Page 67 of Home Town Knight

“Called in sick today.”

“Sick? With what?”

“Stomach bug. Why? Didn’t think he reported to you.”

There was an edge of snark to his tone, but Sykes wasn’t nearly as brave without Rossiter. The two CSP troopers usually worked in tandem on the same shifts. Rossiter was by far the more obnoxious of the two. The one who pushed boundaries and openly showed disrespect. Sykes was the follower. So finding him alone would probably work to my advantage.

“You and Rossiter helped execute the search warrants at the Alpine Hotel yesterday.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, some evidence from the victim’s room went missing. It was in thein situphotos, then vanished before Deputy Marsh could collect it.”

“What evidence?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

I almost believed the shock on his face. But not quite. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“No accusations. These are just questions.” I was toeing the line, nearly going over it, and I knew it.

“Well that’s bull. I didn’t take anything.”

“What about Rossiter?”

“N-No.” He’d tripped over the word.Bingo.

I put my elbows on the table, hands clasped. “You have two choices. First, I could go to your captain. Tell him to open an internal investigation against you, and then make it my personal mission to see that you never work in this state again. Or, you can tell me what the fuck you know.”

His eyes darted back and forth across the diner. “Okay.Jeez. Yesterday, we went into the victim’s hotel room. We were glancing around. Doing our due diligence.”

“Since when is that in your job description? You’re not detectives.”

“There’s a killer on the loose. Excuse me if I don’t have a lot of faith in your department solving the case.” So they thought they’d spot a clue, miraculously solve the case, and be touted as heroes.

My phone rang in my pocket, but I ignored it for now. “What happened?”

“We heard voices down the hall. Figured we should exit before getting bitched out by one of your deputies. I left the room first.” He shrugged. “Rossiter was in there for a couple minutes longer. And when he came out, he was acting weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Distracted. He claimed he suddenly wasn’t feeling well. Then called in sick today. But I had a feeling. Whole thing seemed off. So I drove by his place today, and his car wasn’t there. That’s all I know.”

“Now I have to call your captain. Start an IA inquiry into Rossiter. You’re going to repeat everything to them that you just told me. And hope you don’t get disciplined too.”

He hung his head, cursing. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“If you hear from Rossiter or find out anything else about this, tell me immediately. If you keep something from me or you play games, I will find out, and I’ll make you very sorry you did.”

I got up, left a few dollars on the table for the server even though I didn’t order anything, and walked out.

The bell jingled as the door swung closed, and I rounded the side of the building to return the call I’d missed.

“Hey, Keira. What’s up?”

“Hey, Owen. We got the location data back for Ace Tucker’s phone. I just sent it to you. I also heard from CSP. Rossiter is sick today, and Sykes is on his lunch break. But I can?—”

“It’s all right, I found Sykes. He was having lunch at Jessi’s Diner. We had a chat. He said Rossiter’s been acting strangely. Claimed he was sick, but isn’t at home.”

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