Page 41 of Home Town Knight

Knocking made me look up. My door was partway open, and District Attorney Marshall Grissom stood there. “Got a moment, Sheriff? Am I interrupting something?”

“Nope.” I tucked my cell in my pocket. “Come in.”

“Just wanted to check in on the status of your investigation. If that’s all right. We’ve been getting calls all day.”

“So have we.” Any murder here was big news. One like this, with an unknown assailant and no known motive? It was bound to stir up all kinds of shit.

The DA didn’t live in my county. He and his deputy attorneys served the judicial district, which covered several counties in our region. So I didn’t see much of him unless we had a major case going on. The murder of Ace Tucker qualified as major. But even so, I was surprised to see him here. The Assistant DA, Hanson, had been at the scene this morning.

“Happy to share,” I said. “So far, it’s a mystery where Ace Tucker was heading at four-thirty this morning. His buddies said they hadn’t planned on going hunting today, and they had no idea what Ace was up to.”

Genevieve and I had sketched out our theories at therestaurant, but I wasn’t willing to share our ideas yet. It was too preliminary.

“What about the eyewitness?” Grissom asked.

I eyed him warily. “What about her?”

“State patrol said you seemed to know her.”

“And? I know lots of people in my county.”

“They thought you and the witness seemed especially cozy.”

I kept a calm expression. Inside, I was throwing every curse in the book at Rossiter and Sykes, the CSP troopers who’d first responded to the murder scene this morning. But this was all going to come out sooner or later. I supposed I should get ahead of it.

“I met her last night at the Alpine bar. I was there when the victim, Tucker, and his friend Ellis got into a fight. I offered to arrest them, but the hotel didn’t want to press charges.”

“You didn’t think to mention that?”

“It’s no secret. Ge—” I closed my mouth. I’d been about to use her name, but I was keeping that information need-to-know. “The witness explained all of that in her interview, which I recorded this morning.”

“Can I see the interview?”

“Absolutely not.”

The DA’s bushy eyebrows slowly rose. “Rossiter and Sykes also said the witness had a video of the murder. Could I seethat?”

“No. Not until I’m done with my investigation and forward the file to your office for you to charge the suspect.”

The DA crossed his arms, squaring off with me. “Some of the calls I’ve received today expressed concern about you and your ability to handle a murder investigation like this one.”

“Is that so?” The muscle in my jaw twitched.

“Maybe you should call in the state investigators. Let them take charge of this case.”

“I was elected to do this job, and I’m more than capable.”

“Yet several people in your own department sabotaged you in the past. And as a result, a bomb nearly blew up Refuge Mountain.”

“You seem to have forgotten that we resolved that case. Everyone involved was prosecuted byyour officebased on the evidence my deputies and I put together.”

“But there’s still a lack of public confidence. There’s a gunman on the loose, and people are frightened.”

“As I’m well aware.”

Grissom was in his early fifties, around the same age my parents would be if they were still alive. I didn’t think he’d been friends with my mom’s family, the Rigsbys. But maybe I’d been wrong about that. Maybe Grissom had been biding his time to get back at me on behalf of my disgruntled relatives.

I sounded paranoid. But was I off base?

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