“Where are you going to take me?” she asked, not moving. In her mind, she had sudden visions of being kidnapped and Camelia being left utterly alone and clueless in the world. A girl just didn't get into a virtual stranger's car out in the middle of nowhere without a darn good reason.
He cocked his head to the side. “You want answers, right? Well, I’m not answering anything here. It isn’t safe.”
“Where are you going to take me?” she repeated, a little steel in her voice now, although it was mostly to cover the fact that he was right. She knew the answers she sought would likely not be bandied about in an open setting like this.
“I see you got more than just your father’s eyes,” he said, another sad smile tilting his lips, but the smile held a bit of respect too. “You have to decide whether to trust me or not. I’ll leave here in one minute, with or without you.”
Rosa felt her spine stiffen automatically at the challenge, then sighed inwardly. Lucia had left her a trail of clues to find this man. What the town’s personal millionaire could possibly have to do with anything related to the Kay family was beyond her, but she also knew that her sister was smart.
She got in the car, crouching on the floor, and he snapped the door shut behind her.
“Remember to stay down there. I’m supposed to remain aloof from you common folk,” he said, laughter in his tone.
Rosa gritted her teeth and nodded as he gunned the engine.
****
“Dr. Fell,” Agent Reis said, entering a small room crammed with tables, all of which bore several casts of footprints. “Your message sounded urgent,” he pressed when the other man continued to ignore him.
“Here,” Dr. Fell said, finally looking up from the laptop he’d propped on the window ledge. “I’ve narrowed it down to five footprints. They all seem relatively recent and that one,” he pointed to the only cast that was bagged. “Has blood on it.”
“Whose?” Reis asked, unable to keep the urgency from his voice. “Still running it against the town’s samples you ordered taken.”
“Then what am I working with?”
“The cast with the blood is from a shoe that had a metal bull hammered into the sole.”
Agent Reis grinned. “I’m guessing you know who that might belong to?”
Mark Fell nodded. “Sure do. There’s only one person in town with shoes like that. Frank Connor.”
7
“Morning, Frank,” called Sheriff Hardy, taking off his hat as he entered the main building of Turquoise Valley Golf Course behind Agents Reis and Boone.
Reis watched Frank Connor eye him and Boone, then return the Sheriff’s greeting somewhat reluctantly. “Can I help you?”
“We just want a word,” Agent Reis said, cutting neatly across the Sheriff, who gave him a sour look. “If you can take us to somewhere we won’t be interrupted.”
Frank sighed, glancing at the computer screen as if he could still see the message from his boss, telling him to co-operate fully with the police and FBI.
“Fine, but I gotta find someone to cover for me first.”
Agent Reis frowned as the man stomped off through a ‘staff only’ door.
“He won’t run,” Sheriff Hardy assured them and plopped himself down on one of the chairs in the foyer.
They waited patiently for a few minutes, and then Frank called to them as a young woman took his place at the desk. “Come on then, through here.”
Frank lead them to what appeared to be a staff break room.
They sat at the only table, and Reis took out his recorder.
“None of that now. Just have your word so I can get back to work.”
Reis raised his eyebrows and exchanged a glance with Boone, who had her note pad and pen out, before looking back at Frank.
“You didn’t mind the recorder last time. Has something changed?”
Frank gave him an ugly smile. “Last time, I had nothing much to do. Today I am busy. Besides, you obviously didn’t take my words seriously, seeing as you let Lucia Kay escape.”
“Come now, Frank,” Sheriff Hardy interjected, forcing a laugh. “Lucia Kay is just off dealing with business related to that old bookstore of theirs.”
Frank huffed. “Sure she is.”
Reis fought down the urge to badger Frank about what his specific problem with the Kays was, if it was all really down to some over-zealous sense of national pride or if it was more than that. Instead, he asked the question he had come here for.
“What exactly is your role here, at Turquoise Valley?”
Frank gave him a long look, then shrugged. “I mostly do the accounting, but I’ll staff the desk, make bookings and deal with walk-ins too.”
Reis nodded, feeling his anticipation rise. “So you don’t go out onto the grounds?”
“Not normally. Sometimes someone will kick up a fuss over whatever, and I’ll go out and deal with it if there’s no one else.”
“Can you explain then what you were doing on the knoll where the body of Carlos Monterra was found?”
Frank shifted back in his seat and propped one foot upon his knee, making the metal bull on the sole clearly visible. “Who said I was there?”
“Your shoes,” said Reis, his caramel eyes growing hard.
Frank returned his foot to the ground, then scowled, but said nothing.
“Why were you there, Mr. Connor?”
Frank rolled his eyes to the ceiling and let out a long sigh. “You guys are really desperate, huh?”
“Just answer the question, Frank,” said the Sheriff.
“I had to do a check of the grounds after the body was found. Make sure everyone had cleared off.”
“I assume,” said Reis, looking sideways at Sheriff Hardy, “that you had called it in first?”
“Yes.”
“And you were presumably told not to go near
