Xo

Come on out here to the woodshed.
    But she summoned him first, calling loudly, “I’ve found something.”
    He grimaced and hesitated, then reluctantly joined her.
    “Actually I’ve found something missing. ”
    He looked around. “Body language of the trailer tell you that?”
    Madigan was being snide. But Dance said, “You could put it that way. People have patterns in their gestures and speech and expressions. They also have patterns in their living spaces. Bobby’s a highly organized person. People who are organized don’t happen to be that way accidentally. It’s a psychological drive. Look at those shelves.” She pointed.
    “They’re messy but so? I got a teenage boy.”
    “None of the others are. And your Crime Scene Unit marked where they’d taken things. Somebody else went through those boxes. Probably the intruder. It’s near the window where Tabatha saw somebody.”
    “Why do you say something’s missing?”
    “I’m not sure it’s missing. I’m making the deduction that if only those shelves were disturbed, the intruder was looking for something and he found it so he stopped.”
    Madigan reluctantly walked over to the shelves and, pulling on latex gloves, poked through the tapes, the papers, the pictures, the tchotchkes. He said, “Some of these snaps of Kayleigh, they’re not souvenirs. They’re personal.”
    That was one thing Dance hadn’t noticed.
    Madigan continued, “The sort of thing a son-of-a-bitch stalker’d want for a souvenir.”
    “That could be it, yes.”
    Madigan ran a finger over the shelf and examined it. The coat of dust was thick. Bobby was organized but not particularly concerned aboutcleaning. “Cement plant right up the road here. Looks like dust from there. I know it. We got a conviction in this trailer park ’cause of it, placing the perp here. That could be helpful.” A cool glance her way. “You find anything else?”
    “No.”
    Without a word he left the trailer, Dance after him. He called to Harutyun, “You guys find anything? Witnesses?”
    “Nothing.”
    Stanning shook her head too.
    “Where’s Lopez?”
    “Just finishing up at the convention center.”
    Madigan pulled a phone off his thick shiny belt and placed a call. He stepped away from the others and had a brief conversation. Dance couldn’t hear what was said. His eyes swiveled around the yard as he spoke, absently examining the deceased’s residence. Dance was included in his gaze.
    As he disconnected, Madigan said to Harutyun, “I want you to find Edwin. Bring him in. I don’t care where he is or what he’s doing. I need to talk to him. Now.”
    “Arrest him?”
    “No. Make it seem like it’d be good for him to come in. In his interest, you know.”
    Dance heard a harsh exhalation as Madigan regarded her expression. “What? You don’t think that’s a good idea?”
    She said, “No, I don’t. I’d vote for surveillance.”
    Madigan squinted toward Harutyun. “Do it.”
    “Sure, Chief.” Harutyun climbed into his cruiser and left, without a word to Dance.
    No, she decided; the deputy hadn’t looked at the verses to Kayleigh’s song.
    Madigan strode back to his car, his round belly swaying, as he looked over the scene. He grunted, “Crystal. Listen, I need you to come with me. Have a talk about something in my cruiser. We’ll pick yours up later.”
    The woman dutifully climbed into the passenger seat of Madigan’s cruiser. A moment later they were headed out onto the highway, without a word of farewell to Dance.
    No matter.
    She fished for her keys and turned toward her SUV. She stopped, closed her eyes briefly in frustration and gave a sharp, bitter laugh. Crystal Stanning’s squad car was tight on the rear bumper of Dance’s Pathfinder. In front was a carport full of junk. A V-8 engine block, weighing in at half a ton, she guessed, sat six inches in front of her SUV.
    She wasn’t going anywhere.

 
     

Chapter 13
    AT THE FRESNO-MADERA Consolidated Sheriff’s Office complex, P. K. Madigan stopped by the Crime Scene Unit, a block away, after returning from Bobby Prescott’s trailer.
    He wanted to urge the unit to make this case a priority, which of course they’d do. Anything for Kayleigh Towne, the girl who’d helped put Fresno on the map.
    And anything for Chief Madigan too.
    But he was only half thinking about pep rallies. He also pictured Kathryn Dance.
    Thinking about her beached car. Some people you needed to hit over the head to deliver a