Zee hopped to it. “You got it, boss.”
Once Sun had cell service again, she checked in with Anita. “How’s it going with Mrs. Fairborn?”
“That woman has a very active imagination.”
“Yeah?”
“Can we publish her confessions and make money off of them?”
“No.”
“Boss,” she said, pleading, “this one has aliens.”
“No way.” She cupped her hand over her phone. “Send it to me as soon as she’s finished.” Reading Mrs. Fairborn’s confessions had become the highlight of their day. She’d once confessed to stealing a pool noodle and using it in a bank robbery that led to a night of debauchery with a male stripper named Chad. The problem was she never explained how the pool noodle played into the bank robbery.
Either way, the woman had missed her calling.
“You got it, boss,” Anita said with a giggle. “Also, Las Vegas PD called. They found the truck and the owner. It was reported stolen from a hotel in Trinidad on Friday. The owner was traveling and slept through the whole thing.”
“Surveillance?”
“All the hotel got was a black-clad male, medium build, who could steal a truck in under sixty seconds.”
“They targeted it for the Texas plates to throw us off.” She looked over at Levi. “Well, most of us.”
He winked at her. Winked! She could only take so much of that man.
“Are you worried about him?” she asked Levi after she hung up.
“Which one?”
“Either, I guess. Both.”
“Then yes.”
They’d made it back to the main road, so his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel eased a little.
“How are you to drive?”
“Fine.”
“Are you certain?”
“Don’t I look fine?”
He did indeed. “It’s just, if you need to take something for the pain, I can take over.”
“I don’t need to take anything for the pain.”
“I could’ve sworn I smelled whiskey earlier.”
He smirked. “I could’ve sworn I smelled wine.”
“Damn. Really? I’ve had a lot of coffee since last night.” Her experiment with Quincy was the gift that kept on giving.
“Unless your coffee was made with fermented grapes, I’d say the wine is still in your system.”
That was disturbing.
Just like she had with Hailey, Sun considered not telling Levi about her visit with Wynn, but part of her really wanted to see his reaction. To gauge it. She steeled herself and said, “I wasn’t going to tell you this until I had more information, but I went to see your uncle Wynn yesterday.”
He was so much better at the poker thing than she was. Instead of reacting at all, he stilled and kept his gaze laser-locked on the road. The only indication he even heard her was when the muscle in his jaw jumped under the pressure of his bite.
“He says he killed your uncle Kubrick.”
Nothing.
“Which is funny, since you told me you did it.”
Zip.
“Then again, half the town has confessed to that killing.”
Zero.
“Including Jimmy.”
That got him. He turned to her in surprise. “Jimmy?”
“Mind telling me why half the town is confessing to a fifteen-year-old murder?”
“My nephew, Jimmy?”
“The one and only.”
He cursed and turned away from her. “They’re all lying.”
“Including Wynn? The DNA test came back with a match. Wynn Ravinder.”
He looked down in confusion, then said, “That’s not possible.”
“DNA tests don’t lie.”
“But people do.”
“You have another explanation?”
“I already gave it to you. I killed him.” His tone was razor-sharp when he added, “He’s playing you.”
Sun looked out the window. “The evidence says otherwise. He’s requested to be moved to Santa Fe. The DA is getting it done as we speak.”
As though that answered everything, he leaned his head back, the barest hint of a smile lining his mouth. “Of course.”
“He also says he knows who Kubrick’s accomplice was,” she added, her stomach clenching at the thought. “Auri’s biological father.”
The stunned expression he turned on her made her take a mental step back. “Is that what this is about?” His reaction was genuine. Nobody was that good.
“He’s going to sign a full confession,” she said, testing him further, “and tell me who the accomplice was in exchange for the move.”
Her phone rang, the sound just sharp enough to cut through the tension.
“Hey, Quince,” she said, thankful for the interruption.
“You aren’t going to believe this.”
She sat up straighter and put him on speakerphone. “Try me.”
“Guess who got paroled a couple of weeks ago. And there’s no way this is a coincidence, boss.”
It took her a sec, but then it dawned on her. “No way.”
“Yep. Matthew Kent. Elliot’s father.”
16
Caller reported a suspicious man carrying
duct tape, rope, and a shovel.
Chief Deputy Cooper responded.
It was the stock boy at Del Sol Hardware.
—DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER
Mrs. Kent still lived in the same house she had during Mr. Kent’s trial. The same house Elliot went missing from. As happened often in child abduction cases where the children were never found, she’d never moved. She even drove the same maroon minivan, now scarred and falling apart.
Sun knocked on the door, and the woman who answered was hardly recognizable. Her lids were lined with red, her nose pink from a fresh bout of tears.
“Mrs. Kent?” Sun said, stepping closer.
“My husband isn’t home,” she said. She started to close the door, but Sun showed her ID to stop her. It was only then that Mrs. Kent took a closer look.
“I’m Sunshine Vicram. I was the lead detective on Elliot’s case.”
The surprise that registered on her face was unmistakable. “Detective Vicram?” she said, as though unable to believe it.
“Sheriff now. But please call me Sunshine. How are you?”
Her demeanor did a one-eighty. Changed from surprise to wariness. She looked over her shoulder, and said, “I’m okay. Is there—is everything all right? Have you heard anything?”
“May we come in?”
She hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse not to let them in. Apparently finding none, she reluctantly opened the door. She seemed healthy and yet there was a frailness to her. A nervousness.
When Levi stepped across the threshold, she gasped aloud. “Occupational hazard,” he said to explain his general appearance.
“Are you going somewhere?” Sun asked. The entryway was lined with luggage.
A child, no more than six or seven by the sound of his voice, called out to her, “Mom, can I bring Harold?”
“Sure, honey.” She looked back at Sun. “His turtle. I’m … we’re going to my mother’s house in Albuquerque for a few days.” She kept them as close to the door as she could without being rude.