“No.Should I have?Do they do something special for your sandwiches?”
Tanner let out a sigh.“No.They just probably would’ve spit in it—or worse—if they’d known it was for me.”
“Because of the whole Bree situation?”
He scrubbed a hand across his jaw.He needed a shave.“I guess you heard?”
Scott’s baby face scrunched up.“The way the people around here are telling it, you lit her on fire before escorting her out of town.”
Tanner rolled his eyes and took the sandwich Scott offered.“Got to love small-town drama.Bree told me she was leaving, and I didn’t try to stop her.Like you said, I think she might be caught up with the mob or a gang or something.While I feel bad for her, really, my overall priority has to be to the town.”
“So you’re just going to leave the whole break-in alone?That doesn’t seem right.”
Good for you, kid.Hold the line.“No, you’re right.I don’t care who it is, someone breaking into a house isn’t okay here.We’ve got forensics seeing if they can pick up any prints, but it doesn’t look hopeful.”
“Didn’t Ronnie say you had a suspect?Anything come of that?”
“It was Bill Steele, that guy who was making Bree nervous.But we didn’t have enough to charge him.”Tanner gestured to the chair in front of his desk.“Want to come in?”
“Do you think Steele is one of the men who broke into her apartment?”Scott sat down as Tanner began unwrapping the sandwich.
“Maybe.I’ve got some more questions I’d like to ask him.Ronnie has gone to bring him back.Hopefully he’ll come voluntarily, because we definitely don’t have enough to charge him.”
But maybe he would want to go.Maybe, like Bree, Steele was concerned about phones tracking his location.
Fine.If he wouldn’t—or felt like he couldn’t—come to the department, Tanner would go out and find him.Steele didn’t have to give him answers in an official setting, but he had to give Tanner some answers.It could be in the middle of a field as far as Tanner was concerned.
“Would you mind if I sat in on the questioning?See if I can learn something?”
“Yeah, we’ll see.”On one hand, the kid was pretty observant and might see or hear things Tanner missed.On the other hand, Steele was already pretty closed off.Having other people around wasn’t going to help the man feel free to speak.
Tanner was one bite into his sandwich when his office phone rang.
“Tanner Dempsey.”
“It’s Ronnie.We’ve got a problem.Steele didn’t show up for work today.”
“Did he call in sick?We know for a fact he was up all night.”
“Nope,” Ronnie said.“Just didn’t show up at all.I got his address from Denny Hyde and went over to the place he’s renting.He’s gone, Tanner.”
“What?”Tanner stood, sandwich forgotten.
“Yep.He was renting Sue Ragan’s place that she made out of her barn.And by the looks of it, he lit out of here in a hurry.You need to get here right away.”
“Why?”
“We definitely should’ve arrested Steele while we had the chance.”
Chapter Twenty
Mrs.Ragan’s house was a couple of miles outside town, so Tanner drove, Scott riding with him, since the younger man looked so crestfallen at being left behind.
As soon as Tanner walked into the room where Steele had been staying, he let out a string of curses that would’ve made a seasoned sailor proud.
Steele had played him.
The walls were covered in photos of Bree and the babies.Dozens of them.He’d definitely been watching her—stalking her—since the day he arrived.
