“It’s worth exploring,” Selena said.Arnold shifted.“I suppose Renee has always been a strange one.She was pretty out there when Gary died.”
“Coincidences happen,” Selena said.“Patterns happen, too.”
Connor moved to the board and stared at Sandra Holt’s name.“Renee was at Sandra’s house when we interviewed her.”
“She encouraged Sandra to tell us Warren was having an affair.”
“Your memory’s better than mine, Selena.”
“So, Amanda Lee told me Marlene thought Victor was having an affair.”Selena pointed to Victor’s photograph.“Warren’s wife suspected an affair.Victor’s wife suspected an affair.Renee’s husband died under circumstances you considered accidental because he was drunk and near water.”
Arnold folded his arms.“Are we thinking Renee is connected to all of them?”
Connor’s mouth tightened.“Gary’s death was a year ago.If someone murdered him, they waited a long time before killing Warren.”
Selena thought for a moment.“Maybe Gary was the first.Maybe something changed recently.Maybe Warren and Victor aren’t connected through business at all.Perhaps Renee killed them for being unfaithful.”
“But why?”
“Maybe after Gary died, she started seeing unfaithful husbands as men who deserved punishment.I don’t know...I’m spit-balling here.It’s just a thought.”
Arnold let out a low whistle.“That’s a hell of a turn.”
Selena looked back at the board.“Warren was killed in a place of his old triumphs, the old hunting lodge.Victor was killed at home, where Marlene expected to catch him.These scenes may be built around intimate humiliation, not contracts.”
Something shifted in Connor.His eyes were alight with intention.
“I think you’re onto something.Sure as hell better than the Marlene angle.”He picked up his hat from the table.
Selena caught the relief in his voice.That worried her almost as much as the theory itself.She noticed the speed of it.“Where are you going?”
“To see Renee.”
“Not alone.”
“I wasn’t suggesting alone.”He put the hat on and adjusted the brim.“I’ll take you.”
Arnold looked at the phone on the desk."Want me to keep trying, Marlene?"
“Yes,” Selena said.“Let us know when she gets back.And pull the Gary Beaumont file.Everything.Incident report, photos, autopsy, witness statements, call logs.”
Arnold grabbed a notepad.“On it.”
Connor had already reached the door.
Selena took one last look at the board before following him.Warren and Victor no longer looked like two separate men pinned beside separate grievances.
They looked like warnings from a hurt that had started a year earlier.
Connor held the door open for her.
“Let’s go talk to Gary’s widow,” he said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Connor’s SUV turned off the county road ahead of Selena and rolled onto a narrow lane bordered by honeysuckle and split-rail fencing.Morning light lay across the fields in pale bands.Crows picked at something near the ditch, scattering only when Connor’s vehicle passed too close.
The radio crackled on her dash.
