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By the time their car is driving out of the parking lot, Rick is beside me, his arm slung over my shoulders.
“So what did Jules want?”
Rick
* * *
“…evidence he’d been staying in the double-wide up there.”
I only partially hear what Mancuso is saying because my attention has been on Dana.
She never really did answer my question earlier, claiming my sister just wanted some girl talk, but I’m not buying it. Jules doesn’t do anything without a good reason, and I saw the tense exchange between her and Dana at the hospital. Something definitely happened between them, and I’m convinced my sister was driving whatever it was.
“At the old Rogers place?” Dana asks.
It’s Savvy who answers. “Yes.”
“Wait,” I interrupt. “Who’s been staying there?”
“Merrick,” Mancuso clarifies.
“Alone? Was Withers staying there too?”
“Doesn’t look like it. We know it was the mayor staying there because his suitcase still had the airline luggage label attached. Which reminds me,” the agent adds, “Mexican police are trying to locate Missy Gentry and we’ll have our agents go pick her up. I’m not sure how deep her involvement runs, but I’m hoping she can fill in some of the blanks.”
“What about Hudson?”
He gives his head a jerk, clearly frustrated. “Unless we get someone talking, we don’t have enough to bring him in yet. We need concrete evidence he’s the mastermind behind this entire plot, or the testimony of someone who can connect him. Preferably more than one someone, otherwise it becomes a he said, she said situation, and with his money and influence, he’d probably find a way out from under a single accusation.”
“He’s gonna be in the wind,” I point out.
“We have eyes on him,” Mancuso tries to assure me.
“You know as well as I do, when you have resources like he does, those eyes are relatively easy to circumvent.”
“All the more reason to get busy going over the details of Saturday. Anything you know, the things that were said, the interactions witnessed between Withers and Merrick, even their demeanor at the time could provide us with the piece of information we need to glue this whole case together.”
He wants to interview Dana first and asks me to leave the room. I know it’s standard procedure to interview potential witnesses separately, but it still annoys me. I wander into the kitchen for coffee, where I bump into KC.
“Hear it got hairy out there Saturday,” he comments.
“A bit.”
The younger man shakes his head as he fills a travel mug with the black sludge Brenda makes every morning.
“Can’t believe about the mayor. I mean, the guy was an absolute douchebag, but I never would’ve thought he’d stoop that low.”
I’m sure as the story gets out, there will be more people in town who are shocked. Including those county commissioners who were pressured to vote a certain way at the upcoming meeting. The initial reaction might be relief, until they realize they too may be exposed as the scope of the investigation comes to light.
“Some people are just inherently bad, others are much better at hiding it,” I impart. “And then there are those that get caught up and are too weak to find their way out of a bad situation.”
“I’m starting to learn that.”
Give him another five or so years on the job and he’ll know it to be true.
“Are you still on surveillance detail?” I ask him as he starts moving toward the door.
“Yeah. Agent Mancuso says to keep an eye on the commissioners for a few more days. He hopes the one he’s looking for will panic, do something out of character, inadvertently exposing themselves.”
