“Good.” Colt glanced at Maren. The speculation in his eyes had her curious. What was he thinking? She had a hard time reading him and that left her a bit off-kilter.
“See if you can get any more information out of him,” Colt said. “I think he told us everything he knew but I can’t be certain. He says he only saw Shadow with a mask on. But maybe he can describe the guy’s eyes. Not sure how helpful the description would be, but you never know.”
“On it,” the agent said. “I know a forensic artist who can work with such limited info.”
Ah. Good thinking on Colt’s part. Sometimes a little went a long way.
“We’re headed to Colorado Springs to look for the man who came forward as a witness to Opal Anderson’s death,” Colt told Henry before signing off.
“I’ll have Eva find us his address.” Maren pulled out her cell phone and dialed the task force’s main line.
Her call was answered on the fourth ring. “Eva Gomez,” the tech analyst said. “What can I help you with?”
“Eva, it’s Maren. I need the last-known address of a Vinnie Homer. I don’t have my sister’s case file with me so I can’t get it. I’m hoping you can help with this.”
“Of course,” Eva said. The clicking of keys on a keyboard clanged in Maren’s ears, making her realize she had a headache brewing. She pushed the speaker button so she could hold the phone at a distance.
“It says here he’s living in a homeless encampment,” Eva said.
“There are encampments all around the area.” Maren grimaced. “It’ll be like looking for a needle among a ton of haystacks.”
Eva made a noise of agreement. “Do you need a photo?”
“I do. Please text it to me,” Maren said.
“Done.”
Maren’s phone dinged with an incoming text.
“Let me know if you need anything else,” Eva said before clicking off.
“Sounds like we have our work cut out for us,” Colt said, pointing out the obvious.
“Just like everything else with my sister, nothing is easy,” Maren admitted. Something she didn’t voice often about her twin. “Opal always seemed to have a cloud hanging over her. Even when we were kids, she struggled with things that came much easier for me. I never understood why.”
“Everyone’s journey is different,” Colt said.
There was truth in his statement. “Tell me why bringing down Shadow is so personal for you.”
Colt gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. Maren wondered what nerve she’d hit.
“When I was sixteen, my eighteen-year-old cousin got hooked on drugs. Back then, crack cocaine and heroin were the most prevalent drugs on the street.”
Maren’s heart contracted with empathy. “I’m sorry to hear that. It must’ve been difficult for you and your family.”
“Devastating,” Colt said. “No matter how much we tried to intervene, he couldn’t shake the addiction.”
Maren sucked in a breath. She sensed there was a tragic ending to the story but she charged ahead. “Was he ever able to beat it?”
She waited, her breath stalled in her lungs, hoping his cousin had tamed the addiction because she needed to hope that Opal could tame hers.
“No.” Colt’s voice was soft and filled with anguish. “I found him in his parents’ backyard. A needle stuck in his arm. He’d overdosed on tainted heroin.”
Even though she’d expected that outcome, grief for him and his family made her heart ache. Unable to stop herself, she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The muscles beneath her palm were rock-hard. There was a solidity to him that she found appealing. “I’m so sad that happened to you.”
He released his right hand from the steering wheel and placed it over hers on his shoulder. The warmth of his skin on hers rippled through her. His touch was sure, yet gentle. Comforting, despite the fact she was supposed to be comforting him.
“Thank you. I swore that day I was going to do everything I could to stop the drugs from flowing into my city,” he said. “As soon as I graduated from college, I entered the police academy. I was on the job for eight years with the Denver PD before moving to the DEA. Then two years ago I trained to have Rusk,” he said. “He’s been the best partner.”
