“She was gone about thirty minutes total. Last night, her truck was keyed at Frank’s. Cowboy Billy admitted to it. She didn’t call it in.” I paused and looked at him, knowing he’d been there. He stared ahead. I continued, “I want you to go back to the bar and see if anyone knows or heard about who could have done this tonight. Check the security cameras. Go to Billy’s house and verify his whereabouts tonight. Do the same for the Aldridge sisters. Tell them both I’ll see them in the morning.”
My gut told me this had nothing to do with Cowboy Billy and everything to do with Kenzo Rees, but it would be nice to officially check off that box.
“Before that, though,” I continued, “I want this entire house photographed, inside and out. We need to get it swiped for fingerprints and check for trace evidence. Need to write this down, Darby?”
He flipped open his notepad. “Did Miss Harper call you?”
I cocked my head, staring bullets into the side of his face. It was the first time I wondered if he could be recording our conversation.
“No. She got a flat tire on the way home from Gino’s. I gave her a ride.”
Sweat beaded on his forehead. He swiped it away. Hedidn’t ask anything else about it, which I noted. A normal person would ask how I knew that, or where the truck was exactly, or if the tires had been slashed, perhaps. Or what the heck I was doing on the road behind her. Not Darby. And I wasn’t going to share the information about the valves being tampered with. Not with him.
“Did you see her truck on your way in?” I asked.
“No.” He shook his head.
Phoenix had already towed it. The man worked fast. Good.
Darby nodded to the front door. “Busted locks?”
“Nothing obvious.” We stepped onto the porch. “Could have used a pick or credit card. The cabin is old and isn’t exactly Fort Knox.”
Darby kneeled down at the front door, searching for footprints.
“I’ll get someone out here from the state crime scene unit, but it will be awhile,” I said.
“I’ve got nothing better to do.”
I didn’t doubt that. “Stay out of the way and pay attention. You might learn a thing or two.”
Darby nodded, a moment passing before he looked up at me and finally addressed the elephant in the room. “Do you think Rees did this?”
“That’s what we need to find out, kid. Get at it. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
Three hours later and jack shit to show for it, I watched Darby back down the driveway, headed to Frank’s to pull security footage. Crime scene techs confirmed a switchblade had been used to pop the lock on Sunny’s door. Prints covered the knob—likely hers—but they lifted what theycould, just in case Rees had been stupid enough not to wear gloves. No usable prints elsewhere. No spray cans, no cigarette butts, nothing. My Jeep had crushed any tire tracks, and with Sunny’s hair and her dogs’ everywhere, trace evidence was a lost cause. And of course, no security cameras—something I planned to fix personally. By the time I was done, her house would make Fort Knox look like a tent.
As expected, Darby didn’t even ask how the intruder had gotten past her dogs—an obvious clue. But I already knew it was Rees. My gut was never wrong. Revenge was the oldest motive in the book.
Darby still had a lot to learn, and with no time to teach, I’d handle everything myself—quietly, efficiently. His headlights disappeared down the road as Sunny climbed out of my Jeep, tension radiating off her like heat, her dogs just as wired.
“What did you find? Anything? Prints? Anything? What?—”
“No. Nothing.”
Her shoulders slumped. “There’s got to be something.”
“There’salwayssomething. I promise you, I’ll find it.”
“It’s him. I know it. He called me a cunt that night in Dallas, over and over. I remember.” She looked at me, eyes wide with adrenaline. “You think it’s him, too, don’t you?”
“Yes. I do.”
She nodded. “Good. We agree, then. It is. I know it.” She looked back at the wreckage of her once beautiful home. “Oh my God, where to begin…”
“Tomorrow. We’ll start on it tomorrow.”
She slowly nodded. A moment slid by before she turned to me. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you, Jagg. Thank you for everything.”
