Dani was amazed she didn’t have a hangover. She’d drunk buckets of scotch with her new friend, Maggie Armstrong, yet she felt fine, spry in fact. It didn’t seem possible.
Dani sat at her desk in the station with her feet up. A cup of coffee warmed her hands, and she unknowingly smiled as she recalled bits of her conversation with Armstrong. It was nothing more than a useless stream of information about the corporal’s love life. The deputy could have cut out as soon as she was convinced the state police had no knowledge of the missing girls, but truth be known, she hadn’t had a real conversation with another female since Colleen died, and she’d enjoyed the hell out of it.
Randle dropped the photo on his fellow deputy’s desk. “These ain’t your boys.”
Dani shook the trance-like state she had been enjoying and eyed the faces of Step and Kenny in the tobacco store. “You already interviewed everybody that was there that night?”
“Yep.”
She looked at her watch. “When?”
“Last night. Same shitheads are in Son’s place every night. I figured I’d just knock this thing out in one fell swoop.”
Dani picked up the photo. “All that means is they weren’t in the bar.”
Randle sighed. “All right then, what’s next, She-lock?”
She examined the picture like it held some hidden clue. “The shorter fella…Kenny. He’s our best bet. We should go at him.”
“Go at him?”
“Bring him in, interrogate him. The owner of the tobacco place said he was a Chatty Cathy.”
Randle sat on the corner of the desk and rubbed the back of his neck. “Why is it we’re bringing him in exactly? Because he was with a fella that bought a bunch of Porter 100s? That ain’t a crime, Dani.”
She considered his point. “Okay, we’ll go to him.”
“Can’t.”
“Why?”
“He’s way the fuck over in Carver County. Them badges ain’t too fond of interlopers, and that’s exactly what we’d be if we show up in their territory looking to question someone about a couple of murders.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll never for the life of me figure out why the law around here is always at odds with one another.”
Randle laughed. “How can you know so little about this part of the world, little deputy? Look here, town to town, county to county, law enforcement’s a family-run business. Daddies, sons, brothers, cousins, whatever, they all work together and run their territory like someone’s trying to steal it. That’s just the way it’s always been. They keep to theirs, and they expect everyone else to keep to their own.”
“It’s irritating as hell.”
He smiled and snatched the photo off Dani’s desk. “That it is, little deputy, but lucky for you, I got connections.” He headed for the door.
“Where you going?”
“I got family from here to West Virginia. If anyone can poke around without ruffling some feathers, it’d be me.”
Dani stood. “I’ll come with you.”
He chuckled. “I’m headed off into the backwoods, Deputy Savage. They ain’t near as enlightened as we are around here. If they lay eyes on a woman with a badge, they’re likely to peg me as the devil come to corrupt their county with liberal ideas and such. You can’t help on this, trust me.”
She scowled.
Randle pushed the door open. “Besides, ain’t Otis got you working on some top-secret case?”
She watched the door ease shut after he exited the building. She had spent almost three years begging the stars above to bring her actual police work, and now she had more than she could deal with. It had felt good at first; now it felt too big.