Revenge by Debra Webb Page A

result?’
    ‘I just don’t know. But with him dead, the trust fund goes to Scotty with me in control.’ Her lips flattened into a thin line of fury. ‘And then I’m taking my son and I’m going as far from here as I can go. I’m never coming back.’
    No wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk in front of her father - in - law. ‘But your husband was murdered. How does that play into what you’re telling me?’
    ‘Scott’s family is Catholic. Suicide is unforgivable.’
    What the hell kind of family were the Bakers? More important, was she saying what Jess thought she was saying? Holding her breath, Jess waited for Trisha to say the words. She could not put them in her mouth.
    ‘I think he hired someone to kill him,’ Trisha said. ‘He sacrificed himself to save our son.’
    With that stunning statement ringing in her ears, Jess thanked Mrs Baker and did the best she could to smooth over things with the father-in-law. He wasn’t happy that some lesser cop had interviewed him while his unimportant daughter-in-law had gotten the deputy chief. He’d promised to inform the mayor of her treatment.
    Oh well. Mayor Pratt was the one who’d suggested her for this case. She suspected he was not going to want to hear this scenario. As off the wall as it sounded, Jess had no choice but to give the wife’s suggestion of suicide by murder a proper look.
    Outside the palatial home, Lori fired up her Mustang and sent Jess a look. ‘I hope you got more than I did.’
    ‘I certainly got one hell of a theory to chew on.’ She gave Lori the condensed version.
    ‘It’s not totally impossible,’ Lori offered with a look that said Yeah right .
    ‘Scott Baker was in to something,’ Jess agreed. ‘Something he wanted to hide from his family and that ultimately cost him his life. An affair? An illegal business scheme?’
    Who knew? Jess ignored the reporters as they exited the property. Luckily none bothered to follow. They were far more interested in what the Bakers would do next than what the police would do.
    Lori laughed, the sound a little strained. ‘You’re not going to believe this but I think we have a tail.’
    Jess resisted the urge to turn around and stare out the back window. ‘Anyone we know?’ If Dan had her under surveillance again, she was going to . . . thank him and let it go. That war was getting old. Lopez’s messenger had assured her she had nothing to worry about from that former empire, but taking the word of a gang lord as gospel wasn’t exactly her style.
    Uncertainty stirred when she considered another possibility. Nah. Eric Spears, the serial killer who had turned her life upside down and who had gotten away, was far too brilliant to make a move using such a pedestrian tactic.
    ‘Navy or black four-door sedan,’ Lori said. ‘It’s old. Maybe a Corolla.’
    ‘Unless he makes an aggressive maneuver, just let him follow us.’
    ‘You don’t think it’s any of Lopez’s former allies?’
    She pulled down her sun visor and had a look at the car via the mirror there. ‘I don’t think even the low man on the Lopez totem pole would be caught dead in a ride like that.’ The last time she’d gotten a visit from Leonardo Lopez and his clique, they’d been driving high-end SUVs.
    ‘The economy’s bad all over,’ Lori reminded her.
    ‘That’s why my house is still languishing on the market,’ Jess grumbled. As long as the house in Virginia didn’t sell, she couldn’t look for permanent housing here. Cutting her Realtor some slack, it had been only a month. Maybe the place would find a new family soon. Someone who would actually be home occasionally. Unlike her. When she’d worked at Quantico, she’d spent most of her time at the office or on the road.
    Lori took a right. A block later she made a left. ‘He doesn’t seem to mind that we’ve obviously spotted him.’
    They could continue playing this boring game or, ‘Let’s find out what he wants,’ Jess announced.
    Lori shot