Page 62 of Every Which Way

“Kenna.” Davis nodded.

“This is Special Agent Miller, Detectives Langford and Davis.” She couldn’t rush the afternoon, or someone would realize why she was so eager to get to drinks with Roxanne.

Still, the time it would take them to go through all the details of the case and make some determinations meant there was plenty of time for Ramon and Bruce to scope out the bar. And for Maizie to find any other locations that might be places for them to check out.

Miller took them to a conference room a few floors up. “We can chat in here.”

An aide asked if they wanted coffee, which Kenna would never say no to, then disappeared.

There was something about being in an FBI office that smelled and sounded the same as the one she’d worked at in Salt Lake City. In an odd way, any FBI office anywhere in the country would always feel at least a little bit like home.

Or like an old friend who had stabbed you in the back, but you still had to see them.

Or both.

“Kenna, you good?”

She glanced over her shoulder at Miller. “Never better.”

Langford didn’t buy it. “Where are your friends?”

Miller glanced at her.

She motioned between herself and Miller with one finger. “Our former boss is back at the house, where they’re going to start digging up victims.”

Davis looked like he was going to be sick just hearing about it.

“And your teenage friend and the Hispanic guy?”

Kenna shrugged. “They probably went out to lunch.”

Langford definitely didn’t buy that.

Best to distract them all with evidence. “I have photos of a man who was in the building’s lower level when we searched it.” She explained about the explosion but not that Bruce unplugging all the equipment is what likely caused it. “I’ll send them to you.”

Miller said, “I’ll grab my laptop. We can pass the image to forensics, and they can run it. See who he is.”

While he had his head bent to the laptop, she looked at Langford and Davis and mouthed,Did you find anything on the QR code?

“Special Agent Miller, we’ll need to read you in on the specifics of a related case,” Langford said. “We believe they might be connected. It’s why we’re here.”

Davis said, “We had two parties in custody who were integral to our understanding of the case. Both were killed earlier today in completely unrelated incidents.”

Kenna’s stomach flipped over. “Sally and Will? They’re dead?”

Davis nodded. “She choked to death while eating. Evidently, it wasn’t noted that she is allergic to sunflower oil. He was stabbed almost as soon as he arrived at county lockup.”

“That’s unbelievable.” Kenna took a sip of her coffee, wondering who could have the juice to pull something like that off, then realizing she knew exactly who could’ve done it.

Yes, they definitely needed to talk to Roxanne.

The operation, if it had been happening in that house, had been completely cleared out. All except for that one victim—the fail-safe.

Proof of the horrors that were being committed.

A way to rub it in their faces.

Someone didn’t want the authorities to find out anything.

---