Page 17 of Wild Justice

“I have some, too,” he said before she could continue. “For the newspaper.”

She decided to ignore his questions for now. She’d answer what she could, but this was an open investigation. If he thought that she was going to spill her guts, he was mistaken.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” she said. “What time did you leave your house this morning?”

“Around five-thirty. Like I said earlier, I like to be here at the lake to watch the sunrise.”

“How long would you say you were here at the lake this morning?”

“Ten or fifteen minutes before you showed up.”

“Did you see anyone else here?”

“No, just me. I never see anyone else.”

“You saw me,” Lulu reminded him.

“Never before then. That’s why I run early in the morning. The solitude. Can I ask a question now? Am I a suspect? Do you think I killed someone?”

“Kai, you were already here. In a place with a dead body not far away. Don’t you think I’d be a stupid cop not to ask you a few questions?”

She’d decided to challenge him back, get him thinking about what it took to run this investigation. He didn’t seem like a dumb person at all. In the short time they’d spent together, he presented himself as a reasonable and intelligent human being.

Who was standing almost smack-dab in the middle of her crime scene. All by himself.

“I guess you have a point,” he conceded, twisting his lips. “But I didn’t see anyone or anything. It was dark most of the time I was there, and even then, I don’t know if I would have seen the body. From where we were standing, I couldn’t see it. Could you?”

“No, the grass is too tall around there.”

“Then you got lucky that Henry likes to wander off,” Kai observed. “It could have been days…or weeks…”

Lulu had thought about that, too. Was that what the killer had intended? Let the crime scene degrade with a bit of rain and wind before anyone found Dana?

“It was Dana Cartwright, wasn’t it?” Kai asked. “I recognized her. She works behind the bar a few nights a week at Ethan’s place.”

“I cannot comment on the identity of the victim until we have notified the next of kin,” Lulu recited automatically. “And you should know that.”

She’d thrown out that last dig because she didn’t want him to think he could take advantage of her inexperience. Everyone would think the worst of her until she proved them wrong. It had been happening pretty much her whole life. Even then, some never changed their minds, still thinking she was teenaged Lulu, sneaking out of the house and smoking behind the barn with her friends.

“I do know that,” Kai sighed. “I’m not your enemy, Lulu. I didn’t kill that woman, and I only want to help you.”

“You want to help me? Or you want an exclusive story?”

His face split into a grin, and for a moment she thought he was going to laugh out loud at her.

“What is this? Some seedy crime television show? This is Harper, Montana. There’s only one newspaper for a hundred and fifty miles, Lulu. I automatically have an exclusive. There is no one else.”

Shit, he had a point. She was the law, and he was the news.

“The local television news station might be interested.”

She sounded rather pathetic, like she was grasping at straws.

“I’m sure they will be,” he agreed. “But in the meantime, I’m here. And I’m deeply invested in finding out what happened to that woman. After all, I helped find her. But I didn’t kill her. I barely even knew Dana.”

“Means, motive, and opportunity,” she heard herself mutter under her breath. “Which do you have?”

“I guess I had the opportunity,” he replied. “I was alone here, although we don’t yet know the time of death. I have no motive. Didn’t know her. I didn’t have the means since I showed up here with nothing but my cell phone. Although I have the physical strength to make that sort of dent in a human skull.”

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