Final Edition: A Colby Tate Mystery (The Colby Tate Mysteries Book 5) by Allen Kent

Author:Allen Kent [Kent, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AllenPearce Publishers
Published: 2022-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

23

Marti Bleasdale thought it was a wonderful idea.

“You two need to get away, and this would be perfect,” she said. “You’ve got the community forum tonight and can say something about Emmett’s trip pointing to new evidence. I’ll leak the word out around town that it’s strong enough you felt you had to follow up. Just make sure you only charge one of your expenses, so people can’t complain it was a junket. If there’s some grumbling, people will get over it.”

She gave me an uncharacteristically familiar wink. “And there’s no way Frankie’s going to win this election. You could be Jack the Ripper, and they’d never replace you with Frankie.”

“I’m hearing rumblings,” I said.

“There are always rumblings. People like to create a little drama. And tonight, you can mention in your speech that for the past month, he’s done practically nothing. He leaves in the morning, doesn’t respond to calls, doesn’t issue tickets. From what I can tell, he’s just driving around to his old buddy’s places at the county’s expense and badmouthing the department. Tell people that if that’s what they want in law enforcement, they’re welcome to him.”

“I know you two have never gotten along, Marti. But I’m not going to start slinging mud,” I told her. “We need to focus on the issues.”

“That is one of the issues,” she grumbled. “The man’s become completely useless. As bad as Josh Lauderdale.”

“Well, I hope people can see that,” I muttered. “But I do need to check out the Emmett lead. And Grace and I may as well use it as a chance to get away. See if you can get us out of Northwest Arkansas tomorrow. You can get in touch with us by phone if something breaks with Brooke’s case.”

“I’m on it,” Marti said with enough glee in her voice that I suspected she and Grace had already been looking at schedules.

A call an hour later threatened to derail the plan.

“Tate, this is Officer Beckett. Mrs. McCaffery called from the pantry. Our girl just came in. I’m headed down to Parson’s Corner.”

I snatched a gray sweatshirt from a hook beside the door of the fishbowl, asked Brooke to hang on for a minute, and muted the phone against my chest.

“Marti, can I take your car for a couple of hours? If I’m not back by the time you need to leave, call Grace with whatever flight schedule you find and drive the Explorer home. I’ll switch back with you after the forum tonight.” I tossed my keys onto her desk and got back to Brooke while Marti fished her key fob out of her purse.

“Brooke, call Alice and ask if she can give the girl a Coke or something while she’s there. Ask her to make up some excuse to keep the can. Recycling or something. We need to see if we can get some trace DNA. But if the girl insists on leaving before you get there, tell Alice to let her go. We don’t want her to be suspicious.

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