forty-seven. We have some angry people who live here just looking for a reason to complain. They should take a happy pill once in a while.”
“Tell me about it.”
“How many calls did you take last night?”
“Let’s just say dispatch kept us busy. Turns out, Suzanne is good at handling unhappy people who think they need a cop for every little incident. She either works it out over the phone, or she de-escalates the situation. I’m telling you that having Suzanne on my team is like having another officer on patrol.”
“Then maybe you should give her a raise.”
“Is that in the budget? Better check, Mayor, before you go promising a raise to anybody.”
“Duly noted.”
“Although Suzanne probably does deserve one. After dealing with Louise for years, Suzanne is like a breath of fresh air. Besides, her presence at City Hall helps us both.”
“I know that. Which is why I’m gonna check the budget to find the money for her a nice pay raise. I happen to know she could use it. And knowing how devoted she is to City Hall, she deserves one.”
“She hasn’t complained, not once, about the pay.”
“No, Suzanne wouldn’t. She loves her job.”
After directing the crime techs down to the basement, Lando snatched her around the waist. “Why are you so feisty this morning? Shouldn’t you be dragging after a night of no sleep?”
Her fingers crawled up his chest. “I’ve been up all night, same as you. Besides, you like me feisty. Now, if we could just get out of going to Leia’s house tonight for dinner, we could get to bed early.”
“Is that tonight? Who gives a dinner party on a Monday night? I thought we could just get takeout, then sleep for twenty hours or so.”
“It’s Leia’s only night off. Oh, wow. Look at the time. I gotta go, Lando. I promised Anna Kate Baccarat I’d sit down with her this morning and talk about putting more money in the budget for more lifeguards on the beach this summer. She’s my first appointment of the day. Darn. I had no idea I’d been gone this long. I promised Lianne I’d be back in twenty minutes.”
“Anna Kate Baccarat? She was in the band, right? Little redhead? Didn’t she marry Derrick Ross, a couple of years older than us?”
“She did, but it only lasted six years or so. They got divorced in Vegas. Or so I’m told. I plan on getting all the dirty deets after the meeting. Or maybe during.”
“A mayor’s job is never done.”
She drilled a playful finger into his belly. “Hey, don’t laugh. Since I took over this gig, I’m too busy to get into any trouble. And you haven’t even noticed.”
“Sure, I’ve noticed. But I didn’t want to jinx it.”
She swatted him on the arm. “Just for that, watch me round up my crew and see what trouble I can find.”
2
Twenty years ago, the Copeland family murders had made national news. Not all that surprising when a quadruple homicide included an ordinary family of four, two of whom were children. The story became newsworthy because the callousness of the crime had all the elements of a whodunit. Each victim had suffered blunt trauma to the head, blows that far exceeded the definition of excessive force. Aside from the fact that the crime was horrific, senseless, and without motive, it came while the family slept. Each victim had been found still tucked in their beds.
The gruesome scene had put the entire Copeland family under a microscope. But what could an ordinary husband and wife have done to piss off a killer enough to kill the kids?
While sitting at his desk, Lando flipped through the pages of the fourth Copeland murder book—another fat blue binder that held valuable detective notes—and got reacquainted with the family’s bio and the case.
Sandra had been a local girl from a well-to-do family named Trask. The Trasks owned a spread north of town. She’d met and married an eager entrepreneur named Todd Copeland, ten years older, who hailed from, of all places, New York City. After getting his business degree at Syracuse University, Todd moved out west, arriving in Coyote Wells in the early 1990s with a dream of living in a small town and starting his own business. Thanks to a loan from his father, a stockbroker on Wall Street, Todd began plans to re-open the general store that later became the Coyote Wells Mercantile.
Todd and Sandra settled down into married life, purchasing a house on forty acres next to Moonlight