Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (55 page)

From the minute they managed to get everyone situated into the room, the administrative assistant was completely stirred up. She was loud, objected to being forced into compliance, and her general dislike for the FBI was clearly made.

“Are you done?” asked Elizabeth
, willing to wait the blonde out for as long as it took. “Or you want to sit here and make lots of useless noise, while we wait on your temper tantrum?” She wasn’t in the mood for her crankiness.

“When Jimmy hears about this, he’s going to run you lousy FBI agents out of our town, or at least back onto that
shitty Indian reservation.”

If she’d been the only one in the room, Elizabeth would have dropped it on her
with little mercy, but because there were other people with feelings, she opted to just swallow it. “When did you last see James Duffy?”

Sheila Court crossed her arms and pinched her lips closed, much like a disgruntled child.

“I saw him about five last night, Ma’am,” stated Max Kelly. “I was heading out of work, and he asked me if I wanted to get a beer. I had a date and couldn’t join him.”

The officer that they recognized from
their last Red River run in spoke next. “I didn’t see him yesterday,” Deputy Christian Anderson replied. “He’s usually here part of the day on Saturdays.  Is something wrong?”

Elizabeth had to give the man credit, since he was the only one that suspected something and was asking questions. If she’d been in their place, the
inquisition would be happening.

Callen took over. “We’re
jointly working on an assignment and sometime last night, James Duffy was abducted and became the next victim.”

No one spoke, as they allowed it to soak in and absorb.

“You think it’s funny to come here and screw with us?” demanded Sheila. “You have some sick sense of humor to tell us Jimmy’s dead!”

“Have you called him today?”
Elizabeth asked, lifting a brow.

“Yes, but he likes to go out of Friday nights. When he does, he doesn’t always come in on Saturdays.”

Max Kelly offered some more information. “He liked to get drunk at the end of the work week, and Jimmy’s probably sleeping the hangover off, Ma’am.”

Elizabeth stood and leaned forward on the conference table. “What I don’t think you are getting is
, that we’ve already made a positive ID or we wouldn’t be here. Sheriff James Duffy is deceased, and we at the FBI are sorry for your loss. We’ve just called the mayor of your fine town, and he will address the situation as soon as he arrives.”

Deputy Anderson stared at the two agents. “I don’t think they’re screwing with us, Sheila.”

“We’re not,” Callen confirmed.

Sheila
began bawling. “Jimmy’s dead?”

“We’re sorry for the loss of your co-worker and friend,” Elizabeth reiterated. “Where would Jimmy hang out to drink on a Friday night?”
she questioned, ignoring the woman’s wailing. Now they had a job to do and justice to find for the sheriff.

Max handed Sheila a handful of tissues as she sobbed. “He preferred Sal’s over on prospect. The woman he liked to hang out with goes there.”

“Carly Kester?” asked Whitefox.

Both men nodded
, patting the woman on the back. Her sobs were racking her body, and Elizabeth swore she was going to make herself sick.

“Are you going to be okay, Ms. Court?” asked Callen.

The woman looked up and glared at him. “No, I’m not going to be alright! Our boss is dead, but you shouldn’t be surprised. Last time you assholes came to Red River we lost another friend too.”

Yeah, here came the anger.

“It’s probably some Indian that hates us town folk! They wanted to teach us a lesson.”

“I seriously doubt…” started Christian Anderson, before being cut off by the woman.

“It was nice here without Julian Littlemoon and your kind making our lives miserable,” she stated, pointing at Callen. “Go back to your damn reservations where you belong!”

Elizabeth had enough. “I get that you’re grief stricken, Ms. Court, but you need to mind your manners a bit more. We have no evidence
it’s a Native American perpetrating these crimes. As to my partner here, we don’t live on a reservation. We have a home in a really nice development and let me assure you, that we would very much like to get back to it. That’s where WE belong.”

Sheila glared at her.

“I can guaren-damn-tee that we’ll be out of your hair as soon as we find the killer. Until then, you’ll have to deal with us being here. I’ll let the ignorant Native comments go for now, because you lost a friend, but the next time you point at Director Whitefox, you’ll be losing that hand.”

Just then the door opened
with Mayor Grant walking in to handle the situation.

“I’ll take it from here,” he said, shaking their hands.

“We’re going over to James Duffy’s home. Please keep your staff from charging over there like a bunch of loose cannons. We haven’t ascertained as to where their friend went missing yet.” Elizabeth said, simply.

“I will, Directors.”

The three left the room. Blackhawk glanced over at his wife and brother. “Fun huh?”

“Yeah, it was an awesome time. Remind me to come back here yearly on our vacation,” Callen stated.

Elizabeth laughed. “We get a vacation?”

“Supposedly,” added Blackhawk.

“I say we do something completely crazy,” she suggested. “We pack up and we actually take one this year.”

“Works for me,” Ethan said.

Callen tapped his watch. “Can we go right now?”

No one laughed, knowing where they were heading and what still had to be done in Red River
.

Julian had been here many times when he worked for the sheriff’s department. Sometimes it was to just have a beer and sometimes to check on his drunken boss. Many times he’d been called out to retrieve the man that he once called friend.

James Duffy
had two loves in his life- loose women and copious amounts of booze. His friends made it their mission to make sure he wasn’t driving home drunk, or dying in a car accident. Everyone knew he’d never change, so they checked up on him and looked the other way. All in all, the man wasn’t a bad guy, just a bored man in a tiny town, wanting to forget it all. Wasn’t that pretty much just like his life prior to finding the woman standing beside him?

Before Tori, he’d been alone and afraid to have another serious relationship. Yeah, he’d shacked up with women and had fun but anything more than temporary wasn’t his thing. Glancing over, he
couldn’t imagine his life without her.

“You don’t have to do this, Julian,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “Jimmy was you friend at one time.”

He shook his head. “We ended our friendship. If anything I feel sorry for him and nothing more. How he died was an ugly way to end one’s life, but when you live on the edge, sometimes you fall off.”

Parking in James Duffy’s driveway, they exited their vehicle. The first place they
searched was the man’s wheels.

“Jimmy loved
this truck. If it’s here, then at one point so was he,” offered Julian, his tracking skills surfacing, as he did his job and stopped thinking about the man who used to be a friend. Now, it was all business. “He liked to pick up the ladies and take them for a ride in it, and I don’t mean around the block.”

Tori snorted, pulling out two pairs of rubber gloves. “Thanks, great visual
. I’ll disinfect when we get back to the Denali.”

Julian winked at her, accepting the glove
s. He pulled open the driver’s side door, glancing inside. “Two empty beer bottles, a pack of breath mints and a cell phone.”

Holding open the evidence bag, Tori shook h
er head. “That doesn’t look like a man’s phone. Unless Jimmy liked rhinestones and butterflies.”

He flipped it over in his hand. “Maybe he got lucky last night after all.”

They searched the rest of the vehicle, looking for anything else that would give them an idea of where James Duffy spent his last hours.

Julian pulled out the man’s gun. “Sidearm stuffed under the driver’s side seat.” He checked the chamber. “It’s got one bullet ready to go.” Unloading the gun, he dropped it into another evidence bag.”

“Great place to leave your weapon,” she answered, shaking her head. “Why not place a sign on the window that alerts the town?”

Littlemoon found that funny. “You
used to keep a spare key in a fake rock in the front of your house. I could say the same for you.”

Tori began laughing. “I guess you’re trying to tell me that I’m not permitted to do that
at your cabin?”

“Our cabin
,” he corrected, automatically. “It’s our home now, since you’re going to be my wife, and no, you’re not allowed to leave a key outside the door.”

“Okay, I’ll leave our bedroom window open. I can climb in if I get locked out.”

Julian simply stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Or you could walk over to my mother’s house and get a spare, or call my brother to come let you in too.”

Tori couldn’t help but laugh as she popped open the glove box. “Wow, that’s some big box of condoms. You weren’t kidding when you said he liked using his truck as a portable bedroom.”

“This truck has more mileage than what’s on the odometer.”

Quickly she moved her arm off the seat. “Thank God we don’t have a black light.”

The prospects of seeing what was on the seat grossed Julian out more than words could ever portray.

Tori dumped the box
of condoms out on the seat. “Three missing and look, we have a receipt from last night. It looks like he just bought the box.”

He snorted. “Are you implying something?”

She began laughing. “I’m impressed that the man could have sex three times in one night, when he was that inebriated.”

Julian thought about it,
reaching into the storage area beside the door. “Honey, I have news for you. Any drunk man can initiate it, but follow through is a totally different thing.”

It was the grin on his face that made her giggle. “Okay, I get your point.”

Reaching into the side of the door, Julian pulled out two condom packages. “I found some wrappers, currently empty. Jimmy seriously loved his truck, and there’s no other debris in here.”

“Well, if you’re going to die shortly after doing something, I guess post coitus would rank up there,” Tori tried to keep it light for Julian’s sake.

“I think the truck’s done,” he replied, trying not to think about sex and the woman he was working with at the moment. Damn, she made it hard to concentrate.

She nodded and pointed to the house. “I bet he doesn’t have a key in a rock, so we may have a harder time searching
there,” Tori quipped, making her way to the man’s front porch. Before she could step up, Julian pulled her backwards against him.

“Blood,” he said, pointing. Then he motioned to the door, where a set of car and house keys hung from the doorknob. “It looks like Jimmy was just getting home from his debauchery and was taken here.”

Tori bent over and picked up a rock on the porch. Flipping it over in her hand, there was evidence of blood on the bottom. “He was clocked in the head with a rock. Sound familiar?”

Julian did his thing and checked out the area. Before long he found the telltale signs. “We need to follow these marks,” he stated, pointing at the semi-visible drag lines in the grass. “He was grabbed here and pulled around the back of the house.”

When Julian saw a trail, Tori knew it was best to let him lead and just follow. She was barely able to ascertain any marks in the grass. If he was picking something up, she needed to just let him do what he did best.

Once around the building, neither of them needed to
stare at the ground. It was blatantly clear what had happened behind James Duffy’s house.

There was a dead fire and a great deal of blood.

“You better call the bosses. We found where the killer did the deed,” Julian stated, scanning the trees behind Jimmy’s house, making sure he and Tori were safe.

She pulled out her phone and sent a text message. It was time to get ready to work the crime scene and
piece together the last few moments of James Duffy’s life.

Once her phone began beeping, Elizabeth was forced to put down her half eaten bagel. On the way out to the potential scene, the men had stopped to get her and themselves some fuel. It was looking like a long day, and she didn’t need to be dropping from exhaustion and hunger.

Glancing down at the message, she returned it and quickly banged out a new one to her team. It was time to get back to work. “Head to this address,” she said, adding it to the onboard navigation. We have the crime scene.”

Blackhawk hit the lights and listened to the direction. “Tori and Julian?” he inquired, steering through the traffic.