Page 74 of Killer Clone

“Inside the toolbox,” Hagen said as he strode toward the driver’s door, which still stood wide open. “Mac, call me when you’ve got something.” He hung up.

Hagen pulled out the keys and tossed them to Stella.

She caught them one-handed and opened the tailgate, then shoved a smaller key from the ring into a slot and opened up the large toolbox.

Delafayette lay curled and bound inside the small space. Blood darkened his matted hair and cast black streaks across his temple. Stella tugged on the knots that held his wrists.

“Hagen, call an ambulance. Now!”

He was already ahead of her. After describing the location to the emergency services, Hagen strode around to Stella’s side.

She busied herself with the rope. “Look at these.” She shot him a quick glance.

The rope was wrapped expertly around Delafayette’s wrist, and the knots were tight, too tight to untie.

At the sight of the binding, Stella found herself back on that evening in the woods not so long ago. A body swinging upside down from the trees. Blood spread across the snow like a splash of ink on an empty page.

“Here.” Hagen held out a penknife, the blade open.

She took it. “I got to get myself one of these.”

Stella sawed at the rope, staying away from the knot, which might provide some useful evidence.

The rope gave way, and Delafayette groaned.

Stella placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t try to move, Fett. An ambulance is on its way.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

Fett tried to move despite her instructions. He moaned. “My left pocket.”

“What’s in it?”

“Check. Now, before I change my mind.”

She really didn’t want to dig in his pocket, but she did, glad for the gloves. She felt a cloth with something inside it and wound her fingers around it.”

“That’s it. Get ’er out.”

Stella did. It was a dirty bandanna wrapped around…a scalpel. She tilted her head like an angry mother about to scold her toddler.

“You saved my life. Plus, the carrot cake was fantastic.” Fett wiped some coagulating blood from an eyelid. “I just found that, so you know. I had nothing to do with nothing about that dead kid.”

Stella believed him and showed Hagen the weapon just as his phone rang.

He rolled his eyes as he took the call and stepped away. “Really? You’re sure?” His voice was quiet, but the surprise in it caught Stella’s ear. “Thanks, Mac. Ask Anja to call him and take a statement, will you? Then tell her to contact Sheriff Deacon. See if she can get a lead on who stole the truck. And ask if he can track down any young men listed in Claymore Township by the name of Trevor. I’ll tell Stella.”

With her hand back on Delafayette’s shoulder, the other holding a key piece of evidence from Patrick Marrion’s crime scene, Stella waited for Hagen to hang up and return. “Sheriff Deacon? From Claymore Township? Does that mean what I think it means?”

“That’s David Broad’s truck.”

Stella blinked. “Broad’s truck that went missing right after we stopped Maureen.”

“Guess someone, possibly named Trevor, must’ve stolen it and lit out of Dodge. Probably a good thing, considering how rarely he’s sober.”

Stella took a deep breath, almost wishing Hagen hadn’t made the joke. Of course Maureen’s accomplice had stolen the truck and left town. If only she’d made the connection back when Broad had brought up his missing truck, but there was no connection to make. Only now, with the truck in front of her and the killer in the wind, could she see the link from Pennsylvania to Nashville.

She was furious they’d missed this, though. “We assumed Sheriff King participated in a crime he didn’t commit. Maureen did have help. But not from him. And that help has followed us down here.”

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