“I hear Jake’s voice out in the hallway.” Sandy finished her coffee. “I’ll have a quick word with him and be on my way. Thanks for the coffee.” She gave them a wave and hurried out the door.
“Jake has everything under control here.” Kane dug into his pie with a plastic spoon and sighed in delight. “The cheerleaders are in a group in the park and waiting for the football team to arrive. We can catch them before they start the parade. It doesn’t begin until twelve. They’d planned for eleven-thirty but they have some problems with the sound system at the podium set up for the mayor, so we have plenty of time.”
“Good.” Jenna scanned her notes. “I want Rowley and Rio checking the MVD for green Chrysler sedans in the area.”
Jenna stared at the mound of food on the table. It smelled wonderful but, she wasn’t hungry. She peered into a bag containing individual caramel pecan pies. Maybe just the one.
Twenty-Three
He found his girl in the crowd of people heading into town and pulled her into an alleyway. “Are you sure you want to do this? Becky seems like a nice girl.”
“A nice girl, huh?” His girl’s mouth turned down and her eyes flashed with anger. “Of course, they’re nice to your face but she wants to make you look a jerk. She’s probably asked one of her friends to follow you to take pictures to plaster all over her Facebook page to prove a bet or something. You’re a trophy to them, nothing more, all you guys are. They don’t care about your feelings they just want to bring you down. They’re just like your ma.” She leaned into him. “I’m the only one you can trust. We have secrets between us and they bind us together. I’ll never treat you bad but if you love me like you say you do then you’d care that they’re mean to me. My life would be better without them. I can’t kill them without you.”
A shiver of excitement curled in his belly. It was like dropping down real fast on a rollercoaster. She always made him feel the same rush, as if he’d been strapped to the front of a freight train. “Okay. Are you sure no one will be at home? I don’t see any for sale signs outside, are you sure it’s empty?”
“I’m sure. I’ve been by a few times and its empty. The people that lived there leave the key in the same place each time. I figure it’s for the handyman or someone to get in to fix up the place.” She grinned at him. “I’ve been inside. It’s perfect. There are new mattresses on all the beds still wrapped in plastic. There’s cleaning products in the laundry, we can clean up real good before we leave.”
He nodded trying to show enthusiasm but he liked Becky, she didn’t seem at all nasty and he’d gotten on well with her. Becky had been very enthusiastic about a date with him and had kissed him passionately under the bleachers. He hadn’t dared mention the kiss. His girl would go crazy and stab Becky a hundred times. He could handle watching the girls being strangled but the stabbing made him sick to his stomach. He lifted his girl’s chin and looked at her to convince himself he couldn’t live without her. “I’m worried, killing someone in the middle of town with so many people around, that someone will see us leaving.”
“We’ll leave by the backdoor, it’s surrounded by trees and I already have a key. They left two hanging in the lock and I just took one. I’ll put it back later and I left the other one on a nail beside the door. I’ll kill the power when I go inside so bring a flashlight. Take Becky upstairs, there’s a bedroom on the left at the top, it has a big closet and I’ll hide in there. Get her with her back to the closet and I’ll do the rest.” She giggled. “Then we can strip her off and make her sit and watch us. We’ll clean up, I’ll return the key, and we’ll slip out the backdoor. You can burn her things like before and no one will know a thing. She can stay there until they sell the house and by the time they find her, we’ll be hunting down Vicky Perez.”
He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and shuffled his feet. “The sheriff has been talking to everyone who was at the gym on Saturday night. Do you figure she suspects us?”
“Us?” She barked a laugh. “No, of course not. We are just as sweet as pie and much smarter than they think. They’ll be looking for an old man, a pervert, a sex offender. Everyone knows Laurie was easy and so are the others, so it will show up they were playing around.” She grinned. “In any case they’ll be hunting down the guy who owns the briefs and blame him.” She ran a finger down his cheek. “Don’t forget, we need more of them, so select carefully. By the time we’ve finished, the sheriff will have so many suspects she won’t know what to do.” She pouted at him. “I want to stay here with you but we have to go, or we’ll be missed. I’ll walk around the back of the building and come out behind the bank. We can’t be seen together.” She went on tiptoes to kiss him. “I’ll see you tonight.” She scampered away down the alleyway turning out of sight.
He stared after her, a mixture of excitement and dread crawling over him like an ants’ nest. He pushed all doubt from his mind and imagined Becky propped up against a wall, naked, eyes staring into nothingness watching him with his girl. All of a sudden, sunset couldn’t come fast enough.
Twenty-Four
Jenna looked at Kane over her desk. “Hand over the thumb drive, we might as well scan the images while we’re taking a break.”
“We won’t have time.” Kane collected the remaining purchases and took them to the small refrigerator in Jenna’s office. “We’ll have to walk to the park if we want to speak to Collins and Moore. Main is closed off for the parade as of five minutes ago.”
“Okay, I’ll upload them to our files and we can look at them later.” Jenna finished her coffee and sighed. “My cruiser’s parked around back, we could take the backroads?”
“It would be quicker to walk.” Kane washed up the cups and turned them upside down on the sink.
“Hey.” Carter knocked on the door. “You planning on eating tonight?”
Jenna smiled at him. “Yeah but we have to head home and tend the horses plus we have an ongoing murder case.”
“Well, you have to eat and I’m inviting you both to join me, Jo, and Jaime at The Cattleman’s Hotel Restaurant for dinner at seven.” Carter shook his finger at Jenna. “Don’t tell me you have nothing to wear, I know you both keep numerous changes of clothes here at the office.”
“It’s lovely of you to ask but we can’t.” Jenna shook her head. “We’re still hunting down suspects. We just don’t have the time to go back to the ranch and then to ea
t out at The Cattleman’s Hotel, it takes an hour to get a meal there.”
“Yeah you do.” Carter rested one hip on the edge of her desk. “I’ll go tend your horses. If you let me take your cruiser, I’ll be able to get through the security and be back here in time to shower and change for dinner.” He glanced down at Duke. “I’ll even let Duke into your backyard. He likes me, he’ll come no worries.”
Jenna raised an eyebrow in question at Kane and he shrugged. She looked at Carter and nodded. “Well, I guess we do have to eat and it means we’ll be in town if we’re needed.” She took the cruiser keys out of her desk drawer and tossed them to him. “We’ll see you at seven.”
“You sure will.” Carter looked at Kane. “I’ll drop by and collect Duke around five, that should give me plenty of time.”
“I’ll leave him with Maggie.” Kane smiled. “He doesn’t like the fireworks, so will be more than happy to be at home tonight.” He looked at Jenna. “We need to go.”
Jenna stood and pulled on her jacket. “I’m right behind you.” She followed Kane and Carter out the office.
Main had transformed into a promenade filled with people, kids with balloons and cotton candy. Brightly colored bunting hung across the road and from every store front in town. The sidewalk was packed with stalls selling everything imaginable and townsfolk and tourists moved from place to place in swarms like bees attracted to the bright colors. Loud music blared over speakers attached to streetlights interspersed with announcements from the festival committee. They walked by a hastily built podium for the mayor to address the crowds and passed the vans used by local media stations.