“No.” Natalie’s mouth formed a fine lipsticked line. “Guess she learned her lesson.”
“Where is Linda now? She left town when Rachael was eight.”
Natalie pressed her lips together again. “For all we know, she’s on the moon. Linda Deal’s been in the wind since the minute she stepped out of Ross.”
Jake blew out his breath. Vanished, just like the USDA inspector after paying a visit to the meatpacking plant, the one whose cold case originally brought Jake to the same warm and friendly town. He wasn’t the first to try and find Agent Tom Smiley, but he was the first to get a job at the plant itself, which was considered amazing progress.
“Doesn’t sound good, Nat. She left, what? Right after the inspector disappeared? Deal ever file for divorce? Or make a missing person’s report?”
“Yes to both, actually.”
“I’m surprised. He ever have her declared dead?”
“He didn’t have to go that far. He actually called off the missing person’s report when he found a letter from Linda saying she was leaving him. He started divorce proceedings and it went uncontested.”
Jake grimaced. This felt wrong. Very wrong. “All right. I’ll go make friends with Deputy Junior.”
“Has Ernest Deal acknowledged you since you last spoke to him?”
“Not directly, but he’s got his bitch, Hank, keeping a close eye on me. Either we’ll come to blows, or I’ll be the one picking out curtains with him here sometime soon.”
“You know calling a man a bitch is insulting, Jake.” Nat’s mouth quirked up. “It’s degrading to real bitches like me.”
Jake smiled. “Sorry, Boss. And I’m sorry the recording I gave you of my one and only conversation with Deal was worth shit.”
“In court, yeah. Lots of plausible deniability, so sayeth the lawyers. But you and I know what he wanted.”
Jake scratched his chin, trying not to think about how Rachael’s fingers felt running across the stubble on his cheeks last night. “I’m going to try and get in front of Deal again. I’m working on the angle for how to do that, whether it’s more beneficial to cultivate Hank or get him out of the picture.” In truth, Jake had already made up his mind. For Rachael’s sake, Hank was going down.
Natalie nodded, then looked off to the side and Jake braced himself—he’d seen that hesitation before and it was never good. “Nice try with getting Rachael Deal to admit something last night. Too bad she’s as slippery as her father.”
Here we go. “I don’t think she’s slippery, so much as she’s afraid.”
“Afraid? Really?”
“You haven’t seen her face, Nat.”
“Just because she was banged up when you met—”
“I’m not just talking about that, but yeah, women who get beat up tend to be afraid, imagine that.” Jake couldn’t keep from raising his voice and he saw the results in his boss’s clenched jaw. He exhaled, looked down and shook his head. “I’m sorry, that was disrespectful.”
Natalie unclenched her jaw. “And borderline insubordinate, Agent Collins.” She bent her elbow and rested it on her desk, then put her chin in her hand. Her expression softened. “Tell me what’s going on with you, Jake.” Nat’s voice carried an uncharacteristic amount of honey.
Jake wasn’t falling for it. “Nothing. I’m just a little frustrated.”
Natalie wasn’t buying Jake’s story, either. “Obviously, but I need to know the cause. I won’t insult you and say you’re triggered by Linda’s story. But I know there are parallels between what happened to her with Deal and the sheriff and what happened to your mother.”
“Nope. What happened to my mom didn’t involve my dad. My dad’s not an abusive piece of shit. He adores my mom, adores all his kids. Mom and Linda aren’t even in the same ballpark, but okay.”
Shit. Too late—even on guard, he’d fallen right into Natalie’s trap.
Her eyes grew grave. “You may want to rethink that answer, Agent Collins, because you just gave some gravity to my other thought, which is that you’re getting in a little over your head with a potential source. An important one.”
“Boss. I just met the woman.”No, steer this in another direction. “In person. Before that, I read the file on her and her dad. There is a good chance Rachael Deal knows every last thing her father is into, stuff we have no idea about, but I don’t see her getting on the horn to report him.”
Natalie cocked an eyebrow. “Have you seen evidence of her getting a big fat piece of the pie by keeping mum?”
“As a matter of fact, just the opposite. She’s not living with him or in a nice house of her own, but in one of Deal’s shacks. She’s treated like shit on the job, I haven’t seen an ounce of affection or even respect outta Deal toward Rachael, and there’s no love flowing the other way, either.”
