Page 86 of Wild Justice

“Ray?” he called out. “Are you here? It’s Kai Oliver and Henry Austin.”

Ray Ramsey stuck his head out of the office door, a big smile on his face.

“Come on in. This is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure? Let me guess. Your city friend is thinking about buying a house here in town. Good choice. Real estate is an excellent investment.”

Henry was not planning a real estate purchase. According to Lulu, she wasn’t even sure he was going to stick around Harper. He’d already been here longer than his original plan. He’d just come to help get her settled in her new job, but then…murder happened.

Kai gave Henry a questioning glance and received a shake of the head in return.

No, he’s not buying a house.

He walked down the hall and into Ray’s office where the man was beginning to pack up papers into his briefcase.

“Have a calendar,” Ray offered, holding out one of those calendars with a magnet. He even had his smiling face and phone number on it, too. It was the same one that Ramsey had given Lulu for her new home. She’d put it on her refrigerator. “So, is your friend looking for a house? I can think of a few good candidates in the county. One is completely move-in ready. The other might need some TLC. Tell me, are you handy with a hammer and nails?”

“Not in the least,” Henry replied. “I consider myself mechanically declined, if you know what I mean.”

Ramsey laughed at the joke a little too hard.

“He’s not actually looking for a house,” Kai explained. “We’re here on another matter. I was here to see if I could get a list of people that would have a key to Allie Baker’s apartment.”

Frowning, Ray shook his head.

“I don’t quite understand. Why do you need a list like that? What’s going on?”

“I’m just doing a little more investigation. It’s for an article I’m writing.”

Kai didn’t want to go into great detail. That hinky feeling that Henry had spoken about was back and more intrusive than ever.

“More investigation? Why? Tony didn’t mention that he needed the police to do any more investigating.”

“This isn’t about anything the police are doing. This is for me. It’s just a few routine questions. It’s not a big deal.”

He didn’t want to drag Lulu into this discussion. Ramsey had already tried to insert himself more than was needed. That was behavior that Kai didn’t want to encourage.

“It’s a big deal to me,” Ramsey objected. “The town council needs to know what the press is doing here in Harper.”

No, you don’t need to know.

“I’m sure the town council doesn’t want to get into a First Amendment showdown over something so trivial,” Kai replied.

From the sour expression on Ramsey’s face, Kai had scored a direct hit.

“What do you want the information for?” Ramsey pressed. “I don’t see why you need it.”

“It’s for an article about the evidence against Allie,” Kai said.

“It’s an open and shut case,” Ramsey argued. “Everyone knows she did it. Does Lulu think Allie is innocent?

“Any competent defense attorney is going to ask for the information,” Henry said. “They’ll want to establish reasonable doubt that someone else might have planted the weapon. You’re going to have to produce the list sooner or later.”

Ramsey stared at both of them for a long moment and then crossed his arms over his chest. Kai knew from the body language alone that they were wasting their time.

“I think I’ll wait until later then,” Ramsey said. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“That’s it,” Kai said. “Have a nice evening.”

He and Henry turned to leave, but Ramsey had one more question.

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