Page 98 of Shadow of Hope
His surprise seemed legit, but he could simply be a good actor. “He was stabbed in the throat with a part from a musical instrument.”
He squinted at the camera. “What instrument?”
“A bassoon,” Micha answered, though he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to share this piece of information or not.
“Well, that’s a no-brainer then. Ava plays bassoon.” He fixed his gaze on her. “Stupid, woman. You strike again. First my mom and now my buddy.” He scooted back in the chair. “She’s got it out for me, but why?”
“I’ll ignore your unfounded accusations,” she said. “I have a solid alibi for the time Jamal was murdered.”
“And we believe the real killer is setting her up for your mother’s murder,” Micha said.
Layne tipped his head and studied Micha. “Who would do that?”
“You,” Micha said bluntly. “We think it’s you.”
“Me?” His hand flew to his chest. “No way. I’m not a killer. No. Not a killer.” His tone fell off, and he sat silent for a moment. “’Sides, even if I was, I would never kill my mom or Jamal. She was gonna die soon anyway, so why kill her? And Jamal was a good guy. Good friend. He didn’t deserve to die any more than my mom did.”
Micha had to ignore the last comment about Holly and keep the focus on Jamal. “But you did send Jamal to spy on Ava at our survival camp and had the guy launch a rock from a catapult at her.”
“He did what? A catapult?” Layne planted his hands on the arms of the chair.
“He built a catapult that fired a large rock at her,” Micha clarified. “It narrowly missed her, or you would already be in police custody facing murder charges.”
“Nope. No. Not me.” His face paled. “I didn’t know anything about a catapult until you mentioned it.”
Based on the guy’s reaction, Micha was inclined to believe him, but he’d leaned toward believing suspects in the past, too, when they turned out to be guilty, and Micha had learned only to be led by facts. “But you did send Jamal to spy on her.”
He eyed Ava. “Well, yeah, but trust me, I don’t want you dead. Death is too easy of a sentence for killing my mom. I want you to rot in prison for the rest of your life.”
Ava gasped.
Micha didn’t blame her. Not with Layne’s vile tone. “But you threatened to kill her.”
Layne squeezed the puffy fabric on the chair’s arms. “All talk. Just to scare her into confessing to the police.” His gaze shifted to Ava. “But did you listen? No. You took off and made it super hard to find you. So when I finally did locate you, I knew I had to keep tabs on you.”
“Guess Jamal isn’t watching out for her now, though, is he?” Colin said.
“No. I guess not.” Layne scrubbed a hand over his face. “Man, he’s dead? Really dead? If her alibi stands, who would set her up like that?”
Micha held his gaze. “You mean, other than you?”
“I told you.” He slammed his hands down on the chair and dust rose up from the arms. “I didn’t do it, and I have no idea why Jamal would’ve been murdered.”
Micha locked gazes with the guy. “See, Layne, here’s the thing. Your story rings false to me. You sent Jamal to infiltrate our group, and why would he choose to try to murder Ava without your direction? It’syourmother who died, not his. He had zero motive to want to murder Ava.”
“I don’t know.” Layne bit his lip. “I just don’t know. Maybe he thought he was doing me a favor.”
“Come on, Layne.” Micha paused for emphasis. “No one commits murder as a favor for a friend. You’ll have to come up with something better than that, or the police will throw the book at you.”
“Yeah, man,” Colin said. “It’s not looking good for you. Not at all. You have motive to want your mother dead to inherit her entire estate, and the guy you sent to kill Ava is dead, covering up your connection. And the bassoon piece that killed him was taken from Ava’s house, which you had access to. You’d even been in her house. Security footage backs that up.”
“But I…” He shoved a hand into his hair and stared ahead. “They can contact the detective I turned the video over to. He can vouch for me.”
“In what way?” Micha asked. “If they believed your story about Ava, then you wouldn’t have to keep threatening her to confess, right?”
“The detective wasn’t real cooperative,” he mumbled.
“Which is why you still needed Ava to confess,” Micha said.
