Angels Fall

enough of this nonsense. I have customers, and I want to finish my work and get home to my kids for popcorn and movie night. Some of us have normal lives."
    And some of us just believe we do, Reece thought. Sympathy welled up inside her. Debbie was going to have that belief shattered very soon. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."
    "You will be," Debbie replied as Reece turned for the door. Reece pulled her cell phone out of her pocket as she hurried back toward the diner. Then cursed when Brody's answering machine picked up on the fourth ring. "Damn it. Call me back, soon as you can. I'm going to try your cell."
    But that, too, switched to voice mail.
    Frustrated as she knew he could walk ten feet in any direction from his cabin and lose his service, she jammed the phone back in her pocket.
    It was all right, she told herself. Rick was in Moose, and even if Debbie called him when she got home to complain about crazy Reece Gilmore, he couldn't be back for a couple hours. Probably more. It would give her time to sort it all out in her head. So when she dumped it all on Brody, it would be with organized thinking.
    That was best. It was going to be difficult enough to tell him his friend was a killer.

    BRODY SPOTTED Los truck when he passed Joanie's cabin. Had Reece seen it in Jackson when they were there? He hated the fact that his first thought was that he knew the location of one of the suspects. All he could hope was in the next hour, he'd know who Reece had seen by the river. And it would be over for her.
    He wanted it over for her.
    He thought about buying her some tulips. Probably something he should do. Maybe take her away for a couple days until the bulk of the dust settled. She'd have to give statements, answer questions. Be the center of attention, at least for a while.
    Rough on her, but she'd get through it.
    And once she had, they'd have to get started on some pretty serious business of their own. He was buying that damn cabin from Joanie, and building on that new office, that deck. And Reece Gilmore was staying put. With him.
    He could bribe her with a set of those fancy pots. The Sitram.
    These stay in my kitchen. Slim, and so do you. The idea of it made him smile. She'd appreciate that. She'd get that.
    He turned onto the quiet, secluded drive, winding among the pines, and parked in front of the cabin. Rick came out on the porch, his face sober, his eyes grave. He walked down the steps as Brody got out of the car. "Thanks for coming, Brody. Let's go on inside."

Chapter 30

    ABOUT THE TIME Reece was trying Brody's cell, he was walking into the kitchen at the Mardson cabin.
    "Got coffee fresh," Rick told him, and poured out a mug for Brody. "Thanks. State cops aren't here yet?" "On their way. Might as well go in and sit down." "You said you didn't want to get into details over the phone." "Complicated business. Touchy business." Rick stirred in the sugar and cream Brody took in his coffee, then rubbed the back of his neck. "I hardly know where to start, what to think." He led the way to the living room, sat in the wingback chair as Brody settled on the rusty red-and-gray checks of the sofa. "I appreciate you coming out here like this, so we can keep this quiet for now." "No problem. I should tell you that we're pretty confident we've identified the victim. Deena Black, out of Jackson."
    Leaning forward in his chair, Rick narrowed his eyes. "How'd you come by that?"
    "So." Brody murmured as he drank his coffee, "we were right. We followed a up, on the sketch, tracked her name down in Jackson."
    "Lowering to have to admit a couple of civilians got there about the same time I did." Rick shook his head, laid his hands on his knees. "First off, I'm going to say I owe Reece a big apology. I never did believe her, not really. Not in the gut where it counts. Mlaybe I didn't follow through as much as I should have because I didn't. I've got to take the weight of that."
    "But you believe her now."
    Rick sat back. "I do. I did think she might've seen something when I got that wire alert on the Jane Doe. 

    But she wouldn't identify her, and  .  . ."
    "Was it Deena Black?"
    "No, turns out it was a runaway from Tucson. They got the two men who picked her up, hitching for Christ's sake. Did that to her. That's something anyway."
    "So, Reece was right about that, too."
    "I'd say she was right about a lot of things. Took me out at the knees when the state boys got in touch with me. I talked to them about what Reece said