Part 28 (1/2)
”Sorry I missed it. No one makes a better bad cop than me.”
”I have no doubt about that,” he said with half a smile. ”Aren't you going to invite me in? Say the water's fine?”
”That would be a cliche. I abhor predictability.”
I swam to the ladder and climbed out, forcing myself not to rush to cover my body with my towel. I didn'
t want him to know how vulnerable I felt. Somehow I thought that even in the dim light around the pool he would see every scar, every imperfection. It made me angry that I cared.
I toweled myself off, rubbed my hair dry, then wrapped the towel around my waist like a sarong to hide
the pitted, scarred flesh of my legs. Landry watched, his expression unreadable.
”Nothing about you is predictable, Estes.”
”I'll take that as a compliment, though I don't think you consider unpredictability a virtue. Do you have
any good news?” I asked, leading the way to the guest house.
”The deputies found Erin Seabright's car,” he said. ”Parked under about six inches of dust in a corner of that first lot at the truck entrance of the equestrian center.”
I stood with my hand on the doork.n.o.b, holding my breath, waiting for him to tell me Erin had been found
dead in the trunk.
”The CSU is going over it for prints, et cetera.”
I let go a sigh at the initial sense of relief. ”Where was it?”
”In the first parking lot as you come in the truck entrance, over by the laundry place.”
”Why would it be there?” I asked, not expecting an answer. ”She would have parked near Jade's barn,
not half a mile away. Why would it be there?”
Landry shrugged. ”Maybe she had dropped stuff off at the laundry.”
”Then walked all the way to Jade's barn? And then walked to the back gate to meet whoever she
thought she was meeting? That doesn't make sense.” ”It doesn't make sense for the kidnappers to move it there either,” Landry said. ”They kidnapped her.Why would they care where her car was parked?”
I thought about that as we went into the house. ”To buy time? Monday would have been Erin's day off.
If not for Molly, no one would have missed her until Tuesday morning.”
”And no one would have missed her then, because Jade claimed she'd quit and moved to Ocala,”
Landry finished the theory.
”How did he take the questioning?”
”It was an inconvenience to him. The interview and the murder.”
”Any nerves?”
”Not worth mentioning.”
”Well . . . the guy makes a living riding horses over fences taller than I am. It's not a game for the faint of
heart.”
”Neither is murder.”
A game. It would be difficult for the average person to consider murder and kidnapping a game, but in a
macabre way it was a game. A game with very serious stakes.