Page 32 of Take a Hike
“I guess?”
Charlie held back a sigh. She appreciated Rory offering a militia witness up on a platter, but she wished Kevin was just a touch more voluble. “Did the other members like him?”
Kevin paused before saying, “Sure.”
Eyeing how his shoulders were scrunched up by his ears as Kevin spat out that obvious lie as if it tasted bitter, Charlie stayed silent and waited him out.
“I mean, some people must’ve liked him, since he was in charge.” His eyes widened at his own words.
“Didyoulike him?” Before he could say anything, she added, “What little you knew of him?”
“I guess?”
And we’re back to that.Gathering the crumbs of her limited patience, she asked, “Really? Because you don’t sound too enthusiastic about our friend Cobra. He’s dead, you know. You can tell the truth, and it won’t get back to him. Or if it does, he won’t have a corporeal body, so you should be safe.” She decided not to bring up the possibility of poltergeists being real, since that information probably wouldn’t be helpful.
Kevin let out a harsh breath. “Fine. I thought he was an asshole and a bully.”
Charlie perked up.Now things are getting interesting.“Give me some examples.”
“He always punched down.” The words flowed out of him in a rush, as if finally allowing them out was a relief. “Made funof the new recruits, the weaker guys, even his wife.”
“Anyone stand out in your mind as hating him especially hard?”
Kevin raised his shoulders and then let them drop. “Mostly I stayed out of it. I like the training and the friends I made, but the politics…” He shook his head. “Not my thing.”
“So the inner circle you mentioned earlier, did they all behave like Cobra? Or did any of them stand up to him?” Maybe the murderer had thought he’d been doing a public service of sorts.
“Nah, they were all as bad as Cobra.”
“What about Clint?” Charlie tried to keep her own feelings buttoned up tight, as hard as it was to not let them color her words. He’d kidnapped her sister after all, and Charlie knew how to nurture a solid grudge. “What was he like, before and after he took over?”
“He wasn’t around much until about a year before Cobra took off—uh, disappeared,” he corrected himself since, Charlie assumed, the remains Fifi and Bennett had found pretty much proved that Cobra hadn’t driven himself out of town. “Even after, he’s spent a lot of that time locked up.”
Charlie chewed on that for a few seconds before asking, “How is he leading the militia if he’s been in jail most of the time?”
“His buddies talk to him, get his orders.”
Charlie met Kieran’s gaze, pretty sure he was thinking the same thing. If Clint could run the militia from jail, why couldn’t he arrange for Cobra’s murder while behind bars, as well? “Who are some of his buddies?”
Although he’d been looking more relaxed the longer they talked, at this question, Kevin’s gaze shifted back over to thedoor again. “I–I don’t know if I should… I mean, if they hear I ratted them out, it won’t go well for me.”
“You’re not ratting them out.” Charlie tried her most soothing smile, but that just made him shuffle uncomfortably. “I’m not the cops, and I’d never reveal my source. Besides, it’s not a secret who Clint’s friends with. I bet I could ask any of the locals hanging out at the coffee shop, and they’d say exactly the same names as you’re about to tell me.” Too late, she caught her mistake and winced. “If the coffee shop wasn’t a burned-out shell, that is.”
The reminder of the arson didn’t seem to settle Kevin’s nerves at all. If anything, his sweating increased.
“Speaking of the coffee shop, any idea who set it on fire?” She purposefully left out the part about being locked inside, trying to make the question sound like idle curiosity. Kevin was already rattled enough.
“No.” Surprisingly, the change of subject seemed to have calmed him down. “Word around town is that it was one of the city people who followed you here.”
“It wasn’t them,” she said. “The five treasure hunters have been cleared, since they were all eating at Levi’s when it happened.”
“Six.”
Turning so she could look at Rory straight on, she repeated, “Six? You sure?”
“Yeah. They’re all outside.” She gestured toward the laptop screen in front of her.
“Huh. Who’s the late arrival, I wonder? Mind if I take a look?” Charlie gestured toward the space next to Rory, whoshrugged affirmatively. Boosting herself onto the counter, she slid across the glass top and hopped down on the other side.
