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“She doesn’t have a filter.” Carter shrugged. “I know I had the same problem at one time but I knew when to keep my mouth shut. She never stops talking and could well leak information.”
Considering everyone’s opinion, Jenna paused a beat thinking before lifting her gaze back to Kane. “A week is a long time, Dave. I don’t need the distraction right now, not with a killer murdering nightly—and neither do you. Maybe I should just fire her?”
“We’ll be working in the conference room from now on and she’s not on our team.” Kane shrugged. “Give her the week—that’s a fair assessment.”
Nodding, Jenna glanced around the room. “Okay, but keep it professional and quit calling her Poppy.” She sighed. “I’m over discussing Deputy Anderson. We have an interview at one and I haven’t eaten yet.”
She glanced up as Rowley came into the room and nodded to him. After sitting next to Jo, she hunted through the takeout for a bagel and cream cheese. It was a favorite and Kane usually included one or two in an order. The conversation in the room hummed around her and she listened as Carter gave Jo the details she’d missed.
“Did you find any similar murders?” Kane, leaned forward in his chair looking at Jo.
“Similar but not the same, no. We’re assuming the killer has murdered three victims.” Jo twirled her coffee cup in her fingers staring at the whiteboard. “You’d have reason to link them as they all had a fear factor. This is part of the killer’s profile but so is the enclosed spaces. The pickup was an enclosed space and so was the closet. In the third case, it looked as if the killer attempted to drag the victim into the closet as well, but someone disturbed them.”
“You think Rio arrived and they attacked him?” Kane raised both eyebrows. “Then how did they get the kid to ride by his house? They wouldn’t risk getting the kid to relay the message and then go and kill Mrs. Carson, and we know they injected Rio in the back. They’d have to plan that move.”
Jenna swallowed her last piece of bagel and sipped her coffee. “We’ve established the killer wore Rio’s boots. So he was down before the murder, or we’d have found bloody footprints.” She placed her cup on the table. “Rio isn’t a small man and Mrs. Carson must have weighed close to one hundred and fifty pounds. Have you considered that after dragging the victim into the doorway and then Rio into the blood, they might have been too exhausted to complete the fantasy?”
“If this scenario is correct, then we’ll ask Wolfe if he found any ligature marks on Mrs. Carson. There’s no way she would have just stood there and watched what was happening. She’d have run for the backdoor or grabbed a weapon from the kitchen. I noticed a knife block in there.”
“There was an empty rifle rack in the hallway.” Carter tossed a toothpick into his mouth. “Th
ey could have threatened her with the rifle and turned it on Rio for all we know. If it’s not here they probably tossed it.”
“If they’d had a rifle aimed at her, when I arrived, they’d have had to take it off her to aim it at me.” Rio rubbed his temples. “If that happened, I figure she’d have called out to warn me. I’d have pulled my weapon and someone would be dead apart from the victim.”
Running the conversation through her mind, Jenna nodded. “What if they drugged her as well?”
“Nope.” Kane pulled a slice of peach pie from a bag. “She had defensive wounds on her arms. That wouldn’t happen if she’d been unconscious.”
Jenna’s phone buzzed. It was Maggie. “Okay, thank you. I’ll be right along.” She turned to Jo. “Duffy is here. Do you mind sitting in on the interview? Over the phone, he sounds just too nice, and from what Rio said about him, he can change in the blink of an eye.”
“Sure.” Jo stood, gathered her empty wrappers and tossed them in the garbage.
After making sure the feed from the interview room was playing on a screen, Jenna turned to the others. “You can watch from here. I want this to look like a casual interview. He’ll clam up if he sees law enforcement officers waiting in the hallway.” She headed out the door and stopped to speak to Rowley. “Good job out there this morning. Eat, and then write up your files.”
THIRTY-ONE
After waving Trey Duffy into the interview room, Jenna waited for him and Jo to sit down before pulling a statement book out of the drawer. She dropped into a chair and turned on the recording devices, stated the date and time, and turned to Duffy. “Thank you for coming in to answer our questions, Mr. Duffy. Can you please state your name and details for the record?”
“Trey Duffy out of 202 Stanton.”
Jenna nodded. “I’m Sheriff Jenna Alton and I’m with Special Agent Jo Wells, who is here to observe.” She glanced at Jo. “If you could state your name?”
“Special Agent Jo Wells out of the Snakeskin Gully field office.” Jo smiled at Duffy. “Do you have any objection to me sitting in?”
“Not at all.” The corner of Duffy’s mouth twitched into a smile. “I’m interested to find out what happened to my clients.”
Keeping her face impassive, Jenna took the pen from her pocket. “This interview is to establish a timeline before the deaths of Agnes Wagner out of Snowberry Way; Jolene Darvish out of Rocky Road, Bear Peak; and Flora Carson out of Buffalo Trail. You have the right to have an attorney present. Do you wish to continue with the interview?”
“Sure.” Duffy opened his hands wide. “I don’t have anything to hide from you fine ladies.”
Jenna read him his rights. “Okay. Let’s start with Agnes Wagner. When did you do repairs on her furnace?”
“Let me see.” Duffy pulled a notebook out of his pocket and flipped through the pages. “I worked there for a time. I finished on Thursday and dropped by on Friday because she complained of a bad smell in the cellar. It was a dead mouse. I took it out and opened the window to air out the place.”
“Did you close the window before you left?” Jo leaned back in her chair.
“Nope, it needed a day or so.” He raised both eyebrows. “I wasn’t the only person up there. I had four guys from the warehouse to deliver the furnace.” He chuckled. “You didn’t expect me to carry the old one up the stairs and bring the new one down by myself, did you?” He shook his head. “I just repair them or fit them and make sure they’re running right is all.”
