Detection Mission. Margaret Daley

“Give it time, Captain. I can’t imagine someone passing up that kind of cash for long. Someone’s gonna come forward. We’re going to find your dog and get the person who hurt your dad.”

      “The criminals in town are scared and keeping their mouths shut, especially with Keevers’s disappearance. And now that we found Adams’s body in the woods, they are even more nervous. Who has them so afraid?” Slade applied his long strokes to the wall. “You would think we’d be aware of some criminal with that kind of power.”

      “Maybe it’s a cop, and he’s got all the bad guys quaking in their boots,” Mark said with a chuckle.

      Slade laughed. “Yeah, I’d like to be able to make the criminal element in Sagebrush quake with fear.”

      Was that the person that had Heidi so frightened? Lee thought back to her reaction a couple of times when she looked at his police badge on his shirt. She’d tensed. Did she know more than she was letting on? His gut told him no, but he’d been all wrong about a beautiful woman before and ended up hurt.

      Mark Moore, his neighbor across the hall, glanced toward him. “I think you’re smart, Calloway, keeping our mystery lady close. Easier to keep an eye on her. She could be involved in all of this.”

      “Why do you think that?” Lee’s hand tightened about the brush. “Someone tried to kill her today.”

      “She was in the woods that day the police found Brady. She could be part of the crime syndicate. Others have gone missing. Ned Adams, a petty criminal connected to Charles Ritter—one of the three middle managers in this crime syndicate—ended up dead. Maybe he angered The Boss. Maybe The Boss is cleaning up loose ends. The only others found in the Lost Woods were the two kidnappers. What was she doing?”

      Lee bit back his response, Running for her life. There was a slim possibility she was involved, but he didn’t doubt she had amnesia. It would be hard to fake that lost look or the scared vibes pouring off her. Someone was after her. He wasn’t convinced it was someone in the crime syndicate. Besides, she wasn’t from around here. “She’s in trouble. I think a crime was committed against her, not the other way around.”

      “If not the kidnapping, then what about the wrecked car and the missing man?” Mark retorted. “Maybe she had something to do with William Peterson, instead.”

      Lee’s protective instinct welled up in him. “Haven’t you heard of innocent until proven guilty? I’m counting on you, Moore, keeping an eye out for her while I’m at work.”

      His neighbor attacked his section with angry strokes. “Sure. But I get to tell you I told you so if she proves to be involved.”

      Lee ground his teeth together and again kept his mouth shut. It was a good thing he and Moore worked on different shifts.

      Slade jumped into the fray. “I’ve talked with the police chief. I want both of you to watch our mystery woman. Someone did go after her today. She may still be in danger, and until we know for sure, we need to protect her. I still think she knows something about what happened in the woods the day Brady was found.” He glanced at Lee. “Have you talked with Zoller yet?”

      “I’m going to after you all leave. I want the man to stew for a while. Maybe then he’ll be ready to talk. He wasn’t earlier.”

      His captain frowned. “I hope so. We don’t have many leads to follow.”

      * * *

      Later that evening, Heidi sat at Molly’s kitchen table. “Those cookies smell great. Are you sure I can’t do anything to help you?”

      “Nope, other than help me take this upstairs to the workers. I want you to rest and take it easy.” Molly used her metal spatula to remove the last batch of chocolate chip cookies from the baking sheet. “The pizzas should be here any minute. We should be ready. Are you hungry?”

      Heidi’s stomach gurgled. “I wasn’t until I started smelling the cookies. I might just go right to them and skip the pizza.”

      The landlady glanced toward her. “You must have a sweet tooth.”

      “I guess so.”

      “You wouldn’t know it from the looks of you. You’re thin and petite. Almost frail.”

      “I haven’t eaten much in weeks. A forced diet you could say.”

      Molly patted her rotund stomach. “I need something. The doctor says I should lose at least fifty pounds. I just don’t know how and when they crept up on me. But then you wouldn’t know anything about that.”

      Heidi looked down at herself. Was that the case? She concentrated on thinking about what she might like to eat. Chocolate chip cookies. That was a definite, but what else?

      The doorbell rang.

      “Will you get the pizzas and head on upstairs? I’ll follow with the tea and glasses.”

      “Sure,” Heidi said, but the thought of opening the front door to a stranger—and most everybody was one right now—constricted her chest as she made her way to the foyer. The pain from her healing rib cage intensified. She inhaled a series of shallow breaths, but her palms sweated as she reached for the handle and pulled the door toward her.

      “Don’t, Heidi,” Lee said from behind her.