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Leigh released the breath she was holding. That was good news. No one had tried to kill Jamie again, but his release would pose a few new problems. She’d need to get with Cullen on that and see how they could protect him while he was on the Triple R.
“I was calling about those emails and phone records you wanted me to check,” Cecile continued a moment later. “Alexa’s emails and phone records,” she explained. “I’ve been going through them, and I think I found something.”
“I’m listening,” Leigh assured her, and she was. So was Cullen, who’d moved closer to her. Leigh put the call on speaker so he’d be able to hear.
“Well, it might be nothing, but there’s a text from Alexa to Kali Starling where Alexa confesses that she’s having an affair with Kali’s fiancé.”
Leigh was reasonably sure this wasn’tnothing. “When did Alexa send that?”
“About four hours before the start of the party,” Cecile quickly answered. “It appears Alexa deleted some other texts from her sent folder but not this one.”
“Did Kali respond to the text?”
“Not with a text, but there’s a record of an incoming call from Kali shortly after she would have gotten the text.”
Leigh groaned. It would have been better to have that particular conversation in writing, but maybe Kali could fill in the blanks. “I want you to forward me that text,” Leigh instructed.
“Will do, but there’s more. Vance and Dawn have been going through the pictures of the guests at the party. I don’t think it’s my imagination that Kali looks pretty upset in several of them. In one, she looks sort of disheveled. Windblown, I guess you’d say. Her hair is a little messy, and she looks as if she’s been crying.”
Interesting, and Leigh very much wanted to know what Kali had to say about that. She ended the call with Cecile and immediately contacted Kali. Leigh almost expected the woman to dodge her, but she answered.
“Kali, one of my deputies just went through Alexa’s texts,” Leigh said, going right to the heart of the matter. “Anything you want to tell me that you left out of your interview?”
“W-what?” Kali answered, slurring the word.
“Alexa’s texts,” Leigh repeated.
Kali moaned softly. “Uh, I can’t think right now.” That was slurred, too.
“Kali, are you all right?” Leigh demanded.
There were more moans. “Sleeping now. I took something to help me sleep.” And with that, the woman ended the call.
Leigh cursed and immediately contacted dispatch. “I need someone to go to Kali Starling’s residence and do a welfare check. Make it fast,” she told the dispatcher. “It’s possible the woman has overdosed on sleeping pills.”
If she had, hopefully help wouldn’t be late in getting there.
“Would Kali try to kill herself?” Leigh asked Cullen.
He lifted his shoulder. “I don’t know. But if you think it’ll be a while before someone can get to her place, I’ll go.”
Leigh considered it, then shook her head. “If Kali’s the killer, this could be a trap.” And that was something Leigh relayed to the dispatcher when she called him back.
She’d just put her phone away when there was a knock at her door. Heck, what now? Frustrated, she went to the side window, looked out and spotted Jeb. He must have known she would peer out like that because his gaze zoomed right to hers.
“I need to see you,” he said.
Leigh looked at him, studying his face to see if there were any signs of the paleness and staggering that Cullen had described. Nothing out of the ordinary except his eyes were tired. Then again, her eyes were probably tired, too.
She went to the door and opened it. “I’m not up to a long visit,” she said, “but I do have questions for you.”
With his mouth tightening, Jeb shifted his attention to Cullen. “If something’s wrong with you, Leigh should know,” Cullen told him.
“No time for that,” Jeb insisted, turning back to Leigh. “The mayor just called, and he’s assembled the town council. You’re about to get a call from him, and he’ll tell you that they want you there right now.”
