Mitch had told Sean that he’d been with Harrison that night, and earlier Reed had verified the alibi with the owners of the ranch.
But the way his wife was staring at him, she hadn’t known what he’d been doing. She wisely didn’t say anything.
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” she said. “I will have your badge, Detective Reed.”
“Good luck with that. Now, about your alibi, Mrs. Parker.”
“Monroe,” she snapped.
“I’m sorry, I know you’re a lawyer under the name Faith Parker.”
“That’s my maiden name, I built up my reputation on that name, but I am Faith Parker Monroe.”
“Of course, I understand. Where were you that night, Mrs. Parker Monroe?”
“I’m not going to speak with you without my lawyer present. You may leave.”
“No,” Jennifer said. “I am required to be here while my people are searching the premises.”
“Very well. Harrison, let’s go to the study. This is a very limited search warrant.” She turned to Lucy and Jennifer. “You touch one thing not itemized and I will have the whole thing tossed.”
Harrison didn’t move.
“Now, Harrison,” Parker said.
Slowly, Harrison turned and followed her.
When they were out of earshot, Jennifer smiled widely. “Damn, she’s good. But I’m better. I’m going to nail her ass and enjoy doing it.”
Lucy said, “Harrison is in shock.”
“He’s a criminal. We’re going to get him, too, it’s just going to take longer.”
“Literally, he never considered that his wife had killed Victoria.”
“How can you tell?”
“His manner. Expression. Tone.”
“He was practically a robot.”
“He’s very calm and smooth, but he has a tell, and I’m pretty confident of my profile of him. And if he’s as ruthless as people say he is, she may be dead by morning. I think he was deeply in love with Victoria.”
Reed frowned. “Where’s the fun in that? I want her in trial being all indignant and then getting the death penalty and rotting in a cell for ten years before she’s fried.”
“Texas uses lethal injection.”
“Just a figure of speech.”
Lucy didn’t have the heart to tell Jennifer that Victoria’s murder wouldn’t be a capital offense in Texas. It would be considered a crime of passion because Parker killed her husband’s lover. Jennifer probably knew it but chose to forget.
But Parker would still go away for a long time.
And if they could prove she ordered the murders of the Albright family, she very well may fry, as Jennifer said.
“We need to separate them,” Lucy said.
“We can’t compel a spouse to testify against another spouse.”
“No, but if we tell Harrison what we have, he might spontaneously give us something we can use.”
“She’s not going to let him out of her sight.”
“I will take full responsibility for this,” Lucy said.
“Wh—” Jennifer began as Lucy bumped into a vase that came crashing down to the floor.
Faith Parker ran from the study. “Do you know how much that vase cost? More than your annual salary! I will charge you and your department and you will pay for it out of your own pocket!” She was screaming at Jennifer.
Lucy said, “It was me, I’m so sorry, it was an accident.”
“Bullshit!” Faith screamed. She turned to Jennifer and started yelling at her, since she had established that she was in charge.
Lucy moved out of her line of sight and went down the hall in the direction that Faith came from.
Harrison Monroe was sitting in a small study that was really more of a reading room in the large home. “Agent,” he said formally.
She closed the door. “I’m going to be honest with you, Mr. Monroe.” She had to put aside the fact that he ran a criminal enterprise and might have been party to Denise Albright’s murder. At this point she didn’t know if Harrison had ordered it, or Faith, or if Carl Chavez had acted on his own.
“We have two witnesses, one who is extremely believable.” She didn’t say which one. “First, one states that Faith used his property to access the house where Victoria was preparing for an open house. He then picked her up in his car—we found Victoria’s blood under his passenger seat—and brought her home. The other witness stated that Faith asked her to give that man an alibi for the evening, after a neighbor came forward who saw his car in the driveway.” She let that sink in. “Victoria was stabbed and pushed into a pool where she drowned. Did your wife know that you were having an affair with her?”
He didn’t say anything. But his face was surprisingly expressive for someone who took great pains to remain neutral and calm in everything he did. He was in pain—stunned. In disbelief.
“Go away.”
“You shouldn’t stay here tonight. You don’t want to do anything that you’ll regret.”
“Finish your job and leave,” he said.
Faith burst into the room. “How dare you question my husband without our lawyer present! Nothing he says is admissible.”
Lucy looked her in the eye. “Your husband isn’t a suspect in the murder of Victoria Mills.”
Jennifer stepped into the doorway. “Lucy, Ash found something.”
Lucy followed Jennifer to the kitchen.
Ash had every knife lined up on the expansive counter. Three were pulled aside.
“What is it?” Lucy asked.
Please be the murder weapon.
“These three knives match the dimensions of the wound. I sprayed them. Look.” He shined a UV light over them.
One had spots near the hilt that fluoresced.
“This doesn’t mean this was the knife that killed Victoria, but it has blood under the grip and I can take it apart and test it.”
“I love you, Ash,” Jennifer said.
“Shucks, thanks, but I’m seeing someone,” Ash teased.
“You are?” Lucy asked.
Ash blushed. “Melanie, the forensic anthropologist. You met her once, I think.”
Lucy smiled. “She’s both smart and cute.”
He blushed deeper, and then Jennifer said, “Take pictures, bag it, tag it, test it ASAP.”
“I can tell you as soon as I get to the lab whether the blood type matches Victoria Mills’s today, but it’ll take a couple days for a DNA comparison.”
Two officers came down the stairs. “No shoes or clothes test positive for blood,” one said.
“She got rid of them,” Lucy said, “but why keep the knife?”
“It’s a beautiful set,” Ash said. “Henckels, pricey but worth it.”
“I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that they were a wedding present,” Lucy said.
Jennifer stared at her.
“I’m a psychologist. It fits her. She wanted to kill her husband’s lover—the lover he was first engaged to—with something that had meaning to her, and to him. And she kept it so that every time he used the knife, she could remember how she killed the woman he loved more than her.”