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Haley spent the weekend catching up on sleep and scouring the Internet in search of information on Brian Holstead’s prior drug history. She didn’t find anything. Either he had never officially faced charges or his only convictions had been sealed with his juvenile record.
Or, Haley considered, Sobaco wasn’t advanced enough to register arrest history and other public information online.
On Monday, Luke Justice showed up on her doorstep again, an hour after her departmental meeting ended. She had been itching to hear about the police’s progress on the drug case but hadn’t been bold enough to approach them. She was grateful to finally see Luke initiating contact.
“Victor wants me to bring you back to the station,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “He has photos of potential suspects for you to look at.”
Haley’s pulse quickened. If the police had gone so far as to snap photos of people, they must be close to making an arrest.
“Fine, let’s go.” She had been in the middle of fabricating accomplishments to make it seem as though she’d done something besides pondering over marijuana gardens and drug organizations last week, but that could wait.
She retreated to her living room long enough to grab her BlackBerry and purse, then followed Luke to his police cruiser parked in her driveway. He opened the passenger door for her before moving to the driver’s side.
As he sat down, she said, “Tell me about these photos. Are they mug shots?”
Luke didn’t say anything. Instead, he focused on adjusting mirrors that couldn’t have moved much from when he’d first pulled into her driveway two minutes ago. Haley got the hint, figuring he either didn’t want to or had been instructed not to discuss the case. She found that disappointing but not surprising.
She’d have to stick with personal topics. “I hear you’re after a promotion,” she said.
Luke aborted his effort to buckle his seat belt in order to look at her. “Where’d you hear that?”
“Mindy Larkin told me.” She bit her tongue, already regretting her betrayal of the other woman’s confidence. Although, she reminded herself, Mindy hadn’t said anything about keeping their conversations secret. Given the woman’s inclination to gossip about everything, Haley figured she wasn’t shy about sharing her opinions.
“Figures,” Luke mumbled, resuming his pre-driving preparations.
“Is she right?” Haley wasn’t sure why she suddenly harbored such an interest in Luke’s career aspirations. Maybe she just wanted to hear that at least one person in the neighborhood had a promising future. With each passing day, she grew more and more concerned over Nexus’s dissatisfaction with their long-distance arrangement. He had yet to say one positive word about her work since she’d started telecommuting.
Luke started the car and changed gears, keeping his gaze on the road. Just when Haley had resigned herself to another silent drive, he surprised her by speaking.
“Mindy is not entirely incorrect. But ‘promotion’ isn’t accurate. I’m looking for more responsibilities.”
“What’s the difference?” Haley asked.
“A promotion implies additional income. Added responsibilities is just that, more work for the same pay.”
“That hardly sounds like something to strive for.” Haley couldn’t imagine wanting more duties. She had enough worries merely dealing with one client.
“It is if you’re bored.”
His remark caught her off guard. She would never have guessed that tracking down a drug organization might be boring.
Although, she considered, Victor Lamb had taken the lead on this case, a fact that might explain Luke’s hankering for additional responsibilities. Maybe he felt entitled to handle the drug bust given that he’d recorded Haley’s initial statement.
“Chasing after runaway dogs grows old after a while,” he said. “Especially when they’re the same dogs headed for the same places every time.”
Haley laughed in spite of herself. “I thought you just rescued cats from trees.”
Luke darted her a glance. She couldn’t discern whether her knowledge of his feline-rescue efforts or her laughter surprised him more. Had she ever laughed in front of him before? From what she could remember, she’d spent most of their time together complaining about him knocking her down in the woods, berating him for performing traffic stops, and glowering at him for welcoming her to the neighborhood.
Haley frowned. No wonder the man tried to avoid her. He probably thought she was a miserable woman.
She cleared her throat to mask her sudden discomfort. “Mindy told me about Jane the cat.”
A whisper of a frown distorted Luke’s lips but disappeared a moment later. “Jenna’s cat is one of my regulars. Without Jane, Victor would cut back my hours to part-time.”
Haley found herself smiling at his begrudging acceptance of the cat’s role in his continued employment. “I feel the same way about Stan Williams, my client. If he wasn’t so bad about getting me information, I’d likely be working on three accounts at the moment. As it is, I spend more time redoing work I’ve already done than focusing on anything new.”
“Yes, but I doubt this Stan bites you whenever you attempt to help him.”
“I’m sure he would if he could over a webcast.”
“He sounds like a real bear.”
Haley considered how to respond without badmouthing her client. “The head of the company is one of these very successful entrepreneurs who expects the people working for him to be just as high achieving. Stan seems to have adopted that company mindset as his own.”
“So he’s a bit like you.”
Haley’s head whipped sideways. “Stan Williams is nothing like me.”
Luke shrugged, either unbothered by or oblivious to how his statement had rankled her.
She flattened herself against the passenger door. “Look, you don’t know anything about me, so to sit there and pass judgment is really unfair.”
“I’m just going by my experiences with you,” Luke replied, still concentrating on the road.
She glared at him even though the look bypassed his notice. “You don’t have any experience with me.”
“At the Wheelbarrow, I’ve overheard you gripe a couple times about how our local Internet company should have a twenty-four-hour hotline to report connectivity issues. That speaks of somebody who expects their hired help to be high achieving, does it not?”
Their easy camaraderie of earlier slipped away, replaced now by a coldness in Haley’s chest. She faced the passenger window and pretended to watch the scenery pass by, silently fuming over Luke’s assessment.
Where did he get off judging her, anyway? Equating her need for a reliable Internet connection to the impossible standards of Stan Williams was ridiculous. Internet was supposed to function without a hitch twenty-four-seven. People, on the other hand, needed some downtime.
Luke pulled into the station parking lot. She scrambled to detach the seat belt before he shut off the engine. She wanted to get inside and out of his company as quickly as possible.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Luke said.
“That’s fine.” Haley flung the door open and jumped out of the vehicle before he could say anything else. The man really did have absolutely no people skills whatsoever, and whatever he planned to add to his original insult was guaranteed to only exacerbate her annoyance.
Haley dashed toward the station, hoping she could outrun her escort. When she reached the entrance, she dared to peek behind her. Luke remained seated in his patrol car, watching her run away.
* * *
“What we have here are photographs of potential suspects,” Victor Lamb informed Haley, tapping the manila file folder in front of him.
She eyed the folder, once again trying to conjure up a picture of the man in the woods. But as with her other attempts, his face remained fuzzy. In fact, her vague memory of him grew less distinct by the day.
But she refused to admit this to Victor. She would do her damnedest to help him nail The Farmer.
Victor leaned across the conference table. “I’m going to show you these pictures, and you let me know if any of them look like the person you saw.”
“Okay.”
“I know this is an uncomfortable task. Please remember that identifying someone doesn’t automatically indicate his guilt. We will still be taking the evidence in our custody into account.”
She sat up straighter, her interest piquing. “What kind of evidence do you have?”
“Luke located a water bottle among the plants, which we believe may have been discarded by The Farmer. We also found a soil knife closer to the trail. If The Farmer touched either of those items or took a drink from the bottle, he undoubtedly left behind fingerprints or traces of DNA.”
Haley smiled. She was happy to hear the police had found physical evidence that would help lead to a conviction.
“And, of course, we’ve seized the plants in the woods,” Victor continued. “Any cannabis recovered from The Farmer’s possession will be compared to what we confiscated.”
“That makes sense.”
He tilted his head. “Are you ready to look at the photographs?”
She nodded.
Victor turned the folder toward her and flipped it open. “Take your time.”
She looked at the pictures, her veins humming with excitement. Six headshots of different men were arranged in a three-by-two grid. Five of the men looked to be of Hispanic origin. Despite his impressive tan, the lone white male stuck out like a Martian. He didn’t look anything like the person she’d spotted.
She focused on the remaining pictures. As many times as her eyes traveled over the men, her gaze kept returning to one in particular. Something familiar about him haunted her. The image of The Farmer’s face as he brushed past her materialized in her mind’s eye. She felt a chill when she realized the face in front of her now could be the same.
Haley rested her finger underneath the photograph. “This might be him.”
Victor twisted sideways to study her selection. She knew this wasn’t an exam, but she still found herself holding her breath while she waited to hear whether she’d picked the right person.
Victor glanced from the photograph to Haley. “How positive are you?”
“He looks like him.” She slipped her hands in her lap, knowing she hadn’t really answered his question.
Her heart pounded as Victor squinted at the photograph, his face tight. He seemed to be assessing the individual she’d fingered, not liking what he saw. Perhaps The Farmer boasted a prolific history with the police. Maybe the chief had witnessed him toying with the law before.
The thought made Haley’s blood boil. If the men involved with the drug operation had been apprehended earlier, Michael’s access to that tainted pot could have been prevented.
“What will you do now?” Haley asked, eager to hear that Victor would run right out and make an arrest.
Victor jumped as though she had interrupted a daydream, his knee banging into the underside of the desk. He winced, then tore his eyes away from the photograph. “Considering the severity of this crime, I’m hopeful we can obtain a warrant to search this man’s property and obtain fingerprint and DNA samples to profile against the evidence in our possession.”
“What if you can’t get a warrant?” Haley asked, pessimistically seizing on his use of the word “hopeful.”
“We can still pursue collection of DNA from abandoned sources, or seek the subject’s voluntary cooperation.”
“You need him to volunteer? But I just identified him. Can’t you arrest him based on that?”
Victor offered her a smile. “Believe me, Haley, I’m just as anxious as you to see justice served. But at the moment, we only have your eyewitness testimony linking him to that marijuana. A judge might not believe that’s sufficient grounds to pursue an arrest quite yet.”
Haley’s face flushed, something inside of her snapping. She wanted to punch something. She wanted to tear that headshot out of Victor’s hands and rip it in half. At least then maybe she’d feel as if this criminal had suffered somewhat.
Victor watched Haley with wide eyes. Figuring she must look as angry as she felt, she forced herself to relax, mentally counting backward from ten.
She reached eight before blurting out, “Is there anything I can do to speed things up?”
Victor shook his head. “As soon as we’re done here, I’ll work on a search warrant.”
“But you might not be able to get one, right?”
Victor hesitated, then nodded. “That’s a slim possibility.”
She balled her hands in her lap, trying not to dwell on a scenario where the police couldn’t pin anything on The Farmer—because what criminal would consent to giving a DNA swab? The thought of Michael’s drug suppliers eluding justice forever made Haley yearn to toss the tiny interview room.
“Don’t be discouraged,” Victor said. “The law often takes longer than we’d like, but you have my word that my force will devote every ounce of manpower we have to this case.”
Haley suppressed a scoff. He probably repeated those exact words with every case. “Would you at least keep me informed?” she asked.
“Absolutely. I understand you live next door to Luke?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll ask him to keep you posted on any new developments.” He paused, then added, “You seem personally invested in this case.”
“I just want to see justice served.” She wasn’t ready to admit to her reason for wanting the people responsible punished. Such a confession might spur Victor to question her ability to act as an impartial witness. Worse, the judge could altogether dismiss the chief’s search-warrant request if he viewed its basis as tainted by a potential conflict of interest.
Victor nodded, seeming to accept her statement at face value. “We all do.” He pulled a form from the folder. “To that effect, kindly sign that you identified Suspect Four as the person you remember.”
Haley grabbed the pen he offered and scribbled her signature. After Victor repossessed the paper, she struggled out of the chair. With her role finished, she didn’t intend to sit here any longer than necessary, listening to how the police had to obey the law while a criminal ran around doing whatever he darn well pleased.
Victor eased out of his own seat and reached to shake her hand. “Haley, thank you for your assistance this afternoon. You’ve helped me tremendously.”
Haley allowed the handshake, hoping her time today wouldn’t prove to be completely wasted.
