Manhunt on Mystic Mesa by Cindi Myers

Author:Cindi Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2017-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Andi Mattheson swears the man who attacked her was not Daniel Metwater.” Simon wrote this information on the whiteboard in the conference room, the marker squeaking above the buzz of the fluorescent lights. Marco and Michael had returned Andi to the Family’s camp and the Rangers had convened to review the case.

“Daniel Metwater was in the Montrose jail when Jana and her car were attacked,” Ryan said.

“The lab confirms that the material used to strangle Alicia Mendoza came from the shirt we found in Daniel Metwater’s closet,” Ethan said. “We’re still waiting on the DNA results to prove that Metwater wore the shirt, but it matches the other shirts in his closet.”

“But we don’t have anything to place him away from his camp when Alicia, Lucia or Jenny went missing,” Graham said.

“We’ve got half-a-dozen witnesses or more who will swear Metwater never left camp during those time periods,” Marco added.

“We only have Andi’s word that she was attacked,” Graham said. “She could be making up the story to bolster Metwater’s case.”

“Maybe,” Ryan agreed. “But she sounded genuinely terrified to me.”

“Terrified of Metwater, maybe,” Simon said. “He’s been practically holding her prisoner.”

“And we know Jana isn’t making up her story,” Ryan said. “And Metwater was definitely with us at that time.”

“Maybe he had one of his disciples carry out the attack,” Marco said.

“Maybe,” Graham said. “The problem with our case is we have too many maybes.”

“What if we’re looking at this wrong?” Ethan said. “What if Metwater isn’t the killer and by focusing on him, we’re letting the real culprit go free?”

“Who else is a likely suspect?” Graham asked.

“There’s the mysterious ‘Easy.’” Ethan tapped his pen on the notebook in front of him. “When the women in Metwater’s camp were interviewed shortly after Lucia Raton went missing, they mentioned seeing her with someone named ‘Easy.’ Now when we ask about him, everyone denies having seen him.”

“The waitress at the café by the lake mentioned seeing Lucia having coffee with a man,” Ethan said. “That was the last time anyone saw her. Maybe it was this ‘Easy’ fellow.”

“That’s all we’ve got?” Ryan asked. “Easy?”

“That’s what the people in camp called him,” Marco said. “The woman who first gave us the information said he wasn’t a member of the Family, but he ran errands for Metwater sometimes.”

“So we see if we can find out more about Easy,” Graham said. “Circulate his description again, see if we get any hits.”

“That still leaves the shirt,” Ryan said. “How do you explain it?”

“Someone could have planted it to implicate Metwater,” Ethan said.

Graham nodded. “Who has access to Metwater’s closet?”

“Probably almost any of his followers,” Simon said.

Marco sat back, arms across his chest. “So what do we do now? Go back to the camp and start questioning everyone?”

“We haven’t gotten anywhere doing that so far,” Graham said.

“I think we should lean on Eric Patterson,” Ryan said.

The others turned toward him. “Why Patterson?” Marco asked.

Ryan sat up straighter. “Lean on him was probably a poor choice of words.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.