Free Guilty as Sin by Tami Hoag Page B

stopped into the Big Steer truck stop out on the interstate for coffee and pie. The Big Steer served as restaurant to the Super 8 motel, where four out of five rooms were occupied by reporters.
     
    They were lying in wait like a pack of wolves when Ellen pulled into the City Center lot at five to seven. She promised to give them something later and hurried into the building, hanging a left into the law-enforcement center.
     
    They met in a conference room that had been dubbed The War Room in the first hours of the investigation into Josh's kidnapping. A time line was taped to one long wall to keep track of everything that had happened pertaining to the case. From a fat red main artery, numerous tributaries branched out in various colors of ink. The notes that had been left by the kidnapper to taunt them were emblazoned across a white melamine message board in Mitch Holt's bold, slanted handwriting. A large cork bulletin board was covered with a map of Minnesota and one of the five-county area. The maps were bristling with pins that marked search areas.
     
    Ellen poured herself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table next to Cameron. Wilhelm sat across from her, nursing the same lack-of-sleep hangover she was fighting. Sheriff Steiger had claimed the chair at the head of the table, a minor power play in an ongoing pissing contest with Mitch. Steiger was fifty, lean and tough with a narrow face and a complexion like old leather. Adhesive tape across his nose suggested he had lost a battle in the war for supremacy. The looks the two traded were stony.
     
    As much as she disliked Steiger for the sexist jerk he was, Ellen took no pleasure in the seething enmity between the two men. A successful investigation, an investigation that would lead to a conviction, required teamwork and open lines of communication between all team members.
     
    Mitch paced along the time line as he filled them in on Josh's exam and what had transpired later in Josh's room.
     
    "So Paul Kirkwood is still a suspect," Wilhelm declared.
     
    "Suspect is too strong a word," Mitch said. "Josh's reaction could have been caused by any number of reasons other than guilt on Paul's part. It could have been that Paul shares some physical characteristics with Wright. Or maybe it was the way Paul approached him or something in the tone of his voice."
     
    "We have to tread lightly here," Ellen cautioned. "Mr. Kirkwood is already hypersensitive to the attention he's gotten. He feels victimized by the crime and by the police. If we mishandle this and he's completely innocent, we're going to be looking at lawsuits."
     
    "I'm seeing him this morning," Mitch said. "I'll be the soul of diplomacy."
     
    "I want in on that," Wilhelm said.
     
    "Any progress on finding the location Wright held Megan?" Ellen asked.
     
    "We know it wasn't his own house," Wilhelm said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. "We know it wasn't Christopher Priest's house, even though the initial attack took place in Priest's yard. Wright drove her somewhere."
     
    "We're doing a records search in a fifty-mile radius," Steiger interjected. "Trying to find out if Wright owns any other property in the area."
     
    "He could own it under another name or under a dummy business name," Cameron suggested bleakly. "Or the house could belong to his accomplice, whoever that might be."
     
    "Well, we know now it couldn't have been Olie Swain," Mitch said. "And Karen Wright was locked up tight in the Fontaine last night."
     
    Wilhelm raised his eyebrows. "But Paul Kirkwood was out driving around town in the middle of the night."
     
    "Maybe we should be looking for connections between Kirkwood and Wright," Cameron said, uncapping a fountain pen and jotting a note on his legal pad.
     
    Mitch looked unhappy at the suggestion. "What motive could cause Paul to conspire with Garrett Wright to steal his own son? That's just rucking bizarre."
     
    "World's full of perverts and kooks, Holt," Steiger