As she wrapped up the call and chewed on what Jethro had told her, a sheriff’s car pulled into the lot.
Steve Logan. The pleasure she felt at seeing him surprised her.
“Well, hey, Steve, what brings you here?”
“I saw your unit; then I saw you. I was on my way to Rogue’s Hollow.” He smiled and Tess felt her stomach flutter.
“I just picked up Glen’s dog.” She nodded toward the car and Logan stepped forward and leaned in to say hello to Killer.
“Wow, she lost a leg.” He frowned and shook his head.
Tess stifled an “aw,” moved to see that he was as disturbed by the dog’s fate as she was.
“You keeping her?” he asked.
“No, I don’t even have a house yet. Not certain yet what I will do with her.”
He nodded and hooked his thumbs in his belt.
Tess gave herself a mental head shake, pushing the strong attraction she felt for Logan to the back burner. “I thought you’d be by earlier.”
“Yes, sorry about that, but I got tied up with some stuff at the jail. And now, besides wanting to help you, I need to give you a warning.”
“Warning?”
“Yep. Mayor Dixon is making noises. Wants my boss to take over your cases.” His expression touched her heart, supportive and helpful.
“Yeah, he told me as much. What did your boss say?”
“That you were the chief; he’d only do that if you asked.”
“Remind me to thank your boss.”
“Well, it might be a temporary stay. Dixon told me he was considering calling an emergency city council meeting to discuss your position. Thought you should know.”
She took a deep breath and looked away from those warm blue eyes. “He told me as much. He’s working on that meeting.” She looked back. “But I have too much on my plate to worry about Mayor Dixon. Question: what can you tell me about Beto Acosta?”
“Smooth change of subject.” He smiled and it gave his face a boyish look. “He’s a successful businessman. My own home is protected by PSS. Why do you ask?”
She told him what Jethro had told her.
“I know Octavio too; he was a serious meth head at one time. Why does he think Beto followed Anna?”
“My information is secondhand. I’d like to talk directly with Octavio, but—” she pointed to the dog—“hands are tied right now. As for Acosta, I’ve only had a few discussions with him. For what it’s worth, he always struck me on the up-and-up, until yesterday.” She told him about the key chain and the window. “He never took off his sunglasses. He could have been trying to hide his eyes from me. And it rubbed me the wrong way because he wanted the report but didn’t want us to prosecute.”
“The glasses . . . I have to say I’ve been afraid he’s a little too dependent on pain pills. Last training session he showed up for, let’s just say he raised some eyebrows. But that doesn’t make him a killer. And the window? I’d cut him some slack there. Trust me, you don’t want to arrest Tilly unless you have to. Anything minor like that broken window, they’ll kick her right back out. She’s difficult to deal with. People with mental issues and drug problems . . .” He arched an eyebrow.
“I know what you mean. But when people want us to jump through hoops for them, but they don’t want to help us solve the problem, sometimes that rubs me the wrong way.”
“Preaching to the choir. Do you want me to go talk to Octavio? Get more out of him if I can?”
“Thank you.” Tess smiled. “That would be awesome.”
“Hey, I’m here to serve. And it’s worth it to see that beautiful smile.”
38
After Logan left, Tess sat in her car and hesitated to leave, unable to ignore the feeling she’d left something unfinished. Oliver. Casey had sounded dour, unhopeful about Anna. Tess wanted to talk to Oliver, since she couldn’t be at the hospital just yet. She redialed Jethro and asked for the pastor.
“Any chance I can talk to him?”
“I’ll see.”
She waited, starting the car and turning on the AC.
“Chief.”
Taking a deep breath, “Oliver, how is Anna?”
“There’s been no change; she’s still in a coma.” He sounded tired, worried, and defeated.
“I’d be there if I could.”
“You have your job to do. And I do believe God is in control, no matter what.”
“I’m amazed you feel that way, Oliver. If your God’s in control, why did this happen to Anna? She was a good person.” The words were out of her mouth before she thought them through, violating her own rule #1, and she winced. His wife was at death’s door. Was she piling on?
She heard him sigh. “Chief, that’s a valid question. The only way I can answer it is by saying that I trust God. I won’t deny I’m worried and a little frightened.” His voice broke. “But I have to trust God, or nothing in this life would make sense.”
–––
“I have to trust God, or nothing in this life would make sense.”
Oliver’s words reverberated in Tess’s thoughts as she drove back to the station. How did you trust someone—or something, for that matter—you couldn’t really be certain was there? It was a conversation she wanted to have with him someday. Hopefully with Anna by his side.
As soon as she got back to town, Tess released Officer Bender to travel to Shady Cove. She gave him a brief outline of what she’d heard from Octavio and that Logan was checking it out. Bender had been nothing if not extremely professional, and Tess wondered at the change in the man. But she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And when she got a call from Medford PD, where Bender had applied to lateral, she told the background investigator the truth: he was a good cop and she’d hate to lose him.
She let Killer out of the car to go to the bathroom and then brought the dog and her bed into the station. Gwen and Sheila cooed over the dog, and for her part, Killer seemed to love the attention. But she was tired. As soon as Tess set the dog bed down in her office, Killer curled up on it and went to sleep.
Bender reported that everything had been quiet in town, and Tess hoped it stayed that way. She needed to study her murder board and make certain she’d not forgotten anything. It was time to look for connections missed and to reexamine everything related to the murder of Glen Elders and the injury to Anna. It was a crowded board, but would anything she put up there be a clue that would lead her somewhere?
Her dad’s rule again came to mind: “When you don’t know, go back to what you do know.”
She worked on it for about an hour and a half, going over what she knew.
Glen gave Anna Macpherson a bag of money a week before he was shot. No one had yet claimed the money as theirs. Anna Macpherson disappeared on Wednesday; Glen was murdered on Thursday. Besides their familial relation, the only other connection was the money: Glen gave Anna the money. The way Glen was killed strongly indicated he knew his killer. Did Anna know the person as well?
It was a small town; odds were good that the killer knew both Anna and Glen. She remembered the odd conversation she’d had with Cole Markarov and noted it on the board. Casey had told her Cole was a close friend to Glen, but Cole denied that when she talked to him. How did that fit in here? Cole was known to be temperamental, but not criminal. Everyone said Acosta was solid as well. Was the money Acosta’s? Was assuming it was drug money a big mistake? It most certainly was a violation of rule #8: “Never assume.”
But how did Anna fit in? Was she with Glen for no other reason than that they were cousins? And why would the killer push her into the creek instead of shooting her? Her being there by accident didn’t jibe with the discovery of her abandoned car. Someone took her from the car.
That thought gave her pause. As Tess chewed on her lip and considered the board, she recognized that this small town, this place where everyone knew your name, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Someone in Rogue’s Hollow was a murderer; someone wasn’t wh
o they pretended to be. And it was looking like that person was Beto Acosta.
Further research on the man showed some cracks. He’d declared personal bankruptcy after his divorce. A search of public records showed the divorce was particularly acrimonious. He paid an enormous sum of alimony to his ex. At one point he’d even had his wages garnished.
This was a whole new angle. Maybe the money never was drug money but simply cash Acosta was hiding from his wife. Guys at work in LB used to joke darkly, “It’s cheaper to keep her.” Cash squirreled away somewhere, without records, something Acosta could never report as stolen, because if he did, sooner or later his wife would find out.
Tess was just about to close her office door when Bender got back.
“Any breakthrough?” he asked, nodding toward the board.
“More questions. You have any luck?”
“No one in Shady Cove or White City has seen her lately. I need to find someone here in town who might have information.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“Guy named Dustin. He was close with Elders. I’m sure you’ve seen him around. He’s a handyman of sorts. Does yard cleanup and the like. Skinny like a crackhead, but he’s clean that way, just dirty as far as hygiene goes. Nickname is Pig-Pen.”
Tess remembered the skinny guy she’d seen at Charlie’s Place. “I think I saw him the other day at Charlie’s.”
“Makes sense. He often does yard work there. I’ll go see if I can round him up.”
“Wait. I have a question about Cole Markarov.” She pointed to her entry on the board. “Was he a close friend of Glen’s? He says no.”
“Close? I don’t know that I’d say that. They were friends, at least in high school,” Bender said. “Cole has helped him out a couple of times. I don’t see anything sinister in what he said to you. The guy is pompous and arrogant. He probably doesn’t want you to see him as a man who helps others out. Plus, he’s all bark and no bite. Cole pretends to be tough, but . . .” He gave a dismissive wave of his hand.
“Thanks for that perspective.”
Bender nodded and left to find Dustin.
Tess resisted the urge to tag along for two reasons: Killer being one, and the other that she didn’t want to be a micromanager like Dixon. Bender seemed to be on her side now and she didn’t want to ruin that. She busied herself with paperwork until he raised her on the radio.
“Can you meet me up on the walking bridge over Midas Creek?”
“Did you get something?”
“Dustin pointed me in a direction we need to check out.”
“I’ll be right there.” Hope infused, Tess quickly cleared her desk. If Bender continued to do good work, this situation could allow them to find common ground.
She noticed that Killer had gotten up when she did. “So you only pretend to be asleep, huh. You’re ever vigilant, aren’t you?”
Killer’s tail wagged and she hobbled over to lean against Tess’s leg.
Hands on hips, she wondered if she should ask Sheila or Martha to watch the dog while she was gone. There was no way to know how long she’d be gone, and the dog was her responsibility right now.
“You want to come with me?” she asked, half-expecting the dog to answer. Killer did look at her adoringly and kept wagging her tail. Tess decided she’d take the dog. Killer could sleep in the car; she’d seemed comfortable enough there earlier.
As she considered the dog, she also remembered that she couldn’t leave the murder board facing her desk so that anyone who came into the office could see it. She moved some furniture out of the way and turned the board to the wall.
Tess hooked up Killer’s leash and walked her out to the car. A few minutes later she parked behind Bender’s patrol car.
“Did Dustin give up Glen’s hiding place?” she asked when he walked up to her window.
“He did. We had a nice chat. According to him, a few months ago Glen started showing up around town more often than usual. When Dustin asked him about it, Glen told him he’d set up a camp nearby.”
Tess frowned. “At the campground?”
“No, he stayed off grid. He wouldn’t have money for a hotel and he’d never stay with the Macphersons.”
“But what changed? Why did someone who lived out of his car in Shady Cove suddenly set up a camp in Rogue’s Hollow?”
“Dustin didn’t know. Might have to do with Tilly. Apparently Tilly lived in this hidey-hole as well. Dustin saw him head to his hole with Tilly often.”
“Tilly.”
“Yep. And Dustin heard where we found Anna, at the bottom of the falls. He says the hideout is above that.”
That sentence gave Tess pause. “But we searched, Del especially. I saw drag marks, but we couldn’t figure out where they originated.” She admitted to herself that they didn’t spend a lot of time looking; they wanted to find Tilly.
Bender nodded. “Dustin says you have to know what you’re looking for. And a hideout certainly would explain how Tilly appeared and disappeared so quickly and why Del didn’t see any sign of her by the creek.”
“Okay, hopefully luck will be on our side today and Tilly will be there now and we’ll finally be on the way to some answers.”
“Agreed. I thought I knew this area better than anyone, but I’ve never come across his camp,” Bender said with a head shake. “Let’s see what we can find.”
“You think it’s close?”
“Dustin drew me a map.” He showed her a crude drawing on a page in his small notebook. “I understand where he’s directing us. Dustin is working, so I didn’t want to interrupt gainful employment to bring him here. Glen would have wanted a place close to town but not too close.” Bender looked up the hillside. “And Tilly hid Anna; she couldn’t have dragged her far. I’m guessing, but I think it’s an educated guess. His camp has to be around here somewhere.”
Tess followed his gaze, certain he was on the right track but hesitant for some reason. She was a city girl through and through. The only time she’d had to search in a natural setting for anyone was when a five-year-old got lost in El Dorado Park, a city park in Long Beach. But she’d been in this forest several times over the past few days. That wasn’t what was spooking her now; it was Gabe. Gabe was testing her, probably so he could regale his buddies with stories about the clueless chief from California.
But if she refused to help or sloughed the job off to someone else, she’d be a wimp, a coward. Just then Killer shifted in the backseat and caught Gabe’s attention.
“What’s that? You get a dog?”
“Uh, it’s Elder’s dog. I just picked it up from the vet.”
“That’s right; you didn’t kill it.” His eyes widened with admiration. “It took a close-range 9mm slug and lived. Tough dog.”
“She lost her leg, but she’s perky.” Tess had a thought and blurted it out. “You think she’d be able to find the camp?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she winced. He was going to think she was an idiot, that she got her police work training from the TV. But he surprised her.
“She might,” he said. “I have hunting dogs. If we get separated, they always make it back to camp. Dogs are smart. I have more faith in them than I do in most humans.”
Tess swallowed, hoping she was making headway with this guy. She climbed out of her SUV. “Let’s see if she’s up to it.”
She opened the back door and Killer looked up, tail thumping. Grabbing the leash, Tess coaxed the dog out of the car. When she hit the ground, she looked at Bender.
Bender cursed and got down on his knees, holding his hand out for Killer to sniff.
“I can’t believe he shot the dog. You poor thing.” He ran a hand over her head and leaned forward to kiss the dog’s nose. Tess was flabbergasted. This was the hard-as-nails cop who’d been a thorn in her side for two months?
He stood. “Is she okay to walk around?”
“The vet said to take it easy, that she was likely to be self-limiting.”
Killer looked from Tess to Bender and then toward the bridge.
“I’m not sure what to do,” Tess said. “Is there a command?”
Bender shrugged. “Unhook her leash and let’s see what happens.”
Tess hesitated a moment. But how fast could a three-legged dog travel? She unhooked the leash, and Killer turned and hopped toward the bridge. She looked back once and then took off across the bridge, moving at a good clip. She went across and then down to the well-worn trail that ran along the creek, taking almost the identical path they’d taken to get to Anna.
Tess and Bender scrambled after her. But the dog didn’t turn down the hillside like they had on Saturday; she turned up. When she was above where Anna had been, she veered off the trail.
“She’s moving pretty good for a three-legged dog,” Bender commented.
“On a mission,” Tess said. They kept after the dog in silence, first climbing and then turning to parallel the river. There was barely a trail. They were up and away from the Stairsteps, and the roar of the water diminished somewhat. Then Killer disappeared.
Tess, a bit ahead of Bender, stopped, hands on hips, breath somewhat labored.
“Where?”
“To the right, behind that rock.” Bender pointed. He was sweating and breathing hard.
Tess headed for the rock and made a left around it, then stopped short as what she saw surprised her. Killer lay panting on a plain red dog bed. It wasn’t a cave, exactly, that she was in, but it was close. Elders had set up a camouflage shelter, virtually invisible unless you were right on it. Killer was under a tarp. Farther into the indentation in the hillside she saw a sleeping bag and other indications that someone had been living here.
“Well, I’ll be,” Bender said. “He was smarter than I gave him credit for. This hidey-hole is handy and well hidden.”
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