There was no indication of any criminal wrongdoing whatsoever.No warrants out for his arrest or anything suspicious.In other words, he was clean.The last time Tanner had seen a record this clean was when he’d run Bree.
An interesting coincidence.
Tanner opened the door to the interrogation room.He wanted answers.
“Mr.Steele.”He took a seat across from the man.“I understand you’ve refused your right to counsel.”Tanner hated to remind him that he could call for a lawyer, but Miranda rights weren’t something to be messed with.
Steele was sitting straight in the chair, with no signs of fatigue even though it was now dawn and he’d been here for hours.He nodded briefly at Tanner’s statement but didn’t respond.
He obviously wasn’t going to be like some suspects who immediately spilled their guts when questioned.
“Your record shows you’re from Texas.That you’ve worked multiple construction jobs over the years.Why don’t we start with how you ended up in Risk Peak?”
Steele shrugged.“I go where the work is.”
“You’re a long way from home.It’s hard to believe there weren’t any other jobs between here and Texas.”
Steele’s eyes were steady.“I like the mountains.”
“So do I.But I have to say, if I hadn’t been born and raised in Risk Peak, I’m not sure I ever would’ve found myself here.”He leaned his forearms on the table.“According to Denny Hyde, the construction foreman, you’ve been here for exactly twenty-nine days.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Me and Denny’s brother went to high school together, so we know each other pretty well.Denny was a little miffed at me because I had to wake him up in the middle of the night to ask him questions about you.”
Steele crossed his arms over his chest.“And what did your good buddy Denny have to say about me?”
Tanner straightened in his chair, cocking his head to the side.“Said you show up for work every day, do your job and haven’t given him a bit of trouble.”
The other man raised an eyebrow.“Then there you go.”
“You know what I find interesting?The fact that Denny started hiring for this project twelve weeks ago, but you didn’t come on then.You came on exactly twenty-nine days ago.”
“And why is that a problem?”
Now Tanner crossed his arms over his chest.He was larger than this man.Definitely heavier.But Steele wasn’t intimidated by him.Tanner had sat across the interrogation table from a number of suspects who weren’t intimidated by him.Some of them because of their own shape or size, some of them because they underestimated Tanner’s good-naturedness and took it for weakness, and some because they were just flat-out braggarts.
But Bill Steele’s lack of intimidation was something different.Like the man had already seen hell and knew there was nothing Tanner was going to do to him that could be as bad as what he’d already been through.
Steele might be a creepy, thin man, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.Deadly, even.
Maybe Tanner had even underestimatedhim.He’d assumed that because of the man’s gaunt face and slender build maybe he was a drug user.
But the eyes looking across from him now were not those of a man who would let narcotics control him.The thinness of his frame didn’t seem to rest naturally on him.It was more like he was in recovery.But recovering from what?
“It’s a problem because it was exactly one day after Bree and the twins got here.”
Steele’s eyes shifted away for just a second.“Coincidence.”
Tanner leaned back a little farther in his chair.“You know, I might have believed that if I hadn’t gotten the message from you tonight letting me know that Bree was in trouble.How did you know that?”
Steele shrugged.“I saw the guys headed toward her apartment.It’s sort of isolated.I knew she was there alone with those kids and thought the guys might be looking for trouble.Ends up I was right.”
“How do you know they were going toherapartment?If you called me when they were at her front door, there’s no way I would’ve gotten there in time.”
Steele’s jaw stiffened.“Look, Dempsey, I don’t sleep well.I was out for a walk, saw some guys who looked like trouble and did my civic duty.Nothing more or less than that.”
“Any reason why you didn’t just call 911?”
