What Janie Saw(36)
He was hiding his mistress—meth.
The Travises didn’t recognize Wesley Clinton, Kyle Easterly or Ramona Turk—the other three students Janie had picked out of CopLink. Rafe wasn’t surprised; after all, the three had been Derek’s cronies, not Brittney’s. They were also older, harder and not even full-time students. Both Wesley and Kyle had already dropped out of the classes they’d been taking. Ramona still attended classes, but she’d been absent this last week.
“What exactly did the instructor come across?” Lee asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say. I personally haven’t seen the art book. It was handed over to the campus police.” Rafe wasn’t lying; he just didn’t want to tell the Travises that they’d found a confession then misplaced it. “I’m just doing some legwork here in Scorpion Ridge to help move things along.”
“Is she alive?” Sandy whispered.
On every other visit, Rafe had answered, “I don’t know. I’m praying.”
This visit... He sat on their worn brown couch, looking at the schoolbooks, deserted shoes and assorted kid projects that made these four walls a home. And the words wouldn’t come.
Sandy dropped the dish towel on the floor and ran toward a bedroom at the back of the house, the plate remaining in her grasp. Her soft keen of pain permeated through the walls as she fled.
Then a door slammed, and they heard the plate smash to the ground, shattered like Sandy Travis’s world.
CHAPTER SIX
ON SATURDAY, JANIE again took care of the animals that were sequestered at Katie’s house and then worked in the gift shop at the zoo. It was boring, and Rafe had clearly decided that tailing Janie wasn’t his priority. Instead he’d sent Officer Candy Riorden, who loved animals.
“Can I help feed the camels?” was Candy’s first question. Followed by: “Can I pet the lion?” She got that wish, but only because Terrance had the personality of a poodle, very few teeth left and not enough energy to work up a good swat.
When Candy left, Chief of Police Jeff Summerside appeared. It only took Janie a few hours to realize that he and Candy were taking turns on guard duty. Chief Summerside was definitely the more serious of the two. He followed Janie, never interfering or getting involved, mostly nodding at what she did but mostly scanning the crowd.
She got the idea crowds made him nervous.
But it bothered her that she felt abandoned by Rafe. She obviously didn’t rate very high on his list of priorities.
“Where’s the sheriff?” Janie finally asked when Summerside showed up—for the third time that day—just before closing.
“He’s with the governor working on some commission to deal with border issues.”
For once, Janie felt a little sorry for him. That didn’t sound like fun. No wonder he hadn’t even managed a text. Cops did, indeed, walk a rigid line.
Sunday wasn’t much better. Katie ventured out to the barn Sunday morning as Janie was feeding the turkeys. In a brown shirt and waddling, she looked a bit like a turkey herself.
“Luke took off for Young, Arizona, at two this morning.”
“Why?” Janie asked.