“Sure thing. I’ll be right back with the order.” Susie hurried into the back.
Scratching her head, Jenna turned to Kane. “She didn’t ask me if I wanted something to eat. I guess she must be preoccupied.” She shrugged. “I’ll go talk to Wendy and when Susie comes back, can you order a turkey on rye for me and I’ll take the cherry pie as well?”
“Sure.” Kane smiled at her. “Coffee or soda?”
Jenna blinked and turned up her face to examine him. “Soda? Since when do I drink soda at lunchtime? Are you Dave Kane or have you been taken over by an alien body snatcher?”
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.” Kane ruffled her hair and laughed.
Jenna smoothed down her hair and frowned at him. “Now I’m sure it’s not you.”
“Woo-woo.” Kane wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s Halloween, go with the flow.”
It seemed to Jenna that Kane always tried to break the trauma of visiting a murder scene or an autopsy with his brand of often black humor. It was his way of de-stressing, and she’d grown to appreciate it. After a horrific day, Kane had turned it around to some type of normal. Whatever normal was in Black Rock Falls.
Jenna waited for Wendy to come to the counter and introduced herself to the bubbly blonde-haired woman. “I’m following up on the call you made to the hotline. Did you find any CCTV footage of the man?”
“I sure did, and it’s set up and ready for you in the office.” Wendy smiled. “This way.” She headed into the back.
“Great!” Jenna followed her into a neat office and peered at the screen showing people enjoying their meals inside the dining area.
“I’ll get it up for you.” Wendy quickly accessed a file. “I copied it onto a separate file so I could find it quickly. Here you go.”
Seated at the desk, Jenna viewed the footage of the couple speaking to a man the previous Thursday. She stared at the man in the footage and a freezing cold trickle slid down her spine. The height, black Stetson, and long black slicker made her hand shake. He was a match for the man she’d seen in her yard. Drawing on her professional mask to hide her anxiety from Wendy, she zoomed in on the man’s face, but as if he knew someone was filming him, he kept his back to the camera or pulled his hat down over his eyes. One side shot was all she had to go on. She pulled out her phone, accessed the image files, displayed a few random headshots of other men, and mixed in the three suspects. She handed the phone to Wendy. “Do you recognize the man from any of these images?”
“Yeah, I spoke to him. He’s a Montanan by his accent and I don’t recall seeing him in here before, but that’s him for sure.” Wendy pointed to Riley Adams out of Snowberry Falls.
Jenna held her breath. This had to be too good to be true. She had a match for one of the men singled out at the practice range. She fumbled inside her jacket for one of the empty flash drives she carried in her pocket and handed it to Wendy. “Could you make me a copy, please? I’ll clear it with Susie.” She stood. “I’ll go and grab a statement book from Deputy Kane. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Breathless with exuberance at her discovery, she hurried through the busy lunchtime diners to the table at the back beside the window. Susie always kept a reserved sign on the table for the use of the sheriff’s department. When Kane looked up from his bowl of chili, she grinned at him and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “We have a suspect.” She reached for the folder on the table. “I’ll get a statement.”
“Find what you needed?” Susie came up behind her carrying a pot of coffee.
Jenna straightened. “Yeah, I’ve found some useful information. I’ll just need a statement from Wendy and if you could give us permission to copy some of your CCTV footage, I’d appreciate it.”
“Anything I can do to help, you only have to ask.” Susie placed the coffee pot on the table and looked at Kane. “I’ll fill out the paperwork now if you have it with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kane pulled a notepad out of the folder and handed it to her. He glanced up at Jenna. “I’ll hunt down the suspect’s whereabouts while you eat.”
It didn’t take Jenna too long to get the statement. She thanked Wendy and headed back to Kane. She handed him the statement and dropped into a chair. “We have a positive ID for Riley Adams out of Snowberry Falls. Wendy picked him out of the three guys from the practice range and another three random images I showed her.” She filled a cup from the pot on the table and added the fixings. “From the CCTV footage, he was sitting close by, then stood and spoke to them. It looks like Payton Harris asked him to join them. They talked for some time and the couple appeared animated after he left, as if he’d given them some good news.”
“They’re out of Buffalo Ridge, so about two hours’ drive from town.” Kane pushed away his empty bowl and sip
ped his coffee. “Close enough not to stay in a motel, if they planned on camping in the forest.” He smiled as Susie came back, bringing Jenna’s sandwich and two wedges of cherry pie. “Oh my, that pie looks incredible.” He lifted the plate to his nose and sniffed. A look of bliss came over his face and he looked at Susie. “I’d like one pie to go as well, please.”
“I have individual pies as well, fresh out the oven.” Susie grinned down at him. “Cherry and peach.”
“Six of each. I’ll store them in my freezer.” He looked at Jenna. “You can never have too many pies.”
Jenna rolled her eyes and laughed. “Obviously.” She waited for Susie to walk away. “We need to find Riley Adams today. I might call Bobby Kalo and see if he can dig up any dirt on him. He can get into files we don’t have access to. It might save time.”
“As he’s already involved, we might as well save the grunt work.” Kane bent to pat Duke on the head; as a police dog, he was allowed in the café.
Jenna made the call. “Yeah, we have an address from his driver’s license but at this time of the day, he’s likely working somewhere. Can you hunt him down for me, please?”
“Sure, it’s as quiet as a grave in here today.” Kalo tapped away at his keyboard.
“Thanks.” Jenna put the phone on speaker and ate her sandwich. About five minutes later, Kalo came back on the line. She took the phone off speaker and listened with interest.