Page 74 of Silent Ridge

“You can thank Ronnie for that,” the sheriff says. “She figured it out.”

“But how did you get here so fast?” I left Ronnie on foot and at least twenty or thirty minutes from anywhere. Cell reception was spotty at best. It would have taken Sheriff Gray an hour to get to her even if he was running a Code 3 response.

“She guessed where you were going and texted me while you were in the ladies’ room at headquarters. She said to give you a twenty-minute head start and follow. I caught up with Ronnie walking down SR-101. When you ditched her, she used your phone to track you.”

Ronnie held her phone up. “Track My Device” she says. “I linked my phone to yours a while back. Good thing I did too.”

I can’t argue with that, but I need to get a new cell phone number and burn mine. I don’t like being tracked.

“So what did you hear?” I ask them.

Ronnie says nothing. Smart girl. Sheriff Gray gives me a guarded look. “We wouldn’t let her give you or Dan another injection of that stuff.”

That tells me what I need to know. They heard almost everything. My past is blown wide open and all they need to do is put the pieces together with police reports. I feel sick, but it’s over.

Sheriff Gray hitches up his gun belt and looks away. “Looks to me like this Alex Rader killed his wife and went on the run. Did they ever find him?”

He’s giving me an out, and so I shake my head.

Ronnie looks at the woman’s body. “Any idea who she is?”

“No clue.”

Tony points and says, “We found the body of a man in a grave over there. His head was cut off. Was that Michael Rader?”

“Yes.”

“Did she kill him?” Tony asks.

“She must have. She had some kind of grudge against him. Maybe she’s a family member or girlfriend of one of his prison victims.”

“And that’s all you know?” he asks.

“Yes, Sheriff.”It’s all I’m going to tell you.

Ronnie asks, “Do you want to go to the hospital and check on Dan? I’ll take you.”

I feel a spike driven into my chest. I want to go, but I know I’d better not. This problem between us is like a popped pimple. Best not to touch it. Let it heal so it doesn’t get infected.

“No. I want to go back to the office. I have a lot of paperwork. I guess we all do.” Mine will be creative writing.

The coroner for Clallam County shows up and is trundled off by one of the deputies in the direction of Michael Rader’s body.

A detective finishes asking questions of the first arriving deputies and turns his attention to me and Ronnie.

Sheriff Gray sees him and says, “I guess we’ll be here a while.”

The detective comes up to us.

“Howdy, Sheriff Gray.”

“Hi, Mike. This is Detective Carpenter and Detective Marsh.”

“Detective Mike Felson. I’d ask how you’re doing, but if you’ll excuse me saying so, you don’t look too good.”

Sheriff Gray says, “If you can make your questions short, I’m sure we can all come to your office or you can come to mine in the morning and we’ll give complete statements.”

Mike says, “Tony, I know where to find you. The deputies here have told me enough to piece this together for now, but I’ll come to your office around nine a.m. tomorrow if that’s doable. We haven’t found Detective Carpenter’s duty weapon yet, but if my guys find it I’ll bring it tomorrow. You can secure Detective Marsh’s weapon. For now you can go back home.” He looks at me. “Anything you need to tell me before you cut out?”

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