The Lawman

“You wanna sew the shirt, fine,” he said, his voice hard. “Sew your little heart out. While you’re doing it, you might try thinking about the debt that you may owe Harriet. Maybe then something will come to you that will help me find the person who did kill her.”

He turned and walked back to his truck, the vision of her slender fingers tangled in his shirt burning into his mind.

Chapter Five

“Sue, are you sure that report on the treads hasn’t come back from the Feds yet?”

“Good morning to you, too.” Sue Gerhardt was the dispatcher and, Holt knew, the glue that held the small department together. “And, no, it hasn’t. I called the FBI folks yesterday afternoon to follow up on it, too.”

Here was a woman who was completely aboveboard. Helpful. Intelligent. “Anyone ever tell you you’re the perfect woman, Sue?”

“Sure, my husband. How do you think he’s managed to keep me for forty years?”

Holt smiled and headed for the coffeepot, giving a brief wave to Dave through his boss’s glass-windowed office as he went. Dave nodded, his attention obviously taken with the phone call he was on.

“Anything interesting come in overnight?”

“Other than a call from a shelter in Whitehorn that some deputy from down here had been there last night nosing around, asking questions? Not a thing.” Sue’s sixty-two-year-old eyes were sharp. “Don’t suppose you want to share, do you?”

“Sue, I’d share my heart with you if I still had one.” He headed over to his desk by the window that overlooked the library.

Sue laughed. “Yeah, you’re a heartless California boy, all right. I’m onto you, Holt Tanner. Big bad cop, my big toe. Did your little foray into Whitehorn have anything to do with the rumor going around that Harriet had helped some woman escape an abusive husband?”

Not in the way Sue might think, Holt thought. He’d been there because of Molly. But Sue didn’t know that. She was thinking about Lenny. Lenny Hostetler had been plenty angry with Harriet Martel for helping his wife and kids escape their life with him. Maybe even angry enough to cause her harm. But so far they hadn’t been able to locate the guy.