Page 57 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“Did you ever see his driver’s license?” Aaron asked.

“Nope.”

“Mr.Travis,” Cruz began, then stood and spun the papers on the tabletop until they faced Marlon, “can you tell us which of these men is RodneyFrymire?”

“Sure.” Marlon looked them over, then picked them up one by one and scrutinized them. “Nope. None-a these ones is Rodney.”

Cruz side-eyed Marlon. “You sure about that?”

“Absolutely. I ain’t never seen none-a these guys.”

“But if you saw a picture of him, could you identify him?” Shaw asked.

“Oh, yeah. I think so. I mean, I weren’t ’round him much, but I think I could do that.”

“And you don’t have a phone number for him?” Dax asked.

“No. He weren’t my friend. He was Frankie’s. But Frankie would have it in his phone.”

Dax turned to Aaron. “Did you recover a phone at the scene?” The deputy shook his head. “You got Frankie’s number?”

“Sure!” Marlon fumbled until he pulled out his phone. It was an old flip phone held together with duct tape, and he opened it, then pushed a few buttons and paged through. “Okay, it’s eight five nine…” Aaron wrote it as Marlon spoke it, then stepped out of the room. “Will that help?”

Shaw shrugged slightly. “Maybe. But that’s all we really need, Marlon, unless you think of something else.”

“Okay. If I think of anything, I’ll call you. Oh, god, my brother… What do I do now?”

“The medical examiner has the body and when he’s finished with the autopsy, they’ll give you a call. Give me your number.” Shaw wrote it down as Marlon called it out. “We’ll call you, I promise.”

“Thank you. I just… I can’t believe this. Thank you. Can I go now? I need to go see Mama and Daddy.”

“Sure. We’ll have one of the deputies take you home.” Shaw stood and escorted him back up the hallway. In just a few minutes, he was gone.

He returned to the conference room to see two very frustrated Texas lawmen gathering up those photos. “None of them,” Dax muttered.

“That’s what the man said and, to my knowledge, Marlon’s never been in trouble with the law, plus I’ve never known him to be a liar. I think if he’d seen Frymire’s face on one of those sheets, he’d tell you.” Shaw was positive of it. Marlon wasn’t the best of people, but he certainly wasn’t the worst.

“I handed the phone number off to one of our detectives.” Aaron sat back down. “What about the DNA?”

Cruz sat down too and pulled the file toward him, then stuffed all the papers into it. “I’ll check on it.”

Aaron sighed. “Okay. Until we get that back, we really have nothing to work with.”

“Yep. So could you lawmen point us in the direction of a hotel?” Dax asked.

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll take you there. And tomorrow morning, if you want one, I’ll take you to get a rental car.” Aaron stood. “Shaw, talk to you soon.”

Shaw stood and shook Aaron’s hand, then Cruz’s and Dax’s. “You bet. Thanks, guys. I just want this piece of shit caught.”

“So do we,” Cruz assured him.

CHAPTER8

He’d been backin his truck for about forty-five minutes when his phone rang, and he recognized the number. “Hello.”

“Hi! It’s me!”

“Hey, gorgeous!” He smiled and hoped she could hear it in his voice. “I put the number in my phone when I paid for it.”

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