Page 46 of Chasing a Kidnapper

“Because my K-9 is telling me you do, so it may not be wise to lie to me.” West held Jim’s gaze. “You want to answer questions down at the precinct? Because that can be arranged.”

Jim glanced at the cowboy hat woman, then sighed. “Look, I have a permit.” He pulled out a small forty-five from beneath the bar. “Druggies sometimes try to rob us. It’s only for my protection.”

“I’d like to see the permit,” West said calmly. Trisha had to admit, watching West in action was educational. She wished she had half his confidence when it came to being in control of a situation.

Jim dug in his wallet and pulled out the license. West examined it for a moment, then returned it.

“Thank you. Are you sure you haven’t seen this guy around?” West asked, going back to the issue of her ex’s dead body.

“I really don’t remember him. But as Corey says, we get a lot of tourists. I can only tell you that this guy—” Jim tapped the photo “—was not a regular.”

“Okay, thank you.” West nodded and took the picture.

Unfortunately, every employee they spoke with had never seen Bryan before, either. Or if they had, they weren’t telling.

West must have decided against staying for lunch, because he turned and headed back outside. She followed, curious as to what he was thinking.

“Let’s walk around back,” he said. “I want to see the dumpster myself.”

She followed him down along the side of the building. There was a narrow alleyway behind the restaurant and a larger building on the other side of the street. She stopped abruptly when she realized it was another storage unit facility. Much like the one they’d been to back in the center of the city.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” West asked as they walked the length of the alleyway. He’d instructed Peanut to find tools, but the K-9 did not alert. Even with the strong scent of garbage, he knew Peanut would be able to sniff out a weapon if there was one.

“That Bryan was killed in a storage facility by some perp who then stole the key from him and then dropped his body here?” she guessed, then shook her head. “It’s an odd coincidence to be sure, but if that is what happened, I don’t understand why the gunman would be still searching for the key. He’d have the one he’d taken from Bryan that opened the storage facility, right?”

“Yeah, that’s a sticking point,” West agreed. He frowned and swept his gaze over the area. “Rory, the detective who took the early morning call, didn’t mention finding any evidence. If there had been something here, it’s long gone.”

“That’s disappointing. I was hoping we’d know more by now.” She wondered again why this location was used as the dump site. “Will finding Bryan’s body so close to the storage facility help us in getting a search warrant?” she asked, desperately trying not to breathe in the scent of old garbage.

He grimaced. “Probably not. As you said yourself, if Bryan had been killed at the storage facility, then why is the gunman still searching for the key?”

“Maybe the key isn’t related to the storage facility at all,” she said with a sigh. “It seems the most logical, but maybe Bryan stole something much smaller.”

“We never did check the bus station,” West said, glancing down at his K-9 partner. Peanut looked up at him adoringly. “I guess we can do that after we find a place to eat lunch.” He waved toward the Wild Wild West Restaurant. “I’d rather not eat here. The staff was not nearly as cooperative as I would have expected.”

She knew the fact that the bartender had lied about having a gun was part of that decision. “Fine with me.”

As they made their way up to the SUV, West abruptly grabbed her arm. “Down!”

She dropped to all fours behind the SUV just as the sound of gunfire rang out.

THIRTEEN

West had caught a glimpse of the black Chevy sedan just as the window lowered, revealing a hand holding a gun. Possibly a Glock, but he couldn’t say for sure as he’d yanked Trisha to the ground to avoid being shot, wrapping his arm around Peanut to keep her tucked beneath him.

When there was a lull in the gunfire, he poked his head up to shot three times in rapid succession. The sedan swerved making him think one of the bullets had hit its mark, but the driver kept going.

“Peanut, stay.” He jumped out from behind the car and ran out into the road. He wished the driver would come back to make another attempt, but he didn’t. Obviously the perp knew he was outnumbered. He couldn’t figure out why this guy who’d tried to kidnap Gabriel had shot at them twice now. Was he trying to scare them into cooperating? Or was he frustrated and lashing out in anger at not getting what he wanted?

Killing Trisha was not the best way to get his hands on the key that he believed was located in her house.

Then West realized the shooter must have been trying to get rid of him, leaving Trisha more vulnerable to an attack.

Not gonna happen on his watch. Besides, she was a cop—it wasn’t as if she would simply throw her hands up and tell him what he wanted to know.

Especially since she had no idea where the stupid key was, or what it opened.

“He escaped?” Trisha asked, coming up to stand beside him.

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