Mean Streak

He sat down at the table and motioned Emory into the second chair. “You take the bed,” he said to Jack as he passed him a Styrofoam cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich.

Emory sat down as instructed but left the food untouched. “You won’t do anything illegal, will you?”

“Like tear Jeff limb from effing limb? I would love nothing better. But you said the key word. Illegal. I refuse to give him a loophole to wiggle through in court. Our job,” he said to Jack, “is to make damn certain we have a solid case for the prosecutor.” Hearing an approaching vehicle, Emory turned to look through the open blinds. The familiar SUV was pulling into the parking space directly in front of the room. “It’s Knight and Grange.”

“The cavalry,” Hayes said.

“They know who you are,” Jack said, and in response to Hayes’s angry reaction, he added, “I had to tell them. Last night after you snatched Emory off that balcony, every officer in the area was out beating the bushes for you. If I hadn’t told them who you were, you could’ve been shot on sight.”

When the knock came, Emory asked, “Should I let them in?”

“The plan was for us to regroup here at eight o’clock,” Jack said. “They’re right on time. Open the door.”

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, she would have laughed at the detectives’ dumbfounded expressions upon seeing her. “Good morning.” She stood aside so they could come in. Both stumbled to a halt when they saw Hayes sitting at the table, his carryout breakfast spread out before him.

Knight was the first to recover his powers of speech. “I gotta say, you two never fail to surprise.”

Jack said, “Sam Knight, Buddy Grange, this is Hayes Bannock.”

Emory noticed that it was with reverence and awe that Grange approached Hayes to shake hands. “You’re the stuff of legends. Never thought I’d have the honor, sir.”

Hayes replied with a terse thanks, and, after shaking hands with Knight, continued eating.

“How’d you get the bruise on your chin?” Knight asked Connell.

“I slipped in the shower.”

Emory could tell that neither he nor Grange believed that. They both looked toward Hayes, whose only reaction to their speculation was to ball up the empty wrapper of his sandwich and toss it into the sack.

Knight said, “Gotta tell y’all, I’m dying to know how this little get-together came about.”

Jack took it upon himself to explain. He gave them a broad-strokes overview, then filled in the details. “When you arrived, we were about to address how solid the case against Jeff Surrey is. You were the first to suspect him. What’s your take?”

Knight thoughtfully tugged at the rubber band around his fingers. Turning to Hayes, he said, “We don’t have a crime scene, and even if we did, you compromised it when you removed that rock.”

“I realize that. I haven’t forgotten all my training. But there was weather moving in, which would have compromised it anyway. Or the rock could possibly have gotten overlooked. Jeff could have started thinking about it, gone back to the spot, and removed it. Best option I had was to take it with me. I was wearing gloves, so the last person to touch it was the person who used it as a weapon.”

“Why a rock?” Grange asked. “Not a very reliable murder weapon.”

“Jeff wanted it to look like an accident,” Hayes said. “Like Emory fell.”

“Are you sure you didn’t, Dr. Charbonneau?” Grange asked.

“No. The first time you questioned me, I told you I couldn’t remember specifically what happened, and I still can’t. If it came to trial, I couldn’t swear under oath that I didn’t just fall.”

That disturbed the detectives, and Hayes noticed. With discernible irritability, he said, “Show them the thing off Jeff’s jacket.”

Emory removed the silver charm from her pocket. While the detectives were examining it in turn, Hayes explained how he’d found it.

Knight asked her, “You couldn’t have dropped it there yourself?”

“No, and I’m positive about that. The last time I saw it, until last night, it was dangling off the zipper pull of Jeff’s ski jacket.”

“What happened last night?”

“Hayes showed it to me out on the balcony of the hotel.”

“Huh,” the older detective said. “So that’s what convinced you to hightail it with him.”