Free Crossed Bones by Carolyn Haines Page A

Can you do something about that?"
    "Would you turn that music off?" Aside from the fact that the lyrics were incriminating to Scott, I was positive the idea of a Blizzard Head broad playing loud music and holding a protest sign on the courthouse lawn was not helping
Hampton
's case.
    "I'm not going to stop playing Scott's music, and I'm not going to eat until they let him out." Her lips thinned into a straight line that I remembered well from college. Nandy got what Nandy wanted--or else. But in the past, she'd never been one to deprive herself of anything.
    "Nandy, the music isn't helping."
    She ignored me. "Can you believe Coleman Peters is sheriff now?" she continued. "He was nothing but a stupid jock all through high school. Did he even go to college? Maybe some trade school. Something like
Troughville
State
, where all the best pigs are trained."
    I was wasting precious time. "I'll talk to you later." I stepped past her and started up the stairs. Nandy had transformed her exterior, but there'd been no corresponding renovation of her soul.
    Her fingers clutched my upper arm in a grip of surprising strength. "Are you going to talk to Scott?" The look in her eyes told me a lot more than I wanted to know. Even though she obviously knew I was working on his case, she was jealous of the fact that I could talk to him.
    I could have eased her mind by telling her he didn't want to talk to me, but I didn't. "I'm going to talk to the sheriff."
    "Tell him he'd better let me see Scott."
    I didn't say anything for several seconds. Nandy had gone from asking for my help to demanding that I deliver her messages. "For Scott's sake, turn off the music," I said, hurrying up the steps and inside the courthouse.
    Coleman was at the counter, and the dispatcher's chair was empty. Little Bo-Peep had gone to round up sheep. Or with any luck, she'd gone for a shearing herself.
    "You went out to Playin' the Bones. You're on the case." Coleman wasn't asking.
    "I took a look around."
    "You're making a mistake, Sarah Booth." His voice was terse. "You don't need this, and neither do I."
    "What, exactly, do you need, Coleman?" I heard the heat in my own voice.
    "I don't know," he said, and he turned his profile to me.
    Neither of us were talking about the case. But it was the only thing I could, legitimately, talk to him about.
    "Any new developments with
Hampton
? What about that noose? Any idea who hung it?"
    Coleman shook his head. "They were smart enough to use an old rope, so we can't trace it back to where it was purchased from. There's really nothing forensically that we can determine. We're trying to find witnesses."
    "Do you have any suspects?" I pressed.
    "When I make a charge, you'll be the first to know."
    "What about the evidence against Scott? Anything new?"
    "The coroner puts the time of death at between two and four o'clock in the morning.
Hampton
claims he left the bar at midnight."
    "Maybe he did." I was at a real disadvantage since my client wouldn't talk to me.
    "I have a witness that says otherwise." He put his palms on the counter.
    "A reliable witness?"
    "A strange witness." He turned back to face me, putting both hands on the counter as if to steady himself. "Nandy Shanahan."
    "Nandy?" I couldn't hide my shock. "She's out there on the courthouse lawn raising hell because he's in jail. She's president of his fan club."
    "Right. The Blizzard Heads." Coleman looked at his fingers instead of at me. "She signed a statement that she saw Scott come out of the club at exactly two-twenty that morning." He looked at me. "Unfortunately for you, that makes
Hampton
a liar and the man I believe committed Ivory's murder."
    I sighed. "You believe Nandy?"
    "Do you believe
Hampton
?" he countered.
    "He hasn't really talked to me," I confessed. This case was looking more and more like a quagmire.
    "You'd better get something out of him. Linc's going to push this as hard as he can. He's having visions of the governor's office, and Scott