“You’re sure?”
“Yes. I would’ve known about it.”
“Not if—” she began, but Gary nudged her and realization finally dawned. “You mean…he wasn’t on the couch?”
Sophia sighed. “That’s exactly what I mean.”
Detective Lindstrom had picked Rod up for questioning at the Boot and Spur Dude Ranch five miles west of town. Because the rooms came as part of an expensive vacation package that included an entire week’s stay, chuck wagon dinners, hoedowns and trail rides, and very few people wanted to spend a week riding horses in one hundred and ten degree weather, they’d closed for a few weeks to do some remodeling. But the manager was nice enough to rent Rod a room, anyway. Fortunately, they didn’t have to worry about the newspeople bugging them to do the same. The crews weren’t interested in sequestering themselves outside of town; they didn’t want to miss any of the action.
Although he’d been sitting in an interrogation room for the past fifteen minutes, trying to tell Sheriff Cooper and his sidekick, Detective Lindstrom, that he’d had nothing to do with Stuart’s murder, they weren’t listening. Just as they really started grilling him, a deputy with hair even redder than Lindstrom’s poked his head into the room.
“Sheriff, I got a call for you.”
“Take a message.” Intent on his purpose, Cooper scooted his chair closer to Rod. “It’ll be a lot easier on everybody if you tell us the truth, son.”
The country charm was no doubt calculated to make Cooper seem like a trustworthy parent figure. He’d probably been taught that in Successful Interrogation 101. But the only parent figure Rod could trust had died a long time ago and he wasn’t likely to forget it. “I’m not your son,” he pointed out. “And I have nothing to say. Either charge me with a crime or let me go.”
“Don’t ask for more trouble than you’re already in. I don’t have to explain to you—”
“Sheriff?”
Irritation etched deep grooves in Cooper’s weathered face as he realized the deputy who’d interrupted him was still there. “What now, Phil?”
“It’s that phone call, sir.”
“What about it?”
“Chief St. Claire says she needs to talk to you right away. She claims she has information pertaining to the murder of Stuart Dunlap.”
This gave him pause. “Did she say what it was?”
“No, sir.”
Muttering a few words that sounded like, “This better be good,” he hefted his considerable weight onto his feet and left.
Meanwhile, Lindstrom folded her arms, crossed her legs and sat back. “Did you do it?”
Rod didn’t bother answering. This was a load of crap, a waste of time. They had nothing on him. He was more concerned with what was happening outside the room. He didn’t want Sophia to do what he figured she was doing. He could handle this on his own.
Lindstrom spoke up again. “The D.A. will go easier on you if you tell the truth.”
He shot her a dirty look. If she thought she could take over for Cooper and do a better job, she was more clueless than he’d supposed, which was saying something. “Easier for whom? You?”
“You know how these things work.”
“Exactly.” And even if he had killed someone, it would take smarter interrogators than Tweedledum and Tweedledee to make him crack.
She tried to talk to him again, but he leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor without responding, and she finally understood that she wasn’t going to get anywhere. She fell silent, leaving Rod to wonder what was being said on the phone. Was Sophia telling the sheriff that they’d been together almost all night?
He hoped not. He didn’t want to give them anything.
Maybe she’d come up with a piece of hard evidence, something that pointed to someone else….
A few minutes later, the door opened, and Sheriff Cooper stood there looking as disappointed as a kid who’d just had his Halloween candy stolen by the neighborhood bully. “That’s it for today. You can go.”
“Excuse me?” Rod said.
“You heard me,” Cooper replied. “This doesn’t mean I won’t bring you back in, if necessary, but we’ve talked enough for now. Lindstrom, drop him off at his motel.”
Lindstrom came to her feet. “But…what’s changed?”
“Coroner says Stuart was killed at about four-thirty. I called him as soon as I hung up with Chief St. Claire.”
“And?”
“Rod here has an alibi from four on.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Where was he?”
Cooper gave her a look that said this was going to be good. “Having sex with the chief of police.”
Her mouth dropped open but she quickly recovered. And then she grew angry. “So that’s why you took her side at the FBI meeting,” she snapped. “She was putting out for you!”
Damn it. Sophia shouldn’t have confessed. Her enemies, including Lindstrom, would use this against her, try to sway public opinion, make her look irresponsible and morally compromised all because she’d lowered her defenses and let him stay the night…. “That had nothing to do with it.”
“What else could it be?” she said with a smirk.
Determined to shut Lindstrom up, at least for the moment, he offered her a taunting grin. “You mean other than the fact that she’s worth two of you under any circumstances.”
The call came much sooner than Sophia had expected. She wished she’d ignored it, let it go to voice mail and saved herself the humiliation of facing Mayor Schilling and the other four council members when she already felt so beleaguered. But she wasn’t sure she’d feel any stronger tomorrow. Her days seemed to be getting steadily worse, no matter what she did. So she’d taken the call and received her summons and here she was, hurrying so she wouldn’t be late. Pride wouldn’t allow her to skulk off and hide just because the powers that be had obviously heard the rumors about her. She hadn’t had an affair with her stepfather. Despite Leonard and his attempts to damage her reputation, there’d been no impropriety on her part at all. And maybe she’d slept with Rod, which probably wasn’t the best decision, but she didn’t think one night’s escape affected her ability to do her job. If she was never really off duty, they had to give her enough leeway to live a little while she was on duty, didn’t they? Besides, technically she’d been off.