Page 58 of K-9 in Pursuit

“I wasn’t investigating. I was doing my job, helping an injured skier. He recognized me and volunteered that he had seen Sharee. Then I had pizza at the restaurant next to the alley where Sharee was found and a server there told me about seeing her with another woman on the night she was killed.”

“Did you share this information with the sheriff?” Barnes asked.

“Not yet, but I will.”

“Let me talk to them,” she said. “You need to keep quiet. Have you talked to your parents about the case?”

“No.” The last thing he wanted was for his parents to know he had been accused of this terrible thing.

“You should. Defending a criminal case is expensive. You’re going to need their help.”

“Yeah.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll talk to them.”

“The grand jury is scheduled to convene next week. I’ll be in touch after that.”

“Okay. Um, thanks for letting me know.”

He ended the call and slumped onto a nearby bench. Why did the DA believe he had enough evidence to convict Brian of murder? Could one stray glove be enough to send him to prison? And Chloe! Oh God, Chloe. She would never want to be with him if he was arrested for her sister’s murder. He groaned and bent over his knees, struggling not to be sick.

“Brian? What’s wrong?”

He looked up to find Connor bent over him, face twisted in concern. Brian straightened. “I had a call from my lawyer. The DA is asking a grand jury to indict me for Sharee Anderson’s murder.” He let out a choked laugh. “Guess I won’t be pursuing that senior ski patrol certification.” He wouldn’t be doing much of anything if he ended up going to prison.

Connor sat beside him. “Does this mean you’ll be arrested?”

“I could be. The grand jury meets next week. I guess I’ll know more then.”

“If there’s anything I can do to help, I will,” Connor said.

“If I am arrested, will you look after Daisy?”

“Of course. And I’ll ask Stacy if there’s any way she can help.”

“That would be great.”

“You should take the rest of the day off,” Connor said.

“I don’t think I can afford to do that,” Brian said. “Besides, if I go home, I’ll only sit and fret. Better to be out there on the snow.”

“Take Daisy over to Bridger Bowl and patrol, then. And try to focus. You don’t want to get hurt because you weren’t paying attention.”

Brian stood. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

Bridger Bowl’s expert terrain was seldom crowded. Skiing the open terrain with Daisy would clear his head and help him decide what to do next. Like how he was going to tell his parents about this whole sad mess.

Chapter Seventeen

After Brian left for work Friday, Chloe busied herself putting away all signs of their night spent in the massage room, and cleaned the rest of the shop, then telephoned a locksmith and arranged for her to replace the locks at both the shop and her apartment. She was finishing up the call when Nadia arrived.

“What was that about changing the locks?” Nadia asked after Chloe had ended the call.

“When I got ready to leave work yesterday afternoon I discovered my purse was missing,” Chloe said. “I couldn’t lock up so I spent the night here. After midnight, someone tried to use the key to get in, but they ran off before the sheriff’s deputy could get here.” She had told the story so often she would have thought she was immune to emotion, but her voice shook now.

“First your apartment and now the shop?” Nadia put a comforting hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “What is going on? And someone stole your purse? Who?”

“I’m pretty sure it was that woman who was in here yesterday. Bunny. She was waiting for me when I arrived yesterday, and saw me put my purse away. I left her alone up front while I made coffee. She was wearing that long fur coat that would have made hiding the purse easy enough.”

Nadia moved to the coffeepot and filled a cup. “But what would she want with your purse?”