It appeared that the girl was right with her. “I’ll think about it. If I come up with someone, can I call you?”
“Of course, call me anytime about anything, even if you just want to talk about something that you’re not sure about. We never know in an investigation when something small turns into exactly the bit of information we need.” Mattie dug a business card out of her pocket, pulled out a pen to write a number on the back, and handed it to the girl. “That’s my cell phone number on the back. Don’t hesitate to use it. Talk things over with your dad, see what memories come up. Let us know about anything that concerns you, okay?”
“Okay,” Angela said, looking down at the card.
“Anything else, Detective?” Mattie asked, turning to Stella.
“Not for now. We’ll be in touch.”
“I may want to see you again tomorrow, Angela. By then we could have more questions.” Mattie looked at the doctor. “Can I call in the morning to set something up if we need to?”
He nodded.
“How’s Belle?” Mattie asked.
Angela looked surprised. “Belle? That’s Belle you have up at the clinic?”
“Yeah, Angel. I guess with you being so sick and everything, I forgot to mention it. Deputy Cobb brought Belle in because she’d been shot.”
“Like Grace?”
The doctor looked at Mattie, as if tossing the question to her.
“Yes,” Mattie said. “It looks like she was with Grace, and they were both shot.”
“Grace always had Belle with her.”
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
“Poor Belle!” The girl looked at her dad. “Dad, you can’t leave Belle at the clinic all by herself. You’ve got to bring her here to stay at the house.”
Looking a bit besieged, the vet said, “She’s just coming out of the anesthesia, Angie. She needs to stay there for a while.”
“Well, she’s not sleeping there by herself tonight. I’ll go and stay with her if I have to.”
Relieved that the heroic dog had a champion, Mattie had to suppress a smile as she watched the father cave.
“Oh, all right,” he said. “She has to stay there for a few more hours, but if she’s awake enough, I’ll bring her here for the night. I bet the Hartmans will want to pick her up tomorrow. I’ll call Garrett and see.” The grim expression had returned to his face, and Mattie knew that he was dreading the task.
Mattie and Stella said good-bye and went back out to the cruiser. Robo stood up, yawning, obviously having napped while they were gone. The temperature in the car was cool enough, and after Robo took a few slurps of his water, Mattie emptied the rest, put the bowl away, and settled into the driver’s seat.
“Now that is one good-looking hunk of male, Mattie. Makes me want to forget I’ve sworn off men lately,” Stella said, with a grin.
Mattie shrugged. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“What are you, blind, girl? Or just not interested?”
Mattie had had her share of boyfriends in high school—that is, until Mama T put a kibosh on it. Once she got into junior college and police academy, she’d had a few longer-lasting relationships, but nothing permanent. Yeah, she found the vet extremely attractive, but that’s not what their relationship was about. “He’s married.”
“He doesn’t wear a wedding ring.”
Mattie could have sworn she’d seen one last night. “Well, I’m just not interested, I guess.”
“Ha! You crack me up. You’re as easy to read as an Amber Alert. Of course you’re interested in the man.”
Having had enough of the detective’s teasing, Mattie changed the subject. “Let’s get back to the office and check in. We need to tell the others about Mike Chadron’s relationship with our victim. Maybe Brody has a warrant by now and we can search his property.”
Chapter 12
When Mattie and Stella arrived at the station, they found Sheriff McCoy and Chief Deputy Brody in the report room together, and both were pretty well steamed. Evidently, Judge Taylor had denied their department a search warrant.
“The judge is an old hunting buddy of Chadron’s dad,” Brody explained, his voice gruff. “Says we don’t have enough evidence to treat Mike like a common criminal.”
“That’s one judge that needs to be voted out of office during the next election.” Stella paused, pursing her lips. “Well, the evidence against Mike Chadron is growing. We just learned that our victim followed him around in her car. Chances are good that she followed him up to that cabin.”
“That’s significant,” McCoy said.
“No word yet on the BOLO we put out on Grace’s car or Chadron’s truck?” Mattie asked.
“None,” McCoy said. “I still believe her car got ditched near the crime scene. I heard from Ranger Benson. She handpicked some volunteers who know the area and won’t get lost to help them look for it, but they have a lot of country to cover. I don’t know why we can’t turn up Chadron’s truck, unless he switched license plates on it or something.”
“You’d think the description of a truck and dog trailer would be enough. Not very common,” Stella said.
McCoy nodded. “I think I’ll give Mike Chadron’s father a call and see if he knows where Mike is. I’ll avoid mentioning we suspect his son of illegal activity.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Stella said.
McCoy looked at Mattie. “This afternoon, you and I are going to meet with John Brennaman at the school. He heard about Grace’s death and called me.”
Mattie’s gut tightened.
“Mr. Brennaman is pretty shaken up over the death of a student and wants to see if he can help. I figure there’s no time like the present to get him involved in our school drug intervention program. And we’ll see what he knows about Grace and her friends.”
“When is our appointment?”
“We have a little over an hour. Get some lunch and meet me at the school by two o’clock.”
“I’ll be at the autopsy this afternoon,” said Stella. “Afterward I’ll interview our victim’s family. Unless I turn up something else to do today, I’ll go home for the night and be back tomorrow morning by seven.”
“Okay, we have a plan,” McCoy said. “Let’s get to it.”
On the way home, Mattie tried to ignore her dread. The run-ins with Brennaman happened a long time ago.
You’d think I’d be over it by now.
After pulling up in her front yard, she let Robo out the back of the cruiser. He bounded off toward the side gate.
“You want that bone I gave you yesterday, don’t you? Come on through the house, and I’ll get you some fresh water first.”
Inside, Robo rushed to the kitchen door and stood by it.
Mattie picked up his water bowl and carried it over to the sink. “Just cool your jets—have some water. It’s starting to heat up outside.”
Robo lapped a few times and then went back to the door.
“One-track mind. Do you want to go outside?”
He danced on his front paws.
“Here you go.”
Mattie stepped outside and stood on the porch to watch him.
He darted toward the bone but, at the last second, crouched and slunk up to it, sniffing furiously. The shift in his demeanor made Mattie follow him out into the yard.
He scooted around the bone, nose to the ground, and went out to the spruce tree as if on the trail of something. At the fence, he turned and gave Mattie a quizzical look, then trotted back toward her. He gave the bone a soft touch with his mouth, sat, and stared at her.