Mattie frowned in surprise. So Rainbow’s cowboy was one of Nate’s customers.
Rainbow continued to chat. “I haven’t talked to him today, so I don’t know what he’s going to do now. They might have to go home.”
“They?”
“He’s with a friend, I guess, although Ben’s the only one who came to the dance.”
Mattie couldn’t help but wonder if they were involved somehow in Nate’s death. “When did they come into town?”
“They got here yesterday.”
Mattie put the pieces together, and they fell into place easily. She needed to find out more about these out-of-town visitors. “Do you happen to know his buddy’s name?”
“No, but I could call Ben.”
Just in case these fishermen from California were involved with a homicide, Mattie didn’t want Rainbow drawn into it. “No, don’t mention it to him, okay? Since they’re hooked in with Nate’s business, Stella and I need to interview them. Let us take care of it. I don’t even want them to know that you and I had this conversation. And I want you to stay away from Ben until we can clear him.”
Rainbow frowned. “I’m sure they had nothing to do with Nate.”
“Probably not, but I don’t want them to connect you with the investigation, okay?”
“So serious, Mattie.” Rainbow shrugged as if dismissing her concern. “Ben is just a normal guy, but I don’t really know his friend, so I’ll let you handle it your way. Police business and all that.”
“Good.”
Stella entered the front door, and Mattie lifted her hand in greeting. After checking in, the detective headed for her office. “Meet you in the briefing room in five minutes, Mattie. Let me grab a cup of coffee and my laptop.”
Mattie wrapped up her conversation with Rainbow and went to the staff office, a large room with four desks lining the walls. Hers sat in the corner with a bright-red dog cushion beside it, which Robo leapt on before going shoulders-down in a play pose, his way of saying he wanted a treat.
She couldn’t resist his request, although she decided to make him work for it. She called him over to her and told him to sit and then lie down. She asked him to do the more difficult task of standing up from a down, which he performed within a split second. She gave him two treats.
“You’re pretty smart, aren’t you?” She stroked his head and gave him a kiss on the broad place between his ears. “Go lie down and wait.”
Robo pounced on the cushion, looking at her expectantly as if hoping the work-and-reward game had not yet ended. When she didn’t respond, he circled and lay down.
She signed on to the Internet and Googled Nate’s business, Mustang Outfitters. It popped up immediately, the screen displaying a full spread of beautiful photos of the Rocky Mountains around Timber Creek. There was a posed shot of Nate dressed in fringed chaps and a leather vest, sitting astride a black horse as he casually leaned toward the camera, his arms crossed over the saddle horn. He’d been a handsome guy, dark eyes, cocky smile, and he looked about her age—around thirty.
Mustang Outfitters advertised a ten-thousand-acre ranch with private access to BLM land, which matched the family’s information and was what Mattie expected. The site’s photos gave her a clearer picture of the ranch headquarters than what she’d glimpsed in the dark last night. Pictures of a string of saddled horses tied in front of a picturesque old wooden barn and campsites set in gorgeous forested high country suggested a dream vacation for those who wanted to see the Rockies from the back of a horse.
She shut down the site and got up to fill her coffee mug with dark brew that sat on the burner in a half-full pot. Giving Robo a training challenge, she told him, “Let’s go find Stella.”
Robo had been watching her every move, and he scrambled from his cushion and trotted out of the staff office. Carrying her cup of coffee and a notebook, Mattie trailed behind and observed him. He put his nose to the floor outside Stella’s office and then followed her scent trail to the briefing room. He scratched at the closed door, and confirmation that her dog had now learned the detective’s name left her shaking her head in admiration as she opened the briefing room door for him.
“Come in, Robo,” Stella called from inside. She was setting up the whiteboard to record evidence for the case and had posted Nate’s photo at the top, after evidently grabbing the one Mattie had just seen from his website and printing it.
Brody came into the room carrying his own mug of coffee—fuel for a long day after only a few hours of sleep. He looked bleary-eyed and grumpy, and his voice sounded raspy. “What do we have so far?”
Mattie took a seat at the table nearest the whiteboard, and Robo settled in beside her. The briefing room was set up to be functional. Photos of the Timber Creek County courthouse and the Colorado state capitol building on the walls, the Colorado state flag standing in a corner of the room, and five long tables with aluminum-framed plastic chairs were the room’s only appointments.
Stella replied to Brody’s prompt. “I’m going to drive over to the Byers County morgue to observe the autopsy later this afternoon, and I’d like to get as much done as we can before I go. We’ve got information we need to share with you, Brody, and then we need to coordinate and lay out a plan.”
Stella went on to summarize the results of the family notification and the interview with Flint Thornton for Brody while she recorded salient bits on the whiteboard. “We have to look at wife and family when we ask who killed Nate Fletcher, but GSR swabs were negative for all of them. I think we can clear Lillian and Doyle, and we can accept the alibis for wife Kasey and sister-in-law Eve. Agreed, Mattie?”
Mattie thought the reasoning was sound. “Agreed, but we have to talk to Kasey about finding trace cocaine in Nate’s van. I’m willing to bet she knows something about that.”
“Okay, we’ll keep her on the Persons of Interest list.” Stella started a new heading on the board. “And brother-in-law Tyler. He needs to be on this list.”
Mattie recalled Tyler’s lack of emotion about Nate’s death and wondered if he wouldn’t eventually turn into a full-blown suspect. But there were more people to consider. “Let’s add Flint Thornton to the list, too.”
Stella added Flint and then wrote Jasmine Pierce. “I haven’t been able to reach Jasmine to confirm Tyler’s alibi. I’ll keep trying and hope to pin down that detail.”
Mattie decided now was a good time to share the information she’d learned from Rainbow about the fishermen from California. After explaining the details, she added, “All I have at the moment is the name Ben Underwood and a friend. Ben was at the dance, but the unknown is unaccounted for. They’re staying at the Big Sky Motel.”
“That’s good,” Brody said. “We need to get to them today before they leave on that fishing trip tomorrow with Tyler.”
Mattie wasn’t sure it was the best idea to stand by and let most of their persons of interest leave town to go into the mountains for days. “Should we try to abort this fishing trip?”
Brody’s brow creased as he thought about it. “I imagine they want to go forward with the trip for financial reasons, but you could try to find that out from Kasey when you talk to her. Unless we have a warrant for someone’s arrest, we can’t stop it.”
“We’ll talk to this guy, Ben Underwood, and his friend about it, too,” Stella said, stepping up to the table to tap the keys of her laptop. “Let’s move on to review the evidence we’ve got. I received a report here from CBI lab. They were unable to determine a brand name from the tire prints, but they’re typical of those found on smaller sedans and lightweight trucks rather than SUVs or heavy-duty vehicles. They won’t be much help unless we can find a car that has an exact match.”