by D'Ann Lindun
Jamie took a deep breath. “Did you ever see Katie use cocaine or any other drug?”
His long white braids swung with the slow shake of his head. “Not that I ever saw.”
“What about when you didn’t see?” She hated pressing him so hard, but she had to know.
“Maybe,” he said. “But I don’t believe so.”
“She never acted high around you?”
“No. Never.”
Relief poured through Jamie. If Kate was using dope, Walter would know. “Thank you. May I look inside the house?”
“For what?”
“A clue as to who killed her.”
He waved. “Go ahead. But you won’t find anything.”
“Before I go, do you have any funeral arrangements made?”
“Not until the coroner releases the body.”
“Of course,” Jamie murmured. “Do you need me to pick out something for her to wear?”
“That would be nice. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Anything else I can do for you, Walter?”
“I need Kate back.” He studied the faraway Rockies as if he’d never seen them before. “But that’s not going to happen. Not in this life anyway.”
Impulsively, she hugged him. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.” He gently disentangled himself from her embrace. “I better see to the feeding.”
She had been dismissed. “Okay. Thank you for your help.”
“You’re welcome.” He shuffled toward the barn.
Jamie watched him for a few minutes, until he disappeared into the dark interior. She glanced at Kate’s house. She didn’t really want to go inside, but if there was a clue there… With a reluctant sigh, she turned that way.
The doorknob turned easily.
Jamie had never known Kate or anyone else to lock their house.
She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. For a moment she just stood and took in her surroundings. Kate had never been much of a housekeeper, preferring to spend her time outside with her animals. The hardwood floor had been swept and the usual clutter picked up. In the kitchen the dishes were done and put away. The garbage pail had been emptied and the floor mopped.
Walter.
He’d cleaned up.
Why?
To spare Kate some embarrassment in death? Or for a more nefarious reason? He’d looked Jamie in the eye and said Kate wasn’t doing drugs. Walter would do anything for Kate…did that include lying to the police?
Jamie did a cursory exam of Kate’s house, but as expected, didn’t find anything. She knew quizzing Walter again would be a waste of time. He’d said all he was going to. She’d promised him to find something for Kate’s burial, so with a heavy heart, she headed to the master bedroom.
Also clean.
A quick check of the drawers and closet didn’t turn up anything unusual. Jamie rifled through the closet. Kate had always worn boots and jeans—would she want to be buried in them?
Her fingers closed around the arm of a western style dress she’d once seen Kate wear at a wedding of a friend. Blue, worn with her belt and buckle, it was pure Kate. Jamie touched her bandaged head. Where was Kate’s prized buckle? Who had taken it from the morgue? More importantly, who had it now?
Jamie got on all fours and found Kate’s good pair of boots at the back of her closet.
For a moment, Jamie clutched them to her chest.
Holding her dead friend’s clothes like a lifeline, she left the house.
~*~
Lisa Rogers lived at the end of town in the same newer cul-de-sac filled with ranch-style houses that Monique Ayers did. They all looked the same to Jamie, although Lisa’s was tan with a darker trim and Monique’s a bright lemon yellow with white trim. A neat lawn turning brown reminded Jamie how soon snow would be covering everything. Indian summer would soon blow by and full-fledged fall was coming. Already a few clouds gathered around the nearby peaks.
She hurried up the walk lined on both sides by dying marigolds. Their bittersweet scent hung in the evening air. After she rang the doorbell, she waited a few moments before Lisa answered.
“Sheriff? Hello.”
“Hi. May I come in?”
Lisa looked over her shoulder then shrugged. “I guess so.”
Jamie stepped inside. A grand piano took up most of the room, a floral covered sofa and two matching armchairs the rest. A bouquet of bright red roses sat on the table by the door, their scent still fresh and sweet.
Lisa wrapped her arms around her waist. Even though the house was warm, she wore a gray sweater and leggings. “What’s this about, Sheriff?”
“I’ll come to the point, Miss Rogers. A source tells me you were at The Moon the night Rosie White went missing. You neglected to mention this fact when we met at the book club. Care to elaborate?”
“I—”
Jamie pinned her with a cold stare. “Before you speak, I want to remind you that this is a murder investigation.”
“Murder?” Lisa’s chocolate brown eyes grew huge and round.
“Yes, Kate Hollenbreck’s death is a murder.”
“I don’t know anything about that.” Lisa’s voice shook.
“Tell me about the night Rosie vanished,” Jamie said. “Start there.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I went to The Moon with a couple friends where we had a few drinks.” She avoided eye contact, looking out the glass doors to the mountains beyond.
Jamie pulled her notebook out of her pocket. “What friends? Was Kate one of them?”
Lisa laughed, the sound brittle. “Really, Sheriff? Do I look like I have anything in common with a cowgirl?”
“That definition applies to me,” Jamie reminded her, “and we met at the book club.”
Lisa had the grace to wince. “Sorry.”
“What friends?” Jamie repeated.
With a sigh, Lisa turned toward her. “Just the girls from the book club.”
With difficulty, Jamie held her temper. “None of you could bother to tell me this when I dropped in the other night?”
“Kate was still alive then,” Lisa said. “How could we know she’d be killed?”
“You might not have known that, but you sure as hell know four other women are missing, including Monique, whom you claim as a best friend.” Jamie took a calming breath. “So, how about you start with that and go on until I say stop?”
Lisa sank onto the piano bench with a half-sob. “It wasn’t a big deal. Nothing worth mentioning. The book club all decided to go out after one of our meetings. Me, Alice and January. We were all depressed about Monique, so we decided to go to The Moon for a few drinks.”
“I assume you left Brenna out?”
“Of course,” Lisa huffed. “She’s just a teenager.”
“Did you see Rosie that night?” Jamie made a note in her book.
“She was our waitress, but I didn’t pay much attention.” Lisa nibbled her bottom lip. “Come to think of it, they went outside around the same time.”
“Who?” Jamie leaned forward.
“Rosie and Kate. I remember now that I thought it quite odd.”
“And you didn’t wonder what they were doing together or where they went?” Jamie’s heart pounded in an uneven tattoo. Finally. A clue. Why the hell hadn’t Lisa or the other book club members spoken up sooner?
Lisa looked at her hands, twisting them in her lap. “I knew what they were doing. At least, I assumed what they were doing.”
“Which was?”
When she looked up, Lisa’s eyes were bleak. “Buying cocaine in the parking lot. Everyone knows the bartender is a dealer. I saw him go outside, then Kate and Rosie a few minutes later.”
Jamie reeled. “And you never mentioned this before now? Do you know that you’ve impeded a murder investigation? I could haul you in right now.”
Holding out her thin wrists, Lisa said, “Do it. I deserve to be in jail.”
“Do you use, too?” By the looks of
her bony frame, she very well could be on drugs.
“No.”
“Did Monique use?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I think so. She said she needed to lose weight. Since the baby came, she thought she was fat. January told her she could drop the weight fast if she took speed. A lot of her model friends did it back in the city. Monique thought Cocaine seemed like a reasonable replacement. We went to The Moon and she talked to that big guy who bartends.” Lisa rocked, her arms still wrapped tight around her middle. “I tried to tell her it was foolish, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Why haven’t you spoken up?” Jamie demanded.
“I was afraid whoever took her would get me, too, if I did.” Tears began to pour down Lisa’s face. “I’m so sorry.”
“The dealer?”
Lisa nodded, sobbing too hard to speak.
“Do you know for sure Monique bought coke from the bartender?”
“No.”
“If you’re not telling me the truth—” Jamie let the threat hang.
“I am. I swear.” Lisa brought herself under control and swiped at her damp cheeks with shaking hands. “I didn’t want to know the dirty details. I assume her supplier took her. Maybe she couldn’t pay him . . .”
“She made good money working for the postal service, didn’t she?” Jamie was having a hard time wrapping her mind around all the information she’d just taken in. All the stuff about Lisa knowing Monique used drugs, Kate and Rosie.
“Yes, but she decided not to go back to work with the new baby. They had the new house. It was a strain on Joe to pay for everything, but he wanted Monique to be happy.”
“Could Monique have been dealing?”
“I doubt that very much,” Lisa said. “Monique was always very anti-drug before the coke took her over. But on the other hand, she wasn’t the same person anymore either.”
“And Kate? What do you know of her habit?”
“Nothing.” Lisa went back to twisting her hands. “Absolutely nothing at all.”
“So, it’s a possible coincidence that she and Rosie left the bar together the night Rosie vanished?” Jamie knew she was grasping at straws, but she had to try for her old friend’s sake.
“I guess.”
“Who did Kate come with? Do you know?”
“The school nurse, Haley something.” Lisa touched her own mouse-brown hair. “The dyed blonde.”
The woman Doc accused of stealing Kate’s buckle. Jamie’s stomach went into a free fall. “Do you have any reason to believe Haley took drugs?”
“I never saw her inhale or smoke any, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s what I mean,” Jamie muttered with her mind on Haley. None of this made any sense. To her knowledge, Kate and Haley had never been close friends.
“I have a ton more questions,” Jamie said. “For one, back to the night Rosie went missing…did you see her with anyone?”
“No, just the bar crowd. She was serving before she and Kate went outside around midnight.”
Jamie made notes. “Did you see them come back inside?”
“No.” She thought about it for a minute. “But they were both there. I know because I was in the ladies’ room at the same time as Kate. Rosie served us late in the evening.”
“Did you see my deputy Tad Carver that night?”
Lisa blinked at the change in topic. “Um, yeah. I think so.”
“Think hard.”
“Yes, he was there. He spoke to us.” Lisa threaded and unthreaded her fingers.
“What did he say? This might be important.” Jamie clutched her notebook so hard her fingers turned white.
“Nothing memorable. Just hello, or how are you. Something like that.” She shifted, pulling her sweater tight around her.
“Is it true he had a thing for Rosie?” Jamie flipped the pages of her little notebook like a fan. “Did you see him hitting on her?”
“Just every time we were at the bar.” She laughed wryly. “But Rosie was into Benny Torres, who had no interest in the little Indian princess whatsoever.”
“Benny dates Olivia Hernandez.” Jamie ignored Lisa’s racial slur.
“Does he?” Lisa sounded bored. “I wouldn’t know.”
Jamie snapped her little book shut with a little more force than necessary. “I guess that’s it for now.”
“Are you arresting me?” Lisa asked in a tiny voice.
“I ought to,” Jamie said. “But no, not today.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Austin was the first one at the office. Jamie had called him and asked him to meet her there. He
walked into the conference room and dialed Brooke. She answered immediately.
“DeWitte here.”
“It’s Varner.
“Evening, agent. How are things your way?”
“About the same. Did you have any luck finding any information on those names I gave you?” He perched on the edge of the table. “I know it hasn’t been long—”
“Absolutely nothing on Katherine Hollenbreck. She’s clean as a whistle.” Brooke sounded tired.
“What about Tad Carver?”
“Nothing of interest. He’s from Confluence, went to the vo-tec for his police training. Was hired by the town trustees immediately upon graduation. Nothing but a couple of minor traffic tickets as a teen.”
“Any drugs in his background?” Austin traced the outside seam of his Wranglers.
“Not that has been documented.”
“And Viejo?”
She paused a minute and he could hear the clicking of keys in the background. “Just as you said. Arrested on the outskirts of Confluence. The D.A. made a deal with Mexico and they deported him back home.”
“What kind of drugs did he have on him?”
“Cocaine,” she answered.
“I wonder why a deal was struck,” Austin mused.
“There was an American-Mexican prisoner exchange,” she said. “Viejo was among thirty-one prisoners Mexico requested. I don’t know why, but he was named on a list of drug cartel members Mexico wanted back.”
Austin took that in. “Interesting stuff.”
“Anything else?” She sounded impatient, ready to go home.
“No. Thanks, Brooke.”
“No problem.” She hung up.
He stood and walked to the window. Jamie was hurrying up the sidewalk, her long legs taking huge strides. He could watch her walk all day. Sexy without knowing it. Or if she did realize her affect on him, she didn’t show her awareness like some women would.
He dragged his mind off her legs and thought about what Brooke had told him. Not much to use there, he feared. No ties between Kate and Viejo. It was very unlikely that she had bought straight from the distributor.
Time to talk to the fill-in bartender.
He climbed the stairs to Jamie’s office and went to her doorway.
She looked up from the leather backpack she carried. “Hey. Thanks for coming.”
“Hi.” He cleared his throat. “I talked to my boss. She did a little digging on Kate, Carver and the drug dealer Torres and Jinx arrested.” He filled her in as she listened intently. “I’m going to go over to the bar and find out who this dealer is, then go talk to him.”
“I want to go along,” she said. “I found out a bunch tonight, too.”
“Such as?”
She told him all she’d learned.
He whistled. “Damn.”
“Exactly my sentiments,” Jamie said. “I cannot get over that Lisa knew all this and didn’t come forward. She says she’s scared…”
“With reason, maybe.”
“I guess, but as mad as I am at her, I don’t feel a lot of sympathy right now.” Jamie grabbed her backpack. “Ready?”
“Yep.” He felt like the principal with the student he couldn’t touch as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and led the way from her office.
~*~
“You again?” Mark Boyd didn’t lo
ok happy to see them. “You keep dropping in like this and my customers are going to think this is the local cop hangout.”
Jamie looked around the empty bar. “No danger of that.”
Austin ignored her. “Who fills in for you?”
“Why?” Mark stared at them over the rim of his glass.
“Just answer the question,” Jamie said.
His gaze flitted between them. “What is this, good cop-bad cop?”
Austin sighed. “Look, we just need to talk to the guy. Can you tell me where to find him, or not?”
“You have any news on Rosie?” Mark countered.
“No,” Jamie said. “And if we did, we couldn’t tell you.”
“You mean you won’t.” He sounded bitter.
“Can’t because we don’t know anything yet.” Austin shot Jamie a warning glance and she bit her bottom lip. “But if you tell me what I want to know, we might learn something that could help Rosie and the other women.”
Mark snorted. “Right.”
“We know he deals out of this bar,” Austin said quietly. “I imagine you don’t want to be named as a co-conspirator…”
“Hell no, I don’t!” Mark chugged from the mug, then swiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “If I tell you will you get out and leave me alone?”
Austin waited.
“Scooter Wentworth. He lives on Broadmoor Street down in Chipeta. He comes up one night a week to cover me so I can have a day off. I don’t know what he does when he’s here. I don’t ask, he doesn’t tell.”
“Thanks,” Austin said as he and Jamie turned away.
“You let me know about Rosie when you find out,” Mark called after them.
Austin waved.
Jamie waited until they were seated in his truck before asking, “Do you intend to give him any information?”
With a shrug he said, “Only if it’s harmless.”
“Do you think he really loves her?”
He could feel her gaze on the side of his face. “Yeah, I do.”
“That’s sad,” she said. “That he had love and let it slip away.”