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I find it about twenty yards up from the pile. It’s an overgrown trail with weeds about knee high, but there are signs something passed through here fairly recently. Something with very thick tires.
“Tessa! Come have a look at this!”
She’s breathing heavily when she joins me at the edge of the woods.
“Has anyone seen any evidence of an ATV, or maybe one of those small utility vehicles, like a John Deere?”
“We found some tracks over by the office building.”
She points at the single-story building closer to the gate. It houses offices and a general storage area as I recall. It has a front and a back entrance as well as a single roll-up garage door. We tried all those doors getting in, but the place is locked up tight. Unlike the rusted gates to the quarry, which haphazardly hang from their concrete moorings and allow free entry for all, the office building is clearly still off-limits and sports shiny new locks. Not surprising, given what Tessa discovered inside that building last year.
Apparently, Missy Gentry—the widow who inherited the quarry from her late husband—had set up some kind of sex playroom in the building to entertain her secret lover, Silence’s own mayor. That incident blew their affair wide open, resulting in Merrick’s wife leaving him. Of course, by now, their relationship is public and out in the open, but the rumors around their sexual preferences still do the rounds.
“Any luck in getting a hold of Mrs. Gentry?”
Tessa shakes her head. “Nothing when I talked to Brenda earlier. She was going to try the mayor’s office next to see if they could help track her down. Although, at this point we can probably get a warrant to get in,” she suggests.
Yes, discovering the murder scene on the property would be valid justification to search the locked buildings too, but getting the keys and approval from the owner would be simpler.
“You’re right. Let’s see if Brenda finds out anything, and if she strikes out, we’ll get a warrant written up and sent off to Judge Crombie for a signature.”
Brenda has worked as the office manager for the Edwards County Sheriff’s Office since well before Savvy took over the office from her father, but probably should’ve been an investigator. The woman has resources all over town and if anyone can locate Missy Gentry, I put my money on her.
“It’s a Friday afternoon,” Tessa points out. “He’s not going to be at the courthouse anymore.”
“We’ll worry about that later. Right now, I think we should lock this place up. Get some chains and padlocks up here, see if we can’t secure the front gates. If you don’t mind looking into that, I’m gonna head down this trail a bit and see where it leads.”
Fifteen minutes later, I’m standing on the edge of the same ditch where I was standing Monday afternoon, watching Buck Wilson examine the body. If I kept following the trail another fifteen minutes down the mountain, I’d end up at the back of Dana’s property.
That does not make me feel good.
The sun is already setting when I get back to the quarry to find Tessa the only one left.
“Leads right to the dump site,” I inform her.
“I suspected as much. I just talked to Brenda and, apparently, the mayor and Missy left for a vacation in the Caymans.”
How fucking convenient.
“Great,” I grumble.
“And also, Judge Crombie is out of commission.”
“How so?”
“Had a possible heart attack while playing a round of golf at Dominion Meadows near Colville, and was transported to the hospital there. No word yet on his condition, but it doesn’t look like we’re gonna get any warrant signed soon.”
Jesus, this has to be the most frustrating case. Nothing is coming easy.
“I’m waiting for Deputy McLeary to get up here,” Tessa continues. “There was no way to make those gates secure enough, so McLeary is gonna stick around and keep an eye out tonight. I’ve cleared it with Hugo.”
I vigorously rub my hands over my face, as fatigue starts to set in. It’s been another long-ass day. For both of us.
“Hey, go home to your boys,” I suggest. “I can wait for Dave.”
“He should be here any minute, and besides, it’s Friday night; my boys won’t be home. Why don’t you get out of here? Maybe stop by Dana’s and check in with her.”
She shoots me a cheeky grin.
