Merciless

“I am not entirely helpless in the kitchen, Sheriff. Besides, you’d better not insult my cooking since I’ll be doing a lot more of it.” I sipped my coffee. “Sophie quit.”

“She did? When did this happen?”

“Hope told me last night. I guess it’s effective immediately. She wants to spend more time with Penny before she…”

Dawson frowned. “Is Penny worse?”

“No.” I explained what I’d been told the night before.

“That’s good news anyway. And I have some more good news.” He focused on Lex. “I talked to Phil Beecham, the bus driver for this area. He said if you’re down by the main highway by twenty-five before the hour, he’ll pick you up and take you to school. Won’t that be great? Getting to know the kids from around here?”

“I guess.” Lex left the table without picking up his plate.

“Huh-uh. Get back here. You know the drill.”

“Sorry, Dad.” He looked at me. Firmed his chin. “Is Sophie quitting because of me?”

“No. Why would you-” Had the kid taken the blame for everything at his mom’s house? “To be honest, Sophie is getting on in years, and it’s gotten harder for her to do all the things she used to do. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. In fact, she was pretty excited when she heard you were coming. More cookie recipes for her to test out.”

“I never knew anyone who had a housekeeper and a cook,” Lex said.

“Sophie’s more than just a housekeeper to me. She’s sort of filled in since my mom died when I was a kid.”

“Oh.” Lex hustled off after a warning from his father about being late for school.

Dawson wrapped himself around me while I rinsed the dishes. “I know you’ll miss her. I’ll miss her, too. But this is probably the best for everyone.”

I disagreed.

And in my mind, this was a temporary situation, anyway. Sophie would be back.

13

We probably should’ve been at the tribal police department getting the tribal officers’ input on the case. But instead, I found myself at home base-the Rapid City FBI office-in the conference room, alone with Agent Turnbull.

And it seemed a bit… official. Instead of the brainstorming session Shay had hinted at.

“We’re in agreement that the Shooting Star and Dupris cases are connected?”

I nodded. “Any reports back from the crime lab?”

“Yep. Verline also had high levels of digitalis in her system.” He rapped his pen on the blank sheet of paper in front of him. “So now, how about if we start with a list of possible suspects.” Then he looked at me pointedly.

“What? You want me to go first?”

“Yep.”

Damn. “Junior Rondeaux.”

“Why?”

“He’d been sneaking around with Arlette, effectively pissing off both his father and Verline.”

The tap-tap-tap of Turnbull’s pen sounded on the table as he studied me. “Why would Verline be mad if her live-in’s son was making time with the tribal president’s niece?”

I’d get a browbeating for not immediately telling Turnbull about Junior Rondeaux cornering me last night. It’d be entertaining to watch steam blow out of his ears-if not for the fact all that steam would be directed at me. “Before you have an aneurysm, I was in shock after yesterday’s events when Junior waylaid me in the parking lot at the tribal PD.”

“Why didn’t you bring him into the police station? He was right fucking there. I was right fucking there.”

Yep, Turnbull was really pissed if he used fuck in the office. “He took off, and I didn’t think ‘by any means necessary’ was appropriate use of force in this case. Yes, I could’ve shot him in the leg. But I figured it’d be counterproductive, since he’d end up in the hospital, unable to answer our questions anyway.”

Angrier, faster tapping with his pen. “What exactly did Junior Rondeaux tell you?”

I relayed the conversation to the best of my recollection. When I reached the part where Junior told me of his fear of Rollie’s threats to Verline if he found out she’d been cheating on him, I hesitated. And Mr. Intuitive G-man caught it.

“No editorializing, Agent Gunderson.”

“Fine. Junior said Rollie would kill her.”

Silence.

His handsome face was a total blank.

I tossed out one of the two other theories I’d been kicking around. “What if Junior killed Verline to protect her? If Verline had a hormonal moment, especially if Junior had been telling Verline about spending time with Arlette to make Verline jealous and force her into a decision about leaving Rollie. Verline could’ve offered Arlette a ride, claiming to know Junior, drugged her, and staked her.”

“So you think Verline picked Arlette up from school that day?”

“It’s a possibility. Arlette was keeping Junior a secret so she wouldn’t tell Naomi about her lunch plans.”

“Where would Verline have obtained digitalis?”

I said, “From Rollie,” without thinking. “He and his family are into all that native natural herbal stuff.”

More pen tapping. “Go on.”