Be Mine Forever (Detectives Kane and Alton)

/> Jenna sniffed the air. “And you smelled the aroma of chili wafting down the sidewalk.” She shook her head. “Okay, you win.” She waved him to a table.

Twenty-Five

They spent the next couple of hours going through a ton of images of cheerleaders. Jenna had to admit, some of the photographs bordered on unsavory but then some people would look at them as action shots of a cheerleading squad’s routine. It was all in the eye of the beholder. She looked up wearily from her phone. “Find anything suggesting Williams is a pedophile?”

“Nope but if I had a daughter and I thought men were sharing some of these shots, I wouldn’t be too happy. The routines happen in a split second and are innocent enough but Williams somehow makes them indecent.” Kane rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I’m still not convinced there’s not more to him than meets the eye. He is obsessed with cheerleaders and it could easily lead to murder.” He opened his hands. “Thinking out of the box here. If he lured one to his apartment and she refused his advances, strangling her to keep her quiet is something that I’ve seen before.”

Jenna closed the files and looked at him. “That will be hard to prove. I did notice he had a set of pompoms on his desk but assumed they were props for his photographs but now we know Laurie’s are missing from her backpack it throws suspicion on him.”

“We’ll need to get closer to Stan Williams and see how he ticks.” Kane leaned back in his chair. “I’ll call Carter and convince him to come with me to pay Williams a visit tonight after dinner. You’ll be wanting to chat with Jo, I’m sure.”

Jenna nodded. “It’s going to be the only time we have free. If Rio and Rowley find any Chrysler sedans in town similar to the one that gave Laurie a ride, we’ll be spending the rest of the week hunting down their owners.” She stretched and glanced at her watch. “We’ll go find Wyatt Cooper and then head back to the office. I guess you’d better grab something for Duke as Ty is going to take him home soon.”

“See, you do care about my dog.” Kane tucked his phone inside his pocket and stood. “I knew he’d grow on you eventually.”

Laughing, Jenna stood. “I’ve always liked Duke. I mean who wouldn’t love those sad brown eyes? I’ve just never been in a position to have pets. It’s a responsibility I couldn’t risk taking, like marriage and kids. Life is different now. Yeah, we still face dangers but we have reliable people around us who care. I’d never had that before. For me friendship and loyalty came at a price.”

“Yeah, well that’s all behind us now.” Kane smiled at her. “All I have to worry about is murdering psychopaths.”

Jenna dropped a pile of bills on the table and headed to the door. “Look, the football team float is pulling up at the end of the park. Let’s have a little chat with Wyatt Cooper. If we can make it through the crowds, we’ll be able to catch him before he heads off.”

Although the crowds had eased a little, the football team had scattered leaving only a few of the players in small groups chatting. Jenna spotted Dale Collins with a small group of friends and headed in his direction. She noticed his smile vanish as she approached. “Sorry to bother you again. Does anyone know where we can locate Wyatt Cooper?”

“He took off.” Collins shrugged. “He said he had something to do later. He sure don’t seem too upset about Laurie.” He frowned. “At least, the rest of the team will be at her funeral, to pay our respects.”

“What do you mean by that remark?” Kane’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no plans for a funeral at this stage. Did he say something?”

“Yeah, he told us he wouldn’t be going to her funeral.” Collins straightened. “He didn’t give a reason. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“I’ll be sure to.” Kane’s gaze moved over the others watching the interaction. “We have a team of deputies from other counties here for the festival, so don’t try to buy liquor at the showgrounds again this year. We don’t want to find any of you boys locked up in the cells come morning.”

“We’ll be sure to remember that, Deputy.” Collins turned his back and walked toward another group of players.

Annoyed by Collins’ arrogance, Jenna stared after him. “That went well.”

“I figure we have someone flying under the radar.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “The problem is none of the people we’ve spoken to have raised any red flags, with the exception of Williams.” He waved a hand at the marching band following the cheerleaders into the park. “Someone here knows something. One of these kids knocked Laurie’s phone out of her hand and I’m convinced whoever did it, is involved with her murder.”

Seeing the way the students gathered together in groups gave Jenna pause to consider what Kane had said. She shrugged and followed him from the park. “Maybe not.” She thought back to her time at school and turned to him. “Say one of them disliked Laurie and was part of a prank to have her walk home? There may have been a small group of them involved, one of the guys disables her truck and one of the girls bumps into her. Look around you, everyone is chatting in groups. I remember this happening when I was at school, in the parking lot, on the way home, waiting for the bus, we’d chat for ages.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Kane removed his hat and scratched his head before replacing it. “Why?”

“If I recall, when we spoke to Hughes, he knew just about straight away that Laurie’s phone was toast and he just placed it in a plastic bag and he locked up and went home.”

“Yeah, that’s what I remember.” Kane stopped walking and turned to look at her. “Where’s this leading, Jenna?”

Like a jigsaw puzzle slipping into place, Jenna smiled at him. “Well, he said he didn’t see anyone in the parking lot. He said it was empty and dark when he drove by. Where was everyone? Why weren’t there some kids still hanging around when Laurie couldn’t start her truck and decided to walk home?”

“Maybe because Laurie was inside longer than he remembered.” Kane shook his head slowly. “There’s no way a group of kids could commit a murder like that. Do you think they’re all involved? No way. One of them would flip out with the stress.”

Unconvinced, Jenna stared at him. “Look back in history. Cult figures influenced people to do terrible things, even commit suicide. Right now, I’m open to any suggestions. We have a young girl brutally murdered in the morgue and practically no evidence and what we do have was probably planted.”

When they arrived at the office, Jenna found Rowley at the front counter and Rio updating files on the computer. As Kane headed into her office to call Carter about visiting Williams later, she checked her watch and then leaned on the counter. “Bring me up to date and then go home and take a break before your next shift.”

“Sure.” Rowley turned his iPad around to show her. “These are the seven green or gray Chrysler sedans of around the same model in town. We know about the one that Mrs. Hughes owns and tracked down five. Three of these are in use and two are in barns and haven’t been driven for years. The last one is in the used car yard here in town, it’s been there for about three months.” He pointed to the three names on his list. “We visited all three of the owners and all have an alibi for Saturday night. They were all at home with family members and all three owners are in their late sixties. No one else drives their vehicles.”

Jenna nodded. “Good work.” She lifted her chin and sighed. “So that really leaves the Hughes’ vehicle.” She slapped the table. “You’d better get along home but I’ll be in town for a while tonight so you don’t have to be back until six-thirty. I’ll be at The Cattleman’s Hotel while Kane talks to a suspect with Carter.”

“Thanks.” Rowley smiled. “I’ll have time to drop Sandy at the old house before I come back.”