Page 6

Present day

Bend FBI office

Noelle checked the time. An hour had passed since she’d sat down with the two Sacramento agents.

The half inch of latte left in her cup was cold, and her annoyance at being tricked into the interview had risen and fallen several times.

She focused on reading the agents. Keaton was the older and more senior agent.

He occasionally spoke over her replies but was mostly polite.

He frequently shifted in his chair, and his gaze was mostly focused on his laptop when he spoke.

She wondered what was on the screen.

Agent Rhodes let Keaton do most of the talking, and his gaze spent more time locked on her than on his keyboard.

He listened intently. It seemed as if he knew what she was going to say before she said it.

Which was possible. She’d been interviewed numerous times in the past about Derrick’s murder, and her answers were always the same.

She wondered if Rhodes had done the bulk of the prep work for this interview.

“Have you spoken with Alice Patmore?” Noelle abruptly asked during a pause in Keaton’s questions. She knew the FBI special agent, who’d originally investigated Derrick’s murder, had retired a number of years ago.

Keaton looked up from his computer. “Yes.” His gaze went back to his screen.

Okay.

Not a topic for discussion.

She made eye contact with Rhodes. His shoulder lifted three millimeters in a subtle shrug.

No help there.

“Detective Marshall, I see some of your family has moved to the Bend area over the years,” said Keaton.

“Yes.”

There was a pause as Keaton waited for her to expand. She didn’t. If he could give one-word answers, so could she. She instantly regretted her pettiness.

“My youngest sister moved at the same time I did seven years ago,” Noelle added. “My other sister and her husband moved here a few months after we did.”

“And your grandfather?” asked Keaton.

She felt Rhodes’s gaze sharpen on her.

Noelle swallowed hard. “He passed a year before I moved.” She was proud her voice didn’t crack. The loss of her grandfather was part of what had driven her out of the Sacramento area. It was too painful to drive past places he’d taken her and her sisters over the years.

I still miss him.