“Unless she took out a hit, but that theory has some holes in it. She might have the motive, but she lacks money and the brainpower for planning. That leads us to Roger Howard, the star discovery of our interview,” Stella said while she fastened her seat belt. “Brothers as perpetrators of abuse aren’t unheard of.”
Mattie nodded and stared out the windshield, thinking while she left a hand on Robo’s back. Her mind had darted to her own brother, but she quickly brought it back to Adrienne’s case. “It appears that both Roger and Adrienne left home and never looked back,” she mused. “I think they were raised in an abusive environment with at least one alcoholic parent, maybe two.”
Her uneasy stomach testified as to how much this type of childhood resonated with her. She could write a chapter in the book about alcoholic parents. She thought Adrienne could have, too.
“Let’s see if we can find Roger Howard here in Colorado,” Mattie said as she started plugging Roger Howard’s name into her mobile data terminal. “I’ll see if he has a current driver’s license.”
“Search for criminal records, too,” Stella said. She pulled a notebook from her briefcase and began writing in it. Presumably notes from the interview.
A quick search through the Colorado DMV revealed four Roger Howards. The Colorado and National Crime Information Center databases revealed nothing.
Mattie shared the news with Stella. “No criminal history, but four potential driver’s licenses.”
Stella pursed her lips, absently tapping her notebook with her pen. “We’ll have to dig deeper back at the station.”
“We should put Brody on it,” Mattie said. “He’s our expert on the net.”
Stella shrugged. “We’ll see. I’m not so bad myself.”
Mattie could tell Stella wasn’t going to bring Brody into the investigation until she was sure he should be there. “We also have the letter. Maybe your lab will pull a print from it.”
“That would rock my world.”
Chapter 17
Back at the station, Stella went to use the computer in the office that the sheriff assigned to her. Robo followed Mattie to the staff office, seeking his dog cushion that she kept near her desk. He plopped down and sighed, and she knelt beside him to check his wound. It looked clean and there was no seepage.
She stroked his head before moving to her chair. “You’re tired today, aren’t you? Getting attacked by a lion would set anyone back.”
He put his head between his paws and his brow puckered and twitched.
“You can go back to sleep. We’ll be here for a while.”
Mattie worked on reports until Sam Corns came in to relieve Rainbow. Leaving her dog asleep on his bed, Mattie led Rainbow to one of the cold and sterile interrogation rooms. She pulled out a metal-frame chair with plastic upholstery to sit in, gesturing for Rainbow to take a seat on the other side of the table.
Rainbow made a slight sound of dismay. “Am I a suspect?”
“No, of course not. I just don’t want us to get interrupted,” Mattie said. “Do you want a cup of tea or something?” She knew Rainbow didn’t drink coffee.
“No, nothing. I don’t know if I can help or not, but I’ve remembered some things this afternoon that might give you some leads.”
“Sounds great. Tell me what you’ve remembered.”
Rainbow paused, apparently collecting her thoughts. “Adrienne talked about a boyfriend in Willow Springs that she must have had a tough breakup with. I don’t think she ever said his last name, but if I remember right, she called him Jim.”
“That’s good, Rainbow.” Mattie wrote the name in her notepad.
“Adrienne never talked much about her past. She seemed to want to concentrate mostly on the here and now. She always said she wanted to live in the present moment and not dwell on the past or obsess about the future.”
“What did she say about this man named Jim?”
“I don’t think I can remember word for word.”
“It’s okay to say it like you remember it. Don’t worry.”
“Well . . . we were talking about old boyfriends, you know, girl talk.”
Mattie nodded, though she’d never participated in such a thing.
“Adrienne was mostly listening, and I was going on about a boyfriend I had when I was in massage school. I asked her to tell me about her last boyfriend, and she said, ‘Jim isn’t one I’d like to remember. Let’s just say it didn’t end well.’ Or something like that. At least that’s the gist of it.”
“Did she give any details about how it ended?”
“She said something about different expectations or goals or something. Adrienne didn’t really call it goals . . . maybe she said future plans.”
“Did she talk about him being violent or rough, anything like that?”
“No. That would have made an impression on me. It was more like they couldn’t agree about their future.”
“Okay. I just wondered why she said the relationship didn’t end well. Did you get any impressions about that?”
“I think they were pretty close, you know. Then they realized they wanted different things in their future. I think it was painful but not violent, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. Anything else you can tell me about Jim?”
Rainbow shook her head.
“Anything else that you’ve remembered?”
“Yes. She worked for a chiropractor that owned his own business when she was in Willow Springs. I think she called him Scott.”
“Great, Rainbow. We should be able to track that down. How many chiropractors named Scott can there be in Willow Springs?”
“Right. I can follow up on that if you want me to.”
“No, one of us should do it. Do you remember anything else about him? Were there any negative feelings when she left?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Not that I know of. She never mentioned anything like that. She just said she learned a lot while she was working there.”
“Do you know any other places that Adrienne worked? Places she lived?”
“No. She only mentioned Willow Springs.”
“Let’s switch focus for a minute,” Mattie said. “Did Adrienne ever talk about her family in Hightower?”
“I knew she grew up there. She said both of her parents were alcoholics, and she didn’t want to talk about her childhood.”
Mattie could relate to that. “Did she mention her brother?”
“Yes. Roger. She said they were close, but he left her there alone when he graduated. It made her sad.”
“Did she say where he moved to?”
“Willow Springs. She said she met with him there before she moved here.”
“That’s good. We should check in with him, too, and this could help us find him.”
Rainbow’s reddened eyes crinkled slightly at the corners as she smiled briefly before resuming her sad expression. “I’m glad. I didn’t think her family had anything to do with this. She seemed to have cut ties with all of them.”
“Even Roger?”
“Yes. She said she loved her brother, but she didn’t want to be around him anymore.”
“Why not?”
“We didn’t really discuss it.” Rainbow’s brow puckered with concentration. “But I think I remember her saying something about her brother going off the deep end or something like that.”
This lit Mattie’s radar. “Did she feel threatened by him?”
Rainbow released a sigh of frustration as she searched her memory. “I don’t remember having that impression. It was more like a bad experience. Something to be avoided.”
But still, it made Mattie wonder. She asked a few more questions but soon decided that she’d gleaned all that she could for now.