Chapter Nine

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Slade was damn glad to see the colonel's face on the monitor, but a part of him wished the man had waited another half hour before resurfacing.

Still, Rosa looked in one piece, and Slade was thankful for that. Thankful, too, that he might get some answers as to why the man had disappeared. Of course, that meant what was happening between Marise and him would have to wait.

"Spock, open the gate for Colonel Rosa," Slade instructed.

He looked at Marise, who seemed to be battling her own mix of relief and frustration. Slade gave her another kiss, a sort of parting shot to put the pause button on the making out, and he eased her off his lap. By the time he made it to his feet and was walking to the front door, he could already see the vehicle approaching the house on the monitor.

"Stay back in case Sonny's with him and calling the shots," Slade warned Marise.

Of course, that put the fear of God look in her eyes. Or rather the fear of Sonny. She stayed back all right, but she also grabbed a black obsidian eagle statue from his desk. Slade figured it was the equivalent of her trusty paperweight she'd used the time she'd confronted Sonny in the parking lot of Patriot's Retreat.

Slade opened the door a fraction and peered out as the white Ford Focus pulled to a stop. Since the windows weren't heavily tinted, he could see only Rosa inside and behind the wheel. However, Sonny could be in the trunk, waiting to pounce.

Rosa fired some glances around him when he stepped from the car, and he moved fast up the steps and to the porch.

"Are you alone?" Slade asked him.

The colonel nodded. "But I might have been followed by a black Audi. Couldn't tell who was inside."

Slade stepped back so the colonel could enter and in the same motion, gave an order to Spock. "Monitor any black Audis in the area."

Of course, with no traffic cameras to speak of, the vehicle would have to approach the gate for Spock to detect it. Still, Slade wanted the warning in case the driver—Sonny—parked by the sign and climbed the fence.

"Marise," Rosa greeted when he saw her.

"Where were you?" she demanded, setting the statue back down.

Rosa sighed. "I know I must have worried you, but I had to get out of there. I saw Sonny in the parking lot of the hospital, and I figured he wouldn't have any trouble getting past the cop guard on my door."

"Then, you should have called Slade or me and told us what was happening." Her scolding tone vanished as quickly as it'd come, and Marise went to the colonel to hug him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, but the confirmation convinced absolutely no one, not even himself. "I need to tell you some things," Rosa muttered.

"Things about what you witnessed?" Slade asked, leading the man to the sofa.

Slade debated if he should pour him a drink and opted against it since he had no idea if Rosa had been given meds in the hospital. Instead, he settled for getting him a glass of water.

"No, uh, I still don't remember that. Don't remember attacking Stephanie," he added, scrubbing his hand over his face. Rosa then locked eyes with Slade when Slade took the chair across from him. "Is Stephanie in on this? Did she kill Carlyle Hutton? Did I kill him?"

"You know about his murder?" Marise said.

Rosa nodded. "It's on the news. I figured I'd be suspect. Maybe Stephanie as well."

"And Hutton's wife, Annalisa," Slade provided.

"Of course." He sighed. "I knew Stephanie was having an affair with Hutton," Rosa admitted a moment later. "And I was considering a divorce. Stephanie wouldn't go for that though. It's all about appearances for her, and she wouldn't want to deal with the gossip of a divorce. Or an affair since that would have likely come out in a divorce."

Slade considered all of that. It wasn't exactly new information, but he had to wonder how Stephanie's feelings about appearances could have played into what happened. To know that though, he needed to actually learn what had gone on that night.

"What do you remember about the last time you saw Hutton?" Marise asked.

"Not much. Not enough," Rosa amended. "Everything is whirling around in my head, and I'm not sure what's real and what's imagined. For instance, I think I heard Stephanie arguing with someone. A man. Maybe Hutton. Maybe Julian."

"Julian?" Slade repeated.

"Yes." Rosa's mouth twisted. "Julian's all about appearance, too, and he wouldn't have approved of Stephanie having an affair with… anyone other than him. I suspect he's in love with my wife."

Slade suspected the same thing. In love and willing to do whatever Stephanie wanted.

"Is it possible that Sonny is the man you heard arguing with Stephanie?" Slade pressed.

"No." Rosa's answer came a little too fast for Slade's liking, and he didn't care much for the look Rosa gave him. "No," Rosa repeated.

"But Sonny came to your house," Marise reminded him. "Did he meet with Stephanie?"

Again, Rosa replied, "No. Sonny met with me."

"Why?" Slade blurted out. And that was just the start of what he wanted to know.

"Why indeed," Rosa muttered, and then he locked gazes with Slade again. "Since I've retired, I've had some time on my hands, and I remembered reading the info in your background for your Top Secret clearance. I saw a report where one of your high school buddies was interviewed, and he mentioned Sonny. Mentioned, too, that maybe Sonny had murdered your mother."

Everything inside Slade went still. "You met with Sonny to ask him about my mother's murder?"

"Well, first I had to track him down. Again, lots of time on my hands. And I didn't intend to actually contact him, but a friend of a friend of his I spoke with told Sonny that I was asking questions about him, and Sonny came to see me."

"To threaten you," Slade concluded.

Rosa nodded. "Among other things. To deny the allegation of murder. To insist it was an accident." He paused. "And then he asked about you, about your involvement in Bodie's death."

"Hell," Marise muttered.

"I'm sorry," Rosa was quick to say. "I told Sonny you hadn't had any involvement, but after he left, I realized I'd lit a very bad fire in him. I think that's when he started planning to get back at you and your brothers."

Slade took a moment, dealing with that. "So, Sonny doesn't have anything to do with Stephanie or Hutton's murder?"

Rosa started to speak, his mouth forming around the word, no, but then he seemed to change his mind. "I'm not sure. Maybe."

Slade could see how that maybe could play out. Sonny could have run into Stephanie during that visit with Rosa, and Stephanie and/or Julian might have hired him either to kill Hutton or dispose of the body.

But that didn't mesh with Hutton's injuries.

A single gunshot wound to the chest at fairly close range. Slade had thought that felt more like a heat of the moment kind of thing. If Sonny had been hired to kill, wouldn't he have struck from a distance?

Again, that qualified as a maybe.

"Why did Sonny come to see you last night?" Marise asked.

Rosa gave a weary sigh. "He threatened me, told me to keep my mouth shut, so I assumed that meant he didn't want me to warn Slade or anyone else for that matter that he was in San Antonio. But now I realize Sonny could have been talking about… something else. Perhaps Hutton's death?"

Once again they had questions but still not a lot of answers. Slade decided to back up and start from the beginning. Or in this case, start two weeks ago and work forward.

"Go back through the night that you believe you witnessed a murder," Slade instructed. "Tell me any and everything you remember."

The colonel shook his head. "That's just it. I'm not sure the memories are real, including what Sonny might or might not have said when he visited me."

"Doesn't matter at this point. We can sort out what's real and what's not later." Slade hoped so anyway.

Rosa didn't look at all convinced about the sorting, but he did start. "I heard voices. Angry shouts so I think I followed the sound. Not sure where, but I remember walking and opening a door."

"A door to where?" Slade pressed when Rosa stopped.

"I think Stephanie's office." He paused again. "Maybe." And again, he didn't seem at all certain of that. "And maybe Stephanie, Julian, and Hutton were there. Annalisa, too."

All right, so that was new info. Well, if it was real and not a hallucination. If Hutton's wife was indeed there, then the argument was likely about Stephanie's affair with Annalisa's husband."

"Sonny might have been there, too," the colonel went on, adding another surprising bit. "I think he was by the window. You know, standing off to the side and watching everything."

Well, that put a new twist on things, and Slade didn't know what would have brought that particular mix of people together. One thing popped to mind though. If Stephanie had thought Hutton was going to expose the affair, she might have had Sonny for muscle.

"Annalisa left," Rosa continued. "I recall her bumping into me when she stormed out." He groaned and pressed his hands on the sides of his head. "Everything else is a jumble. I believe I heard a gunshot, but I don't recall holding a gun."

It was obvious to Slade that the colonel's frustration was building, building, building. And Slade totally got that. So, he shifted the conversation a little.

"Do you remember eating or drinking anything around the time of hearing that gunshot?" Slade asked.

"A shot of whiskey," Rosa said, and he didn't hesitate. "Not in Stephanie's office but in my own."

"Did you pour the shot yourself or did someone else?" Marise pressed.

Rosa opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head again. "I don't recall pouring it. And it wasn't Jameson. That's my usual brand. I just remember it being in my hand, and I drank it."

"It could have been laced with a drug," Marise was quick to point out.

The colonel stayed quiet a moment, obviously considering that, and then made a sound of agreement. "Julian could have drugged it."

"Julian?" Marise and Slade said in unison.

"Yes. Years ago, I had a background check done on Julian when Stephanie hired him as her assistant. Both Julian and his brother were arrested for drug use and possession when they were in college, but their rich parents managed to get them off with just slaps on the wrist. But Julian's brother was arrested again just a few months ago for possession of LSD."

Well, that would do it. A hallucinogenic drug that could alter memories. Slade looked at Marise to get her take on that.

"Yes, LSD could be responsible," she admitted. "And it's not usually detected with routine drug tests. But it also doesn't stay in the system that long. Only two to three days. So, it wouldn't do any good to test the colonel."

"How about testing the whiskey bottle in his office?" Slade asked.

Marise lifted her shoulder. "That might show up, but the colonel said it wasn't his usual brand so it was more likely poured from some other source."

"A source that could possibly still be in the house," Slade threw out there. He shifted his attention back to Rosa. "I'd like to get someone in your house to take a look at that."

"Of course," the colonel quickly agreed, and it seemed to Slade that he finally saw some hope in the man's eyes. Hope that all of this could be solved.

"What about the glass that was in the colonel's room?" Marise asked. "Did SAPD pick that up?"

"They did, but the cleaning staff had already washed it," Slade let her know. "Still, they might get something so it's being sent for testing anyway."

Rosa's eyes widened. "You think Sonny could have put something in my water when he visited Patriot's Retreat."

"I do," Marise verified. "Until that visit, you'd showed no signs of aggressive behavior since your admission, but you went after Slade." She paused. "Did you think he might be Sonny?"

The colonel got that distressed look in his eyes again. "I'm not sure. That's muddled, too."

"Slade, you have a visitor at the gate," Spock said, cutting off anything else Rosa had been about to offer.

Slade sighed and made a mental note to touch base with SAPD to try to expedite the processing of that glass. "Who is it?"

"Annalisa Hutton," Spock replied.

Even given a multiple choice, Slade wouldn't have guessed she would be here, and he had an immediate question. Well, two of them actually.

How the hell had Annalisa known where to find him?

And what the hell did she want?

"Mrs. Hutton is driving a black Audi," Spock added.

So, that meant she'd likely followed Rosa here. Because Slade doubted it was a coincidence that she was in a vehicle that the colonel had described.

"We should talk to her," the colonel insisted, getting to his feet. "If she was actually there in Stephanie's office, she might admit to what happened."

She might indeed, and Slade weighed that possibility against the bad feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.

"Spock, put the feed and audio from the security gate on the monitor," Slade instructed.

Within seconds, the feed appeared, and Slade saw the woman behind the wheel. She was chewing on her bottom lip and drumming her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

"Mrs. Hutton?" Slade greeted.

Annalisa made a slight gasp of surprise at the sound of his voice. "Mr. McKenna?" she asked.

"Yes," Slade verified and then immediately asked, "Why are you here?"

"I need to see Colonel Rosa. It's important." Her words rushed out as if she couldn't say them fast enough. "I think I know who murdered my husband."