“She also accused him of having an affair, confronted him two weeks ago, stopped speaking to him, and has no alibi.”
Connor stopped near his SUV."Sandra Holt is a good person."
Selena turned toward him.“Everyone is until they aren’t.”
“You don’t know them like I do.Warren was a great person when you got past his grumpiness, and Sandra is a real sweetheart.”
“Exactly how well did you know the victim?”Selena asked.
“We used to play cards,” Connor answered.“We’re friends, but not so close you need to worry about me looking the other way if I see something rotten.Though I can guarantee you there won’t be anything.”
He looked back at the farmhouse.Behind one upstairs window, a curtain shifted and fell still.
Selena followed his gaze.
“I don’t know… There’s something wrong here,” she said.“I can feel it.”
“Feeling things isn’t evidence.”
“No.But it tells you where to look,” she said.“All these years in the FBI has taught me to follow my gut more often than not.”
“Chief?”the voice came over Connor’s radio.
“Go ahead, Arnold.”
“Got word from Matt Price, he’s over at the lodge.Looks like he found footprints at the broken window, more than one set, and some prints on the frame.”
Connor nodded as if to himself.“Did you run them?”
“No, he just let me know he’s bringing them to the station.”
“Run them as soon as you can, let me know what you find, Arnold.”
“Will do, Chief.”
Connor turned to Selena.“You still think the killer went back to the lodge?I bet it’s a bunch of kids.”
“You should know by now to trust my hunches,” she said, crossing her arms.
Connor stopped as if to roll his eyes at that comment.But he didn’t.“What do you want to do now?”
“Back to the department.We dig into Sandra, Janet, Renee, Mary, and Warren’s business.Financials, cell phone records if we can get them, known associates, property disputes, that sort of thing.Anything that might have made him a target.”
“That’s a wide net.”
“Sandra gave us no alibi and almost no curiosity about who the other woman might be.That seems strange to me… But we have to cast a wide net until we catch something worthwhile.Right now, we have nothing.”
Connor put his hat on, brim shading his eyes.
Selena opened her car door.
This time, she checked the ground first before getting in.
CHAPTER SIX
The Sheriff's department looked exactly as Selena remembered it.
Low front desk.Beige walls.Scuffed floor near the entrance where years of boots had worn the finish dull.A bulletin board crowded with notices, missing pet fliers, a charity breakfast poster, and a faded warning about rural mailbox theft.Nothing had shifted in any meaningful way since the Nolan Pruitt case, and the familiarity caught her with more force than expected.
