“I’m sorry, ma’am, you’ll have to go back.” A young policewoman ran forward. “This is an investigation and you’re not allowed to—”
“What kind of investigation?” She looked at the woman’s badge. “Officer Maddox. I just received a call from the FedEx dispatcher to tell me that I’d be receiving a visit from the police and the FedEx rep. Why?”
“I’m sure that one of the detectives will be able to tell you what you need to know. But you really do have to get beyond the tape and let us get your statement. It’s not—”
“Eve, what the hell are you doing here?” Detective Pete Salyer had come around the truck. “I just called Joe and left a message for him. He’s with the captain and the mayor at some council meeting. I thought he’d want to know.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. She’d known Pete for years, and she liked and trusted him. “Know what?”
“A murder practically on his doorstep would interest him.”
Shock surged through her. “Murder?”
“The FedEx driver was shot at close range. No one heard the shot, so we think the weapon had a silencer.” He looked around at the trees lining either side of the road. “No houses. So far, we have no witnesses.”
“Murder,” she repeated numbly.
“She said that the company dispatcher phoned her about the truck,” the police officer said. “We wouldn’t allow that, would we, sir?”
“No way,” Pete said flatly. “What’s happening, Eve?”
“I have no idea.” She shivered. That pleasant young man to whom she’d given the reconstruction only hours ago was dead. “The man who phoned me said he was the dispatcher and there had been an accident. The package I’d given the driver was missing.”
“No accident. And we haven’t had a chance to determine if there was anything missing from the truck.” Pete turned and headed for the truck. “But I think it’s time we checked it out. I’ll talk to one of those FedEx bigwigs and see if they can pull up the info.”
Officer Maddox grimaced. “Look, I’m sorry that I wasn’t more helpful. I was just trying to do my job.”
“And you did it,” Eve said. “I must have looked pretty wild when I jumped out of that Jeep. And my story was just as improbable. Don’t apologize.”
Pete came back fifteen minutes later. “A record of a package being sent by you at 12:42 P.M. No package in the van. We’ll go through the entire van later for other missing packages but that’s a positive.”
“I don’t believe you’ll find any other missing packages,” Eve said. “I think he got what he wanted.” Her phone rang. “It’s Joe.”
“Are you okay?” Joe said the instant she picked up.
“Yes, I’m not the one who got shot. It was that poor driver.”
“Yeah, I got Pete’s message. Right before I got yours. It scared the hell out of me. I’m on my way,” he said tersely. “Are you at the crime scene?”
“Yes.”
“Stay there. Stay with Pete. Twenty minutes.” He hung up.
CHAPTER
4
Joe arrived in fifteen minutes, and he fought his way through the police and media crews that had just arrived to where Eve was standing in the trees. “Talk to me.” His expression was grim. “Tell me everything.”
“There’s not much more to tell.” She went over the entire phone conversation in detail. “He said he was a dispatcher. At first it sounded legitimate, then it got weird. It bewildered me. And all that about the police and FedEx reps coming to see me didn’t sound right. I’ve been standing here trying to piece it together.”
“And what did you come up with?”
“That he wanted me to be suspicious. He wanted me to suspect something wasn’t as it should be.” She met his eyes. “He wanted me to go try to find out the truth.”
“And you did it.” His jaw tightened. “He could have ambushed you, too. Just as he did that FedEx driver.”