What Janie Saw(4)

                * * *

                SHERIFF RAFAEL SALAZAR didn’t need another thing to do this morning. He already had a full slate. He was due at the courthouse in a little over an hour and still had three phone calls to make before he could leave. None of them involved good news. His afternoon included a long drive to Phoenix and an overdue visit to a correctional facility.

                So when his phone rang, Rafe wished he could ignore it.

                “Salazar!” he barked into the phone. Maybe his tone would let the caller know what an inopportune time this was.

                “Morning, Rafe.”

                Suddenly, court dates, phone calls and the visit to the correctional facility seemed irrelevant.

                Nathan Williamson was a detective and the director of the drug task force in nearby Adobe Hills, Arizona, located right outside of Tucson. Adobe Hills was not part of Laramie County, the area Rafe was in charge of. But occasionally their paths crossed, and usually the two departments worked well together.

                Right now, Rafe and Nathan only had one case in common, and it was cold.

                The Brittney Lynn Travis case.

                She was from Rafe’s town, Scorpion Ridge, but she’d gone missing from Nathan’s town, Adobe Hills.

                Nathan’s voice sounded terse, and in the background, Rafe could hear the sounds of other people, probably cops, doing their job.

                “What’s going on?” Rafe asked, cop’s intuition telling him this wouldn’t be good news.

                Nathan didn’t even pause. “What do you know about Janie Vincent?”

                “Why do you want...?” Rafe started to answer but stopped when the door to his office flew open.

                The woman in question stood in the doorway, looking tense. At her side was her big sister, Katie Rittenhouse, eight months pregnant and with an expression that said she was ready to take on the world.

                “You have to talk to him,” Katie was telling Janie. “You can trust him. I promise.”

                Janie didn’t appear convinced.

                Behind them, his front-desk officer, Candy Riorden, hurried up. “I tried to tell—”

                He halted Candy’s admonition, dismissed her with a wave of the hand, and motioned Janie and Katie toward the chairs facing his desk. Without missing a beat, he continued, “They’re here right now. But, to answer your question, Janie’s from Texas. Her sister and brother-in-law run BAA, Bridget’s Animal Adventure.”

                “I need her to come here sometime today so we can question her.” Nathan didn’t sound interested in Janie’s connection to wildlife. “I’ve spent the last hour at Adobe Hills Community College, and I’ve got more questions than I have answers.”

                “Questions about what? You haven’t exactly said why you want to speak with her.”

                Janie was looking at the door as if she were ready to bolt.

                “The kind that will help me solve a case!” Nathan snapped, bringing Rafe’s full attention back to the phone.

                “Is it about—” Rafe started, but Nathan butted in.

                “You’re aware she teaches at Adobe Hills Community College?” Nathan said quietly. “Well, Miss Vincent apparently read something in a kid’s art book last night, a kid by the name of Derek Chaney. I’ve spoken with the chair of the art department, Patricia Reynolds, but apparently your Miss Vincent is who I really need to speak with. Whatever she read might have been a murder confession about our missing coed.”