Henley Jamison had been Dupont’s vice mayor. He was now acting mayor and was almost as antagonistic as Dupont but maybe not quite as cautious. He’d already started to put pressure on them, just as Dupont had. Whether or not he would try to impede investigations that involved Thorne remained to be seen. Jamison was ambitious, but was he ambitious enough to get into bed with Thorne as Dupont had? It hadn’t worked out very well for his predecessor.
“Okay, I’m going to go get together with John and go over his report,” Sam said, referring to John Dudley, the county medical examiner. “Kevin, I want you and Wyatt to go over the crime scene at Reed’s Ferry Mill again. But this time, search farther away from the building. I know it’s contaminated there because it’s been a week. I know the drug addicts are going back in, but maybe there’s something out there. The killer might have parked on the access road and walked in. There’re some narrow trails. Take Lucy. If something is there, she’ll sniff it out.”
At the sound of her name, Lucy lifted her head and gave Sam a questioning look, the fur on her forehead wrinkling above curious eyes.
Kevin sat up a little straighter in his chair and nodded. As a part-timer and low man on the pole, Kevin was usually relegated to grunt work. After Tyler’s death, they’d been shorthanded, and he’d had to step it up. At first, Jo hadn’t been so sure about trusting him with extra responsibilities. She thought she’d even caught him lying once when she’d seen him come out of the alley near a restaurant. But he’d proved himself these last few weeks, and she was happy he was getting better assignments, even if she was a bit jealous that Kevin was getting to do fun field work while she was stuck making phone calls on this one. Sam always had a reason for everything, and she suspected that Sam was giving this job to Kevin and Wyatt so it wouldn’t seem as if she and Sam were collecting all the physical evidence.
A knock sounded on the door, and the receptionist, Reese Hordon, poked her head in.
“Sorry, Sam. I got a call from Nettie Deardorff about Bitsy again. Seems the goat chewed up the hem of her new housedress that was drying on the clothesline.”
Reese’s expression was apologetic. Her long dark hair was pulled into ponytails that cascaded down the sides of her face. Her blue eyes looked at them keenly. Jo liked the young woman, who was a cadet at the police academy and had a good instinct for police work. Not to mention that her contacts at the academy sometimes allowed them to expedite things as well as glean sensitive information off the record. What Jo liked most about her was that Reese didn’t flinch when they had to push the envelope a bit in order to expedite justice.
Lucy swiveled her head and wagged her tail furiously at the sight of Reese.
“Goat?” Wyatt asked.
“Nettie Deardorff is one of our senior residents. She’s had a feud going on with her neighbor, Rita Hoelscher, as long as I can remember,” Sam said. “They’ve fought over many things over the years, but ever since Rita got Bitsy—that’s her goat—Nettie has really stepped up her complaints. Thing is, Bitsy does get out and chew on things. Sometimes I wonder if Rita lets her out on purpose. A few months ago, Nettie got a chicken, and now they take turns calling in complaints on the other’s pets. It always ends amicably. I think they just want attention.”
Kevin rose from his chair. “I’ll take care of it.”
Sam held his hand out. “You sit back down. This will be good experience for Wyatt. Get him used to the local folks and all.”
Kevin beamed.
“Sure. I can handle that,” Wyatt said.
“I have the address right here.” Reese held a pink Post-it note out toward Wyatt.
Sam’s gaze drifted out the window. “Crap.”
Henley Jamison was walking down the sidewalk. It was a hot summer day, but he wore his charcoal-gray Armani suit coat, his crimson tie making a statement against his white shirt. Every single hair was perfectly in place as he strutted down the street in his shiny Ferragamo shoes toward the police station.
Sam pulled open his drawer and grabbed his keys. “Okay, let’s wrap this up quick and get out of here before Jamison comes in and makes a pain in the butt of himself.”
The office filled with the sounds of chairs scraping as they all jumped up and ran for the door. Sam’s voice stopped them as Jo was reaching for the old brass doorknob.
“Let’s do our best work today. We need to wrap this one up quick. I have a feeling Jamison might be ready to call in reinforcements, and I don’t think any of us wants another police department getting into our business.”
Chapter Three
As Kevin turned into the parking area of the Reed’s Ferry Mill, Sam’s words echoed in his head. He sure as hell didn’t want another department looking into this case. That might lead to investigating each of them, and that was the last thing he wanted. Especially considering what he’d been up to.
In the passenger seat of the police-issue Crown Victoria, Lucy stared out the window intently, her gaze focused on the abandoned brick building. Kevin chose his parking spot carefully. The parking lot had been claimed by tall grass, scrawny shrubs, and thick weeds. He didn’t want the Crown Vic to get scratched, because it was a privilege to be allowed to drive it.
The police department had only two vehicles; the other was the Tahoe that Sam usually drove. When Tyler had been alive, he’d driven the Crown Vic, and Kevin had to drive his own car. But once Tyler was gone, Kevin graduated to the Crown Vic.
Now that Wyatt had been hired on full-time, would Sam let him drive the official car and bust Kevin back down to his personal vehicle? Kevin didn’t think so. He had seniority, and Sam respected that sort of thing. But he still didn’t want to risk his privileges by getting the car all dirty and scratched.
Kevin pulled to a stop and took his keys out of the ignition before reaching into his pocket for one of the special treats for which he drove two towns over to purchase for Lucy. They were her favorite. The smell of bacon permeated the car, drawing Lucy’s gaze to the treat in his hand. He fed her the treat and then patted her, taking comfort in the softness of her fur on his fingertips.
“You remember this place, right, girl?”
Lucy tilted her head. She’d been over the crime scene several times with Sam and Jo.
“Of course, you do. Let’s give it another look. I know you can find something.” Kevin got out of the car and came around to the passenger side to let Lucy out. Pride swelled in his chest. Lucy usually stayed with Sam or Jo, but today Sam had trusted him with the dog. He was making progress, becoming part of Sam and Jo’s inner circle.
Kevin had gotten attached to Lucy. He enjoyed her company, and she seemed to understand him. Dogs just took you at face value; they never complained. Didn’t stab you in the back either. You could trust a dog. People, not so much. Before Lucy had come to the department, Kevin had felt isolated. As a part-timer, he worked odd hours, and it always seemed as if Sam, Jo, and Tyler were in a special group and he was the outsider. Once Lucy came on the scene, he felt he had a friend. And now things were really looking up. His relationship with Sam and Jo was strengthening. Sam had been giving him more responsibility and had shown in several ways that he trusted Kevin.
There was no way he would betray that trust. He couldn’t undo what he’d already done, but at least he could try to make up for his mistakes.
His thoughts turned to the mysterious contact who had asked him to relay information about what was going on in the station. It had started almost a year ago. He found notes in his mailbox and his car. He met with people in shadowy alleys. He’d almost been caught at it once and was forced to lie to Jo, making up a story about meeting his cousin who worked at the restaurant next to the alley when she’d seen him coming out of the alley after meeting his contact.