Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
The Piper’s Ridge Police Station was nothing like the one in Cody.
It couldn’t be. Cody was five times the size of Piper’s Ridge.
At least. The building looked like it had perhaps once been a bank, which made sense.
All they would need to do is put a different door on the vault and they’d have a cell . . .
Duke held the door open for Ferd, and she squared her shoulders as she headed inside.
Even through her training to be an officer, she’d never planned to work for Piper’s Ridge, even after her commitment to Cody to pay for her training.
If she stayed at Wayside, she’d be expected to work for Wayside.
Connor had never actually said that. She’d just known.
He’d offered her no less than five jobs over three years while she’d lived there.
“Down this way are the two holding cells. That way is the break room. There is only one room for questioning and one holding area. Every other space is pretty open and considered general use. There’s a basement with a small gym for people to train, with two locker room areas,” Duke muttered as they made their way past a few uniformed officers.
“I won’t need to know that.” She took in a deep breath. “Not planning to stay, remember?”
“Right. Sorry. Just wanted you to have a lay of the place in case you need to find anything when you’re helping me.
We can go through records back here.” He waved her into a huge open room with file cabinets along the back.
Each had a keypad on top. He punched in a four-digit code and the five drawers of that cabinet unlocked.
“Is it timed or something? How does it lock back up?” She glanced down the row at about twelve different cabinets.
“We won’t be in here long enough to trip it. I’ll put the code back in to lock it when we’re done.” He tugged a file from inside and took it to a table.
She sat next to him and glanced over his shoulder at the file.
The thin folder contained everything they knew about Bailey Nosboum.
If he’d been the man she’d thought he was based on everyone else’s opinion of him, she’d expect it to be thicker.
Instead, it showed he was a resident of Piper’s Ridge and he’d never had a ticket of any kind.
He’d been summoned to court on three occasions due to his divorce fifteen years before.
He’d paid a crazy amount of money monthly for the first ten years before she took him back to court to get more.
“Looks like her second attempt at squeezing him for more money failed. He actually hasn’t had a court order to pay her for two years.” Duke’s finger lingered on that line. “Same judge for all three trials. Odd, I got the impression from Paul that he’d lost every time she took him to court.”
“I got the same. It wasn’t his life, though. He could only go by what Bailey told him. Maybe Bailey wasn’t open about his personal life?”
Duke nodded. “That actually tracks. No one knew about the woman he was seeing. There aren’t many places to meet up in Piper’s Ridge. There’s Ahab’s and the bar. Ahab’s serves better burgers, but it’s also expensive. Not the kind of place you want to take a date every few days.”
Ferd tapped the page. “Her name is Samantha Prentice.”
Finally, a real person. She lives between Piper’s Ridge and Cottonwood. Go there, or wait until tomorrow?” They’d already driven all over the county that day.
“While we’re here, let’s check in with dispatch. We only have one person who answers both emergency and non-emergency calls, so she can tell me more about George and if he actually pushed to get Bailey’s body after you spoke to her.”
Duke put the file away, locked the cabinet, and headed for the front of the building again. In a small room that could’ve originally been a bathroom, a woman sat behind a desk with a headset. A little red light blinked on her monitor, indicating she was on a call.
Duke took a seat, and Ferd followed him. The room was narrow with ceramic tiles and a counter all along one wall, giving it the ‘old bathroom’ vibe. Even without mirrors and fixtures, the setup couldn’t lie.
The little indicator light turned blue, and the deputy took off her headset. “Duke, what can I do for you?”
He stood and leaned against her desk. “I wanted to follow up with you about George. Did you get any calls having to do with Bailey Nosboum’s body? He was the one with the long name from California.”
She grinned and her eyes brightened. “No. Nothing. I can look if you want me to, but I would’ve remembered that.” Her fingers flew across the keys. “I’ve had two calls for speeding through a neighborhood. A call for a domestic. My new husband called, but that doesn’t count . . .” She beamed.
“Hope he’s doing okay. How was his surgery?”
Her eyes crinkled. “Great. He’s feeling so much better now. Can’t wait until he’s back home. Cheyenne is just far enough away that driving to see him daily is out of the question. I pick him up Thursday.”
“Good. I hope he settles in at home. Thanks for your help.”
She nodded in Ferd’s direction but didn’t smile. Outside, Ferd popped her sunglasses back on. “So, that was interesting. Are we going to have to fly to California to question this George guy or can we call him?”
Duke took a deep breath. “I hope neither. Let’s talk to everyone on our list who lives semi-locally, then we’ll move to out-of-state suspects. I also want to find out how the forensic techs are doing with all the evidence from the boat. Since we don’t have our own team here, it went to Cheyenne.”
“Road trip?” She groaned without wanting to let on how much she hated traveling that far.
Her leg was already throbbing from sitting so long in one cramped position.
Getting in and out made her grit her teeth.
“I’ll need a long jog to work my muscles out tonight.
” But she did want to hear what Samantha had to say . . .
“A run sounds good. Or a jog even. I’ll take you home. If I see you on the path, great. If I don’t, I’ll assume you’ve had enough of people for the day.”
When she didn’t answer, he laughed. Cops always understood.