Page 74 of Every Which Way

Bruce took a sip of his drink. “Why? Is there a reward?”

Langford chuckled. “That’s funny.” She motioned behind her. “These officers will take the twins off your hands, given they have half a dozen outstanding warrants between them.”

“Probably why they were hiding out at an out-of-the-way roadhouse.” She was definitely going to find out why Miller hadn’t realized the bartenders were wanted men. Too focused on Roxanne to pay attention to a bartender and his twin. Surely, he wasn’t in on it, though it was almost worse that all this happened under his nose, and he never realized.

They were going to have a conversation.

Tomorrow. After she’d slept.

Bruce watched the cops load the twins into the back of their black-and-white patrol car. He muttered, “You never let me have any fun,” and closed the door.

Kenna turned to Langford. “Thanks for the assist.”

“Interesting friend you have there,” Langford said. “And you’re welcome, but I think I owe you a thanks for capturing them.”

“All in a day’s work.”

“Believe me, I’m counting on it.” In the dim light, her expression shifted.

“What is it?” Kenna asked her.

“Pressure from my captain. If we don’t get a lead and there are no new victims soon, the case is getting put on the back burner.” Langford shook her head. “Office politics.”

Kenna wasn’t going to let these people get away with this and hurt someone else. “I’ll get you another lead.”

ChapterNineteen

“Way to get yourself some goodwill with the local PD.” Stairns glanced over at Kenna as they walked down the drive to Chief Hadley’s house. “Handing over those two wanted criminals to Detective Langford was a good idea.”

Kenna shrugged. Bruce hadn’t been super excited that she didn’t allow him to “have some fun” as he’d said.

As they walked, she surveyed the front yard with its mature trees and tidy landscaping. Spring flowers had been planted on the edges of the walkway and along the front of the house on either side of the door. “Are we entirely sure Bruce is on the level?”

Stairns said, “He’s just not the kind who shares. Some people can’t handle not knowing every detail because they want to control everything around them.”

Kenna tipped her head to the side. “I’ve had team leaders who were like that. You had to report in every time you made a move.” She didn’t mean Stairns, just other people she’d worked with. Guys who had been like Miller—at least before. He seemed different these days.

“Depends on how you feel about being responsible for the outcome of the situation.”

Not too long ago, Kenna would have had a finger on the pulse of everything going on and what every member of her team was doing. She still hadn’t quite finished wrestling with being responsible for the lives of everyone around her or the risk she was taking by caring about what happened to them. “I think I should trust people until they prove that I shouldn’t.”

“If you’re going to give someone the benefit of the doubt, Bruce is a good guy to do that with.”

Good. She surveyed the house in front of them. “I don’t want to judge the size of his house and presume he’s on the take or anything…”

“And anybody who is a first responder shouldn’t have to live in poverty just to satisfy people’s assumptions about where their money came from.”

Kenna said, “Who knows, maybe his wife is super rich. Or he just had a run of good fortune in his investments.”

“Exactly.” Stairns knocked on the front door.

Ramon had stayed back at the campsite with Maizie, who was working on getting more from the brothers’ cell phones, Hadley’s activity online, and the reports they had received from the forensic analyst. What would help most of all was to know how Cliff contacted whoever it was he informed of a couple at the motel. If they could trace back that communication to whoever received it, then they would have a lead to follow to bring down the couple who were kidnapping people.

Whether they were the center of this operation or just a small part of it, Kenna would at least be one step closer to ending this. Finding her sister—cousin—and getting the chance to have a relationship with her.

Stairns knocked again.

Hopefully, Chief Hadley would be able to share some more information about where he was before he was kidnapped or if he knew anything else about the people who took him.

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