She scrolled through incident reports from Montana and gasped when she found an item from three weeks before from the tiny (population 332) town of Ekalaka in Carter County, the most southeastern county in the state.
The Carter County Sheriff’s Department is seeking information on the September 22 discovery of a headless body discovered south of town. The victim was a young African American or dark-skinned Native American and/or Hispanic male in his late teens or early twenties. The victim was found 180 feet from County Road 154 wearing boxer briefs (lg.) and no other clothing. Victim is estimated to have been five-eight to five-ten and 160 to 175 pounds. There are no identifying marks on the body except for a two-inch (apparent) surgical scar on the inner left ankle. Cause of death, according to Sheriff (and Coroner) Bebe Verplank, was not determined due to possible post-mortem decapitation. There were no other wounds on the body. Montana DCI is involved in forensic pathology procedure.
Cassie reread the post and sat back, her heart whumping in her chest.
One victim, not two. Ekalaka was a town so small and isolated that it listed only three law enforcement personnel: a deputy, an undersheriff, and a sheriff named Bebe Verplank who also served as the coroner. Confusion over whether the body was African American, Native American, or Hispanic.
The timing—three weeks—kind of worked. Did Raheem have a surgical scar on his ankle?
But Ekalaka was the absolute wrong direction: west. And it was found over two hundred miles due south of Wolf Point and the Missouri River in Montana.
It made no sense. None. But it was the only thing she’d found in hours of searching that might be a lead.
As she spun out scenarios in her head her cell phone burred and skittered across the top of the card table. She snatched it up.
Sheriff Kirkbride was returning her call.
She couldn’t wait to talk to him. She wanted to know if Kirkbride knew of Bebe Verplank in Ekalaka, or if Raheem had a scar on the inside of his ankle.
*
FROM THE SECOND HE SAID, “Cassie, it’s Jon,” she knew something was wrong on the other end. It came through in his tone.
“Thanks for calling me back.”
“Sure,” he said. Then: “Well, it’s over. Avery Tibbs won and I lost. I’m in here cleaning out my desk.”
“What?”
“I came to an agreement with the county commission. I really didn’t fight very hard. They’re letting me retire as of today with my full pension. Tibbs is putting Deanna Palmer in charge until the next election. She’ll do fine…”
Cassie didn’t know what to say.
“I’m not even all that pissed off at Tibbs,” he said. “He wanted me out more than I wanted to stay. That’s how the game is played at this level. It’s pure power politics and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty damn good at it myself back when I was rising through the ranks. That’s just how it goes.
“I guess I’ll finally get the chance to spend some quality time with my horses,” Kirkbride said. “I can’t say I mind that one bit.”
Cassie asked, “How much of this had to do with the explosion?”
Kirkbride hesitated for a moment. “That was the thing Tibbs could latch onto,” he said with a sigh. “We’ve never lost any officers before, so someone had to take the fall. I don’t mind that it’s me.”
Cassie said, “I’m just so sorry you have to leave because of me—because of what I did. You trusted me and I let you down.”
“Stop it. Just stop it,” Kirkbride said with a flash of anger. “I was your supervisor and I was all in. Nobody could have prepared for what happened because we were up against a guy using his own sick set of rules. I’m sure we both have had plenty of sleepless nights where we ask ourselves what we would have done differently. But there was no way anyone could have guessed he’d blow himself up and take as many of us with him as he could.”
“Did you tell the commissioners that?” she asked.
“Not really. I’ve pretty much lost my enthusiasm for another political fight after all these years. I did fight for you, though.”
Cassie sat back in her chair. “You did what?”
“I told them they ought to come to you on bended knee and beg you to stay. That they really don’t want to lose the best investigator in the department.”
“I’ll bet Tibbs loved that,” Cassie said.
“He wasn’t too happy about it,” Kirkbride said. “But I’m afraid if I was you I wouldn’t wait for them to show up at your door.”
“Thank you,” she said. She was going to say more but she could feel her emotions taking over. For the second time in two days she didn’t want the sheriff to know she was going to cry.
“But that’s not what you called about,” Kirkbride said.
“No it isn’t but never mind,” she said. Something was burning in the back of her throat.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Kirbride said with his usual good cheer. “Come by the place and have a cup of coffee if you don’t have anything else to do. And if you want a good laugh you can watch a fat old guy try to ride around on his horse.”
She discontinued the call and lowered the phone to her lap.
Then she closed her eyes and took a ragged breath. She thought she knew how Lottie Westergaard must feel: that something unusual had happened and the aftermath was unfair and unjust.
Cassie pushed back from the card table and opened the blinds of the window and looked out on the quiet street. A knot of grade-school kids were on the sidewalk coming home from school. Ben should be on his way home as well.
As for Kyle Westergaard and Raheem Johnson …
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Location Unknown
KYLE HAD NO IDEA where he was but he knew it was different from any place he’d ever been before.
The air was thinner. He’d thought at first when he got there it was the hood over his head that made it hard to breathe, but when it finally came off he realized he couldn’t seem to get a full breath—more like half a breath. It gave him a headache and made his lungs hurt and when he stood up too quickly he became dizzy.
The trees were different, too. He could see them through the cloudy window cut into the log wall as well as the window above the old-fashioned sink. Tall and skinny—really skinny trees. Christmas trees, sort of. Not like the kind of full trees he was used to, the ones that looked like upside-down pears. And he could smell a waft of pine on the rare occasions when the front door opened.
It got cold faster when the sun went down and it warmed up more quickly in the morning.