“Hey.”
He kicked the snow from his size fourteen boots and lifted his blue gaze to her. “Mind if I come in? I have a few things to discuss with you about the current caseload.”
Jenna tried to stop the frown without success. “I hold a meeting every morning to keep my officers informed and delegate tasks.”
“I’m sure you do, but as I took charge of the office today, at the moment you’re out of the loop.” Kane’s blue eyes held her gaze. “I’ve made significant progress today.”
I somehow knew you would. She stepped to one side. “Of course. Come in. How was your first day?”
He stared at her as if she had asked him the size of his penis, then he raised a dark eyebrow and shrugged. “Fine.”
Jenna smothered a grin and strolled down the hallway into the kitchen. “You came at a good time. I have cookies fresh from the oven, and coffee.” She turned at the door and took in his bemused expression.
You are professional all the way. I’d bet you have been on the job for so long, you find any form of nicety suspicious. She had not had a real partner for years and craved the company of intelligent conversation. The kind where she could speak her mind, talk shop, and not feel like a Mother Superior. Backpedaling, she chuckled. “Don’t tell the other deputies. They don’t know I have a feminine side.”
“They wouldn’t believe me.” Kane’s wide mouth quirked up into a genuine smile. “You should show people this side of you more often.” He wiped his feet on the mat and reached for the zipper on his jacket. “This will take a while, and coffee and cookies sounds like heaven, thanks.” He turned and hung his coat on a peg beside the back door.
Twelve
Kane gave Jenna a rundown of the day’s developments then sat back in his chair and sipped a steaming mug of coffee, waiting for her response. The bruise on her forehead had a dark blue hue and the shadows under her eyes worried him. Even though he had known her for less than twenty-four hours, he respected her grit.
He glanced around the deliciously warm kitchen and inhaled the aroma of freshly baked cookies that filled the room. She acts like military. Everything in its place and spotless. He tasted a cookie and flavor exploded in his mouth. With a sigh, he closed his eyes in bliss and heard her chuckle.
“So, you are human.” Jenna pushed fingers through her tousled hair. “You work like a machine. Do you ever get tired?”
He opened his eyes and frowned. “I do what’s necessary to get the job done.”
“Okay, if you want to talk shop, we’ll talk.” Jenna’s dark gaze viewed him over the rim of her cup. “What makes you think the real estate agent has anything to do with Mrs. Woodward’s disappearance?”
“Nothing yet but I have a niggling feeling he’s not telling us everything he knows.”
The message chime sounded on his cellphone and he held up one finger. “This will be the files I’ve been waiting on from Deputy Walters.”
A few moments later, they scrolled through Mrs. Woodward’s debit card statements for the previous three months. She had made substantial withdrawals recently. He glanced at Jenna and shrugged. “From the debit card withdrawals, she’s moving around. The last time she used her card was a few days ago in Blackwater. It appears she’s left Black Rock Falls.”
“Yes, but she must have made a purchase in the last two weeks, and from the statement she hasn’t spent a cent. All the withdrawals are at ATMs, and going on the previous months, this isn’t her usual behavior.” Jenna’s forehead creased into a frown. “This looks suspicious. From what Sarah told me, before she arrived in Black Rock Falls, she’d mentioned all the towns she visited on the way. Why would she stop now? It doesn’t make sense.”
“She could have experienced a health issue.” Kane shrugged. “It happens. People suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s and wander off without a trace.”
“I would imagine people suffering from either of those illnesses would forget their PIN. It is a steady decline not a sudden onset, and the family would have noticed something was wrong with her.” Jenna’s eyebrows rose in question. “Sarah said she was very careful with money, so why the sudden change?”
“That’s a valid point, and this morning Sarah told me she’d received a batch of her grandmother’s letters via her mother, so perhaps she’ll find a reason for the change of behavior in one of them.” Kane leaned back in his chair. “If not, from the evidence, Mrs. Woodward has left our county, and we’ll need to hand this investigation to the Blackwater Sheriff’s Department.”
“I’ll contact them on Monday.” Jenna waved at the screen. “Anything else you need to look at? The other file looks like bank statements from a different account.”
“Might as well.” Kane scrolled down the page and blinked. “Hello, what do we have here? Woodward withdrew a cashier’s check for twenty thousand, and from the date, it’s not long after her visit to the real estate office. John Davis sent her out to do a drive-by viewing of properties in the area. He hasn’t mentioned receiving any offers from Woodward.” He rubbed his chin. “Although, Sarah did mention her grandmother planned to purchase a property; perhaps she found a place she liked and had the check to put down a deposit?”
“Then we’ll need to contact the bank and see if the check has been cashed—” Jenna drummed her manicured fingernails on the table “—or if someone local has deposited it into their account.”
Kane rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes and bit back a yawn. “I’ll get Walters to follow that up on Monday.”
“I want you to call Mr. Davis again to remind him we need the list of properties he gave Mrs. Woodward.” Jenna worried her bottom lip, turning it red, and met his gaze. “Some of the abandoned ranches for sale are in remote areas; anything could have happened to her.”
Kane picked up another cookie from the plate and shrugged. “She can’t be in two places at once, can she? We know from her debit card statement she was miles away after her visit to Davis’s real estate office.”
“Yes, but maybe she visited real estate offices in other towns then returned to Black Rock Falls. This is the point, we don’t know her movements, and without a cellphone, it will be impossible to trace her.” Jenna rubbed her temples as if warding off a headache. “I think we need to lean on Davis.”
“I agree. We’ll talk to him again but if the check hasn’t been cashed by him, there is no evidence that points to him as a suspect.” He nibbled the crumbly delight and sighed. “I’ll contact the police station in Blackwater and ask them to put a be-on-the-look-out call out on her, and I’ll call the real estate offices just in case she dropped by. I guess Sarah will have to submit a missing persons’ report there as well.” Yawning, he shook off the dragging fatigue and peered at her. “I should go. We can pick this up later.”