Dani climbed the last step and turned to head for her room. Her mind was on the cigarette filter. She wished like hell she hadn’t lifted it from the crime scene. When she’d done it, solving the double homicide had been more or less a game to her. It had seemed like a harmless thing to do, picking up that filter and stuffing it in her pocket. It just hadn’t appeared to be that big of a deal.
However, having met Armstrong, she felt awful for doing it. Dani had interfered with a bona fide police investigation, and while it shouldn’t have mattered, the fact that a woman was heading up the state’s inquiry made Dani feel even worse. She felt like she had screwed over a fellow female trying to make it in a man’s world.
Dani dug her hands into her jacket pocket to retrieve her key card. She turned the corner to get to her room and stopped short when she spotted Ruby standing next to her door. The waitress stood pensively sucking on her bottom lip. When she saw Dani, she almost looked disappointed.
“Something wrong, Ruby?”
“There’s always something wrong, little deputy.”
Dani studied her face for a beat and then opened the door to her room, inviting Ruby to enter first. Once inside, Ruby stood next to the doorjamb and hugged herself, her eyes focused on a ringed stain on the table.
“I ain’t got nothing to offer you to eat or drink. I live kind of day to day in this place. Hoping to find a house or apartment to rent soon. Would you like to sit?”
Ruby shook her head.
“Rafe all right?”
“He’s a might spooked, but he ain’t hurt or nothing.”
“Spooked? What about?”
The waitress couldn’t bring herself to answer.
“Look here, Ruby, I can’t help you unless you speak up. Something bothered you enough to show up at my door. Go ahead and talk on it.”
Ruby sighed. “Rafe is deep rooted in these parts, you know that right?”
“I know he’s got a big family…”
“It ain’t just big. His family is thick through the mountains. Can’t take three steps before running into one of his folks from here to the Adirondacks. His people breed like carp. Poor ol’ Rafe is an outcast on account he ain’t got no kids, and he moved down to the flatlands. I’m afraid I’ve deprived him of rug rats and slope living.”
“Well now, Ruby, I wouldn’t beat yourself up about that…”
“That ain’t what’s got me concerned.” She wavered before saying, “You shamed us, Dani.”
Dani cocked an eyebrow. “I did what?”
“Me and Rafe have known of stories from his family for years…” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Kids go missing in the mountains. They just do. It’s the way of things.”
Dani’s heart skipped after hearing the waitress’s claim. “What do you know, Ruby?”
“What you’re asking about is big, Dani. You ought not be messing around with it.”
“If you know about missing children…”
“I know it, Rafe knows it, his people know it. They’ve known it for a long time. It goes back way before you were born, little deputy. It goes back before I was born.”
Dani felt herself growing anxious. “You’re speaking without saying a thing, Ruby.”
“I’m trying to keep you from getting yourself killed, Dani.”
“I’m an officer of the law—”
“And you’re up against something that’s gobbled up the law like cheap peanuts in a bar.”
“Tell me what you know!”
“You want to know what I know? I know these mountains are full of the most precious commodity in this ugly world! It’s full of little white girls nobody gives a shit about!”
Dani’s mouth dropped open, and she hesitated as she absorbed what Ruby had said. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying there’s nothing to be done. Why do you think Rafe and me ain’t got no kids? He didn’t want to have no part of it is why. If we’d had a girl, he’d have gone crazy every time she went out of his sight for more than five minutes.”
Dani struggled to compose herself. “I can see you’re scared, Ruby. I get that. If this is what you say it is, you need to sit down with me here and give me what you know. I won’t put your name to anything you tell me. We’re just two friends talking, that’s all.”
Ruby shook her head and turned to the door. “The only thing you’ll get out of me is that you should consult with a preacher.”
“Don’t go…stay and drink with me. I’ll take a quick trip to the liquor store, and we’ll just drink this whole thing away.”
Ruby opened the door. “Get a preacher drunk.”
Dani followed her out the door. “I don’t want to get a preacher drunk. I want to talk to you.”
“A preacher has all the answers you need.” The waitress quick-stepped it around the corner and out of sight.
Dani’s cellphone rang before she got half a step in her pursuit. She fumbled for the phone in her pocket and answered it before the third ring. “Deputy Savage…Who? Kenny…” She peeked around the corner, but Ruby was nowhere to be found. “Right…right, Kenny. I remember you.”