Free The Big Gamble by Michael McGarrity Page A

Montoya replied, loud enough to hush a couple standing nearby.
    “Let’s talk privately,” Kerney said, touching the man’s arm to quiet him down.
    Walter pulled his arm back and led Kerney to a small bedroom that had been converted into Mrs. Montoya’s studio, where Carmela, Anna Marie’s sister, waited. A long worktable with folding legs held neat stacks of fabric, swaths of canvas, and a sewing machine. Within easy reach of a second-hand secretarial chair was a clear plastic four-drawer cart on rollers, filled with yarns, spools of thread, scissors, and embroidery needles.
    Both siblings were in their late thirties. Walter, the older by a year, now sported a receding hairline and a mustache that showed a touch of gray. Carmela, who had been married when Anna Marie disappeared, no longer wore a wedding ring. Slim and tense, she shook Kerney’s hand reluctantly.
    “To have so many show so much sympathy and support must be very heartwarming to you and your parents,” Kerney said.
    His attempt to be conciliatory fell flat. Carmela nodded tensely as though an invisible wire inside her neck had been pulled, and said nothing.
    “When will you find the person who killed her?” Walter asked, dismissing Kerney’s words.
    “I don’t know.”
    “That’s not good enough, Chief Kerney,” he snapped.
    “Let me tell you what we’re doing,” Kerney said. He took them through the investigative drill, noting how a lack of evidence and the absence of a targeted suspect made for slow going.
    “We’ve heard those same rationalizations from your department for eleven years,” Walter said when Kerney finished. He pointed a stern finger at the window, where in the backyard a bare-branched apple tree had yet to announce the arrival of spring. “My sister’s killer is out there a free man, and you’ve done nothing to catch him.”
    “Don’t lose hope,” Kerney said, skirting the criticism. He took out a pocket notebook. “I have a list of people we originally interviewed who have left Santa Fe. It would be a big help to me if you or your sister might know where some of them are currently residing.”
    “What good will that do?” Walter demanded.
    Kerney ignored the remark and read off the list. Carmela gave him the locations of two out-of-state people in a flat voice that didn’t quite mask her anger.
    “Anyone else?” Kerney asked, glancing at Walter.
    He shook his head. “But some man called me at home one night about two months ago, asking if I was Anna Marie’s brother. He said he’d just moved back to the area and wanted to get in touch with her.”
    “Did he give his name?”
    “I don’t remember it, but it was an Anglo name and he called himself doctor.”
    “Did he say what kind of doctor he was?”
    “No.”
    “Did you ask him how he knew Anna Marie?”
    “I didn’t ask, but he said he’d once been her coworker.”
    “How did he take the news of Anna Marie’s disappearance?”
    “He sounded shocked and caught off guard.”
    From the notebook Kerney rattled off the complete witness list.
    Walter shook his head. “None of those names ring a bell.”
    “With a little legwork I should be able to locate him,” Kerney said.
    “I’d like to say something to you before you go, Chief Kerney,” Carmela said, her tone brimming with hostility.
    “Yes?”
    “Our parents are polite, old-fashioned people who believe in being gracious to everybody. However, my brother and I see the world a bit differently. We’re perfectly willing to talk to members of the city council if you fail to make significant progress.”
    She nodded her head at the closed door. “And many of the people who have gathered here today are more than willing to join with us.”
    “I understand your frustration,” Kerney said, stepping to the door.
    “No, you don’t,” she said. “You haven’t a clue.”
     
    Clayton got home just in time to tuck Wendell and Hannah into bed and give them good-night kisses. He sat with