“You have got to be kidding me.” An ugly flush swept through his cheeks. “Ms. Landros, there’s no need—”
“I’ve already made up my mind on this, Lamb.” Petra’s face was cool, her voice firm. Her smile widened slightly. “Come on, Dan. With the upcoming election, don’t you think you’ve got your hands full enough already? The Chamber is invested in another Lamb administration in the Sheriff’s Department. We need you to focus on doing what you do best—keeping the town clean and the riffraff off the streets.”
The subtext was so obvious even Lamb couldn’t miss it. If you want to keep your funding and your endorsement, you’ll play nice. Veronica wished she had a camera to capture the particular shade of violet Lamb’s cheeks were turning.
His eyes flashed toward Veronica with unadulterated loathing, his mouth twisting wildly as if he was fighting to keep it shut. After a long moment, he grabbed a thin manila file folder and thrust it across the desk at her.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Lamb said as she opened the file. “You’re here to assist in an investigation. Not to run it. You’re in my house now, Mars. I set the rules.”
She flipped through the folder. There was nothing other than the initial missing person’s report filed by Hayley’s friends two days after the party. No notes, no transcripts, no records.
She looked up with a raised eyebrow. “This is it? Is one of your rules to not interview people?”
Lamb gave her a condescending sneer. “What else do you want, a Family Circus–style map retracing her steps? We took her friends’ statement and logged it in the system. There wasn’t anything else to do. There’s absolutely no evidence that anyone took Hayley anywhere against her will. If there were, we would have followed it.”
“Did you check out the house she disappeared from?”
Lamb flicked his hair back. “First of all, just because that was the last place her friends saw her doesn’t mean she disappeared from that house.”
She stared at him incredulously. “So your argument for not checking the last place she was seen is that it’s just the last place she was seen? Nice. Very thorough.”
Something flitted across Lamb’s face and was gone. Then he shrugged. “My people are already spread thin. I’ve got most of my guys down by the boardwalks making sure kids don’t drown in their own puke. We don’t have the manpower to look under rocks for drunken sorority girls.”
Veronica gave him a withering look but didn’t say anything. She could ask for more—for the rental agreement for the house where Hayley went missing, for information on the owners, for the deed—but it’d be just as easy for Mac to access that. Not to mention faster, and one less time she’d have to talk to Lamb. All kinds of wins.
“Anything else we need to discuss?” she asked, looking at Petra. The hotelier was already on her feet, threading her arm through her purse strap.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I realize you don’t have much to work with. Please call my office if you need anything at all—my assistant has been instructed to put you right through.” She gave Lamb an icy smile. “I want Hayley Dewalt found, Lamb, and I expect you to assist Ms. Mars in any way she requires.” With that, she strode out the door.
Lamb looked up at Veronica, the color fading from his cheeks, his eyes narrowed to slits. She looked back at him steadily, unflinching, waiting for him to speak first. Watching the sheriff take his medicine from Landros had been fun—but she knew a humiliated Lamb was a dangerous Lamb.
After a long moment, he leaned back in his chair again, but this time without his former swollen smugness. He jabbed his index finger toward her. “I want to hear everything you find out. You don’t take a fucking step without reporting it to me, you understand?”
“So, the work is beneath you … until you want to take credit for it. Is that it?” Veronica shot him a contemptuous look and stood up. “Look for me under a rock if you’re curious. I’ll let you know when I find Hayley Dewalt.” And with that, she slammed his office door and left the station.