Page 23 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)
Thomas drove to Fairmont at illegal speeds, sirens screeching.
But once he reached the city limits, he slowed and turned off the sirens.
He didn’t want to scare off anyone who might work at the convenience store, and he had a few questions for Rosalie he didn’t want to have to scream over the sirens to ask.
“I don’t need the illegal details, but how did you manage to track down an alias? We’ve been trying to get information out of his friends and family and workplace since we got those photos.”
“And what did every single person you guys tried to talk to have in common? They’re all men .
Dad, brothers, SWAT team. Dude doesn’t have one woman in his inner circle, and I figured there’s a damn good reason for it.
So I searched the precinct’s employee list for a woman.
I called an administrative assistant, a road officer and a woman in their crime scene squad—the only three women in their entire precinct, which is huge by the way. Red-flag city.”
It was ingenious. The men had closed ranks around one of their own, but when there was one female victim, why wouldn’t there be others?
“The road officer was no help. Guess she drank the Kool-Aid,” Rosalie continued as he pulled into the convenience store parking lot. “And the crime scene lady didn’t get back to me, but the administrative assistant had a lot to say.”
“When we find Vi, we’ll send her flowers.”
“Damn right,” Rosalie said firmly, probably needing to hear that when as much as Thomas needed to say it.
“The big breakthrough was she mentioned that one time Eric had submitted receipts for reimbursement after some SWAT trip, and she’d had to give one of them back and refuse repayment because the name on the receipt hadn’t been his.
He’d tried to claim it was an undercover name, but since the department hadn’t approved an undercover name credit card, they refused to pay him back.
He raised a big stink about it. Big enough that she remembered the other name. ”
Thomas pulled into a parking spot next to the store.
“I spent all night…very legally researching the alias.” She flashed Thomas a smile that was half-hearted in its rebelliousness.
“I got a credit card and magically got into his recent purchase history. I saw it was used here, and then… very much obtained security footage through the letter of the law, and here we are.”
“Here we are. Thank God we’ve got someone who’s not a cop on our side.” He pushed the door open, but his phone trilling stopped him. It was a call from Copeland.
“What’s the update?” Thomas answered by way of greeting.
“The ping of the postal inspector’s phone is a dead end. She turned it off before she left Bent city limits. They’ll keep trying. If she turns it back on, we’ll have her.”
He wasn’t surprised, but he was disappointed. It was a big if. Clearly, she didn’t want to be found.
“We did get some information this morning from poking around Fairmont. Dianne Kay had a meeting with a Realtor Monday. Laurel’s on her way over to meet with the woman and talk to her and see what she can find out.”
“A Realtor?” Was the postal inspector just…planning on moving here? Was this a dead end, a great happenstance coincidence?
“I’m in Fairmont. Rosalie got me a lead I want to follow up on.
” He relayed everything Rosalie had told him in the office.
“We’re going to interview the convenience store employees.
I need you to go to the postal inspector’s hotel.
See if Eric Carter was staying here. I’ll forward you the security cam still and his alias. ”
“That’s promising. I’ll show it around. If we can prove that Eric Carter and the postal inspector are working together, we should be able to get a search warrant to ping his phone.”
He’d probably have it turned off like the inspector, but it was something. A chance. Thomas was going to believe in every chance he could.
“Keep me posted,” he said to Copeland, then hung up. Rosalie had gone ahead of him into the store when he’d have preferred it if she would have waited. Frowning, he moved for the door, but Rosalie was jogging out.
“The guy who was here apparently just got off shift. Parked around back.” She was already jogging around the side of the building and Thomas followed.
There indeed was a guy getting into his car. “Al Jones,” Rosalie shouted.
The man stopped, half in the car and half out. He looked at them both with lots of suspicion, but slowly got back out of the car. “Who’s asking?”
“Thomas Hart. Bent County Sheriff’s Department. I have a few questions I need to ask you.”
Al studied him. “You aren’t dressed like a cop.”
Thomas pulled his badge out of his pocket. “I’m a detective. We have information that a man going by the name Jim Errin bought some stuff from the store Friday night.”
He shrugged. “Lots of people do.”
Rosalie held out the picture she had. “This guy.”
To his credit, Al studied the picture with a furrowed brow. “Yeah, I remember him.” He handed the picture back and said nothing else.
Thomas only resisted growling because Rosalie did it for him.
“Can you tell us what you remember? When he came in? What he did?” Thomas asked.
Al sighed. “Yeah, I guess. It was kinda early in the night. I start at nine and it was before ten for sure. He bought gas. Some food and a twelve-pack. I only remember because he complained about the price of beer. Told him if he didn’t like it, go to a grocery store.
Thought I was going to have to call the cops the way he looked at me. But then he just left.”
It wasn’t much, but it was something. “He have a woman with him? In the store or maybe waiting in the car?”
Al shook his head. “He was alone, but he bought enough snacks for two people or a long time.”
“Anything else?” Rosalie demanded.
“He was definitely carrying, but that’s about it. Made his little complaint, then left.”
Carrying. Great.
“Which way did he go?”
“Hell if I know, lady.”
Since Rosalie looked like she was about to start punching, Thomas intervened.
“Thanks for your cooperation.” Thomas took a card out of his pocket. “You think of anything else, even if it seems small, give me a call.”
Al took the card, eyed it. Then pocketed it. “Sure.”
Thomas doubted anything would come of it, but every little lead got them something else. Maybe he couldn’t prove Eric was with Dianne from this, but it was a step.
They walked back to his car, and he considered driving over to the hotel and see where Copeland was in interviewing people. He’d have to talk to the front desk and the housekeeping crew. Other residents. It was a big job, and he could help make it go faster.
But before he could even pull out of the parking lot, his phone rang again. The readout was Jack Hudson, the sheriff of Sunrise. His family also ran a cold case investigation business.
For a moment, Thomas was frozen with the gripping, terrible fear that if they didn’t find something soon, Vi could become a cold case herself.
“Well, are you going to answer it?” Rosalie demanded.
Thomas managed to snap himself out of it, cleared his throat. “Hart,” he answered, telling himself it would be good news. Good news only. Great news.
“Hart, Jack Hudson here. I got your email. I don’t know if I have a lead for you, but I talked to one of my deputies this morning and I think I might. We had a run-in with a rental car out here this weekend.”
Thomas tried not to get excited. He knew the postal inspector had been in Sunrise Saturday morning, because Vi had met with her at Coffee Klatsch.
Rosalie cleared her throat and gave him a pointed look. So he put the phone on speaker so they could both listen. “What kind of run-in?”
“We don’t get a lot of visitors out this way, so it’s notable to see a rental car at all. But we had one speeding around Saturday morning. One of my deputies pulled the driver over. She claimed not to know the speed limit. My deputy ended up letting her off with a warning. No big deal.”
“And I’m guessing this was Postal Inspector Dianne Kay?”
“That’s what her license said. Honestly, even with the information you sent me, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but later that afternoon he got a call out at Fish ‘N’ Ammo.
Some guy was arguing over ammo prices, and you know Vern.
He’d die poor and out of spite rather than take someone’s money he thought was disrespecting him.
He refused to sell to the guy after that.
The guy put up a stink. Vern called us. The same deputy who pulled over the inspector answered the call, but by that time, the guy had already left.
When Vern gave a description of the car and a partial plate, though, it was the same car from the speeding woman. ”
Which connected Eric Carter and Dianne Kay. “Do me a favor, Jack, forward all reports and any information you’ve got on both calls to me, Laurel and Vicky in admin at Bent County.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get right on it, and I’ll let you know if we see the car again, or any of the people in your email.”
“Thanks, Jack. Appreciate it.” Thomas hit End on the phone, everything inside of him humming with possibility. This wasn’t going to be a cold case. They had a lead.
Laurel and Vicky would work on the search warrant for Eric’s phone. But it was clear, if Eric and Dianne were sharing a rental car they had both been in Sunrise on Saturday. Which led him to believe, Eric wasn’t in Fairmont anymore. Or at least, he had somewhere to hide near Sunrise.
Thomas turned to Rosalie. “I think we should go to Sunrise.”
“GET UP,” E RIC YELLED.
Vi inched forward, pretending she was trying to push up, but what she was really doing was inching her hand closer to the gap, to the nail.
Once she was close enough, she pushed back onto her feet, then in a quick move, blocked by her body, swept her hand over the crack and managed to pick up the nail and palm it before standing.