“I don’t have much time.”
“I know. I don’t wanna get in the way. I just wanted to check in, like everybody else, I guess. How are you holding up?”
“How’s it look?”
“Like you’re ready to chew through furniture and spit nails like a machine gun.”
“Sounds about right.”
“You’re going to get this fucker.”
“I wish I had your conviction. I feel like I’m always one step behind this guy. I underestimated him.”
“You won’t do it again. Look, I know I’ve always given you shit for choosing law enforcement over music. But it was the right choice for you. You’re a great cop. Your record speaks to that. You’re going to find Miranda, and you’re gonna bring her home.”
Ethan dredged up the ghost of a smile. “You were supposed to be playing the Rocky theme while you delivered that speech.”
“It was totally playing in my head.” Clay squeezed Ethan’s shoulders. “You’ve got this, brother. Go find the bad guy.”
With a short nod, Ethan turned into the chaos. “Somebody give me a sit rep!”
“Harley’s truck was found a mile away from Miranda’s house. Rowan went over it. No evidence Miranda was ever in it. It looks like he parked and walked. Nash found a laptop,” Inez reported. “Jay’s holed up in your office seeing what he can pull off it.”
Ethan walked in without knocking. Jay Quimby, the local tech guru, was hunched over the desk. “What do you have?”
“Nothing good. Videos. Short clips probably made with a cell phone. He’s been watching Miranda for weeks.”
Ethan’s blood chilled a few more degrees. “What kind of videos?”
“Mostly of her coming and going. Some through windows Peeping Tom-style. Nothing that indicates he was in her house before tonight.”
“What else?”
“His search history is nothing unexpected. Porn. Some gambling sites.”
“That explains where the rest of the money went. Anything else of note?”
“Not yet.”
He clapped Jay on the back. “Keep digging.”
Back out in the bullpen, he checked with Reuben and Clint, who’d been tasked with interviewing the people on the list Rene had generated. “Status.”
“Cousin Terry reports that Harley has been more of an asshole than usual, more erratic and angry,” Clint said.
“He say anything about the drugs?” Ethan asked.
“I asked if Harley had been partaking of what he’s been selling, but Terry denies knowledge of the drugs. Says he suspected but didn’t know and didn’t ask.”
“What about everyone else on the list?”
“No one else has turned up anything useful,” Reuben reported. “Just more reports of Harley being pissier than usual. Most folks figured that was because his wife left him and his kid tried to shoot him.”
“Anybody give you any trouble about coming in?”
Reuben consulted the list. “We’re still waiting on a couple of people, but so far everybody came straight down wanting to help. Darius should be finishing with Ralph Slocombe any minute now. Maybe he had better luck.”
The door to the station opened again and Judd marched in with Willig in cuffs. “Can I borrow a cell for a while? I didn’t want to take the time to haul his ass to county lockup while the search was ongoing.”
Ethan jerked a thumb toward the two cells in the back. “You know where they are. Appreciate the help.” He spied the bruising on Judd’s knuckles as his friend shoved Willig into motion. “What happened to your hand?”
“He tried to run again, managed to slam my hand in a door. Mostly just pissed me off.”
As Judd hauled the drug dealer down the hall, the door to interrogation opened and Ralph Slocombe stepped out.
“Eugene? What the hell are you doing here?”
Ethan’s gaze narrowed on the two men. “You know each other?”
“We used to work together,” Ralph said.
Willig only glared.
“Get his ass in lockup then come join me. Ralph, go right on back and sit down.” Ethan all but shoved the older man into the room.
Ralph sat at the table, looking nervous. “I’m sorrier than I can be that all this is happening to Doc Campbell. But like I told Officer Greeley, I don’t—”
“Save it. I know you’ve been buying illegal opiates from Harley.”
Sweat broke out on Ralph’s temple. “It weren’t no regular thing. Just when I ran out and couldn’t get more the usual way. I told you how it was. I saw Harley after I couldn’t get another prescription. Sounded off some about the whole situation, and he said as how he could send her a little message. Cause her a little trouble. I told him there was no point in that. It wouldn’t change the system. I…I heard about her tires, but I didn’t know he’d actually done something.”
Didn’t want to ask, more like.
Ethan had never fully trusted Harley’s alibi for the night of the bonfire. “So he was doing a favor for a friend.”
“I wouldn’t call us friends.”
“You were drinking buddies. Plenty of people saw you down at The Mudcat together.”
“We knew each other from the old days at the factory, same as Eugene—although he got fired well before the place closed. We’d get together and bitch about it on the regular. Fact is, our whole lives changed because of that place. That’s where everything went to shit. It was the start of Harley’s drinking, the start of my pain problem. The start of everything.”
The start. The idea of it struck Ethan. “Do you know if he’s been back out there after the plant shut down?”
“Sure. He took pride in breaking in and pissing around the place. Literally.”
Ethan met Judd’s gaze and jerked his head. He followed him out of interrogation and out to the massive county map mounted beside the dispatcher’s desk. “The factory.”
“You think he’s holed up there?”
“It’s isolated. Empty. It was a place that held significance to him.” Ethan found it it on the map. Where else would a rat go if all its other escape routes were cut off?”
They studied the area.
“Limited road access. Plenty of places to bolt if he hears someone coming,” Judd observed.
“If I were still with the Marshals, I’d surround the place, make a half mile perimeter. But we don’t have the manpower for that. And if I’m wrong—”
“Chief!” Cleveland’s voice had them all turning. “Delaney Newell is on the phone. You need to take this.”
Ethan snatched up the receiver. “Delaney?”
“He’s at the old Heirloom Home Furnishings factory.” The woman’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“What? How do you know that?”
“I don’t live too far from here. I heard a noise and came to check it out. The gate’s busted open and I saw a black Grand Cherokee parked by one of the loading docks. So I snuck in to check it out. It’s Miranda’s Jeep!” she hissed.
“Where are you right now?” Ethan demanded.