She took a deep breath, put on her best poker face, and walked with Duncan to the front of the house.

CHAPTER THREE

An ambulance and fire truck had arrived and the first responders were standing around, waiting for instructions.

Alexis ran up to Eve. “What’s wrong? Is she in there?”

“Nope,” Eve said. “The house is empty.”

“What did you see?”

“Same thing you did,” Eve said. Alexis looked relieved, but that was only because she hadn’t seen all the blood beyond the kitchen.

“So where’s Tanya?”

“I don’t know,” Eve said, feeling guilty. Nothing that she’d said to Alexis was a lie but it was all misleading. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Eve went over to the ambulance crew and the firemen. “You can go. There’s nobody home.”

She turned to Deputies Ross and Clayton, making sure her back was to Alexis and Duncan, and lowered her voice to a near whisper. “Call in two more units. Freeze the scene. Nobody goes in or out except CSU.”

They nodded their understanding and she went back to Alexis and Duncan, who had his curled pad out again and was making notes.

“Where do Caitlin and Troy go to school?” he asked.

“Canyon Oaks Elementary,” she said.

Duncan glanced at Eve. He had what he needed to work with.

“Where is their father?” Eve asked, taking over questioning and giving Duncan an out to go back to their SUV to start making calls.

“Up in Merced. His name is Cleve Kenworth. He and Tanya divorced a few years ago. She doesn’t talk about him.”

Eve took out her pad from the inside pocket of her navy-blue Ann Taylor blazer, one of three in the same style, but in different colors, that she bought online when she got her detective shield and hung up her uniform. “What do you know about Tanya’s boyfriend?”

The ambulance and fire trucks began backing out of the cul-de-sac and that seemed to give Alexis some reassurance that things were going to be okay. Eve could see Alexis relaxing, her body loosening up.

“He’s an asshole,” Alexis said.

“Let’s start with his name and his job and work our way up to the asshole part,” Eve said.

Alexis smiled, more evidence to Eve that she was calming down. “Jared Rawlins. He’s a grip. One of the guys who moves lights and carries stuff on movie sets.”

Eve knew what a grip was. Her sister’s father was a grip who dated their mother for a few weeks. He came around to see Lisa at Christmas and on her birthday for a few years, then disappeared from their lives. Eve remembered his freckled face and calloused hands and that he was nice. He had brought all three kids See’s caramel lollipops when he came to visit Lisa.

“What show is he on?” Eve asked.

“He’s a day player. Something different all the time. Does a lot of stuff. Movies, TV series, commercials, videos, an occasional porno.”

“What makes him an asshole?”