Free Beneath Forbidden Ground by Doug McCall Page A

pulled back his coat to show the badge attached to his belt. “We’re taking a new look at the disappearance of Tammy Crews back in ninety-one. I understand she spent time studying painting with you around the time she went missing.”
    Newell exhaled a sigh. “Ah, so that’s it? I didn’t think you were here to appreciate my displays. Don’t see you as a customer, ” he said, with a slightly upturned lip.
    “Oh. And why is that?” Scallion knew exactly what the jerk meant, but wanted him to say it. His mellow mood from minutes earlier was now entirely shattered.
    “Well, I could just tell,” Newell said defensively, obviously flustered by the detective’s blunt reply. “I didn’t mean anything personal by it.”
    Scallion nodded slowly. For the life of him, he couldn’t see what in the hell the Crews girl had seen in him. “Right.” He decided to press on, get this over with quickly. “What can you tell me about the last time you saw her?”
    The art dealer sighed once more. “As I told the other officers back then, I hadn’t seen Tammy for about a week before she...well, whatever happened to her. I wasn’t happy with the progress she was making as an artist, and I told her so. She must have taken offense to my honest opinion, because I didn’t see her anymore after I told her the truth.”
    “Weren’t you two a little more than teacher and student? The notes from the first investigation mentioned you had a relationship.”
    Newell rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “If that’s what you want to call it. Sure, we dated for awhile. But that was another reason I wanted to discourage her. She was reading more into it than I. It was becoming a clingy kind of a situation.”
    Scallion pretended to read something on a note pad he had pulled from a coat pocket. “According to her parents, you were the one doing the chasing, egging her on to become a painter.”
    The lip curled up again. “Listen, detective, I have nothing against the Crews. Matter of fact, Mrs. Crews had shopped here before. I think she’s the one who mentioned my studio to Tammy in the first place. But Mr. Crews was wrong about what was going on between us. He actually came in here one day a few weeks before I ended things, made a scene in front of my customers. Accused me of being an opportunist...a gigolo! We had a few words, then he left. It caught me by surprise, since she had told me he didn’t have much to do with her.”
    “I see,” Scallion said, jotting notes on his pad. He was beginning to believe anyone connected to the Crews family was poison. But as much as he despised this guy, he did seem to be telling the truth. Taking a glance around the gallery, he saw that the other two employees seemed to be leaning a curious ear in their direction.
    “Just one more thing, Mr. Newell,” Scallion said. “Before you burst her bubble, did Tammy say anything about trouble she was having with drug dealers? Anything like that?”
    The question struck a nerve, one Newell tried to hide, but Scallion caught the twitch in the man’s eyes. The word “drugs” did that sometimes.
    “No. She never mentioned anything about that to me.” Newell avoided eye contact as he answered.
    “Huh huh,” Scallion nodded, staring directly at the other man. “How about outside jobs? Since she wasn’t going to make it as an artist, was she looking for work anywhere?”
    “Tammy? Tammy never worked a day in her life. I can’t imagine who would’ve hired her.” The man didn’t even try to hide a derisive sneer.
    Scallion took a long moment, gazing around the room at the paintings, his eyebrows furrowed, hoping his expression would indicate he didn’t exactly see this as work either.
    Evidently, the dealer caught it. “Are we done here, detective?” I’ve got a gallery to run. ”
    “Yes, we’re done,” Scallion said. Without shaking hands, he started for the door, every bit as anxious to end the interview as the other man. He fought the