Page 35 of One In Vermillion

She laughed. “Trouble in Big Chef country? Liz isn’t here yet.”

“Tell me about the crime scene?”

George had been pretending not to listen but negated all that by stepping toward me. I put it on speaker.

“Hey, Rain,” George said.

“Did you just put me on speaker?”

“Yeah. George is here.”

“Hey, George. Sorry about the job.”

“Thanks, Rain,” George said. “What do you have?”

“Hit and run,” Rain said. “The biker tried to brake, skidded some, but there was sideways pressure shown in the skid mark which meant the vehicle was in contact with the bike, pushing it off the road. The vic had nowhere to go except where he did. It’s physics. You can’t beat science. Out into space and down into the ravine.”

“Deliberate?” I asked.

“That’s motive and evidence rarely shows that. But it was daylight. There were no skid marks from the other vehicle, so it never slowed down. So, I’d say, yeah. At the very least, it was a hit and run since they didn’t stop to render assistance or call it in.”

“Anything we can use to identify the vehicle?” I asked.

“Paint chips. But it looks like standard white. Nothing special. I’d have to analyze it in the lab. Your chief—“ she caught herself—“Bartlett, that is, took the money to the bank to lock in their vault before they closed.”

We used the local bank as our secure evidence locker. Because it’s Burney.

“There should have been four hundred thousand,” I noted, looking at George. “We’re going to have to tell Mickey about his son. And find out where the rest is. And ask him what Jim was up to since the two of them were obviously meeting after he got out. Maybe he’ll give up where he stashed Thacker’s computer and phone.”

“Gonna be a problem with that,” Rain said. “That’s why I’m calling.”

I prepared for the bad news. “What?”

“Someone got to Mickey last night and opened his drip wide. He overdosed and no one noticed until this morning. He was long cold.”

George spoke, “Sure he didn’t do it himself?”

“It was out of his reach. Cuffed to the bed by wrist and ankle. Plus, he’d had spinal surgery. He couldn’t have done it.”

“Pete OneTree ordered it,” I surmised. “He probably took out Jim, too. Cleared the deck of potential problems. I saw Jim’s motorcycle at the construction site yesterday morning when Pete was there.”

“It’s a possibility,” Rain said. “Why were they meeting?”

“Now that we know Jim was with his father, I’d say Jim was negotiating with Pete for his father’s safety in prison. Trying to buy protection for Mickey. Maybe he gave Pete two hundred thousand.”

George was nodding at that.

“One other thing, Vince,” Rain said in a tone I recognized. More bad news.

“Yeah?”

“I got a call from my captain this morning. I left him a message last night updating him on things and where I was. He jerked my chain and told me in no uncertain terms I was not to get involved. I reminded him that OCI wanted me to keep an eye on things in Burney, and he reminded me that I worked for him. The fact he called so early means someone is on his ass.”

George frowned. “Senator Wilcox?”

“That would be my guess,” Rain said. “Since Wilcox was there on Monday and offered you a job here, she wants Burney left alone.”

I saw George’s look at the mention of the job offer.

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