Jeffrey said, 'Come in.'
Jake Valentine smiled as he cracked open the door. 'Sorry to disturb y'all.' He had changed from his skimpy robe into his sheriff's uniform, a decided improvement, though he still looked as if he was wearing his daddy's clothes. ' Myra 's already gone off to school, but she left you some bacon and eggs on the stove if you want.' His mouth went up in a quick smile, as if the thought of his wife cooking breakfast made him happy.
'Thank you,' Sara told him. 'That was very nice of her.'
Valentine took off his hat and addressed Sara. 'Anyway, ma'am, I was kind of hoping, you'd oblige us again today with the autopsy on Boyd. That's the man from last night. Boyd Gibson. I can get you cash if-'
That's really unnecessary,' she cut him off. 'I'm glad to help out.'
'That's great.' Valentine twirled his hat between his hands. 'I'll head over to Grover's now, pick him up and tote him to the morgue so he can make the formal ID.'
Sara was never good at hiding her surprise. 'You haven't told him about his son yet?'
Valentine stopped playing with his hat. 'Grover does the second shift at the tire factory,' he told her, as if that was an excuse. I figured I'd let him finish his work, get some sleep, before I told him about Boyd.'
Sara nodded, but her disapproval was evident. Especially in a small town, where rumors pretty much became gospel, a cop had to get to the family first to make sure they heard the truth rather than rampant speculation. It was bad enough when you had to tell a parent that their child was dead, but when you knew the victim, had actually spent time with the family, it made everything harder.
Sara volunteered, 'Maybe you could take Jeffrey with you to tell the father. I'm sure Mr. Gibson will have some questions about how his son died, and Jeffrey was one of the last people to see him alive.'
Valentine's mouth twisted to the side as he thought about her suggestion, more than likely trying to come up with a good reason to say no. 'Uh, you don't need him to help you in the morgue today?'
Sara feigned surprise at the question. She shook her head, giving an innocent-sounding, 'Not really.'
Jeffrey offered, 'You could interview me on the way there.'
'Interview you for what?'
'About last night,' Jeffrey clarified. 'I'm assuming you'll need a statement from me about what happened. The bar burning down. The dead man being thrown through our window.'
'Yeah,' Valentine agreed. 'Okay.' He glanced at his watch. 'We'd better get, then.'
'Just give me ten minutes to take a quick shower,' Jeffrey said, grabbing his clothes off the bed. 'I'll be right with you.'
Jeffrey didn't know whether it was just for his benefit, but Jake Valentine was a painfully careful driver. The man never met an intersection he didn't slow down for and he actually stopped at a green light on the outskirts of town, telling Jeffrey, 'It turns red real fast.' He liked to talk, and Jeffrey kept his own counsel, nodding to keep him going as they made the trip to tell Grover Gibson his son had been stabbed to death.
After half an hour of nonstop babbling, Valentine seemed to exhaust himself of talk of the weather and local anecdotes involving high school seniors pulling pranks during homecoming week. Not once had he brought up the reason for their trip, or speculated on who might have killed Boyd Gibson. Jeffrey knew that even Jake Valentine would've dusted the knife sticking out of Boyd's back for prints. He'd have to scan in anything he found and send it to the state lab for cross-referencing. Unless he put a rush on it, and that was seriously doubtful, he'd have something back in a few days.
Jeffrey asked, 'You ever been in a situation like this before?'
'What's that?'
'Known a victim,' Jeffrey answered. 'This Boyd Gibson. You went to high school with him, you said.'
'We ran in different crowds.'
'You were with the jocks and he was with the stoners?'
'Oh, me.' Valentine laughed. 'My daddy's biggest disappointment was me not being able to handle a basketball.' He glanced at Jeffrey. 'Dad was all-state his last year at UGA. Scored thirty-seven points in the last half pretty much on his own. Me, I'm just good for changing lightbulbs and getting down boxes from the top shelf.'
'What made you pick up the badge?'
'Oh.' He waved his hand, dismissing the question. 'Just thought it'd be something to do.'
'Seems like a pretty dangerous job to take up on a whim, considering the last guy who had it was chased out of town.'
'He landed on his feet.'
'Sounds to me like he got when the gettin' was good.'
Valentine gave Jeffrey a sharp look. 'You telling me I should do the same?'
'I'm telling you this is a dangerous job for somebody who doesn't have his heart in it.'
Valentine slowed his car for a turn onto a one-lane dirt road. 'I might just surprise you, Chief.'
'You know what surprises me?' Jeffrey asked, feeling the temperature drop in the car as they got out of the sun and drove down the tree-lined path. 'It surprises me that you don't seem to have any questions.'
'What kind of questions should I have?'
'Start with why my detective gave you the slip,' Jeffrey began. 'Who made Hank Norton disappear? Who got his bar closed down? Who's been setting fires? Who killed your buddy from high school?'
Valentine slowed the car to a stop. He put the car in park and turned toward Jeffrey. Two things occurred to Jeffrey. One was that they were in the middle of nowhere and the other was that Jake Valentine was the only one of them who was armed.
He felt a bead of sweat roll down his back.
Valentine rested his hand on the bottom curve of the steering wheel, his fingers inches from the gun on his belt. He said, 'You look nervous, Chief.'
'I want to know why you stopped.'
'To answer your questions,' he said. 'Come on, let's go for a walk.' He opened the door and got out. Jeffrey sat there, his heart beating hard enough to feel. The lane they were parked on was little more than packed dirt, dense forest on either side. No one knew they were out here but Sara, and there were a lot of excuses she could be told as to why Jeffrey never came back.
Valentine stood in the road a few feet in front of the car. He waved for Jeffrey to get out. 'Come on, Chief.'
Jeffrey opened the door. He'd left his gun in the back of Sara's car, locked in the trunk with their suitcase. He'd thought they were coming here to tell a man that his son was dead, not chase bad guys.
Valentine said, 'It's getting cool out.'
'Yeah,' Jeffrey agreed. He felt the wind stir up as he got out of the car. He'd put on a light jacket over a long-sleeved T-shirt this morning but he didn't zip the jacket closed. He wanted
