MoonRise
Page 16
Chapter 15
Chief Hernandez’s voice brought me back to the present. “It says here in the file that after Shane Macdonald was killed you got threatening letters like this all of the time.”
“Letter, not emails. And not all the time,” I protested. “It was every year on the anniversary of his death, and those were direct threats, like, ‘You’re dead, bitch, for what you did to Shane.’ These are more like warnings. And it stopped when I left Knightsbridge for good.” Or I thought it had.
“Ashlee, I wish you would have told me, told Amber, told someone,” Elle said.
“I was in the file. I wasn’t hiding anything. Besides, I’d hoped never to have to think about it again.”
“Sounds like someone isn’t happy you’re back,” Hernandez said. “Any idea who that might be?”
“Jeanetta Macdonald blamed me for Shane’s death, but you guys didn’t find anything,” I said. By “you guys,” I meant the cops in general, of course. Neither Elle nor Hernandez had been with Knightsbridge PD back then.
“What about other friends of Shane’s? Some ex-girlfriend or something?” Elle asked. “Or other family?”
“As far as I know Jeanetta and Shane’s parents are dead. They have cousins, in Utah or something, but aren’t close.”
“We’re not going to get very far on a cold case like this by questioning the victim,” Hernandez broke in, shooting Elle a look. “We need to review all the files and assign an investigator.”
Elle glared at Hernandez but the chief spread his hands. “It’s a dead coyote and a threatening note. I can’t justify some kind of all-out effort unless something happens. Especially not just because it’s your family.”
Elle relented. “Yeah, I get it. Put someone good on it, though, and start with some decent forensics. I’ll back you up at budget time.”
Hernandez sighed and nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Come on, Ash,” Elle said. “Let’s go home.”
“I need to go back by Will’s. He can bring me home afterward.”
Elle pointed her finger at my nose. “Straight there, straight back, and keep your eyes open, the both of you. If you see anything funny, call me right away.”
“Oh come on, Elle. Nothing’s going to happen in broad daylight.”
“How do you know?” And she was right, I didn’t. Except, bad things happened at night. That’s what I’d always believed, and ever since that night, I am living proof.
As Elle was licensed to carry concealed weapons, and was clearly on my side, at least for Amber’s sake, I wasn’t going to argue with her.
On the other hand, Amber wasn’t happy, because Elle had invited Will to stay with me, but it eventually saved her from feeling like she had to be hospitable all the time. It probably helped our sisterly relationship in the end, especially since Will turned out to be a better domestic than I was, and kept the house spotless. How humiliating!
Elle ordered spotlights on motion detectors to be installed around the property and my sister seemed to settle into a new rhythm. This was just one of the reasons I imagined my twin loved Elle so much - she was a bastion of safety and security. She radiated alpha during these moments and, knowing my own limits, both of us siblings accepted beta female roles. I think this is where I first began to consider just what it meant to be a pack. Though they weren’t lycanthropes, this felt like a home now, as if Amber’s attitude had now changed. It seemed I was back inside something, instead of outside, for the first time in years.
Will accepted his beta male role with equanimity, which was funny as there was no alpha male, unless you counted Spanky the Schnauzer, who was about as un-alpha as dogs came. I guess Elle got to play both roles.
Detective Bromley came by and interviewed us all again, and said it would be a couple of weeks before anything came back from the lab. He was a big, florid man who sweated too much and exercised too little, but Elle said he was competent enough. Not much evidence to go on, though, so I didn’t get my hopes up. He did say he was interviewing everyone, including my chief suspect, Jeanetta Macdonald, but he wasn’t about to disclose any details, not even to Elle apparently.