Lori Armstrong - Merciless

“Did you have any idea what she was doing and who she was doing it with when she disappeared for a few days?”

Rollie went very still. “I heard rumors. Never confirmed or denied.”

“Would any of those rumors ever cause you to become violent with Verline?”

“Huh-uh.”

“How would you describe your relationship with the two children you and Verline have together?”

“No different than the relationships I’ve had with my other kids. They’re both babies. Attached to her teat. Alls they care about is her. They don’t need me for nothin’.”

I got the impression that that didn’t particularly bother him.

Turnbull wrote in his notebook. “You didn’t want more kids? Were you mad that she got pregnant?”

“Having more babies at my age wasn’t something I wanted. It was something Verline did.”

“So you didn’t threaten her?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know anyone else who might’ve threatened her?”

Rollie just stared at him.

Tension thickened the air.

After a minute or so, Shay prompted, “Mr. Rondeaux?”

“I have many enemies, Agent Turnbull. But none have been so bold as to threaten my family, let alone act on it. But perhaps that’s what this is about, eh? To prove a point to me?”

Why hadn’t I thought of revenge on Rollie as a motive for killing Verline? Rollie was well connected, but that didn’t translate into well liked. Plenty of folks would love to see his intricate web of favors dismantled. What better way to do that than to put him under police suspicion that he’d killed his estranged lover?

When Rollie’s gaze connected with mine, I saw nothing in his eyes. My stomach roiled, and my heart nearly stopped. I’d existed in that black vortex for years, and I recognized that blank look in him; I saw it in my own eyes in the mirror after I’d snuffed a life. And for the first time, I realized that my friend… might be guilty of murder. Or more than one murder.

“What about your son?”

“Which son?” Rollie asked Turnbull, tearing his gaze away from mine.

“Junior. He lived with you and Verline for a while. Why did you kick him out?”

He said, “My prerogative,” and nothing else.

For the next four questions, Rollie gave one word answers.

I knew he was done cooperating, the chief knew he was done cooperating, but Turnbull didn’t stop-until Carsten interrupted.

“Thanks for coming in and answering the agents’ questions, Mr. Rondeaux. But I believe that will be sufficient for today. It’s been a tiring day for you; I can’t imagine you’ll get much sleep, but you should go home and try. Someone from Victim Services will be in touch in the next few days. We’re sorry for your loss.”

Rollie nodded. It took him a beat or two to push out of his chair, again reminding me how old he’d started to look. Carsten escorted him out. Chief Looks Twice and Officer Ferguson followed.

Shay’s voice was cutting. “Did you see how he shuffled out of here like an old man? Trying to leave the impression that he’s harmless and helpless?”

I kept my mouth shut. Shay wasn’t asking for a response. Just thinking out loud. I was more than a little confused. More than a little heartsick. I wanted to go home and try to put this day behind me. I interrupted his muttering. “Are we done here, Agent Turnbull?”

He aimed a cool gaze at me. “You are, I suppose.”

“What do you have to do?”

“Paperwork on another case. Might as well finish while I’m here.”

I stood. “Are we in the Rapid City office tomorrow? Or here?”

“Rapid City. Unless you hear otherwise.”

“See you.” I found my coat in the employee breakroom, although I had no recollection of putting it there.

I popped the collar around my ears when the wind sideswiped me. Huge snowflakes swirled, the effect strangely magical set against the black backdrop of the night sky and the foggy beams from the parking lot lights. I was so entranced by the sight that I didn’t notice the hooded figure lounging against the SUV next to my truck until I reached the driver’s-side door.

My hand automatically went to my holster. People always ask me why I leave my coat unbuttoned: I’d rather be cold than have buttons keep me from immediate access to my gun. “If you’re armed, drop it. Slowly. Hands in the air.”

My voice startled him and he leaped back, throwing his arms above his head. “Jesus, you scared the crap outta me.”

“Who is that?”

“Junior.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah. And shee , why you always pointin’ a gun at me, hey?”

“Why you always sneakin’ up on me, hey?” I held my stance. “Why are you lurking in the parking lot?”

“Waitin’ for you.”

“Didn’t you tell me you’d be dead if Saro caught you here?” I snapped.

“I… can I put my damn hands down?”

I nodded, keeping my gun on him. “Why were you waiting for me?”

“I wanted to ask you about… Verline.” Junior lowered his hood, and I saw misery etched on his face.

I had a bad feeling about this.

He tilted his head toward the sky and closed his eyes. Snowflakes landed on his cheeks and melted immediately, sliding down his face like tears. “I can’t believe she’s dead.”

I let my gun fall to my side. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“Four days ago.”

“Where?”

“My place. She’d been staying with me since she’d left Rollie. We were trying to figure out what to do.”

Oh no. He wasn’t insinuating…? Because that would be a total clusterfuck. “What do you mean, what to do?”

Junior looked at me then with such an expression of desolation that my breath caught. “I loved her. She loved me. We… were together, but I wanted it to be more. She did, too, I think. Although I know she still wanted to be with Rollie.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. “How long has this been going on?”

“Started after she found out she was pregnant, less than two months after she had Taj. Rollie didn’t want nothin’ to do with the first baby, and she knew it’d be more of the same with the second. She hid the pregnancy from him as long as she could. Then when Rollie found out? He stopped going home. She needed someone she could count on.” He glanced at the ground. “That was me. I took her to the hospital when she went into labor a month early, and I was with her in the delivery room. Those boys are more mine than his. I, at least, wanted them. And her.”

Despite my reluctance to dig deeper into this bizarre love triangle, I knew I didn’t have a choice, given what Nita had said about Rollie threatening to kill Verline if he found out she was cheating on him. “Did Rollie know you and Verline had feelings for each other? Is that why he kicked you out?”

His head snapped up. “No. He was pissed about me working for Saro. Pissed when he found out I’d been seeing Arlette Shooting Star. But the only reason I did that-”

“Was so he didn’t figure out you and Verline were sleeping together.”

He nodded. “I also wanted to poke Rollie, about me being friends with Arlette. When he let me move in with him two years ago, he was such a dick about who I could and couldn’t hang out with. Entire families on the rez were off limits. Such old-fashioned bullshit, the grudges he kept.”

“Did Rollie know about you and Verline?”

“I don’t know!”

I called bullshit on that. Rollie was too astute not to see what was right in front of him. “Any idea what Rollie would do if he found out?”

“He’d probably kill her.”

We both froze.

Junior didn’t retract the statement. He continued to stare at me with some weird kind of childish hope I’d assure him that his father couldn’t possibly have murdered Verline.