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Barbara and Tucker exchanged looks. Then Barbara held out a hand.
“Good working with you.”
Tucker shook it. “You too.”
“Maybe I’ll catch you again sometime.”
He winked. “You could try.”
She watched him walk out of the station. Then she turned back to Rita.
“Well, then…”
“I guess that’s everything wrapped up,” Rita finished.
“Guess so.”
The state police had found Mitch Roberts’s mutilated body covered in a tarp in the back of the pickup. His throat had been ripped out. They figured that Jacob and Roberts must have had some kind of dispute. Roberts was a thief and a fraudster, not a killer. Maybe he got cold feet about the murders, so Jacob killed him and decided to flee, dumping the body on his way. However, instead he lost control of the truck in the snow and crashed.
All evidence seemed to point to Kurt Mowlam being responsible for the Doc’s death, maybe to stop his involvement in the artifact dealing from getting out. The coroner had ruled out suicide and Mowlam hadn’t been too careful about leaving trace evidence around the Doc’s house.
As for who killed Mowlam? Barbara glanced across the hall to where Grace sat on a chair, just outside the cells. She was dressed in more regular teenage clothes—jeans and a sweatshirt—and a small backpack sat at her feet.
Colleen Grey had cut and run. Just upped and left in the middle of the night, leaving only a note and Grace behind. The theory was that Colleen and Mowlam had been having an affair (Mayflower wasn’t the only one who had noticed clandestine comings and goings). Mowlam had threatened to expose the affair and Colleen killed him.
Something about that still didn’t sit quite right with Barbara. Colleen had seemed too composed for a crime of passion. But then, innocent people didn’t usually do a midnight flit.
They had contacted Grace’s mom, who hadn’t signed anything saying her daughter could be taken out of state, but, more to the point, didn’t care. Grace was going to stay with her grandparents, who had been out of their minds with worry ever since she ran away and were more than delighted to have her.
“She saying anything yet?” Barbara asked.
“Nope. Not a word.”
Barbara sighed. “Well, it might take time.”
“Yeah, and all that time Colleen is making her way who knows where.”
There was an APB out on the Reverend, but Barbara had a gut feeling that Colleen Grey had already disappeared, if she had ever really existed. They couldn’t find any official details for anyone with that name. No social security number, no previous employment, birth certificate, bank account. The woman was a ghost.
And there was something else.
“Don’t suppose there’s any news on the other artifacts?” she asked Rita.
“No.”
Somehow, in the midst of the carnage that followed Jacob’s and Beau’s deaths, the vampyr body parts from the Grill had mysteriously gone missing. Mayflower swore she hadn’t taken them and no one else had claimed responsibility.
“Guess that’s going to remain a mystery,” Rita said.
“Guess so. Probably get a good price for them in certain markets.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know about that.”
“No.” Barbara smiled. “How’s your mom?”
“Got her on some new meds.”
“That must cost a lot, even with insurance?”
