Page 45 of Justice for Samara

“Yeah. We don’t know who the body is, but I’d be willing to bet it’s either his wife or a woman who confronted him. He was supposedly fishing out of town this weekend, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing if we can shoot holes in his alibi.”

“Have you had any contact with his commander?”

“Yeah. Called him this morning about the fire, but I made no other comments about Stadler. That was before he showed up at the scene.”

“And how did that go?”

“He got up in Samara’s face and threatened her.”

“Did she stand her ground?”

Michael grinned. “She sure did. Even better, when I got there, he recognized me. I told him if he ever threatened one of my officers again, he’d live to regret it. She basically told him to go fuck himself. But now he knows we’re onto him. Funny part is, he asked what was going on and who the detective was, but you know what he didn’t ask?” Carter’s brow twitched upward. “He didn’t ask about his wife.”

“Okay, I want you and Samara working on this as much as you can. She can work on it when you’re tied up with admin duties, but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum so you’ll have time. If this is a bad cop, and it sure sounds that way, I want him out of a cruiser and behind bars.” Then Carter’s shoulders fell. “But I’ve got to call his commander.”

Michael couldn’t believe his boss would say that. “Why?”

“Professional courtesy. If I don’t and this comes to an arrest, he’s gonna be pissed, and no other posts will want to work with us. Ever. We’ll be totally on our own with no KSP support. And as small as our force is, I can’t take that chance.”

“But if you call him, he’ll alert Stadler.”

“We can hope that he won’t. But I have to do it.”

And idea zipped through Michael’s mind. “What if you didn’t have to? Because you went above him?”

“To…”

“The commissioner.”

“No, Michael. I can’t just cold-call the state police commissioner and tell him all this.”

For the first time since it all began, Michael felt a spark of hope. “No, but I can.”

“You’re just a chief deputy. He won’t listen to you.”

“Oh, yes, he will. Do you know who he used to play golf with?” Carter shook his head. “My dad.”

The sheriff’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Seriously?”

“Yup. Matter of fact, he’s my godfather. He and his wife and Mom and Dad used to play canasta sometimes, or go to movies, or things like that. Matter of fact, he was the one who fast-tracked my admission into the academy. When Dad died, James was the first person at the house, offering to help however he could and telling me that if I ever needed him for anything, he’d be right here. And this time, right now, I really think I need him.”

Carter set his lips in a straight line and sat there. After a minute, he stared straight into Michael’s eyes. “Do it. Let’s roast this bastard.”

“Okay. Good as done. I’ll call him when I get back to the office. And if I can sense that it would be better for me to meet with him, do you think?”

“You could go to Frankfort and see him? Hell yeah. Do whatever you have to. But listen to me: Keep a close eye on Samara. If this guy really did all of this, he knows if he gets caught, he’ll have nothing left to lose, so he’ll be very, very dangerous.”

“Yes, sir. I’m aware of that. I’d normally say that she can hold her own, but I really do think she needs extra eyes right now. He’s a sneaky sumbitch, and he knows all the cop tricks.”

“Yeah. By the way, how did last night go?” Carter gave Michael a sly grin.

“Amazing. We’re perfect together. We had a great day, peaceful and fun, and then…”

Carter held up a palm. “No. I don’t need to know. I really don’t. I guess the call this morning interrupted you.”

Michael started laughing. “God no! I’m not eighteen anymore! I’m twenty-six. We got an early start, but we were asleep by eleven.”

Carter snorted at him. “Jesus fucking Christ, are you an old man?”

---