Chapter Fifteen
Creepy, thin guy’s name was Bill Steele.
Two hours after leaving Bree’s apartment, Tanner stared at the printout of the man’s background check. Nothing unusual. An out-of-state permanent address, tax filings for the last five years and a normal employment history.
There was no indication of any criminal wrongdoing whatsoever. No warrants out for his arrest or anything suspicious. In other words, he was clean. The last time Tanner had seen a record this clean was when he’d run Bree.
An interesting coincidence.
Tanner opened the door to the interrogation room. He wanted answers.
“Mr. Steele.” He took a seat across from the man. “I understand you’ve refused your right to counsel.” Tanner hated to remind him that he could call for a lawyer, but Miranda rights weren’t something to be messed with.
Steele was sitting straight in the chair, with no signs of fatigue even though it was now dawn and he’d been here for hours. He nodded briefly at Tanner’s statement but didn’t respond.
He obviously wasn’t going to be like some suspects who immediately spilled their guts when questioned.
“Your record shows you’re from Texas. That you’ve worked multiple construction jobs over the years. Why don’t we start with how you ended up in Risk Peak?”
Steele shrugged. “I go where the work is.”
“You’re a long way from home. It’s hard to believe there weren’t any other jobs between here and Texas.”
Steele’s eyes were steady. “I like the mountains.”
“So do I. But I have to say, if I hadn’t been born and raised in Risk Peak, I’m not sure I ever would’ve found myself here.” He leaned his forearms on the table. “According to Denny Hyde, the construction foreman, you’ve been here for exactly twenty-nine days.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Me and Denny’s brother went to high school together, so we know each other pretty well. Denny was a little miffed at me because I had to wake him up in the middle of the night to ask him questions about you.”
Steele crossed his arms over his chest. “And what did your good buddy Denny have to say about me?”
Tanner straightened in his chair, cocking his head to the side. “Said you show up for work every day, do your job and haven’t given him a bit of trouble.”
The other man raised an eyebrow. “Then there you go.”
“You know what I find interesting? The fact that Denny started hiring for this project twelve weeks ago, but you didn’t come on then. You came on exactly twenty-nine days ago.”
“And why is that a problem?”
Now Tanner crossed his arms over his chest. He was larger than this man.
Definitely heavier. But Steele wasn’t intimidated by him.
Tanner had sat across the interrogation table from a number of suspects who weren’t intimidated by him.
Some of them because of their own shape or size, some of them because they underestimated Tanner’s good-naturedness and took it for weakness, and some because they were just flat-out braggarts.
But Bill Steele’s lack of intimidation was something different. Like the man had already seen hell and knew there was nothing Tanner was going to do to him that could be as bad as what he’d already been through.
Steele might be a creepy, thin man, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. Deadly, even.
Maybe Tanner had even underestimated him. He’d assumed that because of the man’s gaunt face and slender build maybe he was a drug user.
But the eyes looking across from him now were not those of a man who would let narcotics control him. The thinness of his frame didn’t seem to rest naturally on him. It was more like he was in recovery. But recovering from what?
“It’s a problem because it was exactly one day after Bree and the twins got here.”
Steele’s eyes shifted away for just a second. “Coincidence.”
Tanner leaned back a little farther in his chair. “You know, I might have believed that if I hadn’t gotten the message from you tonight letting me know that Bree was in trouble. How did you know that?”
Steele shrugged. “I saw the guys headed toward her apartment. It’s sort of isolated. I knew she was there alone with those kids and thought the guys might be looking for trouble. Ends up I was right.”
“How do you know they were going to her apartment? If you called me when they were at her front door, there’s no way I would’ve gotten there in time.”
Steele’s jaw stiffened. “Look, Dempsey, I don’t sleep well. I was out for a walk, saw some guys who looked like trouble and did my civic duty. Nothing more or less than that.”
“Any reason why you didn’t just call 911?”
Steele’s eyes shifted away again. “I guess I just had your number for some reason.”
“It is public, so I guess that’s a possibility.” Tanner took out his phone—his piece-of-junk flip phone—and laid it on the table. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I carry this type of phone, would it?”
Steele’s lips pursed and eyes narrowed. “What do you know?”
“What do you know?”
They stared each other down.
Steele finally shook his head, withdrawing into himself. “Nothing. I’m just a construction worker who gets to work outside with a hell of a view every day. Just counting my blessings.”
Tanner didn’t buy that horse manure for a second. “How did you know those men were coming for Bree?” he asked again.
But Steele wasn’t budging. “Like I said, I saw them, and they gave me a hinky feeling.”
Tanner decided to try a new line of questioning. “Deputy Kitchens said you tackled one of them? That’s how you got banged up.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, the guy was running after Bree. Least I could do was help out.”
“How do I know you weren’t the one chasing after Bree? You’ve certainly been making her uncomfortable for the last couple weeks. She says you’re watching her all the time.”
Steele sat up straighter. “If I was trying to hurt her, there were other times that would’ve been a damn sight more convenient than right after I just messaged you and told you she needed help.”
That, Tanner believed. He didn’t think Steele had been one of the guys after Bree. But he did think the man wanted something from her. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe Bree owed somebody money and this was about collecting.
“Did you know Bree before you came here, Steele?”
“I can promise you I had never heard of Bree Daniels before I set foot in Risk Peak.” Frustration grew inside Tanner. He didn’t think Steele was actually lying to him, he just wasn’t telling the whole truth.
Exactly how he often felt about Bree.
It was like the answers were right there in front of him, if he just knew what questions to ask.
“Are you or Bree involved with the mob? Does she owe someone money? Does it have something to do with the same people her cousin is mixed up with?” Tanner felt like he was throwing spaghetti against the wall, hoping something would stick.
“Mob? No. Money? I don’t think so. And I have no idea who Bree is, truly, so I don’t know who her cousin or any other family is.”
“Melissa Weathers.”
If he hadn’t been watching Steele so closely, he never would’ve seen it. Hell, he was looking directly at the man and almost didn’t see it. Steele didn’t startle, didn’t stiffen, but the air around him changed.
He knew Melissa.
Tanner leaned forward until he was nearly halfway over the narrow table. “You know Melissa, don’t you? Do you work for the people Melissa works for? Do you know what they’re up to? How to stop them?”
Whatever Steele had been feeling, he swallowed it fast. “I don’t work for anybody but Denny Hyde. And you know what? I’m tired. Either charge me and I’ll call an attorney, or I’m ready to go. You can’t hold me.”
It was true. And although they could hold him for a few more hours, if he was requesting counsel, he would be out of here in no time.
“We’re not going to charge you.” Tanner made one last appeal. “But tell me what’s going on so I can help. I can’t protect Bree if I don’t know what I’m up against.”
Steele stood, and Tanner thought he would leave without saying anything else, but when he got to the door, he turned back. “Get her—get them—out of here. Out of this town, where no one can find them. Do it right now. Don’t wait.”
That was exactly what he’d planned on doing.
“Why? Who’s coming, Steele?”
“Someone way too big for you to fight. Just get them out while you can.”
He was gone without another word.