Sheriff John Johnson of the Severe police department and his son Rob a deputy showed up at the motel where Simon and Walker waited outside the room. Simon told Walker before the police officers arrived to let him do all the talking. That was fine with him. He knew from experience that he would be treated as a suspect without question.
Both men were asked for their licenses. Walker didn’t have one. John Johnson immediately was suspicious of him. Walker kept his cool. Rob Johnson peered in the window as he had. He called to the housekeeper to open the door.
“You say your brother was staying here?” John asked Walker.
“He was,” Walker replied.
“What made you suspicious that something happened to him?” The sheriff asked.
“I was supposed to meet him this morning and he never showed.”
The sheriff nodded. “Wait here,” he said. He returned to his vehicle while the housekeeper opened the door for Rob. The deputy went into the room while Simon and Walker leaned against the wall near the door.
“Something is wrong,” Walker whispered.
“I know but we didn’t do anything wrong so relax.”
“My record makes them automatically suspicious of me.” Walker fidgeted as he leaned near Simon waiting for both police officers to discover what had happened in the motel room.
Simon gazed at Walker. He could see the sympathy he had for him. “You did nothing wrong. You have an alibi since she was last seen alive, so you have nothing to worry about.”
Rob Johnson walked past the men leaning against the wall. Simon glanced at Walker but neither of them said anything. Walker knew it wasn’t good when the deputy leaned in the window and talked to the sheriff. Once or twice, they both glanced at Walker. Then the sheriff got out and approached them followed by the deputy. He handed Simon his license.
“When did you see your brother last?” John Johnson asked Walker.
“Yesterday afternoon. I came here with Matt Hatfield, Simon’s son, my best friend to ask him some questions.”
“About what?” The sheriff asked.
Walker explained what had happened to Danni, Simon’s daughter.
“You thought your brother had something to do with her attack?” He tipped his hat back a little and watched Walker with an intenseness that made him feel guilty even though he knew he had done nothing wrong.
“I was concerned. Jesse is always in trouble.”
The sheriff nodded. “So, you knew he had this girl with him?” John Johnson asked.
Walker cleared his throat. “He actually had two girls with him.”
The sheriff glanced at his son then back at Walker. “What were their names?”
“I only know the first name of one of them. He called the blonde girl, Laura.”
The sheriff nodded. “Come with me,” Rob Johnson requested of Walker.
He led him into the dim room. He used a glove to turn on the bedside lamp. “Is this the one your brother called Laura?” He asked Walker.
He dreaded what he would see when he joined the deputy on the other side of th
e bed. The girl couldn’t have been more than twenty-one. He walked around the bed, her eyes were wide open and lifeless. She was dead.
“That’s her,” Walker confirmed.
“You ever see her before yesterday?” Rob Johnson asked.
“Never. I don’t often see my brother except when he wants money or favors.”
“What did he want from you?”