he had this stuff anyway? I mean, it looks like he’s been at this since he retired.”
“Maybe eight years. Can we all agree there is a multitude of questions and so far, no real answers to any of them?” Lando pointed out. “What we need now is to use this information to our advantage. Everything that’s in here could be useful in catching Ben’s killer and maybe solve a twenty-year-old cold case.”
“I gotta say, Lando. It seems to me the Copeland murders are the backstory to this, the prelude,” Dale said, scanning the wall again.
“I think he means the prologue,” Jimmy decided. “Or what comes before. It’s the reason why Ben was killed. He must’ve figured it out, then got too close, and the killer came for him, too.”
Lando didn’t like the sound of that, but he had a bigger issue he couldn’t get past. “Why didn’t he sit down with me and ask questions?”
“Maybe he didn’t figure you were up to the task,” Jimmy stated. “I’m serious. Taking evidence like this means he didn’t trust anybody.”
“There’s truth to that,” Lando agreed. “Hiding this from me is a slap in the face. I have to say it stings a little. You think you know somebody, and then you discover they’ve been keeping a secret.” He stared at the wall again. “Everything we needed to get a conviction in the Copeland case was right here in Ben’s house. I gotta say, ol’ Ben might’ve been right to exclude me. Why didn’t I know we were missing this much evidence? Think about it. Ben must’ve known we weren’t actively working on it.”
“Yeah. And started his own investigation,” Dale concluded. “Don’t be too upset. Because it got him murdered.”
Gemma’s meeting with Anna Kate Baccarat lasted forty-five minutes only because the two women tried catching each other up on everything that had happened to them since high school.
“So any kids?”
“Two boys. You?”
“Not yet.” But Gemma could tell Anna Kate didn’t want to talk about kids. The former classmate had other things on her mind.
“Is it true about Ben Zurcher?” Anna Kate wanted to know, lowering her voice to a whisper yet eager for all the juicy details. “Everyone is saying he met someone in that old mercantile last night and that someone bashed his head in just like what happened to the Copelands when they were murdered.”
Gemma shuddered, remembering Ben’s body lying in the basement on that filthy rug. She wasn’t about to share information about one of Lando’s cases, let alone mention the gunshot wound. Married to the top cop, she knew better than to spread those kinds of details to the general public. “I’m not sure how it happened. All I know is that Ben’s dead, and it was a homicide.”
Disappointed, Anna Kate narrowed her eyes. “But you were there. Tina Ashcomb said she saw you milling around the building. She said you must’ve seen the body.”
“Well, yes, I did, but…”
“Who do you think killed him?”
“No idea.”
“What about the note left with the body?”
“Who told you about that?” Gemma asked as she began to fidget in her chair. Feeling uncomfortable talking about the note with Anna Kate, she glanced up to find Leia listening at the doorway. Her sister-in-law looked radiant for a Monday morning. Wearing a dress in soft lilac that set off her dark Native American features, Leia cleared her throat. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were busy.”.
Thankful for the distraction from Anna Kate, Gemma scrambled to her feet and waved Leia into the room. “Hey, good to see you. What are you doing here? Look who’s here, Anna Kate. You remember Leia Bonner, right?”
“Sure. Who could forget Lydia Bonner giving birth to triplets? How’s Luke doing anyway? I had such a crush on him back in high school. Didn’t you recently marry that tribal police guy last fall?”
Leia narrowed her eyes on Anna Kate. “His name is Zeb Longhorn. And yeah. We finally got married. What about you? How are things going with you and Darrell?”
“Derrick,” Anna Kate corrected. “We’re not together anymore.”
Leia clucked her tongue. “Oh, no, what happened? Tell me everything. I want to hear it all.”
For Gemma, watching the two women take turns verbally jabbing at each other made for an awkward moment. If she didn’t know better, she’d actually believe Leia’s empathy came from genuine concern. But she did know better.
While Anna Kate recounted the quickie divorce tale that ended up in Vegas because Derrick had fallen in love with another woman, Gemma tuned most