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Sienna nodded. “Chief Ramirez traced the cell phone number Ruby used to make the call, but it belongs to a burner phone. The last known cell tower the phone pinged was in Sandalwood, near the marina. My informant in the police department says they’re monitoring the cell, but it hasn’t been turned back on again. I suspect Ruby is being held against her will, somehow got ahold of a cell phone, and made a desperate call to her grandmother. But her kidnapper must’ve figured out what she did and dumped the phone.”
“How does Albert tie into this?”
“Good question. In my initial questioning of family and friends, I discovered Ruby had been on a few dates with a man named Dallas Redding. She decided they weren’t a good match and told him so. Dallas wasn’t happy with Ruby’s rejection and kept hounding her. Texting, calling, showing up while she ran errands in town.”
Eli’s jaw clenched. “Sounds like stalking to me.”
“Me too. Dallas lives on a houseboat in the marina. The same location Ruby made that secret phone call from. I’ve trailed him a couple of times but haven’t uncovered anything suspicious.”
“Did you question him?”
“No. I was still gathering intel and didn’t want to alert Dallas that I was on to him, in case he decided to kill Ruby.”
Smart. Sienna’s thoughts were always centered on the victim. There had been other cases where the kidnapper killed his victim in the hopes of avoiding detection. Since Dallas owned a boat, it wouldn’t be difficult to dump Ruby’s body somewhere in the ocean. She might never be found.
“Albert must’ve heard I was asking questions because he called my office and asked to meet on his boat,” Sienna continued. “He claimed to have important information about Ruby’s disappearance. I was hoping he’d seen something that would tie Dallas to the crime. But when I arrived on Albert’s boat…” She winced. “Whoever killed him knew I was coming. They broke into my car and stole my weapon while I was at the hospital visiting my dad hours before I was set to meet Albert.”
Hospitals were gun-free zones. Eli was allowed to keep his weapon because he was an officer of the law, but Sienna, as a private investigator, didn’t have that leverage. Which is why her gun was locked in her vehicle. He perched on the edge of her bed. “You reported the gun missing to the police, right?”
“Immediately. But Chief Ramirez believes it was a setup. That I planned to kill Albert, so I reported my gun stolen in order to make it look like someone else had done it.” She rolled her eyes. “Which is just stupid. Why would I kill Albert and then hang around the boat waiting for the police to show up? Or worse, point my gun at them? I explained to the police chief that I thought it was Albert’s killer moving around on the boat, but he didn’t believe me.”
“There was an anonymous phone call to 911 from a man who reported hearing gunshots at 12:03. What time did you arrive at the marina?”
“Around that time. Maybe a minute or two earlier.” She swallowed hard. “I had the sense someone was watching me, but at the time, dismissed it as nerves. Albert was a sketchy character, and I didn’t trust him. There were rumors he’d blackmailed people in the past and he’d hinted on the phone that he wanted payment for the information. That’s why I had several hundred dollars in cash on me.”
Eli mulled over everything she’d told him and a scenario formed in his mind. “Let’s assume for a moment Albert had valid information. If that’s so, he might’ve gone to the person who kidnapped Ruby and demanded to be paid for his silence, but was refused. Albert then calls you to add pressure to the person.”
“That person decides to kill Albert instead and frame me for the murder. Two birds, one stone.”
Eli nodded. “You have the reputation of closing cases. Of not giving up. Seems your investigation into Ruby’s disappearance rattled someone’s cage.”
Sienna opened her mouth to reply, but a knock at the door cut her off. Eli rose from the bed and turned just as Chief Boone Ramirez stepped into the room. From the grim look on the lawman’s face, whatever he came to say wasn’t good.
Eli stiffened and braced himself for what was coming.
SIX
“We haven’t found the arsonist.”
Sienna eyed the lawman standing at the end of her hospital bed. Police Chief Boone Ramirez was pushing fifty, but had the craggy look of a man who’d seen too much for his years. Lines crisscrossed his forehead, exacerbated by a retreating hairline and heavily hooded eyes. His uniform was wrinkled, as if he’d tossed on yesterday’s clothes after being roused from bed. One hand clutched a takeaway coffee cup, the other, his cell phone.
“Did your officers do a canvass of the neighbors?” Sienna winced as pain lanced her throat, slicing straight through to her lungs. Eli cast her a concerned look. His solid presence was comforting, especially after being hunted by a masked man holding a flaming bottle of gasoline. Sienna didn’t consider herself a coward by any means, but the incident at her home had shaken her.
She swallowed and continued past the pain in her throat. “Someone may have seen the motorbike leaving the neighborhood. Or better yet, some of my neighbors could have security cameras. In fact, the Douglass family at the end of the block do.”
The chief scowled. “I don’t need instructions on how to do my job.”
Frustration stiffened her muscles. Chief Ramirez and Sienna didn’t have a good relationship, mostly because he was too prideful to admit that mistakes made by his department often meant cases went unsolved. Like her sister’s. Sienna’s success at finding Hayley’s killer, and the subsequent decision to ask the Texas Rangers for help, had kicked off a feud between her and the chief that extended to this day. One Boone refused to let go of.
It was a shame. They could work together, trading information as Sienna uncovered it. Instead, the chief saw her as an interloper, someone interested in upstaging and embarrassing him. But she wasn’t. Sienna only cared about providing answers to desperate families.
“No one is telling you how to do your job, Chief Ramirez.” Eli placed a comforting hand on Sienna’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Sienna’s simply asking questions. Honestly, I’m just as interested in the answer.”
Boone grunted and turned his glower on Eli. The two men had once worked well together, but assisting Sienna with her sister’s case had caused friction between them. Friction that was obviously still there.
“Officers conducted an initial canvass,” the chief said. “But didn’t come up with anything of interest. If there’s time, I’ll have more officers knock on doors in the morning.”
Sienna’s frustration grew. Gathering evidence was a painstaking process, but she sensed Chief Ramirez was slow-walking his efforts. The arsonist had burned down her house and tried to kill her. Surely that deserved more urgency than an “initial” canvass. She pursed her lips. “Whoever was behind the attack is connected to Ruby’s disappearance.”
