Page 17 of Breaking Rules

Before Sam could respond, Monica hurried back down the alley, taking the back way to the campaign office.

Sam’s phone chirped. It was Reese.

“Hi, Sam. I tried to call you through the system in the Tahoe.” Reese loved using that antiquated police radio in the car, but Sam avoided it as much as possible.

“I’m not in the car right now.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I figured you’d want to know this right away, so I called. They found Alex Sheridan’s car in the parking lot of the Drunken Moose.”

CHAPTER TEN

The gravel parking lot of the Drunken Moose was sparsely populated, and most of the cars were parked close to the entrance except one. A dark-blue sedan sat in the back near the woods. Kevin squatted beside the right front tire, his head tilted to look underneath the car.

“Anything stand out, Kevin?” Sam asked as they approached.

Kevin straightened. “No signs of struggle that I can see. It’s locked up tight. I jimmied the door to take a look inside but didn’t want to mess with it too much before the tow truck gets here.”

Jo walked around to the passenger side, shining her flashlight beam across the interior. “He kept it real neat in here, just like his apartment.”

“Yeah, kinda weirdly clean for a twenty-something guy,” Kevin said.

Lucy circled the car, nose to the ground. She completed two full laps then sat down near Sam, looking up at him and whining softly.

“I guess Lucy’s not catching any interesting scents either,” Sam said, scratching the dog behind her ears. “Good girl, Luce. You did your best.”

Jo peered upward, surveying the vehicle’s position beneath the towering pines. “Why park all the way out here, though? The only lights are up closer to the building, and it must get dark back here at night.”

Sam nodded. “Maybe the lot was full last night when he got here.”

“Or he didn’t want anyone to see his car,” Kevin added.

“Could have been meeting someone secretively,” Jo said.

Sam crossed his arms. “Or doing something he shouldn’t have been.”

Tires crunched on gravel, and all three turned to see the tow truck rolling up.

“I’ll talk to the lab about giving the car a thorough going-over back at the impound lot,” Kevin said.

“Okay.” Sam looked at Jo. “Let’s go inside. Maybe someone will know what Alex was up to in here last night.

Sam pushed open the heavy wooden door, the familiar smells of stale beer and fried food washing over him as he stepped inside the Drunken Moose. Jo and Lucy followed close behind, Lucy’s nose twitching as she took in the new scents.

The interior was dimly lit, with a long wooden bar running most of the length of the room. A few patrons sat on barstools, nursing beers or watching a basketball game on the TVs mounted above the liquor shelves. In the back corner, the steady clack of pool balls could be heard from the game room.

Sam scanned the space until his eyes landed on the bartender, a burly man in his forties with a bushy beard. “Hey, Pete,” Sam called out with a wave.

Pete looked up from the glass he was wiping and nodded in greeting. “Chief Mason, Sergeant Harris. What brings you in today?”

Jo leaned against the bar. “We just have a few questions about someone who was in here last night—Alex Sheridan. Did you happen to see him?”

“Yeah, I remember Alex coming in,” Pete replied, setting down his rag. “Nice kid. He’d come in sometimes with his grandpa, get food and chat. Real shame what happened.”

Sam nodded solemnly. “So Alex was definitely here last night? What time did he arrive?”

Pete furrowed his brow, thinking. “Must’ve been around eight or so. I didn’t notice him come in, but later on, I saw him sitting in a back booth with a couple of other guys.”

“Back booth, huh?” Jo asked. “Any idea who he was with?”

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