Bone Shadows by Christopher Valen

Author:Christopher Valen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, crime, suspense, adventure, murder, action, corruption, whodunnit, hispanic american, minnesota author

Chapter 15

On Monday morning Santana called Kimberly Dalton's cell phone and got her voice mail. He then called Regions Hospital and asked to speak to her. When a supervisor told him she wouldn't be coming in, he wondered if she had chosen to spend the day with the Raffertys or with her own family after Saturday's funeral—or perhaps she was home and just wasn't answering her phone.

The thick, wet flakes of snow that were falling as Santana drove to Kimberly Dalton's apartment melted when they hit the windshield and hood of his sedan. But they were falling so heavily that visibility was poor, and lawns and tree branches were coated with a thin layer of white.

As Santana drove down her street, he saw her get out of the passenger side of a black Cadillac Escalade SUV with smoked glass windows. The heavy snowfall prevented him from seeing the license number clearly as the SUV pulled away from the curb. He had no reason to believe the vehicle had been stolen, but he knew that Cadillac Escalade SUVs were stolen, broken into, or stripped of parts more often than any other vehicle in the country. Santana pulled into a vacant spot along the curb, got out, and hurried to catch her.

She was standing in front of the outside glass door to the building, reaching into her purse to retrieve her keys, when she whirled to face him, a can of mace in her hand, her bloodshot eyes wide and twitching with anxiety.

Santana halted a few feet from her and held up his badge, his eyes squinting as snowflakes caught in his eyelashes. "It's Detective Santana, Ms. Dalton. Remember?"

She froze momentarily. Then she lowered her shoulders, and the tightness in her face relaxed. "You scared me."

"Sorry. We need to talk."

"About what?"

He gestured toward the sky. "Why don't we go inside?"

She hesitated and then used a key to open the outside door.

Once they were inside her apartment, Santana removed his coat and shoes. He declined her offer of tea and sat on the couch while she brewed a cup and then returned to the living room. "What is it you want to discuss?" she asked, sitting on a cushioned chair opposite him. She tugged at the hem of her emerald green sweater and smoothed a wrinkle in her plaid skirt.

"When we spoke before," Santana said, "you told me you didn't know why your father and Hank Rafferty had broken up their partnership."

Her long dark hair was damp from the snow, and she brushed a strand away from her forehead. "That's right."

"There's nothing you can add to that?"

"No. Ask Hank or my father."

Santana flipped through his notebook. "You and Scott and Jeff Tate were having drinks at Billy's Tavern the last night you saw Scott alive."

She nodded and sipped her tea, holding the teacup between the palms of her hands, as if to keep them warm. Her face looked even more drawn than it had been during his first visit. He wondered if anguish

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