Ski shook his head. 'Checked but eliminated. Starks hadn't registered. He busted the bathroom window at the back of the building and crawled inside.'
'How long had he been there?' Berry asked.
'No way of knowing,' he said. 'The room was cleaned--or so the owner says-- three days ago. Hasn't been rented out since. Starks could've gone there straight from the bait shop Friday night and been there all day yesterday. Maybe he didn't get there till after dark last night. Anybody's guess. He needed shelter, a place to rest. He's got a bum leg.'
Ski explained that the footprints bore that out. 'One's deeper than the other. He's favoring his right leg. He needed a place to crash and took his chances on the room remaining vacant at least for last night.'
'But it didn't.' Berry's voice was almost inaudible. She hugged her elbows, and Ski noted goose bumps on her arms. She murmured, 'I can't bear to think of what that boy's parents are going through.'
'They're going through bloody hell, and you're right, Berry, it doesn't bear thinking about.' Caroline stood up and retrieved her handbag. 'What happened to their son could still happen to you. Oren Starks is aware that, if he's caught, he can be tried and convicted of killing Davis Coldare based on that girl's eyewitness testimony. He'll lay the blame for that mishap on you, and that makes him an even greater threat than he was before.'
Dodge also came to his feet. 'I agree.'
'Then we're all on the same page,' Ski said. 'I'm going to double the number of men watching the lake house.'
Dodge said, 'I'm moving out there.'
Caroline looked at him sharply. To her he said, 'I'll stay in the room where Lofland was shot. Nobody else wants to sleep in it.' He turned back to Ski. 'Better swear me in as one of your reserve deputies.'
'There's required training.'
'Considered me trained.'
'Can't do it, Dodge. I'm trusting you to--'
'Don't trust me to do a damn thing except kill that fucker if he shows up. He's upped his ante tonight. If I see him, his ass is fried.'
Officially Ski wouldn't sanction vigilante law. But he'd been the one who'd had to break the news to the Coldares that their son was dead. He'd personally escorted them to the morgue to ID their boy's body. Friday night's crime at the lake house had been a grudge shooting, an act of jealousy, a personal vendetta that he had originally thought petty.
But now Oren Starks had killed an innocent kid in cold blood. Starks would receive his rights as guaranteed by law, but Ski would extend the man no mercy. Secretly he hoped, as Dodge did, that he was presented with an opportunity to take the killer out.
As Dodge and Caroline prepared to leave, she reminded him that his car was at the lake house. 'You'll have to ride back with Berry and me. We'll stop at the Cypress Lodge on the way to pick up your things.'
Ski said, 'You two take care of that. I'll drive Berry home.'
Once they were in his SUV and under way, Ski said, 'I wanted to talk to you about Sally Buckland.'
Berry sat stiffly in the passenger seat, staring forward, wondering if he realized that he had started using her first name. Another formality had also been dropped. It seemed to have been tacitly agreed that Harris Carlisle was no longer necessary. As they left the courthouse and went their separate ways, Dodge hadn't cautioned Berry against talking to Ski alone. With the fatal shooting of Davis Coldare, it was clear who the culprit was.
When she didn't respond to Ski's statement, he asked if the AC was all right.
'It's fine. What about Sally?'
'What's she like? As a person.'
'Attractive, but in a modest, bookish sort of way. The librarian with distinct possibilities.'
'I'm getting a mental image. What are her traits?'
'Character traits?'
Hoping to relieve her dull headache, she pulled the elastic band from her ponytail and shook out her hair. In addition to having the headache, she was exhausted. As a result of not sleeping long enough after taking the medication, she felt hungover and lethargic. Her eyes stung from an inadequate amount of sleep and the recent threat of tears. The sun was coming up, but it didn't lift her spirits. Rather, sunrise seemed like a mockery.
Ski was saying, 'Is Ms. Buckland outgoing and talkative? Shy? What?'
'More toward an introvert, but not especially shy. She's conscientious. Anxious to please. That's why it was such a conflict for her to disappoint Oren.'
'Is she a gossip?'
'I never knew her to be.'
'A liar?'
'Again.'
'Jealous? Malicious?'
'Not in my experience.'
'Then why would she insist to me that you were lying about Oren Starks? There's no question now that everything you've said about him is true. In fact, you underestimated him.'
'Unfortunately,' she whispered.
'Don't beat yourself up.'
'I can't help it. I shouldn't have called him.'
He let that go for the moment, and she was glad. He had every right to rub in what an ill-advised move that had been.
Returning to the subject, he said, 'If Sally Buckland's experience with Starks was similar to yours, why would she tell me the direct opposite? And this is what really puzzles me. She said you were lying before I'd even spoken the word
'I'm sorry,' Berry said, meaning it. 'I can't fathom why Sally would lie, because it does seem entirely out of character. Perhaps to avoid involvement? I don't know. What I
'Which brings me back to why she would lie about it.' Looking frustrated, he ran his hand through his hair. 'The whole conversation with her was...'
'What?'
'Off. But don't ask me how, because I don't know. It just was. I asked a Harris County deputy sheriff to go by her place, ask her some questions and get a read on her, but she wasn't at home. I've tried calling her again several times. No answer. Do you know where she's working now?'
'Last I heard she was freelancing from her house.'
'Well, I want to talk to her again, first chance I get.'
'You've been busy.'
'I've been chasing my tail with nothing to show for it but a dead kid who was the light of his parents' life.'
Urging him to let go of his guilt was pointless. She felt the same way. 'As Dodge said, Oren upped his ante tonight. He has to be feeling the additional pressure.'
'I hope. Stressed-out crooks get careless, make mistakes. My guess, he'll abandon that car soon if he hasn't already. Unless he's got a backup, he'll have to steal another. I'll be watching for reports of stolen vehicles. Also public transportation. Or,' he said with a grim smile, 'we might get lucky, and that
