all the photos. In every one, Alcock’s face was veiled or blurred or partially hidden. In every one, Cale Nowell was looking at Stella with desperate need. I checked my lists. I had done a prelim interview on Cale at the farm on Friday, but he hadn’t been seen since.
* * *
* * *
“Cale Nowell went to prison for vehicular manslaughter four years ago,” I said, as I dumped a French fry into a pile of mustard. “He’s out on good behavior. His parole officer, A. K. Montgomery, says Cale got special permission to travel across state lines with the band, with Stella Mae swearing in court during his parole hearing that there would be no alcohol and no drugs on any of the tour buses. Cale missed his parole meeting last week, but he called, talked to Montgomery on the phone, and said he would be back for a long break and would be in to see the parole officer. He’d been a model parolee so the officer let him go this once.”
JoJo and I were in the conference room eating. The big boss was in back, on the phone. The sex pics were off the main screen, thank goodness.
I punched a key and put up crime scene photos taken by Occam from the farm. Cale Nowell had taken shelter in the tents and had then spent time in the portable null room. I had talked to him through the layers of sky blue P3E unis and never seen his face so I didn’t recognize him from the sex photos. He had tattoos on every visible part of his body, from knuckles to face. There were tattooed swirls over his left eye and into his carefully sculpted hairline. He was tall, buff, with chiseled musculature and beautiful bone structure. His jaw was sharp, his chin hard, his green eyes soft. His driver’s license listed him as Black and Other, which meant that he was probably mixed race. In one single photo from Stella’s farm, snapped by a deputy early on, his eyes were red from weeping, his expression shocked and full of horror.
I studied the photos, and then pulled up Nowell’s original arrest report. At the scene of an accident that had killed a seventy-year-old woman, Cale had been arrested, pled guilty to a reduced charge, and served three years. He had been driving Stella’s car and Stella had been injured. I opened the crime scene photos from the car accident. It had been awful, Stella’s car half on top of the other car. There was no way that the driver in the other car had survived.
I focused on the images of the car Cale had been driving, paging through. The driver’s seat was far forward. That could have happened from the impact. But there was makeup smeared on the driver’s-side airbag. None on the passenger-side airbag.
In the arrest photos, Cale’s face showed no traces of makeup.
I could find no mention or photos of Stella Mae, except that she had been taken to the hospital by ambulance.
I had a bad feeling that Cale, one of Stella’s husbands, had taken the hit for Stella, or the arresting officer had arrested the only black man at the scene. It was unlikely to affect this case, but I ran a quick search for the family and heirs of the woman who had died in the accident, just in case vengeance was a motive. I found nothing that led me to believe there was any family revenge involved. The accident didn’t look as if it pertained to this case.
Summarizing my conclusions, I sent all the information to the current case files. Almost immediately my cell rang and Occam’s name appeared on the screen. A warm, slightly electric heat flashed through me. “Special Agent Ingram,” I said, letting him know that I was in the presence of other unit members.
“Nell, sugar, this is good stuff. Prison record. Disappeared from the crime scene. Hasn’t been seen since. I’ll be contacting Cale Nowell. We finally got us a person of interest.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
“I miss you, sugar.”
The call ended before I could reply, but JoJo snickered at my expression. Before I could figure out how to respond, the office number rang and I answered, “PsyLED. Special Agent Ingram.”
“This is Sophee Anne Ragel, Stella Mae Ragel’s sister. I’d like to talk to someone who can tell me about the investigation into my sister’s murder.”
“Ms. Ragel,” I said. JoJo looked up and motioned me to put it