33

ARN WALKED INTO THE HOUSE to voices coming from the kitchen. He took off his boots before Danny-the-Cleanliness-Nazi reprimanded him for wearing them inside, and headed toward the noise. Ana Maria sat at the kitchen table across from Samantha, the sleeves of their plaid work shirts rolled up. Grime and grease had collected under their perfectly-manicured nails, and they both hugged mugs of steaming coffee. They looked up for a moment before continuing their conversation. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said.

“You are excused,” Sam said and flashed a wide smile. “See, Ana Maria, even a famous Metro Denver detective can blush.”

Arn felt pretty good about himself, having a beautiful woman flirt with him. Until he remembered Gorilla Legs doing the same thing and his ego instantly deflated. “I take it you got the old truck running?”

“Like a new one,” Ana Maria said. “Thanks to Sam.”

“And thanks to Ana Maria, I’ve managed to calm down over that body at the VA. Have they found out anything?”

Arn grabbed a cup from the cup tree. “Let me grab some coffee first.”

“We’re outta coffee,” Ana Maria said. “But green tea is brewing in the pot.”

Arn figured this was no time to discuss his irregularity and poured tea before sitting at the table. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t see the truck sitting outside.”

“That’s because Danny took it,” Ana Maria said.

“Danny hasn’t had a driver’s license since 1979, and I haven’t bought current plates for it. Or insurance. What’s he driving it for?”

“For an emergency,” Samantha answered.

“That’s right,” Ana Maria said as she stood and walked to the tea pot. “A major emergency—he drove to Safeway to buys some fresh lobster. We all—collectively—figured with the killings so close to home and us working our tails off, we needed some comfort food.”

Arn groaned. Even if Danny didn’t get arrested for driving without a license and the truck impounded, several pounds of fresh lobster would set Arn back more than if he’d taken them all out for supper. “Did Danny take my Visa card?”

Ana Maria nodded. “Relax. Even with the cost of that, Sam didn’t charge for getting the truck running. In the long run, you saved a ton of lucky bucks. So quite being a cheap skate.”

“Did you find out anything?” he asked Sam.

“I did some heavy duty asking around the VA this morning. A couple people thought they saw someone matching Jonah’s description walking the hallways during the protest.”

“Good.” Arn took his notebook out of his pocket. “I’ll want to talk with them.”

“Crap,” Sam said. “I didn’t get their names, and I don’t know who they were. I only get here once a week. I’ll ask around tomorrow again before I go to the outreach clinic in Gillette. If I get names, I’ll call you.”

“Just watch yourself.” Arn said, “Snooping around, asking about Jonah might not be safe.”

“I doubt I have anything to worry about,” Sam said. “I was neither an officer and—if you hadn’t noticed—I’m not a man either.”

Arn blushed, rescued when Danny entered the kitchen. He plopped down two Safeway bags and handed Arn his Visa card. “How much, I’m afraid to ask?”

“You can’t put a price on comfort food,” Danny said and patted Arn on the back. “Don’t think for a moment that we don’t appreciate it.”

—

After Arn saw Samantha out to her car with the promise that they would get together the next week when she was in Cheyenne, she pecked him lightly on the cheek and sped off. By the time he came back in the house, Danny had finished the dishes, and he motioned to the coffee pot. “After springing for that lobster, you deserve a cup of fresh coffee. Picked a bag up at Starbucks.”

“About time. Where’s Ana Maria?”

“In the sewing room. She got some new information.”

Danny trailed Arn into the sewing room as Ana Maria’s taped broadcast was ending. “We here at KGWN intend staying on this development until the killer is corralled and brought to justice. We are but a half-step away from unmasking the killer of innocent veterans,” and she signed off.

“Rewind that a few seconds,” Arn said.

Ana Maria tickled the buttons and her night cast rewound in double time.

“Stop! Hit play.”

Ana Maria started the DVR again while Arn bent close to the TV screen and squinted. “Stop!”

“What are you seeing?” Ana Maria asked.

“There,” Arn jabbed the screen with his finger. “Look at the crowd behind you wanting to get into the frame.”

Ana Maria’s hand began trembling, and Danny took the remote before she dropped it. “What is it?” Danny asked.

“Behind me,” she said. “It’s… him.”

Doc Henry stood among the crowd that had gathered in back of Ana Maria listening to her broadcast. Watching her.

Within grabbing distance of her.

—

Arn drank a beer now and again. Danny, never since he stopped altogether and joined A.A. ten years ago. Ana Maria—on the other hand—could, belt down all sorts of libations with the best of them when she felt the urge. And tonight, she felt the urge. “How could I be so stupid,” she asked, but it came out schtupid, her words slurring badly this last hour, “to allow Doc Henry to get that close?”

“Couple reasons,” Arn said. “You let your guard down. And, you refused to file a restraining order against Doc.”

“The court wouldn’t issue one on something as flimsy as Doc standing close to me. Not doing anything— oh shit, I forgot how you cops put it—.”

“Overt,” Danny said, “is what I think you mean.” He nodded to her empty glass. “I’ll grab refills,” and left the room.

“Overt.” She tried snapping her fingers, but coordination eluded her. “That’s it. They wouldn’t issue an order unless he did something overt towards me.”

Arn knew Ana Maria was right. She’d covered the police beat enough to know Doc had to do something—threaten her. Show up at her work place repeatedly. “It would have still gotten the police involved. Got something on record.”

Arn hit the TV tray. “I guess I need to have a private talk with Doc.”

“And get yourself tossed in the hoosegow?” she said.

Arn, and Ana Maria, had few options. She was right—Doc hadn’t done anything to her. He could argue that he happened to be outside the capitol building when she aired, merely watching the broadcast like the other thirty people who had gathered in the hopes of getting their mug on television.

Danny returned to the room and placed a bottle Jack Daniels on the TV stand in front of her. Arn snatched the bottle before Ana Maria could and poured two fingers, not the four she’d been belting down the last hour before emptying the last bottle. “You need to slow down or Danny will have a big mess to clean up in here. You dropped your guard, but you’re all right.”

She watched through bleary, red-rimmed eyes as Danny left the room once again. “I’m not all right,” she said, sounding as if she talked through a hollow barrel. “Doc’s here and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

This wasn’t the first time Arn had run into a false bravado by someone, only to reveal how frightened they were once the booze started flowing. Ana Maria had put up a strong front about Doc Henry when she was sober. Drunk, her fears surfaced. As they should have. “Maybe you ought to stop your live updates,” Arn said. “At least for a while.”

Danny came back balancing three saucers of double-chocolate cake. He set one in front of Ana Maria and handed Arn a much smaller piece. “Tell me you didn’t frost this with Ex-lax, ’cause I don’t need anything to help my regularity after Ana Maria’s broadcast.” He leaned closer to her. “I about shit when you claimed the authorities were close to finding the killer. We’re not. What were you thinking?”

She shrugged and her fork slid from her fingers. Danny picked it up and handed her one of the slices of cake. “I thought I’d prod the killer into thinking we have more than we do. Worked before, didn’t it?”

Arn agreed. Except now, with Doc Henry in town, she had other things to worry about beside the killer thinking she had more information than she did. She had to worry about Doc.

“Give me the word and I’ll put in a call to some of my old AIM buddies,” Danny said, running his finger across his throat. “Ana Maria’d never have to worry about Doc Henry again.”

“If it were only that simple,” Arn said.

“While you’ve been looking for Jonah Barb,” Ana Maria squinted through one eye and managed to cut off a corner of cake, “I’ve been talking to suspects.”

Arn stopped his fork mid-mouth, a bad feeling coming over him. “What suspects?”

“That beautiful woman we just had as a dinner guest. While you were gallivanting around, wasting your time today, she and I… bonded over that old truck of yours.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“Do you really think I invited her here to help fix your old pickup?” Ana Maria said. “Hell, all it needed was new glow plugs. I’ve replaced a bunch of those when I worked my dad’s shop. I didn’t need her to do that for me. But while we were both turning wrenches, I asked her about the dead veterans. In my own way.”

“I thought you said you were talking to suspects?”

Ana Maria set her fork down and grabbed for the bottle of whisky, but not before Arn snatched it our of her reach. “All right already. She told me the dates that she at the VA centers for her benefits job. In all but three, she was at the VAs where the men were found dead.”

Arn landed closer to her. “Sam is no suspect, but I appreciate you looking out for me.”

Ana Maria seemed to clear her head for a moment and looked at Arn, her voice—though slurred—taking on a serious tone. “Remember us talking about a beauty like her chasing after you?”

“How can I forget,” Arn said. “You brought up something about it being unnatural for a looker like her—her age—to come on to an older man like me.” He looked at the bottle in his hand, now tempted to take four fingers himself and he handed it to Danny for safe keeping. “In some circles a mature man—even fifteen years older—would be considered a catch. Did it ever occur to you that she sees me as a stable part of her life?” But Arn knew just where Ana Maria was coming from. He’d had his doubts all the while Sam and he had been seeing one another.

At some point, he admitted to himself, he’d have to stop thinking of her as a romantic part of his life and more as a suspect.

Especially after what Ana Maria had just told him about Samantha.