Justine hugged her friend. “That’s what friends are for.”
37
1:55 p.m.
Ray paused at Mary Alice’s desk. “Hold my calls.” Then he went into his office and closed the door. He had never cared for Mondays but this was the worst one of his life.
He swallowed back a howl of misery.
Keith Turner was dead.
Violet had called Ray late last night in a tizzy to say she’d come home from church to find Keith gone and that he hadn’t called or been home since. Ray had assured her that she shouldn’t worry. Keith had probably gone out with some of the guys and forgotten the time. It wouldn’t have been the first time he and his buddies did something so thoughtless and adolescent. Hell, Ray still forgot to call his own wife from time to time when he was caught up in a case or a report.
This morning at six the first shift reporting to work at the quarry had found Keith’s body at the excavation site.
Ray had been there all morning, along with the forensic technicians from the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations. Keith’s body had been taken away for an autopsy. It was pretty clear what had killed him, but there were things they needed to assess. Whether or not there had been a struggle prior to his fall. Drugs, alcohol. Stuff that small-town chiefs like Ray didn’t usually have to deal with.
Not since Heather Baker.
He’d just left Violet’s house.
Ray sat down behind his desk and put his face in his hands. Things had been simmering toward this boil ever since Clint was released. The fight Saturday night was no surprise considering the tension eating at the whole town.
Ray had sent Mike Caruthers to pick up Clint from the repair shop and bring him in for questioning. Ray hated like hell to do it, but he didn’t have an option. The whole town would consider Clint a prime suspect. Hell, any chief of police worth his salt would be a fool not to.
Except that Ray knew things the townsfolk didn’t.
Troy and his buddies were being rounded up as well. Everybody at Violet’s party had been talking about the tension between Troy and Keith. Usually Troy knew where Keith was at all times. Violet had said she’d called Troy last night and he claimed he had no idea what Keith was up to. Sounded damned fishy to Ray.
That was the thing. When a rich guy like Keith went missing, you worried about kidnapping and ransom. Sometimes kidnappings went wrong. But Ray knew in his gut that money had nothing to do with this. This was about the past.
Shouting outside his door jerked Ray’s head up. The door flew open and Granville Turner stormed in, Mary Alice right behind him trying hard to talk him out of interrupting.
Too late.
“It’s okay, Mary Alice.”
She nodded, then closed the door as she left.
“There’s nothing else I can tell you right now, Granville.” Ray pushed to his feet, feeling immensely sorry for the man. Despite all the water that had gone under the bridge between them, and there had been plenty, Ray couldn’t help the sympathy he felt.
Granville towered in front of Ray’s desk. Wouldn’t have sat down had he invited him to. “You can tell me if you’ve hauled Clint Austin in yet. I want to know if that bastard has an alibi.”
“Mike is on his way in with him right now. I’m going to question him as well as anyone else who associated with Keith on a regular basis and who might have had some idea what he was doing at the quarry.”
“It’s Austin,” Granville said, his usual boisterous voice a dull roar. “I know it’s him. I want you to get that son of a bitch, Ray. I don’t care what it takes.”
“I’ll question him just like everybody else of interest to this case.”
“You told me you would take care of this.” Granville’s eyes glittered with unshed tears. “That I had nothing to worry about. Now my son is dead.” He shook a finger at Ray and blinked away all signs of vulnerability. “I own you, Ray Hale, lock, stock, and barrel. Don’t you forget it. I saw that you moved up the ranks ... got the position of chief. You oweme.”
That was truer than Ray would have liked to admit, but there were things that Ray knew too. Things that could take Granville back down a notch or two, but not now. This was too personal and too painful for Ray to take that hard line with the man under the circumstances.
“I will find out how this happened,” Ray promised, “and when I do you’ll be the first to know.”
“There’s no way that bastard could have known ...”
Granville didn’t have to complete the sentence. Ray knew what he meant.
