Stranger in Town - By Cheryl Bradshaw Page 0,44
didn’t have a clue. The disrespectful ones grated on my nerves. Standing in front of Cade’s daughter, I could see she had been enabled in her life, a bit too much from the looks of it. Others may have put up with her less-than-civil attitude, but she wouldn’t get away with it—not with me.
“I don’t know what I’ve done to piss you off,” I said, “but I’m not going to stand here and go the rounds with you. Is your dad here, or isn’t he?”
She scoffed.
“My dad is not available.”
“To what—talk to me?” I said.
“To date you.”
“We work together. What part of that don’t you understand?”
“Puh-lease,” she said. “I’m not some little kid you can stand here and lie to, so don’t, okay?”
“Where did you get the idea that we were more than friends?” I said.
“He talks about you all the time. To my grandpa, to my grandma—it’s disgusting.”
“Shelby!”
Cade raced down the stairs. Upon seeing her father, Shelby suddenly learned how to smile while sucking up at the same time.
“What dad? We were just talking,” she said. “Weren’t we, Sloane?”
“Your daughter has a wild imagination,” I said.
He pointed toward some rooms down the hall and said, “Move it, now.”
She hung her head and slumped down the hall.
“I hope Shelby—”
“She didn’t,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”
He waved his hand for me to follow him downstairs. I did.
The lower part of Detective McCoy’s house was decorated in what I could only assume was typical Wyoming man-cave style, though I hadn’t seen enough houses in the state to assess it properly. Taxidermy was everywhere. A grizzly bear stood in the corner of the room with his mouth wide open. His razor-sharp claws angled toward me, ready to attack. On a cut-out shelf in the wall, a wolf held his head high. I waited for the howling sound effects to start, but none did. I looked around. The rest of the room contained various mounted heads, some from animals I never knew existed.
“Are you okay being down here?” Cade said.
“It’s a little different. I think I can manage.”
“No hunters in your family?”
“Well, I never had a brother, and my dad didn’t have many hobbies. Is your daughter all right?”
“Shelby’s a teenager,” he said. “I’m not sure she’s ever ‘all right.’”
“She didn’t seem too thrilled we were working together.”
He raised a brow.
“What did she say to you?”
“Not much—but I did get a ‘keep away’ vibe from her. I’m sure she’s just going through a lot right now.”
“Sounds like you’ve been talking to my dad,” he said.
“He mentioned a few things to me.”
“Him too?”
“It wasn’t much. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Cade sat down. “Don’t be sorry. My dad’s got a lot on his mind right now. Besides, it don’t matter to me if he told you. It’s not a secret. My wife left. I’ve moved on.”
“I’m not sure your daughter has.”
“She’s unhappy either way—I just do the best I can with her. She might not realize it right now, but being here around my parents is helping her deal with everything. I hope one day she’ll realize it instead of hating me for bringing her here.”
“She didn’t want to move?”
“She misses her deadbeat boyfriend, which is one more reason we needed a change in scenery.”
“Sounds like you’re a great father.”
He smiled and pointed at my hands. “What have you got there?”
I unfolded my less-than-stellar drawing. “Have you seen a tattoo like this before?”
He curled his fingers toward him. I handed the drawing over. “You draw this?”
“We all have our qualities,” I said. “Drawing isn’t one of mine.”
He winked.
“I can tell,” he said.
“Do you know what it is?”
“Do you?” he said.
I nodded.
“Then you know where guys get these?” he said.
“Yeah, in prison.”
“Do you know what it means?”
“I think so,” I said. “It’s a prison tattoo. A clock with no hands symbolizes the person is serving time, usually a lot of it, and that the time that ticks by is meaningless.”
“That’s why it doesn’t have any hands,” he said, “because time doesn’t matter when you’re serving a long sentence.”
“Sierra Johnson told me the man who took Savannah had this tattoo on his upper arm.”
Cade shook his head and smiled. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Cade used his connections to see if he could get a list of released inmates over the past several years that had a tattoo of a clock on their upper arm. He also talked them into sending along corresponding photos. The thought of getting the actual name of the guy made me nervous,