Greg chuckled under his breath. Then he grew solemn. “Pay special attention to Michal Lewis. I know that kid is hiding something. It might not be murder, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

  “Got it.”

  Greg approached Jaxon and the man he presumed was his father. He held out his hand and waited for the lawyer-looking guy to take it.

  “Arthur Ryan, Esquire.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “Sure.”

  “Your son was in custody.”

  “He was.”

  “I see that you got him released.”

  “I did.”

  “Before he made it to the station, apparently.”

  “Do you have something you’d like to say?”

  Greg raised his hands. “No, I don’t have anything to say. But I do have some questions.”

  “Like what?”

  “Your son was asked about Ann Marie and if he knew anything about someone who would like to hurt her, and instead of answering the question he refused to speak.”

  Arthur sent a scathing look at his son and slapped him across the chest. “You answer the officer. Do it now.”

  “Dad!”

  “You’re not going down or losing your scholarship for anyone here. Do you hear me?”

  The boy rolled his eyes and shot a breath from his nose. “Fine. She and Michal Lewis were an item until last week.”

  “Now, was that so hard?” His dad smiled.

  “Why did you think that wouldn’t come out without you?” Greg’s curiosity made him ask. He already knew about the relationship. If this was all Jaxon was hiding, they had nothing.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think you know something more.” Greg prayed he knew something more.

  He squirmed in the seat.

  “Son?”

  “Dad, I can’t.”

  “Oh, you can, and you will.”

  He leaned over and whispered something in his father’s ear.

  Then his dad jumped up and paced. He looked at Greg, muttered, then sat again. “I think we need a lawyer.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Greg didn’t understand this at all. Arthur Lewis was a lawyer. Why did they need one?

  “Look at your son. He doesn’t have any dirt on his knees or his shoes. He has hay and sawdust. I don’t think he had anything to do with the actual murder, I think he knows who does though.”

  Greg was going off the cuff. He thought his words were accurate. It didn’t mean that the boy hadn’t done it, but he couldn’t see it on him.

  “Fine. My son, he blacks out. He’s been hit in the head a few too many times.”

  “I see.” Then maybe he did do it.

  “He said that he went up the hill and saw Ann Marie.”

  That set Greg’s nerves tingling.

  Arthur licked his lips. “He didn’t do anything to her though, but she told him a secret.”

  “What was it?”

  Arthur rolled his eyes to the ceiling, before looking at him and whispering, “She was pregnant.”

  Greg sucked in a breath. “Did she say who the father was?”

  Jaxon studied the hay on the floor. So, he knew but he didn’t want to answer again, or he didn’t know. Finally, he shook his head.

  “So, she didn’t tell you?”

  “I-I told her I didn’t want to know.”

  “Why?”

  The boy laughed. “Because I loved her. I wanted to marry her. She was too good for Michal. She was too good for any of these guys.”

  “So, you didn’t tell anyone about the pregnancy thing.”

  “Well…”

  ****

  Michal had breathed a sigh of relief when Mr. Ryan entered and declared he could go home, then the relief ended as soon as it started. Now he was talking to the officer too!

  What was happening to their tightknit, never give anyone up, group?

  It was being tossed aside, that’s what.

  Heather appeared at his side and locked her arm with his. “Why don’t we sneak out of here? I’m tired.”

  “I don’t think we’re allowed.”

  “Oh, please. What are they going to do? Throw us in jail? There aren’t enough cells for all of us.”

  Heather was a devil may care kind of girl. Fifty-fifty and she didn’t care either way. He was more of a he wanted to be good and get a scholarship and leave this town kind of guy.

  “I would rather not risk it.”

  “Fine. Party pooper.”

  Sometimes she was very childish.

  “What about a drink?” She pulled a flask from her waistband.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “Let’s see, Ann Marie is dead. And all fingers are going to point to me.”

  “Why would they point at you?” Heather furrowed her brows and took a sip from the metal flask.

  “I don’t know, because we were a couple then suddenly, we weren’t.”

  Heather smiled. “Do you think they’ll look at me as a suspect? That would be so fascinating.”

  Michal looked at Heather with his eyes wide. She was demented. How had he not seen that before?

  “Heather Worley, please come back to your group. I’m ready to talk to you.”

  She sighed and re-hid her flask. Then she tiptoed and kissed him on the cheek. “See you on the flip side.”

  He nodded. The intense stare from the sergeant grew even more intense after something that Arthur and Jaxon had told him.

  Michal swallowed.

  He needed to get out of there quickly. He couldn’t be questioned again. He didn’t have any answers, but he would look guilty.

  He felt guilty.

  Dumping Ann Marie to be with Heather was going to make him look even worse.

  He ran his hands through his hair. Maybe an escape with Heather wasn’t such a bad idea.

  Chapter Ten

  Ericka waited until Heather came back before pointing to a seat. The girl plopped down pretty much like the rest of them had. But instead of waiting, she pulled a flask from her waistband and began to drink.

  “Do you have alcohol in that?” Ericka couldn’t stop her incredulous tone.

  “’Course not. I’m under eighteen.” She smiled, showing a row of perfectly white teeth. She took another swig from the metal flask.

  “Under eighteen. Got it. Needs a breathalyzer test, a DNA swab, blood test, and residue test.” Ericka spoke the list aloud as she wrote it in her notes.

  “Wait, no… no, I don’t need that stuff.”

  Ericka looked up from her paper with one eyebrow lifted. “Why don’t you need that stuff?”

  Heather swallowed and hid the flask in her waistband once more. “It’s water with a little flavoring to mask the metal flavor. I have an image to maintain.”

  “What kind of image is that?”

  “Tough. I would think you of all people would understand that. We’re women living in a man’s world. It’s not easy.” The girl leaned forward and shook her upper body in some kind of cocky manner.

  Ericka barely kept from rolling her eyes as she shook her head. This girl thinking that drinking from a flask made her tough made Ericka want to shake sense into her. But she didn’t even try to explain. She knew it wouldn’t do any good and she needed to get back to business.

  “Tell me what you know about Ann Marie.”

  Heather leaned back in the chair. She threw her legs up onto the table and crossed them at the ankles. “She was a world class ho. I mean like taking everyone’s man.”

  “It was my understanding that you took her man.”

  Heather dropped her feet and straightened in the chair. “Now, you wait a minute. I didn’t take him; he came to me freely after Ann Marie quit the team.”

  “I see.”

  “You have no clue. Look, that— I won’t say the words, tried to date every guy on the team. Even if they had a girl, Ann Marie thought she was better than everyone else.”

  “Did you hate her?”

  “I didn’t like her, but I also didn’t kill her. That would have taken effort and thinking about her, and I just don’t think about her that much.” The flask came out again.

  If that thing was filled with flavored water, then Ericka was a monkey’s uncle. She could smell the alcohol from her seat. Reporting her in this town seemed like a waste of effort.

  There wasn’t much more she could gather from the girl; Ericka could sense that. However, she would be one to watch.

  “You’re free to go, but I wouldn’t leave town.”

  Heather laughed. “I have nowhere else to be. Baseball season just got underway, and I’m the cheer captain. I have to be here.”

  Cheer captain for a baseball team. Ericka withheld the sigh that threatened to erupt. Apparently, baseball really was a big thing in this town.

  Heather and the others in the group stood up and walked out of the barn. The fact was, the group was tightknit. There was no way that any of them would give up the other, except for a few things. Like, who Ann Marie dated and that she’d quit the team. And of course, none of them were at fault.

  She rose from the chair and walked to where Quinn, Maggie, and Greg huddled in a group and talked.

  “Did you get anything?”

  “Let’s see, Ann Marie was a slut, ho, and backstabber, who liked every guy on the team.”

  “Oh, I got one better. Ann Marie was dating the guy who owned the dry cleaners.”

  From Ericka’s vantage point she could just make out the body bag being hauled down the hill. That young girl had lost her life, and there wasn’t one person saying anything good about her. While the three continued to consult one another, Ericka stepped out of the barn and drew in a deep breath.

  Death.

  Senseless death.

  It was something she would never get used to.

  A car skidded to a halt in the parking area. A woman jumped from the car and ran toward the men coming down the hill.

  She dropped to her knees. “No!”

  The tortured scream rent the air. Bagger and a few of the other officers helped the woman up and walked her away from Ann Marie.

  “Wh-what happened? What happened to my baby?”

  The mother.

  Ericka should have guessed.

  Bagger pointed at her and then gave the mother a slight push down the hill. Ericka stood her ground. She wasn’t sure what to expect.

  “Officer Bagger said you might know what happened to my daughter?”

  Ericka would repay him for that later. “Ma’am, I’m sorry to inform you that your daughter was murdered.”

  The woman covered her gaping mouth. Her shoulders went up and down in violent sobs. “Why was she here? I thought she was at work. She quit the team.”

  “I’m not sure, ma’am. But I promise you we will find out.” That was a promise that Ericka would keep.

  She turned and faced the body as it was placed in the back of an ambulance. The mother hadn’t introduced herself, but she was in shock. She also didn’t say anything else. Her shoulders straightened and she walked back to her car and climbed inside.

  “Who was that?”

  “The mother, I think.”

  “That reaction was odd.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Quinn and Maggie are going back to the office to make a few calls. Do you want to stick around a little longer or…”

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  Once everyone left, she planned to climb that hill and do a little investigating on her own. Something wasn’t right.

  She could feel it.

  ****

  Foolishly, Greg had believed that moving to a sleepy little town would provide sleepy little cases. Boy, had he been wrong. In all his days of working in New York he’d never had a case that was so sad. Ann Marie, despite what the others said about her, had been a beautiful girl with a future ahead of her. Whether it was bright was another story.

  Ericka’s desire to stay behind matched his own. He wanted to walk the woods and look for prints. Someone had to have come from down the hill or from below. With all the people traipsing everywhere it would be impossible to tell who else might have come along.

  But Ericka was a decent tracker. She might be able to recognize a pattern that was different from the others.

  Bagger approached as they were about to ascend the hill.

  “Sorry about that. That was Lynda, Ann Marie’s stepmother. She’s been with Ann Marie for a long time.”

  “So, they are close then? Like real mother and daughter?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say that. What I will say is that while Ann Marie’s father was stationed overseas Lynda stepped up and took care of her.”

  “Is her father home now?”

  “Sadly, he was killed in action.” Bagger looked up before looking down.

  Greg noted that Ericka didn’t have anything else to say after that. Another father lost to their child. It would affect her. There was no way it couldn’t.

  “Are you two sticking around?”

  “For a bit. We just want to search the area.”

  “We’ve done that all ready. And as you can see it won’t do much good now. There are too many prints.”

  Greg wouldn’t comment on the mess they’d made of the investigation. Allowing people on the hill before taking pictures had been a mistake.

  “Greg, come take a look at this.”

  He stepped away from Bagger, but Bagger followed.

  “This boot print. The heel is worn down on one side but not the other, like they turn their foot in when they walk.”

  Greg nodded and she kept going.

  “And look. It goes up the hill and away. Not like the other shoe prints where we were standing.”

  Bagger pushed his hat back from his brow and scratched. “Well, I’ll be.”

  “Did you guys send anybody that way?”

  Bagger shook his head. “Nope. We sent everyone down the hillside because we figured it had to be someone who came from the party. Why would someone come out of the woods and attack a girl they didn’t even know would be here.”

  Greg thought that was an excellent question. He would have asked, but Ericka was already following the different set of prints. As she went, she took pictures. She also pulled a ruler from her pocket and laid it beside one of the footprints before taking a picture.

  “That’s a nifty trick.”

  Greg would have thought it was an obvious trick, but he didn’t comment as they continued up the hill to the tree line. Large cedar trees rimmed the edge of the property on this side. Ericka squatted next to the base of one. She lifted something up with tweezers and Greg pulled a baggy from his pocket for her to drop it into.

  “What’s that?”

  “Cigarette butt.”

  “Cigarette butt…” Bagger repeated Ericka with an incredulous voice inflection. Then he added, “Couldn’t be any of the baseball players. They wouldn’t smoke. The coach is really particular about that. Smoking gets them kicked off the team.”

  Ericka still squatted next to the tree. She moved leaves around. “Has one of the players been removed recently? The people at the party seemed surprised that Ann Marie was even here since she had removed herself from the so-called squad a couple weeks before.”

  “Hmm, I guess so. We could call Coach Denton and see.”

  “Do that please. Also, if anyone else has quit or just graduated from the team within the last couple of years, we need a list of those people as well.”

  Ericka rose to her full height and looked down the hill. “Greg, will you stand here.”

  He moved over.

  “What do you see?”

  The sun was blinding him so he couldn’t see anything but the top of the barn. However, it wouldn’t have been like that a few hours before. “I see the spot where Ann Marie was sitting.”

  “I can’t see it because I’m not tall enough. That means our perp must be at least as tall as you.”

  She turned and paused again. She leaned forward and looked at the tree bark. Greg noted it was brown and scaly looking. Between the scales was a tiny piece of fabric. Ericka pinched it out with tweezers and Greg opened another evidence bag.

  “We need to get these things to a lab.”

  “And get a judge to issue a request for DNA of the players and ex-players.”

  Greg was happy they were thinking almost alike. If they’d been alone, he would have bent down and kissed her right on the mouth. But they weren’t alone.

  “Uh, you aren’t going to get a judge to give you a DNA sample of the players.”

  “Why is that?”

  “The judges are invested! They have a stake in our team winning this year. Our team is the best in the league. They won’t risk messing that up.”

  “But a girl was murdered!” Ericka’s voice rose and echoed in the valley.

  Greg heard their argument, but he also heard something else. If the person on the hill had been talking it would have echoed throughout the valley below. The person in question had stood on that hill waiting for their opportunity to approach Ann Marie for whatever reason. If they didn’t kill Ann Marie, then maybe they knew who did.

  ****

  Tyson checked his watch for the tenth time that day. The poker game was set to start in a few hours. Nova and her bodyguard would be his secret for this game. He would take them for most of what they had this time and wait for the next game they played to take the rest. There was only one problem. Rumors of Ann Marie’s death had circulated around town. It had already knocked Russ Thomas out of attending. Tyson had no idea who else might not come because of it.

  Ann Marie…

  She had been a slice of sweet pie.

  If she’d been just a tad older, he would have asked her out. But he didn’t go for young girls. Too much of a chance of getting blackmailed later.

  Although, he was aware some of his clientele didn’t feel that way. He’d seen them eyeing the girl on his chance meetings in town or at the cleaners. And the baseball team! That was where her real enemies lay. That girl’d had every guy wrapped around her finger and every girl hating her guts.

  He checked his watch again. Thirty minutes and he was closing the store and setting up the table in the back. He’d been looking forward to it all day.