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She held up the card and he nodded, giving her a half smile as Collins and the other deputy marched him away from her house, through the trees to their squad car. They couldn’t have much evidence, since he hadn’t done it, but they wouldn’t tell him anything until they got him to the station. He knew how it worked.
Jim kept his gaze pinned to the passing scenery out the car window and took deep breaths. If he had to spend the night in jail, he had doubts he could handle it. The deputies would probably transfer him to the psych ward before the night was over, giving them even more reason to believe he’d killed Rusty.
They took him to the sheriff’s station in town. Cody Unger wasn’t on duty when they arrived, but this wasn’t the local deputy’s rodeo, anyway.
Jim asked, “Is Sheriff Musgrove here?”
“Not here,” Collins said, and cleared his throat. “But we notified him of the warrant.”
Collins nudged him in the back toward a glass-enclosed interview room. “We’re going to question you before we book you, Kennedy. You have a right to have your attorney present during questioning.”
“I’ll waive that right for now. I’m too curious to find out what you think you have on me.”
Collins shoved open the door and pointed to a chair. “Coffee?”
“No, thanks. Let’s just get to it.”
The other deputy set up a camera as Jim awkwardly sank to a chair, his hands still cuffed behind him.
“Do you need to keep me handcuffed?”
Collins took in Jim’s frame and then studied his face. “No.”
Free of the cuffs, Jim’s heart rate returned to something close to normal. He rubbed his wrists. “Why did you arrest me? What evidence do you have?”
The other deputy reached into a box and pulled out a plastic bag. He tossed it onto the table in front of Jim. “Recognize it?”
Jim peeled his tongue from the roof of his dry mouth. “It’s my old man’s hunting knife.”
“It was also used to stab Rusty Kelly.”
“Let me guess. My fingerprints are on the knife.”
“Your fingerprints and Rusty’s blood.”
“That’s an incriminating combination.” Jim folded his arms across his chest and slumped in the metal chair, stretching his legs in front of him.
Collins smoothed the crinkles from the plastic bag. “One you can explain?”
“My fingerprints are on the knife because it was in my dad’s shed. The shed is a detached wooden structure that he used as a garage for his motorcycles. I was in there last week and moved some things around. I remember handling the knife, which was on the tool bench.”
“That explains the fingerprints.”
“I just discovered today that someone broke into the garage. It has double doors that lock together with a simple padlock.”
“Did you file a report?”
“No, but I called the station. I couldn’t tell if anything was missing, so the deputy...Stevens, asked if I wanted to make a report but I declined. Deputy Stevens—ask him.”
Collins snapped his fingers. “Jenkins, find Deputy Stevens to verify.”
“There’s also my alibi.”
“Alibi?”
“I was with Scarlett Easton when she found the body.”
“Kelly was stabbed before you arrived at Ms. Easton’s.”
“How much earlier before we discovered his body? I have an alibi for that, too.”
“What’s your timeline?”
“I ate dinner in town at the Miner’s Inn and left around eight o’clock. Used a credit card. I had trouble starting my bike, and I talked to a man named Terry while I was trying to get it to work. That was right outside the Miner’s Inn, right in front of the window, so plenty of people saw me. I didn’t leave until about eight forty-five or eight fifty. When I got to my place, I thought I heard some noises so I parked my bike and went for a walk in the woods. I got to Scarlett’s place around nine fifteen or nine twenty. She can vouch for that.”
Collins had been eyeing Jim’s face and hands during his narrative without one interruption. Even now, he just nodded.
Jim dragged in a breath. “So, if I stabbed Rusty, I would’ve had to do it in a short time span, getting the knife, locating him, stabbing him without getting a drop of his blood on my clothes since I wouldn’t have had time to change before going to Scarlett’s.”
