“Jesus, Zo?,” Andrew said.
The disturbance brought Tom rushing forward. Zo? stopped him with a glare.
“Call the cops,” she barked at him.
“I knew you were trouble.”
“Just do it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Bishop Police Department was tiny. Zo? had been in doctor’s offices that were bigger. Hell, the Smokehouse was bigger. She guessed their force couldn’t have amounted to more than half a dozen officers, which wasn’t surprising considering the size of the town. She doubted their department was equipped or skilled enough to deal with a killer. She’d told them so, and it had gotten her dumped in the cramped waiting room. That had been hours ago.
Inspector Ryan Greening emerged from a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only.” He was in jeans and a T-shirt instead of his usual uniform—a suit.
Zo? leapt from the bench. “Well?”
He frowned at her demand.
She couldn’t be too angry with him. He’d saved her. Chaos had ensued at the Smokehouse when the cops arrived to find her pinning Craig Cook to the bar. Accusations flew left and right from her, Cook, Andrew, and Tom. The simple solution was to take everyone in to the station to sort things out. Her claims weren’t met by a sympathetic ear. Instead, she was looking at a couple of charges that included disturbing the peace and battery. Thankfully, she’d gone from being classified as a perpetrator to a victim when she got them to call Greening. He told them he’d be straight over, and she’d been confined to the waiting room and a wall of silence. The one surprise had been Greening’s appearance all the way from the Bay Area in less than an hour.
“OK, sorry. Please just tell me what’s happening?”
“Let’s go outside for a minute.”
They stepped out onto the street. The night was still and quiet. It was as if the town was holding its breath.
“What’s going on?” This time she managed to keep the accusing tone from her voice.
“Nothing. They aren’t the guys.”
“They must be. Craig Cook was with us the night we were taken. We talked to him. He was close enough to slip something into our drinks. He even looks like the person I remember.”
Greening raised his hands to cut her off.
“Sorry. Sorry. What? Just . . . just tell me. Please.”
“OK, it’s pretty simple. Craig Cook remembers you and Holli. He hit on you two, and you two hit right back. By all accounts, you guys had some fun, then you and Holli left at your own volition, giving Cook a nasty case of blue balls. His phrasing, not mine.”
“That’s it?”
Greening looked at her with fatherly disappointment. “I could add that both of you were pretty wrecked when you headed for your car.”
“No. That can’t be right. I’ll admit we would sometimes drink and drive but never while we were over the limit—and especially not with how far we had to drive that night. It was him. I know it.”
Greening held up his hands. “Trust me, it’s not.”
“How do you know? It’s just his word against mine.”
Greening shook his head. “It isn’t. He’s got an ironclad alibi. He was picked up on a drunk and disorderly less than an hour after you and Holli left the Smokehouse.”
She couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. She was no closer to the truth. She wanted to scream, cry, and laugh all at the same time.
“So this has been a gigantic waste of time,” she said, disgusted with herself more than anything else.
“No. The one thing we have now is another point on the timeline. According to the bartender, you and Holli left about a half hour before they closed. That was 10:30 p.m. The Mono County Sheriffs picked you up at 5:47 a.m. Whatever happened to you occurred in that window. That’s something we didn’t know. So well done.”
“Please don’t patronize me. It’s been too long a day for that.”
“I’m not. I’ve been looking into your case, and we have so few details that something seemingly as unimportant as a timeline is a big step forward.”
Zo? smiled, then shook her head as she realized something. She should have thought of it earlier, but it was late, and she’d been focused on Craig Cook instead of the bigger picture.
“You got here really fast. You were checking up on me, weren’t you?”
“In part, yes. It’s just procedure.”
“And did I pass?”
“Zo?, it’s late. I’ll answer your questions tomorrow, but right now, Craig Cook wants to talk to you.”
“He does?”