“Heard word you’re an attorney,” Mick explained. “We been combin’ Kami’s records, she don’t got a lot, bank statements show she’s pretty much got zilch, livin’ from paycheck to paycheck, beyond her means, flyin’ high in her Lexus cartin’ around those fancy-ass purses on credit. Figure she’ll need some help ‘round about now and George isn’t only covered in work, he’s pricey.”

“You’re coming here because you want her to lawyer up?” I asked in disbelief.

“I’m here because I watched Kami Maxwell grow up and doin’ that I watched her grow bitter.” His eyes went to Max. “Just like her Ma, wantin’ a man she had but let him get away.”

“Don’t mean she killed a man, Mick,” Max returned.

“She did this, whatever pushed her to it, she’s still one of our own and, right now, she needs help,” Mick told him.

“This is fucked up,” Max clipped.

“She’s got motive, she had twenty-five large that went in and out of her account in about three days. We talk to her and she don’t have an alibi, we may find she had opportunity,” Mick said to Max.

“Kami ain’t small but she’s also not got the strength to subdue a man, tie him up, take him to a building site and drill four rounds into him,” Max retorted.

“Toxicology shows he was roofied,” Mick stated.

“That’s not good,” I muttered and Max’s eyes sliced to me.

“Roofied?” Max asked.

“Date rate drug,” I answered.

“Christ,” Max bit out and looked back at Mick. “Kami doesn’t have it in her to shoot a man four times, he’s drugged or not.”

“That’s what I’m hopin’, Max, you got to know that. But I also gotta do my job and this is what we got. She don’t have an alibi and some good reason to buy a gun and take a loan against her house and blow it all in three days, what can I say? Any way you look at it, with her history with Curt and Bitsy, the evidence we got, it ain’t lookin’ good.”

“Do you have a ballistics match on her gun?” I enquired.

“Got a warrant to search her house. Jeff and Pete are bringin’ her in, other boys are goin’ through her house. We find the weapon, we’ll run the tests,” Mick answered.

“You said they’re bringing her in?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Mick said to me. “You comin’ down the mountain?”

“Fuck yeah,” Max answered.

I let Max’s belt loop go and muttered, “I’ll go get my purse.”

***

“I should sue you for wrongful arrest!” Kami shouted from her seat at the table beside me.

I drew in a calming breath and Mick, across the table from us, looked at me.

“Kami,” I said softly.

“This is crazy!” she yelled.

“They’re just asking questions, Kami,” I reminded her. “You aren’t arrested.”

She twisted in her seat and glared at me. “Then I’m free to go?”

“Um…” I mumbled, “technically, yes.”

She started to stand, declaring, “Then I’m goin’.”

I reached out and grabbed her hand. “As I explained to you before we came in here, you’re free to go but, if you do, you’ll appear uncooperative and you don’t want that.”

She glared at me and I noticed while she did it that her hand was trembling in mine so I squeezed it.

Then I continued, “Or if you try to leave, you may force Mick’s hand and he’ll have to arrest you on what he thinks he’s got.”

Her hand jerked spasmodically in mine.

“You have nothing to hide, Kami, sit down and take a deep breath,” I advised, giving her hand a small tug.

She held my eyes then she looked at Mick then she sat down and I released her hand.

My gaze went to Mick. “Mick, you can start.”

He nodded and looked at Kami. “All right, Kami, we’ll begin at the beginnin’. What were you doin’ between the hours of one and four last Wednesday mornin’?”

“I wasn’t killin’ Curt,” Kami snapped.

“What were you doin’?” Mick pressed.

“I’d never hurt Curt,” Kami kept snapping.

“Answer his question, Kami,” I urged quietly, she sighed in a harassed way and responded.

“Between one and four in the morning, I was sleepin’. What else would I be doin’?”

“Were you alone?” Mick asked and Kami’s face twisted bitterly.

“Yeah, Mick, I was alone.”

Mick nodded then went on, “Did you buy a gun in Denver ‘bout a month ago?”

Even though I told her that Mick had that on her, Kami’s body jerked before she answered belligerently, “Yeah, so?”

“Why?” Mick queried.

“I don’t know. Shauna and I were in Denver havin’ a girls weekend. We drove by this shop, saw they had a shootin’ range, Shauna got a wild hair and we went in. Dad taught Max and me how to shoot, we used to go up to the land and do it all the time. I forgot I was good at it and we had fun. After we took turns at the range, Shauna mentioned she noticed I was good at it too and she convinced me to buy a gun.”

My eyes, on Kami, slid to Mick to see he was nodding. But I was wondering why on earth Shauna would, first, get a wild hair to go to a shooting range and, second, after she did that, convince her friend to buy a gun. I wasn’t a mountain woman therefore I didn’t know what they spent their fun time doing but that seemed strange.

I just hoped Mick was wondering the same thing.

“You recently borrowed on your house,” Mick informed Kami.

She nodded and asked curtly, “So what?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” Mick continued.

“Yeah, I remember how much I borrowed, Mickey,” Kami snapped.

“It went in and out of your account in a few days,” Mick told her and Kami’s eyes narrowed.

“So, you’re lookin’ into my accounts too?”

“Kami, you’re a suspect in a double homicide,” Mick said quietly.

She sucked in breath, her narrowed eyes went wide, she sat back in her chair and I bit my lip. Mick had asked me not to mention that to her and as a favor I didn’t.

“Double?” Kami breathed, clearly astonished at this news, something Mick couldn’t miss which I hoped made my favor to Mick pay off for Kami.

“Curtis Dodd and Marco Fitzgibbon,” Mick stated.

“Who’s Marco Fitzgibbon?” Kami asked.

“The PI Curt hired to find out who was threatening his and Bitsy’s lives,” Mick answered.

Kami went stock-still then she enquired softly, “Curt got death threats?” Mick nodded and Kami went on, “Bitsy too?”

“Yeah, Kami,” Mick told her.

“Shit,” Kami whispered.

“The money, Kami,” Mick prompted.

She shook her head then looked at me. “Is this confidential?”

“I’m sorry?”

“This interview, will this be made public or anything?” she asked.

“Why?” Mick butted in.

“Because I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” Kami told him.

“About what?” Mick queried.

“About the money, I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” Kami replied.

I leaned toward her. She hadn’t shared this part with me fully, we didn’t have the time, what she had said was that it was all innocent.

“Kami,” I caught her attention, “if you had a reason to borrow that money then you need to tell Mick what it was. He’s trying to remove you from the suspect list. You need to give him all the information he needs to help him do that.”

Kami looked at me and for the first time I saw she was uncertain. “But I promised.”

I leaned closer and touched her arm. “You’re being questioned for a double homicide. I think whoever you promised will understand. If something else is going on here, we need to ask Mick to leave so we can confer.”

Her eyes held mine for long moments then she looked at Mick. “It was for Shauna.”

This surprised me. Shauna again.

My gaze also went to Mick.

“Shauna?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’s…” Kami paused, pulling her hand through her hair, her eyes slid to me then to the side then back to Mick. “She’s in trouble. Money trouble. They were gonna shut off her electric, her water, gas. They already shut off her cable. Her cards are maxed. And she doesn’t have any insurance and she’s pregnant.”

“You gave the money to Shauna?” Mick enquired.

“Yeah,” Kami replied.

Mick turned slightly in his chair so his profile was facing the mirror behind him and he dipped his head, communicating to whoever was watching they were meant to do something.

“I got the permit and I got the gun,” Kami went on, missing Mick’s movements. “It’s never been fired. It’s never even been loaded. It’s in a shoebox in my closet.” Then she leaned forward and repeated, “Mickey, you gotta know, no matter what went down, I’d never hurt Curt, never send death threats and I’d never, not ever, hurt Bitsy.” She bit her lip as her eyes got bright and she finished, repeating, “You gotta know. You know me and you gotta know.”

“All right, Kami,” Mick said gently. “Let us check this out, yeah?”

Kami sat back and turned her face away, nodding. Mick looked at me, rose and walked out of the room.

I turned to Kami. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes came to me and I noticed that Vulnerable Kami was gone, Bitchy Kami was back.

“No, I’m not okay,” she snapped. “I’m sittin’ in a Police Station being questioned as a suspect in a double homicide!”

“Mick’s just doing his job,” I told her. “He’ll check your story and you’ll be fine.”

“I know I’ll be fine. I didn’t do jack, not to Curt, not to Bitsy, hell, I wouldn’t do that shit to anyone. But people’ll know I was questioned.”

“It’s my understanding a lot of people were questioned. Mick even asked Max for his alibi.”

Bitchy Kami escalated to Uber Bitchy Kami and she hissed, “What?”

“The morning after the murder, Mick came to Max’s house, asked for his alibi.”