would have traded my right arm for a thermos of coffee.”
“With a dash of whiskey.” He took off his sheepskin-lined gloves. “Nobody heard nothing.”
“I found somebody who did. A Mrs. Bailey.”
Her sense of triumph dimmed at the sight of his face.
“There’s a nasty one.”
“She calls in complaints?”
“Once a month or so.” He shook his head. “Hates the neighbors, hates teenagers, doesn’t much like cows. You believe her, somebody is always being noisy or trespassing.”
Noisy? “I don’t remember a house near hers.”
“She has damn fine hearing.”
Trina quizzed him about who he’d talked to at the Running Y, then went to Lieutenant Patton’s office.
Through the glass inset, she saw the lieutenant lift her head at the sound of the knock. She waved Trina in.
“You look cold.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her superior scowled. “Quit ma’aming me.”
“Sir…”
“That isn’t any better. You make me feel old.”
“Lieutenant.”
“A slight improvement.” She sighed. “I suppose that was an exercise in futility?”
“Actually, I did get one report of unusual traffic.”
Brows rose. “Really?”
Trina repeated what Mrs. Bailey said. “I understand she’s something of a crank….”
“She?”
“Mrs. Bailey?”
“Not Luella Bailey! She’s a thorn in the side of anyone who has dealings with her. Daniel—my brother-in-law—counts his blessings daily that his place isn’t beside hers. Pete Hardesty of the Running Y gets hell every time a steer finds a fence break.”
Crushed and trying to hide it, Trina asked, “Does that mean she’s not reliable?”
“Hmm.” Meg Patton rubbed her chin as she thought. “Well, she’s not delusional. When she says a steer is eating her dahlias, by God there it is. Kids do drag race out on Butte Road. So…no. She might actually be a good witness. Most folks out there wouldn’t pay any mind to a passing vehicle. Luella, though, lives to find grievances.” Her gaze sharpened. “Tell me again what she said.”
Trina did.
“Twenty minutes to half an hour. That would be about right.”
Trina nodded at the phone. “Did you learn anything?”
“Ricky Mendoza is right where he should be. That lets him out. No sign of Amy’s Kia. I sent someone to check her apartment complex and the lots outside the brewhouses and restaurants that seem like the most obvious choices. Otherwise, I’ve put out calls. Any kind of match through VICAP will take time.” The federal database was a godsend to local law enforcement. Unfortunately, it had limitations; many small jurisdictions didn’t input crimes.
Trina nodded.
“I’ve already talked to Amy Owen’s parents. They still live here, only a few blocks from where I grew up in the old town.”
“She hadn’t married, then?”
“Married and divorced. The ex is next on my list.”
“He’s around?”
The lieutenant consulted her notes. “Doug Jennings. He’s a ski bum, according to the parents. Amy wanted to think about buying a house, starting a family. He wasn’t interested.”
“So the divorce wasn’t ugly?” From what she’d read, Trina was willing to bet this killer and Amy had been strangers, anyway, but you had to consider all possibilities.
“Not according to them. They say he’ll be broken up to hear about her murder. I went by his place and he wasn’t home.” Meg Patton rose. “What say we go talk to him now, then take a look at her apartment.”
“Am I going to stay on the case, then?” Trina asked, rising, too.
The lieutenant looked surprised. “I tagged you, didn’t I?”
This didn’t seem the moment to ask why. “Thank you, ma…um, Lieutenant.”
Exhilaration wiped out her weariness. Her mind buzzed. She’d want to read the file on the six-year-old murder. Look for details that were the same—and ones that were different. Talk to whoever found that body. The cops who worked the murder. If this one was as similar as Lieutenant Patton claimed, this killer had to be close in some way to the previous crime. Copycats had a motive. What was this one’s?
Wow, she thought, feeling giddy. I’m a detective. A real detective.
Not even missing the cup of coffee she hadn’t yet poured, she followed Lieutenant Patton out.
CHAPTER TWO
WILL’S RESOLVE to move home to Elk Springs wavered from time to time. Pretty well daily, in fact. Tonight was a definite plunge in the Mood-O-Meter.
He was staying at his father’s while he looked for a place to live. Their relationship was pleasant but cool, thanks to Will’s long-held belief that his parents in their professional capacities were responsible for the scum who’d killed Gillian being out on the street and therefore free to rape and mutilate. If they’d done their jobs…
But they hadn’t, for reasons he understood intellectually if not emotionally. Now, six years later, he also understood that his anger had mostly been misplaced. But things once said couldn’t be taken back, and much as he regretted the fact, Will knew he couldn’t have back what he’d lost that night.
This week, his father was away at a conference for sheriffs and police chiefs. With him gone, Will was able to relax a little. He got along well with Beth, his dad’s wife, and with her kids.
Stephanie was a senior in high school this year, a really smart girl who had applied to private colleges like Whitman and even Vassar back east. Pretty, with her mother’s dark hair and blue eyes, she was the same serious kid she’d been when her mother married Jack Murray, Sheriff of Butte County.
Redheaded Lauren, fourteen, was in contrast currently grounded because she’d been caught cutting classes. She was a cheerleader and, according to her mother, a social butterfly who was a teenager with a capital T. Will could see what she meant. Lauren was all giggles and glow one minute, sulky the next. He sympathized, since he remembered his own teenage angst when his mom and he moved to Elk Springs so he could finally get to know his father. One minute, he’d believed he could clear Juanita Butte in a single bound, and the next he’d been sure his
