Page 29 of Investigate Away
She tilted her head and glared. “I’m not going to go camping with you.”
“If you want to interview me, then yes, you are; otherwise, I’m not doing it.” He gunned the vehicle, heading toward Fort Casey. After Callie dumped him and his captain forced him to take a leave of absence, he spent a month camping at various campgrounds.
Fort Casey had always been his favorite.
Of course, it had also been one of Callie’s favorite places when they’d been dating.
She kicked off her shoes and put her feet on his dashboard.
“Um. What are you doing?” He glanced in her direction. “You know I hate that.”
“Payback is a bitch,” she said, snapping her jaw and giving him a wickedly sarcastic smile.
“I guess I deserved that.” He took off his shades and set them in the center console. The sun settled behind the mountains, and the fog rolled in, hugging the roads like a ghost floating through a cemetery, stretching his fingers, reaching out into the night for something to grab hold of.
By the time he pulled into the camping area, the night sky had completely taken over. He went about putting up his roomy four-man tent with a space heater while she set out the fried chicken meal he’d picked up at Star Market on the picnic table. He rolled out both sleeping bags. A year ago, he would have turned them into a double bed, but now he contemplated putting up a drape, creating two rooms.
Fuck it.
If she wanted him to, he’d do it when they went to bed.
“So,” he started as he stepped from the tent. “What kind of angle are you taking with this chapter dedicated to me? I mean, you spent a ton of time already discussing my mistakes.”
“The publisher wants me to cover what your thoughts are on the case now. I hadn’t planned on taking that approach, but I think it’s a good one. That is if you were willing to talk to me.”
“And what had you considered doing?” He straddled the bench and grabbed a piece of fried chicken. “If I chose to keep my lips sealed.”
“Honestly?”
“Please,” he said, licking his fingers.
“I didn’t think you’d let me interview you. So I was going to do the old talk to all your friends and family. Ask them about how you were handling what happened. And if no one really talked, then I’d go with the ex-fiancée angle and what I thought of what transpired and make assumptions.”
“Oh, that could seriously be a low blow.” He bit into the cold chicken and closed his eyes. “Oh, my God, this is good.” When he blinked them open, she’d cocked her head and glared at him. “What?”
“Do you really think I’d hit you below the belt?” she asked.
He nodded. “Based on the eight pages earlier in the book, yeah.”
“Okay. I guess I deserved that,” she said, waving a drumstick in his face. “But for the record, the publisher’s notes have me toning it down and bringing it to about four pages, so you won’t look like such a dick.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a slight laugh.
“But you were right. I fucked up big-time. I had no reason to arrest him until after the search warrant had been executed. I jumped the gun because I wanted so desperately to believe he was guilty.”
“Wanted to believe? Are you saying you didn’t?”
“I told you I spent a long time discussing your theory with Ajax. I also discussed it with Albert Morning. Do you remember him?”
“Isn’t he married to Crystal, the owner of that awesome cake bakery?”
“That’s the one,” Jag said. “Albert wondered if the FBI profile might be off, but we couldn’t come up with one that fit either, especially since we never could agree on the killer’s motivation.”
“It would have been easier if it was sexually motivated,” she said.
Oh boy. This was not going to go well; he could feel it. “Maybe, but we had straight, lesbian, bi, and a transgender. But often violent crime scenes point to sexual motivation.”
