Free Summer People by Aaron Stander Page B

appreciate the thinking you’ve done. What are you going to do now?”
    “Go back to L.A. I’ll stop in Chicago and pick up some things. I have a few things at Randy’s apartment that I want. I wish I didn’t have to do that.”
    “Because?”
    “I don’t like dealing with ghosts. I just want to get this all behind me.”
    “Whenever you’re ready, Sue will take you to the airport.”
    “Thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate it.”

17

    Ray saw Sue come into the front office and motioned her into his office with a sweeping gesture of his arm. She settled into a chair across from his desk.
    “What did you think?”
    “About?”
    “About Tawny?”
    “Well, Ray, I feel uncomfortable hazarding a guess. You’ve had so much more experience in this kind of thing.”
    “And you,” said Ray, “are unusually insightful. Do you think that she is involved?”
    “No, my intuition and all my logic say she’s not.”“Why? Remember sociopaths are usually skilled actors.”“I know, but they are often so skilled that you can’t help but be suspicious. I think she’s real, Ray. I don’t think she was involved in any way.” Sue looked directly at Ray. “But I can tell that something is bothering you.”
    “I’m bothered by the lack of any affect. She is so totally controlled. Do you think that she loved him?”
    “Love, I don’t know. She’s been married three times, and she’s only in her late twenties. She really opened up on the way back to the airport; I think she needed to talk.
    She told me that Randy was the first man who was ever kind to her. So to answer your question, I think she loved him as much as it was safe for her to love him.”
    “What else did you learn?” questioned Ray.
    “She got married the first time at eighteen; she married her high school sweetheart as a way of getting out of the house. They moved to L.A. and only managed to stay together for a few months. She worked and went to college for several years and then got a job with the airline. Her second husband, a pilot, was dashing and very romantic before they were married, but soon proved to be cruel and abusive. She stayed with him less than a year. Between marriages she had a number of other relationships, but nothing ever worked out. She said that she had just about given up on the possibility of a successful relationship when she met Randy, and this one, from the beginning, just felt right.”
    “It all sounds pretty grim,” said Ray. “But let’s be cautious. Verify her employment history with the airline and see if you can substantiate her account of her marriages. Let’s hope her exes are alive and well.”
    As she opened a notebook she said, “I do have a couple of additional things for you.”
    “Okay.”
    “The man at the state police lab says the bullet is a steel jacketed 30.06, and it was fired from a Winchester model 25. McGee, that’s the guy’s name, says that was a very popular model, there were more than a million produced. He also said that the bullet is in pretty good condition. If we find the murder weapon, he’s sure he could do a comparison that would stand up in court. And….” She turned several more pages, “I have a little information on Holden.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I took the information you gave me about Holden’s possible problem with the state bar, the things your friend told you. I called my mother—this is using the good old girl network. One of her partners in the law firm used to be on the license review board of the state bar. The man remembered Holden’s case. He said Holden should have been disbarred, but a deal was worked out.”
    “What kind of deal?”
    “Well, it seems that Holden’s dad was a former president of the state bar and there was a lot of discomfort with pulling his license. The deal was that if he would agree not to practice in Michigan for a minimum of ten years, they would take no formal action against him.”
    “He plea bargained his