Page 133 of Five Mountain Daddies

“Come on, Wyatt. From one cop to another, who fucking cares who killed AtticusLewis?”

My blood runs ice cold in my veins at that. I have to take a deep breath before I answerhim.

“His sister does,” I sayfinally.

“I know,” Mitch answers, sounding a little more sympathetic. “She calls almost every day. I think she’s the only person left that cares about thatjunkie.”

I wince at that. “I care too,” I say. “Look, as a professional courtesy. What do you guyshave?”

He gets a little touchy. “Professional? You involved with this case now,detective?”

“No, you know I’m not,” I say. “Come on,Mitch.”

He sighs again. “Fine. We don’t have much. Just a few leads. We’re looking into a few of his junkie friends, and then there’s his ex-girlfriend. She went missing, and we haven’t really had the time to shake her out justyet.”

I nod my head, pacing my room. “So pretty standard, early investigationstuff.”

“Like I said, nobody’s working the case toohard.”

“Thanks for sharing,” I tell him. “And hey, while I’m in town, let’s grab adrink.”

“Of course,” he says, relaxing. “It’s good to hear from you,man.”

“Youtoo.”

I hang up the phone and toss it onto my bed. I stand there, anger flowing throughme.

Atticus Lewis was a junkie, an asshole, and a thief. He did unforgivable shit, and he died in the gutter, probably because of all thatshit.

And yet he deserves to be put to rest. He deserves justice. Whoever killed Atticus is still out there, and the Mason PD isn’t going to fucking find that killer any timesoon.

No wonder Cora came to me. She can sense the local PD’s reticence here. They really don’t care about a gutter rat likeAtticus.

Well, I fucking care. Or at least I used to. I grab my phone again, making up my mind, and callCora.

“Hello?” sheanswers.

“It’s me,” Isay.

“Oh, hi, Wyatt.” She doesn’t sound surprised to be hearing from me sosoon.

“Are you busy rightnow?”

“No, I’m just athome.”

“Good. Mind if I swingby?”

She hesitates. “No, that’d befine.”

“Okay. I spoke with a friend at the policedepartment.”

“Really? What did theysay?”

“I’ll tell you in person. Text me youraddress.”

“Yeah, okay.” She sounds eagernow.

I hang up the phone and get her address a minute later. I change out of my suit and put on my civilian clothes. I frown at my bag, and wish I had packed more stuff. I didn’t plan on staying here for verylong.

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