Free The Botanist by L. K. Hill

that the small town was full of visitors from other places—far more than it was used to—and a town this size wasn’t likely to have many places to stay to begin with. It wasn’t exactly a tourist attraction.
    A short search ended with Alex flipping through a local phonebook from one of the adjoining desks. The list of motels was alarmingly short—and no hotels. She pulled out her cell phone and called four of them before finding one with a vacancy, but she managed to secure a room without any trouble.
    Heaving a breath of relief, Alex looked around the police station. Each of the four desks held photos with distinctly different people in them, so she assumed each desk belonged to a different person—different detectives, perhaps?
    Cody’s desk held only two photos. One was of him with two middle-aged people. Cody had the woman’s shape of face and hair color, but he unmistakably shared eyes with the man. Alex decided they must be his parents.
    The second photo showed a teenaged Cody with his arm around a man in a police uniform. Alex wondered who’d been the idol in Cody’s life that prompted him to join the police force.
    “Hey Cody, did you ever find that file from Salina—oh.” A stocky man with chestnut hair came in and noticed her. A mischievous grin slid onto his face. “You’re not Cody.”
    Alex smiled. “No. He stepped out for a minute.”
    “Mmm.” The man came over and rummaged around in the desk next to Cody’s. The nameplate on the desk read Frank Dannel. “Do you know where he went?”
    “He’s looking for a report. Said he can’t pull any older than twelve months from this computer.”
    Frank grinned at her, his eyes twinkling. “How old?”
    “Four years.”
    Frank thought for a moment. “That’d be the east-wall computer. Thanks!”
    He bounded from the room. Alex chuckled.
    In all, it was more than twenty minutes before Cody returned.
    “Found it,” he said as he sat down.
    “Did Frank find you?”
    The detective looked worried. “Frank talked to you?” His voice was wary.
    “He was looking for you. He seemed to know where to find you, but . . .”
    Cody waved his hand dismissively. “He probably got distracted. There are a lot of pretty women in the lobby he’s never met before.”
    Alex laughed softly, and Cody grinned.
    “So, I read through this, and I do remember it now. Vaguely.” He set the report down and leaned back in his chair, looking straight at her, as she had at him earlier. “I seem to remember not being very nice to you.”
    Alex shrugged. “I think we’d both had a long night.”
    Cody nodded. “Still, that was no excuse. I apologize for it.”
    “I appreciate that.”
    “Why do you think this guy had anything to do with these murders?”
    “I can’t be certain of anything. I know something weird was going on with him. I felt like he meant me harm. And I know it happened—that is, I was pulled over—less than a quarter of a mile from where you found those graves.”
    Cody’s head snapped up. “What? How do you know that?”
    “They showed a map on the news of where the graves were found. It was roughly a quarter mile from that historical landmark you have out there. I was pulled over right next to that.”
    Cody looked troubled. He skimmed the report again. After that he straightened, staring at nothing and thinking. Alex watched him, but didn’t interrupt his thought process, willing him to decide to investigate her lead.
    When he nodded, it was more to himself than to her. His eyes focused on her again.
    “I know we have this report, but it’s old. We may need to take a new statement from you. Would you allow us to do that?”
    “Of course.”
    “I’d also like to bring my captain in to hear what you have say, if that’s all right with you.”
    Hope swelled in Alex’s chest. “You think this could be important.”
    Cody studied the clutter on the desk in front of him. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “I think it’s