“Detective Dodds.”
“Detective Borders.” Dodds sat in a chair turned backward, his blue, polka dot tie hanging over the chair’s back. “I risked my neck on the ice to bring you good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
Will pushed himself up in the wheelchair and said he needed good news.
“Darlene is in protective custody, her kid, too. She gave Chambers up. We’ve reopened the case and we’ve got a warrant for his arrest. I think we can get him for the three women in Mount Adams.”
All this, Will thought, and Dodds was not angrily berating him for interfering.
“So what’s the bad news?”
“He’s gone. We sent a tactical unit to his apartment and he wasn’t there. We’ve got it staked out.”
“Where does he work?”
“He’s some kind of independent security consultant, so he works out of his place. We’re running down family, friends. So far, no Chambers.”
“Hell.” Will’s mind pulled out of its depression and began plotting how they could find him.
“There’s more,” Dodds said. “Darlene said Chambers has a cabin down by Rabbit Hash. We never found it before because it’s in his father’s name. It’s empty right now, but we’ve got Kentucky State Police sitting on it. If he doesn’t show up there in the next day, we’re going to execute a search warrant. What do you want to bet we find some very interesting things hidden down there?”
“That doesn’t sound like bad news.”
Dodds’ mouth turned up in an imitation of a smile. “That’s because there’s more bad news.”
Will pushed away the food tray and waited.
“Your girlfriend’s been lying. I always had this gut feeling about her.”
“What girlfriend? You mean Cheryl Beth?”
“She was with Dr. Lustig the night she was killed.”
“Oh, bullshit.”
“Real shit,” Dodds said. “Dr. Nagle said he saw the two of them talking and drinking at a bar on Main Street the night the doc was murdered…”
“He’s just trying to save his own skin, since he doesn’t have an alibi anymore.”
“Will you let me finish? Thank you. After you so industriously had this girl Amy Morton come back and say she lied about Nagle’s alibi, well, I brought him in for a chat. He’s very full of himself. Know what he calls himself? The Two Million Dollar Man, for all the surgeries he does. But he tells me he was on Main Street that night and saw the two of them together. Unfortunately for your girlfriend…”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Will said through a sour mouth.
“Unfortunately for your girlfriend, I took their pictures to the bar and the bartender and one of the waitresses positively identified them. She was with Lustig that night.”
Will stared into the table, ran his hand lightly back and forth over its smooth surface, and felt himself breathe. His stomach was now the home to a heavy, spiky rock. How could she have lied to him? “So what are you saying?”
“Motive. She was Na
gle’s lover and Lustig’s rival. Opportunity. There could be an hour or more between the time Cheryl left the bar and the time she claimed she found the body. And she’s been lying to us.”
Will rubbed his temples, feeling his head start to ache. Was it a headache because Cheryl Beth had lied to him, or a brain tumor? Finally he shook his head and forced a laugh. “Reach, reach, hell, your arms are long.”
Dodds ran his hand across the top of his head, as if searching to see if any hair had escaped his daily shaving. “There’s some weird shit going on at this place, and she knows what it is. I still like Mason for killing Lustig. I’m keeping his ass in jail. But maybe Cheryl Wilson is in on it, too, and this Nagle asshole.”
“Her name is Cheryl Beth.”
“Mason’s fingerprints are on the threatening letter. He also has a knife collection. Have you seen him? He’s one of these no-affect types—you don’t know if they’re just fucked up or a killer. I say a killer.”