Telling Tales

Kellan gave her a minute, watched as her hands closed into tight fists and she took a deep breath. Once she had settled, he asked, “You mean an authority figure? Both Peggy and Tricia were his bosses.” Kellan scratched his head. He had known Bryce Bishop, distantly. And the guy was definitely down on the female race, a chauvinistic pig if ever he’d met one.

“Maybe,” Kim said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “He likes-I mean, he liked-to push around the women he knew he could push around. But he never seemed to try it with those he couldn’t intimidate.”

“Was he seeing anybody that you know of?”

Kim chuckled. “Sheriff Grant, you seem to think he actually thought me worthy of confiding that sort of thing,” she said, forcing a tremulous smile. “I wasn’t anything to him. I know how he acted around women just because I saw him at work all the time. But he wouldn’t talk to me about his life. Wouldn’t talk to me about anything.”

Sighing, Kellan pressed his fingers to his brow. This wasn’t adding up. Darci’s break-in, this latest murder… Even though he gave me reason to kill you last night…

Through his lashes, he studied Kim’s face. “Where were you, Kim, on Friday night?” he asked softly.

She blinked. “Friday night?” Shrugging, she said quietly, “Same place I usually am on Friday nights-home alone.” He heard the bitter acceptance in her voice and stifled a wave of sympathy for the girl.

Running his tongue across the inside of his teeth, he ran the idea through his head. “What are your thoughts on Darci Law?”

Now she cocked her head, staring at him with a line of puzzlement between her brows. “Darci? We’re not exactly friends…” her voice trailed away and she shrugged. “She doesn’t much care for the people I work for. And Darci has a funny set of rules. She won’t talk to people she doesn’t trust. And since I work for people she doesn’t trust, well, that means she can’t trust me.”

“Rather astute observation,” he drawled.

Kim flushed red, her eyes turning sad. “Not an observation,” she mumbled. Licking her lips, she looked down at the table, scratching at the surface with a nonexistent nail. “Darci told me that. Every once in a while, when I worked at Becka’s place, we’d go out for lunch. I tried to get her to go grab a bite with me, once, after I started working for Peggy and Tricia. That’s when she told me that.”

“How did you feel about that?” he asked. Was there something here?

“Kind of down,” she admitted. “Darci is…well, she’s Darci.” She flashed Kellan a smile, her nose wrinkling. “You know her. She’s…”

“She’s Darci,” Kellan finished, chuckling, nodding. “Yeah, I know her. She’s Darci, all right.”

Kim nodded, rubbing at a small nick in the table. “I was pretty hurt at first. But I wasn’t really surprised. Darci’s got a way of looking at things-black and white.” She swallowed, and when she spoke, her voice was softer, a near whisper. “Beth and Carrie did some kind of underhanded things to Becka.”

“If it was underhanded, why did you go with them?”

“Carrie. She…she went. Carrie is how I got my job with Becka in the first place. When she told me, I guess I felt I had to,” Kim whispered.

“Did you have any reason to be mad at Carrie? Or Beth?”

Kim sighed. “I don’t know. Carrie wasn’t the nicest of people, I know that. But she got me my job, helped me get the apartment after I got divorced,” she said, frowning. “But she could be kind of mean.”

Hell…Kim wasn’t stupid, Kellan thought, leaning back and sighing. If she had killed any of these people, she would be protecting herself. Not leaving herself wide open like this.

“I’d like to do a formal interview, Kim. Just procedure,” he said, studying what few notes he had made in his notepad. “Is that okay with you?”

She shrugged. “Whatever you think is best, Sheriff,” she said quietly.

***

Damn.

Helluva lot of blood, Kellan thought, surveying the blood pattern. It had sprayed from Bryce’s neck in a geyser before the man had reached up, trying to staunch the blood flow. No defensive wounds…didn’t see it coming?

He’d died pretty quickly.

An empty whiskey bottle lay on the floor, splattered with dried blood. How much had he drunk before she cut him?

He paced into the bedroom, and studied the rumpled blankets. The air was stale. Couldn’t recognize any particular scent beyond that of death. Using his pen, he tried to edge back the sheets a little. Stains…maybe recent. The coroner would be able to tell him if Bryce had had sexual intercourse before he died.

Was this the he who had been referred to in the note?

Maybe.

Bryce had liked to watch Darci. Kellan knew that because he liked to watch Darci and tended to notice when other guys were doing the same. But Darci wouldn’t go for Bryce, Kellan suspected. Not her type. She’d cut him to shreds with her tongue, especially knowing Bryce’s penchant for chauvinistic remarks.

This might be the he , he thought, nodding slowly. Made sense. Darci was something Bryce had wanted. Would make a woman jealous. But why hadn’t the woman killed Darci?

And if it was the same killer…why kill Beth? Carrie?

Those were people who had caused Darci problems. Killing them, then Bryce, just didn’t make any sense. Bryce hadn’t really caused Darci problems. He wasn’t worth her time, Kellan suspected.

So why had he been worth the killer’s?

“This doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered, shaking his head.

The formal interview with Kim hadn’t yielded anything.

Kim was a lonely, fairly simple woman without a lot of friends. No, she didn’t know if Bryce was seriously seeing anybody. Yes, she knew a lot of people who could be mad at Bryce, but Bryce had been pretty much a bastard. He’d pissed off almost everybody he met at some point in time. Yes, she was at home Friday night, all night, alone. No, she didn’t have a boyfriend.

Kim didn’t have the spine to do any of this. Wouldn’t have the spine to sneak into Darci’s home, try to scare her…hell, Kellan doubted she had the brain.

Or the fire. Although the murders had been quick, there was something…heated about them. Kellan couldn’t get past the thought that whoever had done this had some deep hatred inside of her.

Kim didn’t seem to have that kind of passion.

Somebody with heat inside them…he ticked through the people in his head whom he knew were acquainted with all the victims. Well, Darci had heat, but he knew she hadn’t done it.

The murders had left her sick.

Plus, he also believed what she had said… I’m too lazy…hatred requires energy.

Yes, it did. A lot of energy.

Tricia? Hell, that woman was an icicle. She didn’t have heat inside of her. Hatred was heat.

Maybe Peggy…but he dismissed that idea before it even formed. She was a listless, lifeless being, the only heat he’d ever seen from her was in the paintings and sketches she sold.

Della.

He couldn’t think of a reason for her to kill Bryce, but maybe if he looked… There was certainly reason for Della to be angry with Carrie, if Della had finally figured out how badly Carrie was using her, how Carrie had lied. Somebody unbalanced would have a hard time dealing with anger in a logical manner.

Was Della the type to fly over the edge with her rage?

Possibly. She had certainly lit into Darci, from what he had heard, when she thought Darci was screwing Max. And he’d seen signs of her temper, knew she could sometimes react…irrationally.

Maybe it was time to talk to Della a little bit.