Now sitting in Grace’s kitchen, Alyssa had a feeling the discovery would be worse for the district attorney, but before she could break the news to her, Grace beat her to it.

Lifting her cup to her lips but not drinking from it, she said, ‘I’m guessing then that the two of you are here to tell me about Officer Falwin’s arrest for Gabriel and Lydia’s murders.’

Alyssa shook her head. They hadn’t even released the information to the media yet. ‘How did you—Never mind. You’re the district attorney. Of course, someone told you. Who?’

Grace simply raised her brows. ‘It explains the girls’ reaction at the hospital. I knew something was wrong after Sandra and Tony left, but I think Addis and Emerson were too afraid to admit why, especially since Falwin was a cop. Now, I assume there’s more and that you’ve come to fill in those gaps.’ When Cord shifted in his seat, she glanced once in his direction before turning her attention back to Alyssa. ‘Did Ms. Monroe ever explain why she agreed to meet Sandra in an abandoned parking lot? Didn’t she find that to be just a bit of an odd request?’

Alyssa tilted her head to the side. ‘Yes and no. Elizabeth remembers picking up her phone to call me so she could confess that she’d seen Gabriel at the Ranch Steakhouse the night of the murders. Because she was afraid she’d become a suspect, she didn’t tell us when we were interviewing her. The guilt for holding that information back was too much, and so I’m guessing when Sandra called under the pretense of having follow-up questions, Elizabeth just wasn’t thinking clearly.’

Grace’s hands tightened on her coffee mug. ‘Did she know Gabriel would be there?’

‘No. Coincidentally, Hayden’s brother was in town, and she went there to meet him. When she spotted Gabriel, she decided since Ted was with her, she might as well follow Gabriel out and ask if they could see the pictures he’d mentioned in his message. But by the time she and Ted got outside, it was too late. Gabriel and Lydia were already gone.’

As soon as Elizabeth had mentioned Hayden’s brother, Alyssa and Cord had known why the man on the security feed at the Ranch Steakhouse had looked so familiar. Ted was the older version of Hayden.

‘Then, when Elizabeth told us the knife Addis and Emerson found beneath the cabin was a gift to Hayden, that bit of the mystery began to clear, so now we have a crew up in the Pecos where we believe Sandra hid Benson’s body,’ Alyssa said. ‘If any bones are discovered, then we’ll have a forensic anthropologist examine them to determine if they belong to Hayden, which I suspect they will.