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Could Ranger be behind this? Simmy clearly trusted him, so Andi wanted to say no.
Then Andi remembered that explosion. How Ranger had said he had some type of sleep disorder that made him hard to wake up.
Was that the truth? Or had he not come out to help simply because he wanted Duke to be hurt?
If Craig’s note meant what they thought, then there could possibly be two people involved with this murder.
Was Ranger one of them?
Andi’s blood went cold at that thought.
chapterfifty-eight
Andi beganto pace at the front of the room. “Okay, we need to lay out everything we know.”
“Go for it,” Duke told her.
“We can rule out Obadiah, it sounds like,” she started. “Correct?”
“Correct,” Ranger called. “He wouldn’t kill his mom. I know him better than that. Plus, his girlfriend at the time of the murder gave him an alibi.”
“I think we can rule out Joe Prospector also,” Andi said. “He was drinking with the guys at the bar on the night of the murder. Ranger called Bunny and asked her.”
“Unless Joe was working with someone,” Mariella added with raised eyebrows.
“Good point—and worth considering.” Andi continued pacing, for a moment feeling as if she’d been transported back to the courtroom—a place that, at one time, she’d felt the most comfortable.
“Husband Henry was a suspect for a while, but I can’t imagine he hired someone to kill his wife,” Duke added. “It doesn’t fit what we know about him—even if he was in debt. Even if Henrietta wanted to get out of this area, why kill her instead of just letting her leave?”
“Because some people get psycho about love,” Mariella suggested. “Especially if Henry thought Henrietta was his property.”
Andi shook her head, something about that theory not ringing true. “You may be right, but I don’t think that’s what happened.”
“I don’t either,” Duke said. “It just doesn’t match what we know about him.”
“And for some reason, Officer Tropical lied to us.” Andi paused in front of the murder board and frowned as she studied it. Someone had added the man’s picture to the collection. “I’m still not sure what he’s hiding or why he would do that unless he’s covering up something.”
“Without digging into his background more, we have no idea what that might be,” Duke said.
“I could try to hack his computer.” Matthew shrugged. “From the sounds of it, I doubt he has a good firewall in place.”
“Let’s hold off on that for just a while longer.” Andi still stared at the board, halfway hoping the answers might magically appear.
“We can’t forget the update from Emily,” Duke said. “Who was the man trying to talk Henrietta into leaving? Was he the same person who ended up killing her?”
“Possibly.” Andi began to pace again. “So who in the world could this mystery man be? And exactly how unhappy was Henrietta? Did Catherine know more than she let on when we spoke to her?”
All the questions swirled in her head.
* * *
Duke reviewed everything Andi had gone over.
They were on the right track. They just needed more answers.
He leaned back and tried to think everything through. “What if Trooper Tropical was the person Henrietta was speaking with? He was an outsider in the community in the sense that he wasn’t married and didn’t have a family like everyone else. Why else would he lie about talking to Craig unless he had something to hide?”
“Good question.” Andi nodded slowly.
