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“Okay.” Jenna straightened. “We’ll work on that for now.” She looked at Kane as he came back inside the room. “Is there a problem?”
“Nope.” Kane lifted his chin to Wolfe. “Did you find anything?”
Wolfe explained. “That makes two homicides this week.”
“I’ll send out a press release to alert the elderly women to lock their doors.” Jenna frowned. “I know one murder might be personal, but two usually tells me that number three is just around the corner.”
TWENTY-THREE
Outside the examination room, Jenna turned to Jo. “Are you staying?” She dragged off her scrubs and tossed them into the basket and then used a wipe to remove the mentholated salve from under her nose. “You can stay in the cabin for as long as you like.” She took in a breath, glad to be out of the stink of rotting flesh.
“We’d love to.” Jo smiled at her. “This case is very interesting. Unless you’d prefer we didn’t get involved?”
More than happy for the assistance, Jenna shook her head. “Not at all. I have so many conflicting factors spinning around inside my head that I’d appreciate your input. The cottage is yours and you can drive my cruiser if you need a ride while we’re out doing the grunt work.”
“Perfect.” Jo leaned her back against the wall. “It’s been a long day.”
Jenna pushed a hand through her hair. “It’s not over yet. Rowley has been interviewing suspects. I’ll send out a media release and then get a report from him. Unless anything else happens, we can go home.”
“Our bags are in the foyer and I’ll just grab Zorro.” Carter headed toward Wolfe’s office, opened the door and whistled for his constant companion. He glanced back at Kane. “Where’s Duke?” He set out for the foyer, the dog’s nails click-clacking on the tiles behind him.
“He’s at the office.” Kane bent to pick up Jo’s bag and headed out the door.
Jenna stared after him, knowing instinctively something was on his mind. A subject he didn’t want to speak about in front of Jo and Carter. As she climbed into the Beast, her phone chimed. She stared at the caller ID, surprised to see it was Mayor Petersham. “Sheriff Alton.”
“I received a request out of Cedar Canyon for a deputy transfer, and as Sheriff Tom Griffin is a good friend of mine, I agreed that Deputy Anderson could work alongside your team to gain experience in homicide investigation. If you consider her a fit, she can take one of the two extra deputy positions you requested.” Mayor Petersham chuckled. “You see, I do listen, Sheriff. This deputy will be an asset to your team. Look, I’ve even arranged a place for them to stay. Surely, you’re not going to complain about getting another pair of hands?”
Annoyed the mayor had overstepped his mark, Jenna sucked in a breath and stared out the window as Kane drove back to the office. As sheriff, it was her job to hire and fire the deputies. The mayor had no idea what qualifications she required for her team. She wondered why his good friend was trying to unload a deputy on her office. What was wrong with them? Obviously not enough to fire them. “Okay, but I can’t babysit a rookie. We’re in the middle of two homicide cases. It will be a desk job at best right now.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll decide if they’re good enough to join my team. One inexperienced deputy can put everyone at risk right now.”
“I understand completely. Just humor me for once, okay?” The mayor disconnected.
Keeping her expression blank, she climbed from the Beast and headed for her office. She gave Maggie a wave, patted Duke as he did his happy dance at seeing Dave, and went to speak to Rowley. “Can you come up to my office and bring us up to date with the interviews? Any luck at locating Trey Duffy?”
“Yeah, he was working out of the industrial area and his phone hit a black spot.” Rowley gathered his things and stood. “He’ll drop by tomorrow around noon and you can speak to him. I mentioned it was about the furnaces. I got the impression he figured something was wrong with the installation, so I didn’t say anything about the murders.”
Still thinking about the new deputy, Jenna shrugged. The name Cedar Canyon was familiar. She focused on the job at hand. “At least we don’t have to hunt him down.”
“Something else.” Rowley glanced down the hallway to the room that housed the CCTV screens for around town. “There’s been a buzzing from the conference room. I went inside but I can’t find anything wrong.”
Jenna nodded. “I’ll ask Kane to take a look after the briefing.” She waved him upstairs.
She followed him into her office. The room hummed with conversation, and Kane was at the whiteboard adding information. Sitting behind her desk, she looked at Rowley. “Okay, what did you get from Archie Bueller—he’s the gardener, and Colby Hahn is the local handyman.” She glanced at Jo and Carter. “Both of these men had contact with our victims.”
She listened with interest as Rowley brought them up to date. “What were your impressions?”
“They had the opportunity to be involved, and as the two women lived in remote locations, witnesses would be few, if any. It seemed unusual that these men worked for both victims. Hahn lives out of Bear Peak and uses Rocky to get into town, and then we have the furnace guy, Trey Duffy. The women had contact with at least two of these men in the last week or so.” Rowley glanced at his notes. “The suspects cooperated, same with Duffy. The two I interviewed could be innocent or great liars.”
Wondering which way to take the investigation, Jenna stared at the whiteboard, and rubbed her temples. “All of the potential suspects drive GMC trucks. I’m at a standstill.” She looked around the room. “Any suggestions?”
“Maybe we can discuss the case over dinner tonight?” Carter pushed back his Stetson and leaned forward in his chair. “It’s been one hell of a day. We’ll all think better after an hour or so rest. If we head home in Dave’s truck, I’ll help him with the chores and give you both time to freshen up. I’ll leave the bird at the ME’s office.”
Jenna opened her desk drawer and pulled out the keys to her vehicle. She tossed them to Carter. “You have the code to my gate on your phone. Your fingerprint will open the cottage door. Go make yourself at home. Come by to eat at our place tonight. We have a ton of steak and Dave will cook.” She nodded to Kane.
“Sure, why not?” Carter grinned. “As long as I can help.”
“You can handle the horses. The kitchen is my
domain.” Kane’s phone chimed and he glanced at it and pushed to his feet. “I need to take this.”
