In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(2)

She drove to the police station and parked her truck in a space reserved for officers, adjusted all her gear, and braced herself for the cold. Barbwire fences and mesquite bushes do not provide much of a windbreak for Texas blue northers. She ducked her head and rushed into the building.-

"Mornin', Belle," Kate said, shivering.

Belle had been the dispatcher at the station for so long that some folks wondered if she'd pulled a lawn chair up onto the lot a hundred years before and they'd simply built the building around her. Her hair, dyed stovepipe black, was ratted into a gravity-defying hairdo that required enough hair spray to pollute the air in all of Stephens County. Her voice had the gravel texture of decades of cigarette smoke and her face the wrinkles of oxygen deprivation.

"Already got us an exciting day brewin' up, girl," Belle said.

Kate moaned. "Thought it might be a nice quiet Saturday."

"Not hardly. Not when some girl named Stephanie O'Malley is over in the morgue and the killer is already in the room hollerin' for his lawyer. And here the lawyer comes across the courthouse lawn right now. Allie Morton in the flesh and a tight black skirt. I'd give up my Virginia Slims for them legs."

Kate gasped. "Stephanie O'Malley is dead? In Breckenridge? What happened?"

Belle nodded. "Why'd I have to mention cigarettes? Now I want one and it's not break time. I remember back before they caused health problems and I had a cute little ashtray right there" She pointed to a place on her desk.

"Belle! Stephanie?" Kate said.

"Oh, that! Found her in her room at the America's Best. One shot to the heart. Through and through. Found fingerprints all over the room. Dumb fool didn't even try to wipe down the place. Prints on the wineglasses. We're lucky. Ran them through the machine and up popped his picture. Go on back to the room and take a peek. It'll shock you when you see who Allie is going to represent. Wouldn't be surprised if it's not on television this evening. There's other prints on a beer bottle that's running through the program. Probably his too."

Stephanie O'Malley had been Hart Ducaine's girlfriend in high school. Head cheerleader and football quarterback. All that stuff that is written in the stars, only evidently they'd gone their separate ways after graduation, because Kate knew for a fact that Hart had never married.

Allie followed her to the interrogation room without saying much more than a simple good morning. Kate stopped at the window and literally stopped breathing. There was Hart Ducaine sitting behind the table.

Allie sashayed into the room and took a seat on the other side. "Okay, talk to me. I hear you are being held for the murder of Stephanie O'Malley. Your fingerprints are all over a wineglass they found in the room"

"I was there at six o'clock in the evening. We had a glass of wine together. I was gone by six fifteen and at a wedding in Albany until a little after ten."

"You were taken into custody at the Ridge Motel. The lady there said you checked in at ten thirty and a dark-haired woman followed you into the room."

Hart's jaw worked in anger. He couldn't implicate Kate. She worked at the station and hoped to get a full-time job there eventually. Breckenridge was a small town of less than six thousand people. Nothing could kill a career like gossip.

Kate couldn't leave him out to dry, not even if it meant she'd be doing waitress work at her mother and aunt's Mexican restaurant until doomsday. She opened the door and stepped inside.

"Allie, I need to talk to you," she said.

Allie looked her up and down. "Why, Officer Miller? I have the right to talk to my client"

"Kate, don't do it," Hart said. "It'll all come out in the wash. Don't say a word"

Kate slowly shook her head. "I was with Hart all night last night. I followed him to the Ridge from that wedding and spent the rest of the night with him. I left at exactly five ten this morning, less than two hours ago. What time was Stephanie killed?"

"Sometime between eleven and midnight, the doctor -

"Then Hart couldn't have killed her. I was with him. We talked until almost three this morning."

says.'-'-Allie's face lit up. "Willing to put that on paper or testify to it?"

"Yes, ma'am. I surely am. My truck was parked right beside his. We were together all night. He didn't leave the motel; neither did I"

"Thank you," Allie said. "Hart, give me ten minutes. I'll be back."

She and Kate left together.

Allie almost humming.

Kate seething.

"So what's the history between you and Hart?" Allie asked.

"Your business is taking care of your client. The history between us is mine. They don't mix," Kate snapped.

"Honey, there was more chemistry back there than in a NASA lab. You've known each other for years, haven't you? You're not giving a guilty man an alibi, are you?"

"Honey," Kate drew out the words into several syllables. "If I could have done it with a clear conscience, I'd have kept my mouth shut."

"Good old honest girl, are you? Guilt will eat canker sores in your soul if you don't tell the truth, huh?"

"That's right, and it takes one to know one," Kate said as they reached the captain's office.