Cruel Grace: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 5) Read online

  McCann’s shoulders slumped. “I was trying to be tactful but yes, Arnold Stands is a total jerk. I’m not surprised he treated the witness badly. He treats pretty much everyone that way, except a few people that he inexplicably likes.”

  “Did he like the victim’s parents?”

  “He did,” McCann replied with a loud sigh. “I don’t know what he saw in them, maybe because they’re loaded. Personally, I think they’re a little too…much, if you know what I mean.”

  “You’ve met them?”

  “I was a patrolman back when all of this happened. I was one of the responders when the body was found. I saw the parents in action. They terrorized the police chief at the time, and they used the press against us to make it look like we didn’t know what we were doing. They did have a point there, to be fair. We didn’t have much experience with murders. We get mostly burglaries, domestic violence, bar fights. Stands was assigned to the case because he had the most experience of anyone.”

  “Have the victim’s parents contacted you over the years?”

  It wasn’t uncommon for family and friends to call once a year to see if there was any progress or if anything had changed.

  “No, not a word.”

  “You said they were loaded. I know they hired their own investigator. Did you work with them?”

  “He or she never contacted us. You’re the first person to ask about the case file. We have to document those sorts of things.” McCann sat back in his chair, sliding the manila folder across the desk to Eli. “I’m really glad that you’re taking a look at this case. I’ve tried working on it here and there over the last four years but frankly, I’m not sure where to go with it. But I don’t like the thought that someone got away with murder twelve years ago and is still out there, unless they’ve been arrested for another crime.”

  Tucking the file under his arm, Eli stood and shook the detective’s hand.

  “I appreciate your cooperation in all of this and I hope that I can make a difference here.”

  “I just wish I could offer you more help.” McCann’s smile dropped and he pulled a business card out from the middle drawer of his desk, holding it out to Eli. “This isn’t in the file. When I talked to Stands about the case, he said that he liked the bartender friend Thom Laramie for the murder. Said his alibi was shaky. You can find him here.”

  Laramie just flew to the top of Eli’s list.

  Eli accepted the card gratefully. “I appreciate the help, and he’ll be one of the first people I talk to.”

  “Like I said, I wish I could help more but we’re understaffed as it is. But I would like you to keep me in the loop.”

  “Absolutely, I will. Thanks again.” Eli’s gaze ran over the gleaming office. “You know, this is one of the nicest police stations I’ve ever been in.”

  McCann laughed. “We think so too, but we’ve been told not to get too comfy. They moved the detectives’ division over here while they do renovations on the main building. We’re supposed to move back by the end of the year, but frankly, I’d be happy to stay here forever. Quieter and more privacy. Back there I just had a cubicle and the coffee was lousy. Here I have my own office and a gourmet coffee shop three doors down. It’s heaven, man. There’s at least six great restaurants within walking distance, and a fancy bakery across the street. You should stop in. I recommend the chocolate eclairs.”

  Eli agreed to try them and then bid the detective goodbye, exiting the building and looking down the sidewalk for Charlie. She easily snagged his attention, waving from across the street. Right in front of that bakery that McCann had been talking about. Maybe he would have one of those eclairs.

  Right before talking to Thom Laramie.

  The rest of the morning was spent with Charlie showing Eli around the small university town. She drove him to the mall and the exact place where they’d found her car, near an entrance but also fairly close to the exit to the interstate. Then she’d driven him to the spot where her apartment building used to stand but was now a twenty-four-hour drug store. Finally, Charlie had driven him to the deserted country road where Kendra Taylor’s body had been found. She’d actually become turned around at one point, and he’d had to check his phone’s GPS but eventually they’d found it.

  “I’m sorry about this,” she apologized. “I don’t really know these backroads very well. I rarely, if ever, drove on them. The only reason…”

  Eli didn’t need her to finish that sentence. He understood what she was trying to say.

  “It’s not a problem,” he assured her. “I wouldn’t imagine these roads get much traffic to begin with unless you live out here.”

  Which few people did from what Eli could see. Unlike the downtown area, or even suburbia, homes were often miles apart, and the streets not lit. No one was going to see a body being dumped unless they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Eli stepped back and took a three-sixty view of the dump site. A deep ditch. No lights. No house in sight. This was the perfect place to get away with murder. It was no wonder they didn’t find Kendra for days. Even if a car or truck drove down this way, the ditches were deep enough that seeing a body wasn’t a sure thing.

  “This reminds me of the little town where I was a sheriff. Lots of elbow room between people.”

  “You sound like you like that.”

  “I do,” he confirmed with a grin. “But I like Seattle just fine as well. There are advantages to both. When the city gets a little busy for me, I can always head out to the great wide-open spaces for a few days or a week. In a way I have the best of both worlds. It sure is nice to be able to order a pizza at midnight.”

  Charlie shook her head. “You’d never order a pizza. You’d make it yourself.”

  Eli had made dinner last night - chicken piccata with asparagus and parmesan potatoes. Charlie had been impressed, although that wasn’t why he’d cooked. Still, it was nice to be appreciated. Mostly, he cooked for himself these days unless he had company over.

  “I don’t mind fast food every now and then. When I get back from a work trip, I’m usually pretty tired and the refrigerator is empty. I order takeout then. I just don’t want a steady diet of it.”

  Charlie’s gaze moved around the area. “What do you think? Not one car has come by while we’ve been here.”

  “Like I said, this is a great place to dump a body. It’s also not necessarily a spot that any university student would know about. You said yourself that you didn’t drive out here.”

  “I didn’t have any reason to.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You don’t think it was a student?”

  “I haven’t decided that yet. It’s just one item to take into consideration. It certainly could have been a student and then they drove around until they found a good spot to dump the body. Although to me it seems farfetched that they had the presence of mind to drive when they might have been panicked about just killing someone. Assuming that it wasn’t premeditated.”

  “A lot of students don’t have cars,” Charlie offered. “Campus parking is a nightmare at best and the public transport isn’t that bad. I had a car because I had parking for it at my apartment.”

  “Then the person would have to have had a car or access to one. But I think they had one of their own.”

  “Why?”

  “Because otherwise they would have taken yours, but they left it in the mall parking lot.”

  Her brows went up. “I never thought about that.”

  “That’s my job. I’m supposed to think about stuff like that.” He walked over and opened the car door. “Are you ready to go talk to Thom?”

  “I thought we going to have lunch next.”

  Eli fished the business card from his pocket and held it up.

  “We’re going to do both. Thom Laramie owns a sports bar here in town.”

  “He always said he wanted to have his own place. Good for him.”

  The sports bar was on the west end of town loc
ated near an L-shaped strip mall with upscale shops and a huge multiplex movie theater.

  “He picked a good location,” Eli observed as they were being led to their table by a smiling hostess. “The foot traffic must be really good here.”

  They settled into a booth near the kitchen and the hostess handed them their menus before hurrying off to seat another group. The restaurant was a sports fanatic’s dream, decked out in the university’s colors, with televisions everywhere Eli looked. A large oval bar dominated the middle while the main diner seating wrapped around it. The menu was huge as well with several pages of good to choose from. There appeared to be something for everyone from burgers to pizza, pasta, and aged steaks.

  “He seems to have done a terrific job,” Charlie observed with a smile. Clearly, she was fond of Thom Laramie. “I have to say that I’m so proud of him. The restaurant business is a tough one.”

  Indeed, Laramie appeared to be flourishing. The place was packed and it wasn’t even a weekend.

  Their server took their orders but before she left for the kitchen, Eli asked her to stay for a moment.

  “Is Thom Laramie here today, by chance? Charlie is an old friend of his and she’d like to say hello.”

  It was the truth. It wasn’t all the truth, but it wasn’t a lie.

  The young girl nodded. “I think he’s in his office. I can get him.”

  “Tell him Charlie Baker wants to say hello,” Charlie said.

  The server disappeared into the back and it wasn’t even two minutes later that a grinning man came barreling out of the swinging kitchen door and straight for their table. He was tall with long brown hair that just brushed his shoulders. Dressed casually, he was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt with the local team’s logo on it. He didn’t look much older than the myriad of students on campus. Charlie jumped up from her seat and the two of them hugged before sliding back into the booth, Laramie next to Charlie.

  “Thom, this is my friend Eli Hammond. Eli, this is Thom.”

  They shook hands but Thom was definitely giving Eli a thorough once over, which didn’t bother him a bit. In fact, he thought it was kind of nice that an old friend was protective of Charlie.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Laramie replied, placing an arm around Charlie’s shoulders. “Girl, you should have told me you were coming into town. I would have taken the day off or something. Wow, I just can’t believe that you’re here. It’s been so damn long. Too long. Let’s not go this long again.”

  “We won’t. I promise,” Charlie said, holding up her right hand as if taking an oath. “It’s so wonderful to see you, and look what you’ve done. You have your own restaurant, just like you said that you were going to do. This place is great.”

  Thom’s gaze ran around the room, an expression of pride on his face. “Thank you. It was a lot of hard work and sweat but I did it. We’re doing well now. We have a good clientele, and the place is packed on game days. So how long are you in town? And better question, what brought you to this one-horse hamlet? Nostalgia? Or are you going back to school?”

  Eli and Charlie exchanged a glance. He’d thought that they might chat a bit more before bringing up why they were here, but Laramie had opened the door. Eli was going to walk them through it.

  “Actually, we’re here to reopen the investigation into Kendra Taylor’s murder,” Eli said, keeping his own features neutral. He was intently interested in this man’s reaction to that statement considering what McCann had said. “I’m a private investigator specializing in cold murder cases.”

  Laramie froze, a look of what Eli recognized as horror crossed his face but was quickly masked as simply concern. He scooted away from Charlie, letting his arm fall to his side.

  “Reopening Kendra’s murder? Why? Is there new evidence? Have they found something?”

  Charlie shook her head. “No, but I’ve never really forgotten about this, and I’m sure that you haven’t either. I want to find out what really happened and who did this. Eli is an experienced investigator and has a great track record. Dana and I hired him to reopen the case.”

  “Dana too? Wow, I…had no idea you were even thinking about this.” Laramie rubbed at his chin, his expression troubled. “Char Char, is this a good idea? I know how you were when you left here, and I don’t want you to be disappointed all over again. What are the chances of being able to solve this after all of these years?”

  Was Laramie counting on that? Was Detective Stands correct in thinking that the restauranteur wasn’t telling the whole truth? His reaction was trouble for Eli. He definitely wasn’t happy about the turn of events.

  Charlie appeared confused by Laramie’s negativity, her brow furrowed. “I think it’s worth a try, don’t you? I mean, Eli’s an expert at this. This is our best chance, and it won’t get any better if we wait.”

  “No, I see what you’re saying,” Laramie said, giving them an awkward smile. “I’m just worried about you, Char. That’s all.”

  Eli didn’t think that was the truth. Not at all. But he didn’t get a chance to say anything more as Laramie’s elbow suddenly swung out, sending Charlie’s water all over her and the table.

  “Shit,” Laramie said, grabbing a napkin to clean up the mess. “Damn, I’m so sorry. I’m such a klutz. Why don’t you go into the ladies’ room and get dried off? There are hand dryers in there to dry your clothes. I’ll get a towel from my bartender to wipe up the table.”

  Charlie dabbed at her wet clothes with Eli’s paper napkin. “It’s fine. It’s only water. But I think I will go into the restroom to get dried off. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Laramie signaled to one of his bar staff to bring over a towel, and then he wiped up the pool of water on the table before tossing the towel into the empty booth next to them.

  “Listen,” he said, urgency in this tone. Laramie had leaned forward, his gaze darting left to right as if to ascertain that no one was overhearing their conversation. “You have to stop Charlie from doing this.”

  Eli was taken aback at the other man’s fervency. “Why? Why do we need to stop?”

  Laramie looked sad, shaking his head. “Because she’s going to find out things about Kendra that she doesn’t want to know. She’s going to find out that Kendra wasn’t the person she thought she was.”

  This. Right here.

  This was what Eli needed to know.

  “I think you need to talk to me honestly. Right now. What does Charlie not know about her friend?”

  The answer just might be the key to the murder.

  Chapter Eight

  Laramie shook his head, his eyes bright with unshed tears. This wasn’t what Eli had expected. This was…more.

  “Man, I don’t want Charlie to find out about this. Not for me. I don’t care about me, but because Kendra never wanted her to know. She knew Charlie wouldn’t understand.”

  Eli glanced over his shoulder, making sure Charlie wasn’t heading back to them.

  “You need to tell me what you’re talking about. As for this investigation, nothing is going to talk Charlie out of this so you might as well tell me what’s going on. I’ll eventually find out for myself if you don’t. There are no secrets in a murder investigation.”

  There was that question as to why whatever this was didn’t come out the first time though. But he’d figure that out later.

  Scraping his hand down his face, Laramie groaned. “Charlie will be devastated. Kendra always said that Charlie would be appalled.”

  “Is she that judgmental of her friends? I have to say I honestly don’t get that vibe from her.”

  “I told Kendra that Charlie would be okay about it, but she swore me to secrecy. I’ve never told anyone. Not a single soul.”

  “Did her parents know?”

  Laramie shrugged. “I have no idea. Kendra was the kind of person that presented whatever front she wanted you to believe. To the modeling agency, she was all business. The consummate professional. To some friends she was the poor little
rich girl who didn’t get enough love from her mommy and daddy. To others she was a complete wild child who liked to push boundaries and take chances. Kendra was an adrenaline junkie, too. Bungee jumping, sky diving. She even tried racecar driving over in Italy when she was dating a driver.”

  Eli rubbed there back of his neck in frustration. “Were there drugs?”

  “Yes, but not when she was working. She had rules about it all so she could keep her different lives separate.”

  “And how do you know all of this?”

  The man’s cheeks reddened. “Dude, Kendra was kinky as hell and she liked sex. A lot. So yes, I slept with her. She liked to swing, and she had dozens and dozens of partners. She’d go home with strangers so it wasn’t a shock when she disappeared and then ended up dead. It was actually a surprise that it hadn’t happened before.”

  Eli checked over his shoulder. He didn’t have much time. Charlie would be back any second, although it was his personal opinion that she should know the truth.

  “Where were you the day she disappeared?”

  “I was working that night and then I was with my girlfriend. Hey, I didn’t have any motivation to kill Kendra. I liked having sex with her. I wouldn’t put a stop to that.”

  “What about your girlfriend? Did she know you were sleeping with Kendra?”

  Laramie laughed. “What about her? She liked Kendra, too, and the men that she brought around.”

  “What if I want to confirm that with her?”

  Laramie’s grinned widened. “Go ahead, but I don’t know if she’ll admit anything about her past. She’s married with four kids in the suburbs, driving a minivan to soccer games and mommy and me play dates. Go figure. She was kinky and then some when I knew her. I wonder if her husband has any idea. You just never know about a woman, do you?”

  Charlie had just exited the restroom and was heading for the table. Eli only had time for one more question.

  “Why didn’t you tell Detective Stands about any of this?”