Ski said, 'I'm having a man stay out there to guard that room. I don't trust the owner not to ignore the tape and go inside. She's got a rap sheet as long as my arm. I've arrested her twice for drug trafficking. She's partial to prescription drugs.'
The ranger chuckled. 'Yeah, she had some choice words about me messing up her swell place here.'
'Let me know what you get.'
'Sure will, Ski.'
When he was finally able to return to the group in the interrogation room, their mood was somber. The coffee cups were empty. Caroline and Dodge glumly acknowledged him. Berry was sitting at the table, staring at the stir stick she was mechanically turning end over end. Ski pulled out a chair and sat down across from her.
'That boy died because of me,' she said quietly.
'He died because Oren Starks shot him in the heart.'
She let go of the stir stick, propped her elbows on the edge of the table, and buried her face in her hands. 'I'll never forget the sound of his parents' weeping. And it's my fault, my fault.'
'How is it your fault?'
She said nothing.
Caroline was staring at her, offering silent compassion and support.
Finally Dodge cleared his throat of a terrible rattle and said, 'She, uh, she thinks it's her fault because--'
'I called him.'
Ski turned toward her. 'Excuse me?'
She took a shuddering breath and squared her shoulders. 'I called Oren.'
CHAPTER 13
SKI STARED AT HER FOR SEVERAL MOMENTS, THEN LOOKED AT Caroline, who purposefully avoided looking back. He settled on Dodge, who mumbled unintelligibly and patted his pocket in search of a cigarette.
Ski asked him, 'What's she talking about, she called Starks?'
'They told me about it while you were...' He gestured to indicate Ski's business outside the small room, then, using his former cop's verbal shorthand, explained the nature of the telephone conversation as Caroline and Berry had described it to him.
Ski assimilated it, searched for the logic behind it, and came up dry. He wanted to ask Berry what the hell she'd been thinking but figured he should contain his incredulity and soften the language a bit.
'This call. Was it to his house or a cell phone?'
'House phone,' she replied. 'Why?'
'We hoped we might locate him using GPS to track his cell phone signal. But the phone has to be on. Each time we've called his number, we get a recording saying it isn't in use.'
'He would know better than to leave his cell phone on.'
'Right.' He paused for a moment, then asked the question he really wanted the answer to. 'Why did you feel an apology was necessary?'
'Dodge just told you.'
'I want to hear it from you.'
'I'd said horrible things to him. I'd told him he was pathetic. I'd called him a creep.'
'He is a creep,' Ski said.
'I know, but maybe if I hadn't been so cruel to him that day, he wouldn't--'
'You are not responsible for his actions.'
She didn't refute him, but nor was she convinced. 'I wanted to make amends. I was trying to be nice.'
Again Ski looked toward Caroline to gauge her reaction, but she averted her eyes. Dodge's opinion, however, was plain. He raised his shoulders and gave Ski a look that said,
When Ski came back to Berry, she was staring vacantly at a point in the center of his chest. 'I never would have guessed that an apology could have such awful consequences.' Her gaze moved up and connected with his.
The guilt and misery he read in her eyes twisted something deep inside him. He felt her pain, wished he could alleviate it, wished he didn't know what it felt like.
'If Oren was out for revenge,' she continued, 'why didn't he shoot me? Why not me instead of Ben? Why kill that innocent boy?'
She looked so haunted, Ski didn't have the heart to say what he was thinking: That she should have thought twice about being nice to a man who'd stalked her relentlessly. He imagined she now realized that better than anyone in the room. It would be needlessly cruel to underscore it.
Changing the subject, he asked, 'Did you pick up on anything Miss Arnold told us?'
'Nothing that would help. I agree that it sounds as though Oren was sleeping, probably with the pistol in his hand. They startled him awake. He fired the gun reflexively.'
'His shot has improved a hell of a lot since he plugged Lofland,' Dodge remarked.
'Why couldn't he have missed that boy?' Berry asked miserably, rhetorically.
Everyone would be asking that for a long time, and there would never be a satisfactory answer.
After a thoughtful silence, Ski continued. 'Tire tracks matching those we found near the lake house were discovered behind the motel. He'd parked in a dense grove. The car wasn't visible from the highway or from the road behind the motel.'
'After this, he'll ditch the car as soon as he can,' Dodge said.
Ski nodded in agreement. 'In the meantime, every peace officer in the state is on the lookout for a Toyota of that make and model. But still no definite color, no tag number. You heard me tell Lisa Arnold that we found a pair of shoes in the room. Apparently Starks left them when he fled. We've got shoe prints going toward the place, footprints going out.
'He used a towel, bar of soap, so we can get DNA and match it if he's ever caught. We can put him in that room, which is good if it comes to trial. But we've got to catch him first, and he's leaving us few clues. He didn't take anything into the room with him.'
'He took the pistol,' Dodge said.
'He took the pistol,' Ski repeated grimly. 'But no food wrappers, no empty drink cans, no extra clothing. Nothing was left in the trash cans. No sales receipts. No maps or brochures. Nothing that would point us in a direction.'
He hesitated, then added, 'The bullet's still in the body. Once it's removed, we'll match it to those we retrieved from the lake house and Ben Lofland. We must assume he still has the weapon.'
No one spoke for a time.
Then Caroline said, 'I thought all the motels and lodges had been canvassed. Was that one overlooked?'
