Page 97 of Devoted in Death

“License plates?”

“Yes’m, Oklahoma plates as I recall. Nothing inside it. No registration, like I said, nothing in the cab or the bed, in the glove compartment or nothing. Some trash here and there, that’s all.”

“Where is it?”

“Where is it?”

“Where’s the truck?”

“Well, after we heard about the dead man, we stripped her down, sold off the parts, and took the rest in by the piece to the recycle place. Pa said we didn’t want any part of that truck, and not to say boo to a goose about it. We didn’t know nothing about any of these murdered people till those New York City detectives come around, and Pa said we couldn’t believe them because people were always looking for trouble and telling lies in New York City.”

He looked over at Banner. “You hear that?”

“Well, I can say I’ve been here for a day or so now, and haven’t found that to be true. And the people we’re after, Jimbo, they’re not from New York City. They’re from round about where we’re from.”

“I don’t know how that can be. I’ve never known anybody could do something like this. Honest, ma’am, we never hurt anybody. We didn’t know about all this. And I couldn’t shut my eyes most all night thinking about it. Pa was just looking out for me and Ma, that’s all. You gotta look after your own.”

The dead were hers, Eve thought. And she’d look after them.

“We may need to talk to you again,” Eve began.

“Can I talk to my ma first? She says you gotta tell the truth. She’s going to be a little upset with my pa about this. She’s already pretty upset he hit that detective like he did. But, well, that detective, he did get Pa riled up.”

“I bet.” Eve rose. “I’ll bring Detective Carmichael in. She’ll escort you back. I’ll be speaking to the sheriff.”

“So they don’t put Pa in jail for hitting the detective?”

“For that, and about what we just talked about.” Again, she used Carmichael’s ’link to bring her in. “We have Mr. Dorran’s statement. I’ll copy the record to the sheriff, and to you and Detective Santiago. I’d request that Santiago agree to drop the charges against Jimbo’s father. I would also go on record as requesting no charges be filed against either Mr. Dorran considering Mr. James Dorran’s cooperation in this matter, and the information we hope will lead to the identification and apprehension of the unsubs.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Wrap it up, Carmichael. Warrant should be through or coming for searching the towing place, any and all vehicles on it. Get it done.”

“You bet. Let’s go, Jimbo.”

Carmichael took Jimbo’s arm, sent Eve a quick grin. And winked out.

“Copy record, my units,” Eve ordered. “And program end. Let’s move, Banner.”

“We can trace that truck.”

“We will trace that truck. Fucking morons stripped it down and crushed it out. We might’ve had prints, DNA, something.” She took a breath as they rode back to her office. “But we’ll trace it, get a name. Even if they stole it, we’re a step closer.”

Eve swung by the computer lab on the way, dumped the data on Feeney for a search while Banner goggled a little.

“Cutting it back to Oklahoma registration,” Feeney said and, as Roarke did, worked the screen and keyboard manually. “Search in for American Bobcat, 2052, quarter-ton pickup.”

“Gray. A gray truck.”

“Paint’s easy to change, so we’ll start without it.” He grunted as the computer spit out the results. “Got over six hundred in the first sweep.”

“If they stole it, there’d be—”

“I know how to run a search, kid.” He continued to play the comp. “Got three stolen in our time frame, two recovered, one wrecked. Running a separate including the color.”

“Got it.” Roarke swiveled around from his station. “The decal, back window, van in the loading dock. OBX.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Eve demanded.