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“Ouch, you little…”
Riley jumped back out of the way, giving her the chance to make her escape. “See you later, Eileen. I think I’ll have chicken fried steak for dinner.” Riley hates chicken fried steak; he’d told her so more than once for who knows what reason. It’s not like there was a chance that she’d ever be making it for him—just another one of his annoyances.
“You fight dirty, huh, Detective. I’ll drive into town for lunch since I’m not eating that nasty shit. Your ass had better be there when I show up.” He stomped off in the opposite direction, muttering about steak coming from cows, or at least that’s what it sounded like to her. It was a small victory, but after last night Celia decided she’d take them wherever she could. The man is certainly a worthy opponent.
CHAPTER 29
By the time Celia reached her desk Riley, and his antics were the last thing on her mind. She was back in detective mode and was sure that she was on the right track. She’d spent most of the time after leaving Don Wilson’s office, concentrating on who the mystery guest had been, but now her focus had shifted back to her reason for going there in the first place.
She was sure that she’d found Don Simpson and the fact that he’d changed his name and was now using an alias was only one of the reasons she found him suspicious. As a detective who’d been trained by the best, she knew all of the signs to look for in a suspect. Some of them are sophisticated enough to get away with lying, but a greenhorn like Don wasn’t savvy enough to pull the wool over her eyes.
She couldn’t quite put her finger on why exactly she didn’t peg him as her killer; the vibe just wasn’t there. But she knew from his squirrely actions under her questioning that he knew something or was involved in some way. Now she just needed to find enough to bring him in before he bolts, and she loses the only thread she has in the otherwise messed up case.
Bobby came in not long after she got there and got settled in, and she was surprised to see him before he reminded her that it was her idea. “Oh, thanks for coming in Bobby. Just write this for me, will you?” Detective Sparks had already rewritten one of the poems in her own handwriting for him to copy from.
“Anything yet?” She looked up at his question as he sat across from her writing the words that he was looking at like they were foreign objects. She hid her grin at the scoff on his face. No doubt the rough and rugged mechanic was wondering who’d written such flowery bullshit.
“We’re working on it, Bobby. How are you and Gil holding up?”
She didn’t even find it strange any longer that the two men were sticking to each other. In this town, she’d learned to expect the unexpected. “We’re doing alright, I guess, he’s having a hard time to be sure. The funeral is in a few days.”
“Oh, the M. E. released the body?”
“Yeah, said they were done with her.”
Bobby ducked his head and went back to what he was doing before she could see the tears in his eyes. She had the M.E’s report on her desk, and that showed they’d found nothing usable to build a case, no trace evidence that could be used to tie a suspect in. But at least everything was recorded for such time as they find someone and the case goes to court.
She’s going to have to get in touch with the other detective whose case had sent her in Don’s direction at some point today, even though she didn’t have much except a name change to go on. By rights, she could wait a bit longer until she has something more to go on at least, but there’s really no point in waiting. Besides, the other man might know something that hadn’t been written down that she could use.
First, she had to get her stuff in order. At the very least, if nothing else pans out, she’d be giving the guy a heads up as to the whereabouts of the man who’d split before he had a chance to question him in his still as yet unsolved case. No matter how she looked at it though, there’s no way Don Simpson isn’t involved here; she’d put good money on it.
“Here you go, Detective.” Bobby passed her the piece of paper with the words he’d just written, and it only took Detective Sparks one glance to know that he was not the penman she was looking for, something she’d already decided before he even showed up here.
“Thanks for coming in Bobby, I really appreciate it.”
