Page 80 of Bring Them Home

Hernandez stopped shy of the door and turned around. “Abigail was a rat from a family of rats, and she poked her nose into other people’s business.”

Namely yours… “That’s why you got rid of her.”

He smiled and pointed a finger at her. “That’s what you said, not me.”

“Right, so you have no idea how Abigail wound up dead on your property?”

The lawyer stood next to her. “Detective, that’s quite enough. Asked and answered. My client has been more than cooperative.” He gestured for Hernandez to lead the way out.

Amanda bunched up her face and paced in a circle. “He sits right there and claims to know nothing about her murder.”

“Did you expect anything different?” This came from the marshal and had her turning to face him. She’d almost forgotten he was there. Almost.

“He’s going down for this,” she stated. “We’ll get that footage from that camera and send it to Digital Crimes.”

“I don’t see any judge denying that request,” Trent weighed in.

“Nope. We’ll also get a search warrant for his primary residence, and we’re going to tear it apart.” She spoke more confidently than she had any reason to feel. Though, surely any judge would see justification. Nina lived in Hernandez’s house. The motive for him to want Abigail dead was indisputable even if the passage of time threatened to dismiss it. All they had to do was put the right type of blade that killed Paul Archer in Nina’s hand. From there they could build a case against Hernandez. In his own words, Nina was loyal.

“We can give it a go,” Trent said.

He might as well have added it might work out if they wished upon a star and crossed their fingers. But Amanda’s mind was too busy pulling apart what Hernandez had meant by saying Abigail came from a family of rats. After all, as far as they knew, he had an issue with only one of them, and she was dead.

FORTY-ONE

Amanda’s phone rang on the way to her desk.

“Detective Morrison, a handler with the K-9 unit. I was told you’d want to be the first to know what we found.”

Found… “Let me put you on speaker.” She did that and told him that her partner, Detective Stenson, was with her.

“You should know that nothing hit for the dogs. There are no other cadavers on the property.”

She bit back the urge to counter with, Are you sure? Even if they hadn’t found the Archers, the property belonged to a murderous man. “Thank you for calling.”

“Uh-huh.” With that, the handler was gone.

She turned to Trent. “What are we supposed to take away from that?”

“There’s hope Valerie and Brooke are alive.”

Amanda might give in to that belief, accept it with faith, but for one thing. “I’d like to believe that, but why would Hernandez have left them alive? What purpose would it serve?”

“Who knows? We’re talking about Hernandez. It could be a game he’s playing for his own amusement.”

“Or another message to us that he’s untouchable.” Frustration welled up in her chest. It was starting to feel like the man was invincible, no matter how strongly she refused to accept that.

“But he isn’t, and we’re going to make him feel it.”

Amanda locked her eyes with Trent’s. We are on the same page about everything. Why can’t we just be together…? She shook those thoughts, directing her mind on what mattered. Saving a mother and her daughter and making a drug kingpin pay for his crimes. “We need to put the gun that killed Abigail in Hernandez’s hands. I really think he took care of her himself.”

“Agreed, but I’m not sure where we start if we don’t get a search warrant for his residence.”

“We’ll need to make sure that we do.”

“Let’s say we get the warrant; the chances are slim we’d find the murder weapon. Do you think Hernandez would have held on to it?”

That was one of her concerns, but she could knock it down. “You never know. He’s arrogant to a fault. That could work in our favor. Hernandez did leave Abigail’s body on his property.”