Page 29 of Obsession

“Ranger Sam Ryker. And you are...?”

“Gregory Hart.” He shifted the case he carried to his other hand. “I live here. Why are all these policemen here?”

Hart looked to be in his early forties and stood a couple of inches taller than Sam’s six-one. “There was a shooting tonight.”

The man blanched. “Here? In this neighborhood? You must be mistaken.” He looked past Sam as Nate joined them. “Sheriff? I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Greg.” Nate nodded. “No reason for me not to be here.” Then he turned to Sam. “He works at City Hall.”

“You don’t normally deal with city matters. Why this one?”

For a second, Sam thought Nate would ignore the man, then he said, “It’s connected to a county investigation. Have you seen any suspicious people hanging around the neighborhood?”

Greg frowned. “Does this have anything to do with the flowers Emma received this morning?”

“You know about those?” Nate asked.

“I was leaving for work when she discovered them in front of her door. Is Emma the one who was shot at?” He directed his question to Nate.

“Maybe. Did you see who left the flowers?”

“Like I told her, I didn’t see anyone. If our landlord had installed the surveillance system as we requested...” Greg’s eyes widened. “Wait. You do think the flowers are connected to the shooting.”

“Could be,” Nate said.

“Sheriff, that’s crazy. Emma’s an attractive woman, and she probably gets flowers from guys all the time.”

“Sounds like they could’ve been from you,” Sam said as he studied the case in Greg’s hand. It was definitely large enough for a disassembled rifle.

Red crept into his face. “They weren’t. If you two will excuse me, I haven’t eaten dinner yet.” He nodded to the case. “Symphony practice went longer than usual.”

“Greg plays trumpet in the symphony orchestra,” Nate said.

Sam nodded. “If you see anyone suspicious hanging around this area, give us a call.”

“I will. I’d hate to see anything happen to Emma. Good night, gentlemen.” Greg walked to the steps.

Sam waited until the man ascended the stairs and his door clicked shut. “What do you think?”

“He’s not the type to go around shooting at people—it takes a certain amount of passion to kill someone. The only thing Gregory Hart has ever been passionate about is himself and his music,” Nate said. “Besides, my wife plays violin in the symphony, and they’ve been practicing every evening for the past week for the Valentine’s Day concert, so he couldn’t have been at Mount Locust. And if you were the target, well, let’s just say I don’t think he would be shooting at you since he doesn’t even know you.”

“Ask your wife if he was at practice.” Sam wasn’t so quick to dismiss him as their suspect. “I’d have loved to have seen inside that case.”

“And he would have been highly insulted if you’d asked. It wouldn’t be worth the animosity—you might need something from City Hall one day.”

“You’re saying he’d hold a grudge?”

“Like an elephant,” Nate said with a chuckle. “Where’s Emma?”

“Upstairs with one of the city detectives. He’s taking her statement.”

“I have a few questions for her as well, but before I talk to her, I want to run something by you. We just received two license plate readers. Haven’t tried them out yet, but with Pete Nelson’s approval, I want to set up the cameras in front of Emma’s apartment.”

Sam was familiar with the ALPR devices that recorded the license plates of cars that passed by. “I didn’t realize Adams County had anything like that.”

“We just got them, thanks to a federal grant,” Nate said. “Hers will be our test case.”

“Maybe that will help us catch her stalker,” Sam said as he followed the sheriff up the stairs to Emma’s apartment.

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