Sherry explained, “We think the fourth bullet furrowed through Mandy’s skull, broke the window, then went into the backyard. We’ll need to get the metal detectors out there tomorrow.”
Emmy blinked, and she saw it play out. The gun firing. Mandy dropping to the floor. The window shattering. Meanwhile, out in the street, Emmy, Jude and Cole were about to pull up to the front of the house.
Sherry said, “We found the fourth bullet casing in the debris we brought back. That puts the shooter in the bedroom. He would’ve been standing close. We know that Mandy reached for the gun as it was being fired. I found a significant amount of gunshot residue on her sleeves.”
Emmy forgot about Jude. She put all of her attention on Sherry. “Mandy’s surgeon told me he saw tattooing around the head wound.”
“Poor baby. She must’ve been terrified,” Sherry said. “We don’t have DNA back yet, but we caught a break with the blood types. Allison’s O-positive. Mandy’s type B. The medical examiner says Allison’s clothes were moved after the chest wound, so we know Mandy checked on her. We’ve got Mandy’s footprints in Allison’s blood downstairs in the kitchen. She saw her mama, Emmy. I hope she got to say goodbye.”
Emmy looked at the missing section of windowsill. “What about the bloody handprints on the windowsill?”
“That’s Allison’s blood. Mandy must’ve tried to get out through the window. It was painted shut. Then she turned around and that was it. Russell caught up with her.”
Jude was staring at the windowsill, too.
Emmy asked Sherry, “Do you know what the shooter did after Mandy was shot?”
“It’s all speculation from there. He must’ve run to the front of the house when he heard your cruiser pull up. Saw he wassurrounded. That’s when Mandy disappeared into the attic. We found Allison’s blood on the access panel.”
“Not Mandy’s blood, too?”
