On the way back to Belton, she decided she’d get a few hours of sleep and then check out around four in the morning. That would put her back in Omaha at nine or ten in the morning, giving her a full day to wave herself back into the flow of things.
She noticed along the way that Ellington did not try to get her to answer his last text. She was trying to figure out why she was so annoyed with him. She’d been angry with him before but she usually had a discernable reason. Maybe it was just the case clouding her judgment. Now that she’d faced down her mother, she’d be able to figure out the source of her irritation when she was with him again.
She got back to her room at 4:45 and ordered from the town’s only Chinese restaurant. As she waited for her food, she showered and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. She opened her laptop, took out all of the files she had pertaining to the case, and was soon digging into both the case and a plate of orange chicken.
She added some notes to her digital files, adding in some of the details that the coroner and Reggie Thompson had told her about. As she added each note, she went over them in her head as if she were standing in the middle of some imagined crime scene.
Speculation that he was undercover, working on a drug case. Also rumored that Jimmy Scotts had some connection to a drug cartel out of Mexico. It’s a link but, in the case of Scotts, was dismissed after some pretty strict field work.
Police investigation dropped seemingly out of nowhere, but why? Orders from higher-ups? Were officers getting too close to some truth that might cause issues?
Coroner reports nothing out of the ordinary. Gunshot to the head from point-blank range, no question.
With the notes updated, it was clear that there were still many directions for the case to go. The worst part of it all was that she did not feel like she was making any progress.
With her dinner eaten and the case beginning to feel stale, Mackenzie went into one of her bags and pulled out a small bottle of melatonin. She kept it on her for cases where she was unable to sleep, usually only needing it when she had overstretched herself and was hitting her second or third wind.
She took it just before eight; while it was early, her hope was that she’d spring awake around three and get an hour head start back to Omaha. She toyed with the idea of leaving right there and then but knew it would mean she’d be ragged and tired all of tomorrow.
She settled into bed, hoping the aid of the melatonin would keep the nightmares away.
When she was startled awake some time later, she was pleased to find she had enjoyed a dream-free sleep but was also filled with the knowledge that a phone call at such an hour was never anything good…especially in her line of work.
She fumbled for her cell phone and saw that it was Ellington. She was too startled and groggy to be annoyed as she answered with a soft and weary: “Hello?”
“Hey, Mac,” he said. “Sorry to call you so late. Or early. Or whatever. But I really need to know when you can get back here.”
“Why? What’s up?”
“There’s been another murder. Another vagrant. And this one’s fresh. I’m headed to the crime scene with Penbrook right now. Based on what we know, the murder can’t have occurred any more than an hour ago.”
“Shit,” Mackenzie said, quickly snapping awake. She looked to the clock and saw that it was 2:15.
“Don’t kill yourself trying to get here,” he said. “But yeah…get here as soon as you can.”
“I’m on it,” she said. “Can you text me the crime scene address?”
“Yeah.”
She wanted to keep talking to him, to hear his voice as she came fully awake. But there was no time for sentimentality…or for whatever weird repressed anger she had been feeling toward him since leaving Omaha. So she settled for “I’ll see you in a bit” before killing the call.
She took some time to go to the bathroom to splash some water in her face. She then gathered everything into her bags and headed to the main office. The man behind the desk was snoozing in a chair with a book in his lap. Mackenzie rapped her knuckles against the counter, stirring him awake.
As he checked her out of her room, Mackenzie hurried over to the little coffee nook that sat between the counter and the entrance to the not-yet-open complimentary breakfast section. She grabbed a cup of coffee, took her receipt from the clerk, and headed out for her car.
Less than ten minutes after Ellington had called, Mackenzie was on the road, heading back to Omaha. She felt okay with the move, as she sensed there was nothing more in Belton for her. She’d come out here, did what she had intended to do, and yet had yielded no real results. But now at least she knew.
Also, she had faced a ghost that had haunted her forever—a ghost in the form of her mother. She had come out of it fine and basically unscarred.
And something about that placed a feeling of hope within her. Whether for the case or for her ability to move on from the chains that had held her to her past, she did not know.