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“But the roads—”
“Are obviously clear enough since I’ve got two people already waiting in Interview,” Leigh interrupted.
Rocky yawned. “You want me to do the interviews?”
“I want you in the office,” she repeated, a snap in her voice, and ended the call.
“Are you okay?” Cullen asked her.
No, she wasn’t, and Leigh made a sound that could have meant anything so that she didn’t have to verify that she was far from okay. It was possible that Rocky had withheld evidence pertinent to a murder investigation. If he had, then that would be obstruction of justice.
And possibly more.
“I’m not okay,” Leigh grumbled as Cullen and she walked.
“I got that. It was a tough night, followed by a tough morning.”
Yes, it had been. “Thanks for not giving me any flak about having Cecile look for correspondence between Alexa and you.”
“I figured you’ve already got enough flak. Plus, it’ll be interesting to see what she kept. Like I told you, I didn’t pour out my heart in emails.”
She believed him. Leigh mentally groaned because it was more than just believing him. For reasons she didn’t especially want to explore, she trusted Cullen, and right now, she very much needed someone who wasn’t going to stab her in the back.
Deputy Yancy was at his desk when they went into the police department, and he stood, giving a nodded greeting to Cullen.
“Austin Borden’s in the interview room,” Yancy volunteered. “But he said he’s not saying anything else until his lawyer gets here.”
“I can talk to him,” Cullen suggested.
But Leigh shook her head. If Austin told Cullen he was indeed a killer, she didn’t want the lawyer throwing out the confession or trying to have it suppressed. Austin’s lawyer could even claim that Cullen had coerced him to admit to murdering Alexa.
“When the lawyer gets here, I want you to be the one to take Austin’s statement,” Leigh instructed Yancy. “He’s already riled at me, and you might be able to get more out of him.”
Yancy was laid-back and had more of a friendly-officer style when it came to interviews. Austin might respond better to that. Heck, he might respond better to anyone other than her. Because right now, Cullen and she were the enemy.
“Dawn and Vance finished interviewing the Triple R ranch hands and the catering staff,” Yancy explained. “Nothing new so far.”
Leigh figured that would be the case. Still, it was a box that had to be checked.
“You know about the blue SUV being found at the ranch, right?” Yancy asked.
She nodded. “I got a text about it. Let me know when the CSIs have it processed.”
“Will do. You’ve also got a bunch of emails and had some phone calls,” Yancy added, handing her a sheet listing the calls.
“I’ll get to them,” Leigh said, heading into her office. “In the meantime, I need you to start securing a warrant to search Austin’s home. I specifically want to get the clothes he wore to the party last night.”
Yancy’s eyes went a little wide. “You think there might be blood on them?”
Leigh shrugged. “We’ll see when we have the clothes. Vance and Dawn might have photos from some of the guests. They were going to try to collect them. If they’ve managed to do that already, we’ll know what clothes to include in the warrant. Unless...” She turned to Cullen. “Do you remember?”
Cullen closed his eyes a moment as if trying to call up the image. “A black suit with a blue tie. Kali was wearing a blue dress.” He opened his eyes, looked at her. “I figured you’d want to know that in case you got a warrant for her clothes, too.”
“I do,” Leigh confirmed, giving Yancy instructions to get the warrant for that as well. She added a search of Kali’s parents’ house since the woman had spent the night there. “Try to stretch the warrant to include her computer, emails and phone records.” She turned back to Cullen. “And I’ll have your clothes couriered to the lab this morning.”
In fact, she’d already done the paperwork to get that started, and the courier would no doubt soon be on the way now that the roads were clearing. She was certain there’d be no blood on Cullen’s clothes, and that might stave off those who thought he was guilty. Ironically, her own deputy Rocky was one of the ones fanning those particular “Cullen’s guilty” flames, and now Leigh wanted to know if that was because Rocky had something to hide.
Because she desperately needed a caffeine hit, she went into her office to make a fresh pot. Cullen followed her, of course, and he shut the door.
