John tipped his head in acknowledgement. “Harold killed them. Three Mexicans that got caught up in his deal. I don’t know their names.”
“One was just a child.”
He lifted one shoulder. “That’s too bad, isn’t it?”
“Were you there?”
He shook his head slowly in denial, but Mattie doubted that was the truth.
“What else do you know about their deaths?” Stella asked. “Why did Harold kill them?”
“Like I said. They got in his way. They were at one of the checkpoints at the wrong time. Saw too much. Had to get rid of ‘em.”
“What town were they from?”
“Don’t know. Can’t say.”
“What else do you know about their deaths?” Mattie asked.
“Harold set the forest on fire that night.”
“So he was the cause of the Redstone Ridge fire, huh?” If true, this little bit would give them a date to search for missing person reports. “And what is Ramona Cobb’s maiden name?”
With a sly smile, he shook his head.
She was just about done with him and doubted anything more he might say would be useful. “Tell me, how does it feel to have murdered your own nephew and to have tried to kill your niece?”
The look he gave her was pure disgust. “You’re not my kin.”
“Oh yeah? So you’re not Harold Cobb’s brother?”
“You’re not his daughter, you cocky little bitch.”
The room looped around her, along with a wave of dizziness. How could this be true? Harold Cobb had been a lousy father whom she’d grown to hate, but he was the only one she could remember.
Stella picked up the questioning. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said.” John glared at Mattie and she met his black look straight on. “You and your brother are no kin of mine. Harold picked you up that same night when he picked up Ramona.”
“What do you mean by picked up Ramona?” Stella asked.
“She was part of the bunch he took up to the ridge that night. He had to have her, and she begged to keep her kids. In spite of all her faults, Ramona was a real looker. And Harold was a fool.”
Mattie thought of the vivid image of the burning child that had flashed into her mind when they exhumed the child’s bones. She found her voice. “Are you saying that I was up on the ridge that night? I was there when those people were killed?”
John made derisive sound. “I’ve said all I’m going to say. I’m done talking.”
Her mind tumbled with fragments of childhood memories. Riding horseback in front of a man she feared. Hearing the blast of a gunshot and her mother’s scream. Watching the bodies burn until she turned away and buried her face against her brother. This man had been there. No matter what he said, she remembered that he’d been there, too.
Did Willie remember all this before he died? Did he remember being there the night the men burned the bodies up on the ridge?
Overwhelming fatigue washed through her, so heavy that she had to fight to keep her head up. She could barely hear Stella as she peppered John with follow-up questions, which he refused to answer.
Mattie braced against the table to push herself to stand, saying to Stella, “Excuse me for a minute.”
She exited the interrogation room, closed the door, and leaned against it, looking down the hall to her office. First Robo and then Cole appeared at the doorway.
“Are you all right?” Cole asked, concern etched on his face.
She recognized that she’d hit the wall, and she had all she could take. She took the few steps needed to reach the security of Cole’s strong arms, and she held him close, pressing her face against his chest. “I’ll go with you now to see Dr. McGinnis,” she said.
THIRTY-SIX
Cole lingered at his bedroom door, observing Mattie from across the room. She slept soundly on his bed, her dark hair flared against his pillow, her breathing steady and regular. Robo lay beside her and he raised his head to stare at him, ears forward and alert. Even though he knew the dog would take his arm off if he approached, he’d never been so thrilled to see a protection dog on duty. Robo would guard her to his dying breath.
A breeze lifted the sheer, white under-panel away from the heavier, open draperies. Mattie had requested he open the window and leave the door open before she collapsed under the bed’s comforter.
Assured that she was all right, he turned to pad downstairs on socked feet. After taking Mattie to see Dr. McGinnis and then setting her up to rest where he could keep an eye on her, Cole had dozed the rest of the day on his couch.
Dr. McGinnis had performed a thorough physical exam and then run an EKG to make sure Mattie hadn’t suffered heart damage from the drug or her episode without oxygen. He decided the dosage of the antidote that Cole gave her was enough and didn’t want to inject her with anything more, so he’d recommended sleep, nourishing food, and replenishment of electrolytes to help with her recurrent bouts of dizziness. Robo was making sure she received the first prescribed item on the treatment plan, while Mrs. Gibbs was taking care of the last two.
When they got home from the doctor’s office, Mattie had showered and changed into a pair a sweats that Stella retrieved from her car. Then she’d gone to bed and fallen asleep.
Mattie’s house was still surrounded by yellow tape, but Stella had promised she’d release the scene and clean up by evening. He knew that Mattie would want to move to her own home, though he planned for her to stay here where he could keep an eye on her, at least for one night. The thought of her returning to work gave him a chill, though he knew it was unreasonable to hope that Mattie might retire from her life as a K-9 officer.
Could I handle being married to a police officer? The thought startled him, and he paused at the bottom of the stairway to consider. To be honest, he’d examined the question a couple times recently, but not with the horror of last night’s experience behind it.
Marrying Mattie would be a big step, and he wondered if any of them were ready for it. It would mean bringing her and Robo into his home and family. The kids already loved them both, and Cole figured their bond would only grow stronger if they all lived under one roof. But was it fair to expose them to the risk of losing Robo while on duty, much less the possibility of losing their new stepmother?
He cautioned himself not to overreact. Sure, police work was dangerous business, K-9 work even more so, but more officers retired from duty unscathed than those killed on the job. And this time danger had come out of Mattie’s past rather than from her current law enforcement duties here in Timber Creek.
He didn’t plan to let this incident change his future. Last night’s terror had convinced him that he didn’t want to live his life without Mattie in it.
Mattie’s body jerked and startled her awake. She raised her head to study her unfamiliar surroundings. Pressed against her on the bed—where he wasn’t typically allowed—Robo warmed her side. He gazed at her, ears pricked, as if anticipating her next move. Instead of her own bedroom, she was in Cole’s, where everything was big. King-sized bed, heavy oak furniture, large-screen television.
Safe.
She relaxed back on the pillow and cuddled against Robo. He rested his head on his paws while she stroked his silky fur, gently checking his rump and leg for sore spots. His lack of flinching reassured her that he must not have any significant tenderness. For her own part, she felt like she’d been caught in a cement mixer.