In Seconds

“I must be hanging out with him too much,” she admitted, “because what he just said actually makes sense to me.”

Myles threw up his hands. “Fine. Let’s face the bitter truth, shall we? Pat had no chance from the beginning. Now tell me about your interviews.”

When they exchanged a questioning glance, Myles had to acknowledge that he was the one acting strange today. He was as tense as Jared had accused him of being, and had been ever since he’d seen Rex standing in Vivian’s kitchen only hours after he’d made love to her at the cabin.

“No one in the other rentals saw anything,” Jared explained. “C.C. is the closest neighbor, but there are trees secluding both residences. And she was vacuuming, had no idea Pat was even showing the cabin.”

“Wouldn’t you know it? With all the folks in Pineview who pay a little too much attention to their neighbors, our murder occurs next to someone who pays no attention whatsoever.”

“It’s a rental. One of several in the area. She sees a lot of people come and go,” Linda said.

“Did anyone along the drive to the cabin spot a vehicle that didn’t belong? That seemed to be going too slow or too fast?”

Jared shook his head. “’Fraid not.”

Myles glanced longingly at his coffee cup. After being amped up on adrenaline for so many hours, he was hitting the skids, but he’d had enough caffeine for one day. “Delbert called me yesterday. Said you already talked to him.”

“Yes. A few times,” Jared said. “He’s been very cooperative.”

“He has an alibi?” Myles hadn’t wanted to ask Delbert where he’d been at the time of his stepfather’s murder, not when he didn’t really consider Delbert a suspect and he had investigators who could do it for him.

Linda took over. “He was at work. Several people have confirmed his presence there, including his boss. But he let me take pictures of his bare torso to show there isn’t a scratch on him.”

Myles rearranged the piles of paper on his desk as he digested what he’d been told. “What about Gertie?”

“No alibi.”

“She’s still in the running for number-one suspect?”

Jared stood. “Why wouldn’t she be? I don’t rule anyone out until I have a reason.”

Myles massaged his temples. “I know.”

“So…do you have what you need for your meeting with the mayor?”

He’d hoped for more. “If that’s all you’ve got.”

“That’s it for now.”

Jared reached for the files, but Myles said to leave them. He wanted to read the interviews himself, get a feel for what people were saying.

He was alone in his office and in the middle of Jared’s notes about his first conversation with Delbert when Deputy Campbell appeared. “Hey, you got a minute?”

Myles looked up. “Sure, what do you need?”

“Trace over at the auto shop wants to know what to do with that Toyota truck Harvey brought in.”

Myles had been planning to go there. “The owners haven’t shown up?”

Campbell popped the top of the soft drink he’d carried in with him. “Trace hasn’t heard from them.”

Myles closed the folder. “Didn’t they ride back with Harvey?”

“No. They said they had a friend picking them up.”

What friend? When he’d been there, they acted as if they were going to ride with the tow. Damn. Had they slipped away already?

“Thanks.” Once Campbell left, Myles went out to retrieve the pad of paper he kept in his car. He’d found “Ron Howard” and Peter Ferguson suspicious enough that he’d written down their registration information. Maybe he could contact them through Quentin, Peter’s older brother…?.

It took minimal time and effort to access a reverse directory. Soon he had the phone number for the residence in Monrovia and a man on the phone who claimed to be Quentin. But, judging by his voice, he was at least fifty years older than Peter.

This couldn’t be the brother Peter had referred to, could it? Maybe it was his father.

Myles explained who he was and what he wanted, but he didn’t get any farther before the man said, “You must’ve run across the fellows who stole my truck.”

The hair on the back of Myles’s neck stood on end. “What are you talking about? It didn’t come up as stolen when I ran the plates.”

“Because I don’t drive it much anymore. I didn’t realize the damn thing was missing until this morning.”