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“He isn’t the type of person we would associate with, Sheriff. I know he owns the junkyard in town.” Mrs. Lars drew a deep breath and hesitated as if not sure to continue. “I’m not sure I should say anything more, I don’t want him showing up on my doorstep all riled up.”
Jenna would have given a month’s pay to find out the gossip on Chuck Burns. There was no way she was letting this go. “What the media is saying is correct. I promise your name will never come up. In any reports, I’ll refer to you as my CI. That’s how we refer to a confidential informant.”
“Okay.” Mrs. Lars’s voice became low and conspiratorial. “I hear tell he is an ambulance chaser, you know, out cruisin’ the streets looking for an accident. His store sells recycled parts like the one owned by Sawyer out on the highway but I don’t figure he worries too much about where they came from, if you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I understand.” Jenna leaned against the kitchen counter; Kane and Rowley had visited both junkyards and found zip. “Are you saying he is running a chop shop? Because my deputies searched his junkyard last week and everything seemed to be in order.”
“His junkyard is beside an old garage, the one that still has the 1940’s gas pumps out front.” Mrs. Lars’ excitement came through the earpiece. “Burns owns the entire block of buildings. Stan told me he often sees Burns waving vehicles through the old rusty doors of the garage late at night. Strange, seeing the place has been closed for fifty years or more.”
Jenna pumped the air, pen in hand, then grinned. “Thank you, Mrs. Lars, you’ve been very helpful. We’ll contact you if we need any more information.”
“No trouble at all.” The line went dead.
After letting out a whoop of excitement, Jenna ran down the passageway and took a quick look out the front window to check on Kane and the girls. Kane had everything under control and was moving slowly along the dirt road, holding firmly on to Anna and chatting to Julie. She turned and made her way to her office, where she had a list of the owners of the properties in her county. Sinc
e arriving in Black Rock Falls, she’d discovered local gossip could be a goldmine of information. Sliding into the seat at her desk, she located the file on her computer and scanned the pages. Sure enough, Chuck Burns owned the junkyard, the adjoining property, listed as a derelict gas station, and another building currently used for storage by the owner. If Chuck Burns was involved in a chop shop like Mrs. Lars had intimated he might have a criminal record.
She accessed the local databanks and soon found he had priors. He’d spent jail time for kidnapping in Wyoming and received a fine for dealing in stolen property. She made up a file and would present it to the judge first thing in the morning to obtain a search warrant of his properties. Although the junkyard wouldn’t be open on Sundays, a wild spark of urgency made her want to head out right away to see if the old garage had any windows they could peer into to see if Sky’s vehicle was inside. She took a deep breath to get back on track. Right now, her proof against Burns was hearsay and she had to concentrate on obtaining evidence against Knox.
As Jeff Knox was their main suspect, she needed everything she could find to induce the Blackwater judge to issue a search warrant for his motel room. She wasn’t convinced the charges of assault they’d found would be enough to sway a judge from a different county, especially as he had refused her first request. After entering Knox’s name in the statewide database results filled her screen. She gaped in astonishment. The DA in Deep Valley County had also charged him with raping a hitchhiker. Just like the case in Blackwater, it never went to trial. Two for two. She chewed on her bottom lip wondering how come two women had him charged with rape then dropped the charges. Had he threatened them? She needed to speak with the victims to find out why they refused to give evidence.
She entered the women’s names into the search engine and swallowed hard. Both women had missing person’s files. It was if they had driven into the Bermuda triangle and vanished just like her three missing persons. She added all the information to the file and emailed it to Judge Eaton in Blackwater. Surely, now she would have enough probable cause to convince him to issue a search warrant for Knox’s motel room.
The noise of someone banging on her front door and the sound of the two girls calling her name, Jenna closed the files and headed for the door. The girls, with rosy cheeks and excited chatter, met her as she opened the door. “Come inside in the warm.” She helped them with their coats and hung them on the pegs beside the front door. “I have cookies in the kitchen and Dave says I make the best hot chocolate in town.”
“He’s taking care of the horses.” Anna beamed up at her as they made their way to the kitchen. “He said we should be helping him because that’s how you say thanks to a horse for riding it but he said he would thank them for us because we were shivering.”
Jenna glanced at the clock and frowned. The time had flown. “No wonder you’re cold, you’ve been out there for an hour.”
She had them settled in front of the fire watching TV by the time Kane walked in the front door, removed his coat and kicked off his snow-covered boots. She took him into the kitchen and brought him up to date. “I’ve emailed the file to Judge Eaton. Now I guess we wait until after lunch to call him.”
“Yeah, I figure we give him plenty of time to read the file.” Kane nibbled at a cookie. “Wolfe should be calling soon. We could drop the girls home and do a drive-by of Chuck Burns’ junkyard. I doubt it will be open today but if it is, we could make some excuse to have a look around and see if he has a yellow car in there.”
Jenna reached for a cookie. “A slow drive-by, maybe. I don’t want to spook him. If he thinks we’re on to him, he’ll destroy any evidence.” She sighed. “I’d rather wait until we have a search warrant.”
“That sounds like a plan. We could drop by Aunt Betty’s for lunch. It will give me time to read over the info you have on Knox.”
Jenna grinned at him. “Your tank is always empty. Are you ever not hungry?”
“It’s the long hours.” Kane reached for another cookie. “I need a lot of fuel to keep up with you.”
Jenna laughed. “Okay, we’ll wait it out at Aunt Betty’s. It will be warmer than opening the office and I do need to eat. I’m exhausted and the cold weather isn’t helping.” She sighed. “The thought of driving to Blackwater this afternoon to execute a search warrant on a potential kidnapper isn’t my idea of a perfect Sunday.”
“I had a ball riding with Julie and Anna.” Kane turned his cup around on the table and sighed. “I wanted to have kids. They’re exhausting but I’m kind of jealous of Wolfe. I know he lost his wife too but she left him with three beautiful daughters.”
“I figure we’re lucky.” Jenna pushed words out over the lump in her throat. “He has adopted us as family and we get to enjoy his kids for a couple of hours at a time, then hand them back.” She shrugged. “The hours you put in on the job, you wouldn’t have time for kids.”
“I guess not.” Kane sighed.
Jenna’s cellphone chimed. It was Wolfe.
“Autopsy showed Mrs. Palmer died in the wreck, nothing suspicious, and the blood test for Ella Tate came back positive. So it seems she was telling you the truth. The amount she still had in her system would have knocked her out and messed with her mind.”
A wave of relief lifted a weight from Jenna’s shoulders. “That’s good news. Are you finished for the day?”
“Yeah. I’m home now.” He cleared his throat. “Another thing. Doctor Weaver’s computer confirms she was making her own HLA typing database. I figure we need to question her about her motive. My gut tells me she is up to something.”
Jenna frowned. “I have the same feeling but the kidnapping takes priority right now.”
